| account | an extremely fine, firm nib suitable for account book entries |
| adjustable nib | a Wahl exclusive of the '30s: a slider atop the nib controls its flexibility |
| Aerometric | foolproof Parker filler, introduced 1948; sac is squeezed manually via a bar |
| Arrow nib | Parker nib with a bold arrow imprint, used for Vacumatics and as replacement nibs for Duofolds; some late Duofolds were sold with such nibs |
| asperges | Holy water sprinkler; sometimes made in pen form |
| Bakelite | term often misapplied to any old plastic; Bakelite was not often used for pens due to its brittleness |
| banana | to bend, as happens to pens in hot display cases at sunny flea markets |
| bbl | barrel |
| BCHR | black chased hard rubber |
| BF | button-filler; pressing the button causes the sac to be compressed |
| BHR | black hard rubber; also known as Ebonite or Vulcanite |
| "Big Four" | Waterman, Parker, Sheaffer, and Wahl-Eversharp; in the USA, these are the quality vintage pens most commonly found |
| blind cap | piece at end of barrel that screws off to reveal the filler underneath |
| blow-filler | a mouth-operated pneumatic filler: one blows into a hole at the end of the barrel to empty out the ink sac |
| BP | ballpoint |
| brassing | area of wear on gold filled or plated metal, where the underlying base metal (usually brass) becomes visible |
| breather hole | vents in the cap, of questionable utility save on early pens without inner caps |
| breather tube | a tube inserted into the back of the feed, essential for pump and bulb fillers; despite advertising claims, the benefits during flight are nugatory |
| bulb-filler | simple and efficient: air is pumped out by multiple squeezes and ink flows in |
| "bullseye" jewel | c. 1939 Vacumatic jewel consisting of an extension of the blind cap, which resultingly shows concentric laminations under bright light |
| capillary filler | no moving parts: when dipped, the reservoir absorbs ink |
| Cardinal | Waterman's designation for its red hard rubber pens |
| cartridge | despite earlier marketing attempts, ink cartridges were not widely used until the '50s; collectible vintage pens that use cartridges are very much the exception |
| casein | milk-derived plastic, vulnerable to moisture; rarely used in American pens, more commonly used in the UK and Europe; also called Galalith |
| chasing | relief patterns heat-impressed into the surface of hard rubber pens |
| Christmas tree feed | original feed for Parker Duofolds and Jack Knife Safeties; also called a spearhead feed |
| chatelaine | suspension fitting attached to a woman's dress or belt; attached items could include pencils and pens |
| coin-filler | a slot in the barrel allows a coin to be pressed directly against the pressure bar |
| collector | finned ink trap inside the hood of pens such as the Parker 51 and 61 |
| combo | pen and pencil combination, in vogue c. 1930 |
| cone cap | slip-fit cap, mounts on tapering ends of barrel |
| cork | used for piston seals, safety and many plunger-filler packing units |
| cracked ice | distinctive Conway Stewart pattern of irregular black blocks separated by thin lines of silver |
| crescent-filler | Conklin's signature mechanism, in which a flat metal crescent protrudes from the barrel; after rotating a lock ring, the crescent is pressed, flattening the sac |
| Deco Band | collector term for Wahl Eversharp oversized Gold Seal flat-top pen, after its Greek key pattern cap band; also applied rather indifferently to the same pens when furnished with rhomboid pattern bands |
| Demi | shorter model of Parker 51 or late English AF Duofold |
| demonstrator | a pen or pencil that has cutouts, or that is made of transparent materials |
| doctor's pen | either a pen in white, sometimes found with a matching thermometer holder, or an ED pen with a compartment in the barrel holding a thermometer |
| doughnut | collector slang for a Conklin crescent-filler lock nut |
| drop action | pencil which extends and retracts by gravity, with a manual release catch; sometimes also called a dropper |
| ebonite | another name for hard rubber |
| ED | eyedropper; the simplest fountain pen, filled with an eyedropper |
| feed | the part on which the nib rests, and which supplies the nib with ink |
| filigree | an overlay with pierced work; technically incorrect, as true filigree is wirework |
| Flighter | Parker designation for models with caps and barrels of stainless steel |
| German silver | same as nickel silver; anti-German sentiment during WW1 led to the abandonment of this appellation on US-made products |
| GFT | gold filled trim |
| gold filled | a laminate of gold and brass; the gold layer is much thicker than gold plating |
| Gregg | a system of shorthand; several makers produced Gregg models, which typically have an enamel Gregg logo set into the top of the cap |
| half-overlay | pen with its barrel but not its cap metal-covered |
| hatchet-filler | John Holland's filler of the 'teens, an attempt to get around Sheaffer's lever-filler patents: a hatchet-shaped piece is used to depress a pressure bar; often used to describe Crocker's system as well, which might better be called an end lever filler |
| hooded nib | a conical hood conceals all but the tip of a small nib inside; the Parker 51 was the first and by far the most popular such design |
| holder | in older fountain pen parlance, the "pen" was the nib, and the rest of the pen was termed the holder |
| injector pencil | same as repeating pencil |
| ink pellet pen | a number of firms made pens with a compartment to carry ink pellets, which were to be placed in the barrel and dissolved in water; most such pens were eyedroppers, but lever and button-fillers were also produced |
| ink pencil | another name for a stylographic pen |
| ink shutoff | safety valve to prevent leakage; Wahl's didn't work, Onoto's did |
| Ink Vue | Waterman filling system of the later '30s, essentially a lever-operated bulb-filler |
| inlaid nib | a nib permanently fixed to the outside of the section or hood |
| inner cap | internal cup that seals against the front of the section when the cap is on |
| integral nib | nib made as part of the section or barrel; Parker's T-1 is the prime example |
| iridium | generic term for nib tipping material, though other platinum-group metals are often used instead |
| italic | chisel-like tip, which makes thick downstrokes and thin cross-strokes |
| J-bar | cheap one-piece spring and pressure bar used in low end lever-fillers; too often used as an inferior replacement part in better pens |
| jewel | decorative boss found on some pens at cap top and barrel end |
| JiF | French Waterman; from the initials of the franchise holder |
| jointless | Parker ED design where the nib assembly was inserted en bloc inside the end of the barrel |
| ladies pen | general term for a clipless pen with a ringtop fitting, usually a smaller pen |
| LE | limited edition; also the first two initials of Lewis Edson Waterman |
| lever box | Sheaffer's original lever was pinned directly to the barrel; Waterman and others pinned it to a lever box, which was held in the barrel by tabs |
| Leverless | Mabie Todd/Swan's system in which an end knob, when turned, wrings out a sac; unlike most twist-fillers, the sac is not attached to the end knob |
| LF | lever-filler; the most common filling mechanism |
| lid | pots and pans have these; pens have caps |
| LL | Liquid Lead: a Parker exclusive, a ballpoint that wrote with liquid graphite |
| long and short | pocket pen with a long cap that covers most of the barrel when closed; when the cap is posted on the barrel end, the overall length is some 50% greater |
| Lucky Curve | Parker's patented feed, whose inner part was bent to contact the inside of the ink reservoir |
| lustraloy | Parker's name for its matte-finished stainless steel, as used on 51 and 61 caps |
| Mandarin | Parker's Mandarin Yellow, a color used in Duofolds of the late '20s and early '30s; unpopular then, highly sought-after now |
| manifold | a stiff nib, used for making copies with carbon paper |
| marbled | an irregularly patterned combination of translucent colors; used to describe plastics but not hard rubber |
| matchstick filler | a hole in the side of the barrel allows a matchstick to be used to depress the pressure bar; some pens have a nub atop the cap which may be used similarly |
| MHR | (red and black) mottled hard rubber |
| middle joint | a feature in some ED pens, where the joint was placed centrally |
| military clip | a clip that permits the pen to sit flush with the top of the pocket, so that a uniform's pocket flap can close over the pen; the term is not generally used for pen models whose clips all fit the above criterion |
| music nib | a very flexible nib with two slits, specially made for musical notation |
| nib | a pen's point; in older parlance, itself called the "pen" |
| nickel silver | tarnish-resistant nonprecious alloy resembling silver; same as German silver |
| night & day | overlay pierced with longitudinal slots |
| Nozak | the only American piston-filler (well, nearly), made by Conklin in the '30s |
| NPT | nickel-plated trim; in most cases, the trim is actually solid nickel silver |
| oblique | a chisel-like nib with a tip that angles back at its left; confusingly, also sometimes called a "right oblique" |
| Octanium | Parker's silvery, nontarnishing alloy used in its non-gold nibs of the '50s |
| overfeed | an early type of feed which lies atop the nib; usually extends below as well, and would thus be more accurately termed an over-under feed |
| overlay | a pen covered in precious metal, or the metal covering itself |
| packing unit | seal through which the plunger shaft passes in plunger-fillers |
| palladium silver | white metal alloy (Pd-Ag) used for some Sheaffer nibs from the '50s on |
| PCA | Pen Collectors of America: nationwide collector-run nonprofit organization |
| pearl | short for "pearlescent", referring to celluloid displaying this property; generally off-white or yellowish if color not further specified |
| pen | we now call the entire writing instrument a pen, but up until at least the '20s, "pen" was often used to denote the nib alone |
| Permanite | a trade name for celluloid |
| Personal Point | Wahl's system of user-interchangeable screw-in nib assemblies; late '20s-'30s (click for illustration) |
| PF | plunger-filler |
| PFM | "Pen For Men": short-lived oversized Snorkel introduced 1959 |
| piston-filler | a piston moves up and down the barrel when a knob is turned; the standard for European pens, but in America only used in the Conklin Nozak |
| plastic | to pen collectors, celluloid, cellulosics, and acrylic (as opposed to hard rubber, even though hard rubber is technically a plastic as well) |
| platinum | black striated silver-grey celluloid of luminous pearlescence; used in the 1930s by Montblanc and OMAS, a highly prized material |
| plunger-filler | fills on the downstroke by creating a vacuum behind the piston; difficult to repair, also called "vacuum-filler" (see Onoto illustration) |
| pneumatic filler | the sac is flattened by air pressure, usually generated by a plunger |
| porte-crayon | metal holder for a short wooden pencil, which can be extended or retracted |
| post | to place the cap on the end of the barrel opposite the nib (gently, please!) |
| posting | fine firm nib designed for bookkeepers posting entries into account books |
| Presidential | Parker's term for models with caps and barrels of 14K gold, from the 51 on |
| propelling | pencil mechanism that advances the lead, but does not retract it |
| propel-repel | pencil mechanism that both advances and retracts the lead |
| pump-filler | a general term for multistroke filling mechanisms |
| Pyralin | trade name for celluloid |
| RB | rollerball |
| repeating pencil | the lead is advanced by pushing on the top of the pencil, new leads are automatically fed from a magazine within; same as injector pencil |
| resin | modern pen marketers' fancy name for plastic |
| reverse oblique | a chisel-like nib with a tip that angles back at its right; generally used by lefties |
| RHR | red hard rubber; note that the "red" is actually more of an orange |
| Ripple | Waterman's self-descriptive term for its two-color hard rubber pens; most are red and black, other color combinations are much scarcer |
| rolled gold | same as gold filled; this term is used more frequently in the UK |
| roller clip | clip with a rolling ball at its end; chiefly associated with Wahl |
| RR | ribbon-ring or ringtop; also known as ladies' pens |
| sac | elastic rubber ink reservoir |
| safety | pen with a retractable nib; also used prior to c. 1920 to designate a pen with a screw cap and an inner cap |
| section | the tubular piece which holds the nib and feed |
| self-filler/filling | eyedropper-era label applied to any pen with an integral filling mechanism |
| Signet | Parker's term for models with GF caps and barrels, from the 51 on |
| sleeve-filler | similar to the later Aerometric, with a sliding sleeve hiding the filler |
| Snorkel | Sheaffer's pen with a extending tube for clean filling |
| spear feed | original feed for Duofolds and Jack Knife Safety pens |
| Special | as used by Parker, either a slender Duofold of Senior length and Junior diameter, or an economy version of the 51 with an Octanium nib |
| Speedline | Vacumatic filler with aluminum plunger but without the lockdown feature, c. 1937-41 |
| star clip | a clip used on some Vacumatics c. 1939-40, incorporating a five-pointed star, which appears to have been a precursor symbol to the Blue Diamond |
| straight cap | small, short slip-fit cap, same diameter as barrel, fits on smaller-diameter sections at each end of the barrel |
| Stonite | trade name for celluloid |
| stylo | short for stylographic; a pen with a fine tube with a wire inside instead of a conventional nib, similar to a modern drafting pen (click for illustration) |
| stub | virtually the same as "italic"; sometimes used to denote a slightly more rounded chisel-shaped tip |
| syringe-filler | fills by pulling on a plunger shaft; a long blind cap is usually necessary |
| taper cap | a variation of the straight cap, extending in a long taper |
| tassie | decorative trim ring at the end of the barrel, held in place by a "jewel" |
| test mark | removal of a small patch of metal with a jeweler's file; crude method of ascertaining if material is solid gold or gold filled |
| Touchdown | Sheaffer's pneumatic filling system, abbreviated "TD" |
| trench pen | WW1-era term for an ink-pellet eyedropper pen |
| Triumph nib | Sheaffer's conical nib, introduced in 1942 |
| twist-filler | the sac is emptied by twisting it via a knob at the end of the barrel |
| two-tone nib | gold nib partially plated with a white platinum-group metal |
| underfeed | the usual type of feed, which lies below the nib |
| Vacumatic (Vac) | Parker's pump-filling pen, c. 1933-48; or, the filling mechanism used in these pens and in the Parker 51 from 1941-48 |
| vacuum-filler | often used to denote a plunger-filler, but rather confusing since many pens with diverse filling mechanisms bore this monicker or close variants; capitalized, a name used for the Parker Vacumatic while in early release |
| vent hole | the hole in the nib at the end of the slit; some dip pen nibs are ventless |
| visulated | with a transparent area; used in reference to sections |
| vulcanite | another term for hard rubber |
| VV clip | an early spring-loaded rocker clip, used on Parkers, Conklins, Moores, and others |
| warranted nib | a nib without a maker's mark, marked "warranted" as to gold content |
| web | celluloid pattern with a freeform network of colored lines like a draped net (also called "candy stripe"), or the longitudinal brickwork-like pattern of the c. 1937 "Golden Web" Vacumatic |
| washer clip | clip with its top end formed as a ring of the same diameter as the cap, and held between the cap body and a screw-in cap top; introduced by Parker in the 'teens on its Jack Knife Safety line |
| woodgrain | descriptive term for certain patterns of mixed red and black hard rubber |
| 18KR | not 18 karat, but rather the international abbreviation for 18K rolled gold |
