| packing unit | seal through which a shaft passes, whether rotating (as with most safety pens), or reciprocating (as with plunger-fillers and Moore safeties) | |
| palladium silver | white metal alloy (Pd-Ag) used for some Sheaffer nibs from the '50s on; these were originally cheaper than gold nibs, but this has changed as palladium prices have risen | |
| 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 1920s, "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 (see definition below) | |
| 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 Nozac | |
| 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. | |
| Pli-glass | Parker's term for its transparent vinyl ink sacs used on Aerometric-filling pens. | |
| plunger-filler | fills on the downstroke by creating a vacuum behind the piston (see Onoto illustration); sometimes called "vacuum-filler"; somewhat tricky to repair . | |
| pneumatic filler | the sac is flattened by air pressure, usually generated by a plunger | |
| POC | In Waterman's numbering system, a suffix denoting a screw-cap eyedropper | |
| porte-crayon | metal holder for a short wooden pencil or rod of graphite, 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 solid 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 | |
| push-knob-filler | a button-filler with a non-detachable blind cap; the blind cap is unscrewed and then pressed to compress the sac | |
| Pyralin | trade name for celluloid | |
| RB | rollerball (a ballpoint using water-soluble ink) | |
| 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, viewed from the top | |
| RG | rolled gold (see definition below) | |
| RHR | red hard rubber; note that the "red" is actually more of an orange | |
| Ripple | Waterman's term for its distinctively-patterned two-color hard rubber pens; most are red and black, other color combinations are much scarcer; not to be confused with woodgrain | |
| 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-Eversharp | |
| RR | ribbon-ring or ringtop; also known as ladies' pens, though they could be used by men as well, hung on a watch chain | |
| ruler mark | notch-shaped wear on the side of a nib, from bearing against a ruler or straightedge | |
| sac | elastic rubber ink reservoir | |
| safety | fountain 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 | |
| Senior | model name for the largest Duofolds; sometimes used by collectors to refer to the oversize versions of other models and brands, often inappropriately in that most were not so denoted originally | |
| Signet | Parker's term for models with gold filled caps and barrels, from the 51 on | |
| silicone grease | the most useful general-purpose pen sealant and lubricant, and the safest on plastics and rubber; not to be confused with automotive silicone greases with a petroleum base | |
| sleeve-filler | a form of squeeze-filler, with a movable sleeve that covers the pressure bar opening when not in use | |
| snowflake | irreverent collector term for Montblanc's trademark six-lobed star | |
| Snorkel | Sheaffer's pen with a extending tube for clean filling (see Profile) | |
| 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 | |
| spoon feed | Waterman's second feed design, patented in 1899 (and 1903), incorporating semicircular ink-trapping cutouts alongside the capillary feed channel | |
| sprung | describes a nib or clip that has been bent out of shape by application of excessive pressure or tension | |
| squeeze-filler | fills by manual depression of a pressure bar through a cutout in the barrel or the filler housing | |
| 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 | |
| star nib | early Waterman nibs with a star imprint; most seem to date to the last years of the 19th century | |
| straight cap | small, short slip-fit cap, same diameter as the 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 | historically, the same as "italic"; now generally used to denote a slightly more rounded chisel-shaped tip | |
| stud-filler | another term for button-filler, most commonly used in the UK | |
| 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 and usually totally unnecessary method of ascertaining if material is solid gold or gold filled | |
| thumb-filler | another name for a squeeze-filler | |
| Touchdown | Sheaffer's pneumatic filling system, abbreviated "TD" (see Profile) | |
| tooth | friction between nib and paper; preferred (in moderation) by some as more responsive than a frictionless glide; to be distinguished from scratchiness, which is generally used to describe a nib that catches on the paper | |
| 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 (see Profile); 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; many dip pen nibs are ventless | |
| vermeil | gold over silver | |
| visulated | with a transparent area, used in reference to sections; Sheaffer invented the term in the 1930s | |
| vulcanite | another term for hard rubber | |
| VV clip | an early spring-loaded rocker clip, used on Parkers, Conklins, Moores, and others | |
| warranted nib | an unbranded gold nib, typically marked "WARRANTED/14K", "warranted" meaning guaranteed 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 | multicolored hard rubber patterned with longitudinal striations, almost always red (orange) and black; not to be confused with Ripple | |
| 1/8 14K | gold filled, with the gold layer of 14K purity and constituting 1/8 the total weight of the laminate | |
| 18KR | not solid 18 karat, but rather a common European abbreviation for 18K rolled gold | |
| 375 | 375 fine, or 375/1000; decimal equivalent of 9K (usually only used in the UK) | |
| 585 | 585 fine, or 585/1000; decimal equivalent of 14K (though 14/24 = .583) | |
| 750 | 750 fine, or 750/1000; decimal equivalent of 18K (the legal standard for gold in certain countries such as France and Italy) |
Copyright © 1997-2008 David Nishimura. All rights reserved