I never liked the term “cheap and cheerful” since it always conjured up an image of someone who relished penny-pinching to me. But if any pen really deserved that moniker the Sheaffer Touchdown Cadet Tip-dip model does. Why? Let’s pop the pen out of its packaging and see.
The Cadet has a bit in common with an Esterbrook pen. First off, the nib is stainless steel and part of a threaded unit that screws into the section for easy replacement. Both those traits it has in common with the renowned low-priced Esterbrook line. But when you look for a lever to fill the pen and can’t find one the similarities end. Unscrewing and pulling up on the blind caps exposes the trademark metal tube of Sheaffer’s pneumatic touchdown filling system. The other feature, the “Tip-dip”, turns out to be a small recess in the feed under the nib where the ink channel is exposed. This was intended to allow the pen to fill with minimal dunking depth in ink.
My example of this fountain pen was a NOS blister packed version that had and extra nib thrown in which was, glory be, a stub. Nowhere on it does it say “cadet” but that’s what it has been called in the old catalogs. Like the more expensive Sheaffer pens a whole range of nibs were available for the tippys including flexible styles. As mentioned it is made of stainless steel but there is a nice amount of tipping material at the end.
Sheaffer stainless steel tip-dip nib.
How does this early 60’s low cost pen feel to write with? Great, I must say. The pen is substantial but light weight and the point is smooth with some line variation. Construction is exemplary with high quality plastics and metals. I’ve been inside the pen too and can report it is made just as well as the expensive touchdown models.
I would certainly recommend a vintage tip-dip pen to anyone looking for a practical and economical writer. It turned out that this inexpensive vintage pen is an attractive, solid writing instrument which is far more “cheerful” than “cheap”.
Who was America’s biggest manufacturer of fountain pens in the 1940s and 1950s? Parker? Nope. Sheaffer? Uh-uh. Give up? From their offices in North Bergen, NJ it was common-as-dirt Wearever who crowned themselves that. Certainly that claim could well have been true as mass production allowed a seemingly endless supply of their low cost writing implements to fill up the shelves of many a dime-store. What else may surprise is that they made pens of rather high quality like the one we’re going to look at here.
The late fountain pen expert Frank Dubiel often said Wearever’s Pacemaker model was the equal of many a higher end offering from more respected brands. Looking like a handsome doppelganger to the contemporary striped Parker Duofold it’s easy to believe this pen does meet that criteria. At least at a glance the pen’s appearance belies its $2.75 price.
Taking the pen into had for inspection you can see two features which are attention grabbing. First off, it’s a button filler with a blind cap that unscrews to show the system’s namesake poking out in transparent red plastic. Depressing this button causes a pressure bar in the barrel to flex and squeeze the ink sac. Release the button and the sac inflates drawing in the ink. This system was made famous on early Parkers such as the Duofold (to get around the Sheaffer lever filling patent) but was mostly regulated to niche status as the complex filling system wars began in the 1930’s. Not the most efficient filling system but it certainly is simple and gets the job done.
Wearever Pacemaker
Next item of note is the plain looking nib marked “14k, MADE IN U.S.A.” Most people think of Wearever’s having inexpensive steel nibs but this one is solid gold, as befits a premium offering. It’s a good sized nib with a fine-ish point and a nice blob of iridium at the tip so there’s nothing to criticize here. If Wearever couldn’t get in on the gimmick wars with a filling system or a unique design they did make one concession with what was under that nib: the clear “C-Flow” feed. Supposedly allowing you to see when ink flow started to dwindle and refilling was needed this gadget was a distant relative to the ink view window on other fountain pens. Of course if the feed became mostly clear you probably knew already the ink was running out due skipping or fading lines. So while dubious in use it is a quaint feature that makes this pen (and the Wearever Zenith which shared the feed and nib) a bit more endearing.
C-Flow clear feed
Pacemakers are sized on par with the mid-line offerings from the more expensive pen companies and feel solid in the hand. Concessions to low cost can be seen in the blind cap and section whose bright sheen screams “cheap plastic”. Additionally, the section seems to have been formed from two molded halves since there are seams running down both sides. On the other hand the bulk of the pen is in sturdy, attractive multi-colored laminated celluloid which probably has fooled more than one person into thinking they were looking at a Parker. Gold filled metal is used for the clip and band which on my example has no brassing despite evidence of a goodly amount of use. Overall, this was quite a good deal for a couple of bucks in 1946.
Since the proof is in the pudding I can state that the Pacemaker writes very nicely. I’ve had this pen for almost 10 years and paid little attention to it as it rested silently in a drawer. A short time ago I was looking for some pens to trade and I dipped the old Wearever into ink for a writing sample. When I put the nib to paper I was shocked to find it was semi-flexible! One always expects these mass market mid-century pens to have stiff fine or medium nibs (unless we’re dealing with Esterbrooks and their specialty points) but for whatever reason we get an expressive line with this workhorse. I’m not planning on trading it any time soon now.
A year ago the respected pen collector Don Fluckinger wrote an article titled The Top 10 Vintage Pens, As I See It on Richard Binder’s website. Number two on the list was the Wearever Pacemaker which he called a “hidden gem.” I think that’s an apt description for a pen that for very little money can give a great deal of writing enjoyment.
