This 1940 Sheaffer Balance 500 Vac-fil is for sale for $75 US plus $20 shipping. If you are interested in purchasing this pen, email me at inkquiringminds@gmail.com with your address and I'll give you a shipping quote and instructions on how to purchase with PayPal.
Watch the resurrection of this pen by clicking on the YouTube video below.
SHEAFFER BALANCE 500 VACUUM FILLER 1935-42
Welcome back to Inkquiring Minds, my name is Doug, and thanks for joining me for another Pen Resurrection Sunday on Inkquiring Minds.
Today’s cadaver on the slab is this Sheaffer Balance 500 Vacuum-Fil.
There is no way to find the specific date of manufacture for this pen but it would have been made between 1936, when the Sheaffer Vacuum-Fil system was introduced, and 1942 when the Balance model was retired.
The pens’ material is a celluloid that Sheaffer called Golden Brown.
This is a Full-length standard girth 500 model.
The 500 can be seen on the barrel imprint which says WA Sheaffer Pen Co. Fort Madison Iowa USA Patented in the USA.
The 500 isn’t actually a model name, it is the price at $5 US.
This was the non-lifetime, more economical version of the pen.
The Lifetime version was $10, and had 1000 printed on the barrel and also included the Sheaffer White dot just above the clip indicating the lifetime warranty.
The Sheaffer Balance was introduced in 1929 and took the pen world by storm.
Before the Balance, most pens were cylindrical and made out of ebonite.
Sheaffer made a pen that was made of celluloid, in some really wonderful finishes, and was a revolutionary shape - the torpedo shape.
We are so used to this pen shape almost 100 years later, that it is hard to appreciate the reaction from the fountain pen-buying public.
It was a huge hit and this basic design exists today.
THOUGHTS
Well I’m really stoked about this restoration.
You folks in the UK might say “I’m right chuffed”.
Not only was I able to resurrect this VERY dead fountain pen, but I also invented a tool to get the nib and feed out of the section!
This was the worst of the four pens that John Somers sent me.
Here they are.
The first one I repaired was this Waterman’s 100 from 1944. Then I fixed the 1940 Parker Duofold Speedline Vacumatic, the 1960 Sheaffer PFM IV Snorkel Touchdown, and finally, this circa 1940 Sheaffer Balance Golden Brown Vacuum-Fil.
All four pens were DOA, but are now restored and working.
I left this one until last because I was unsure if I could fix it.
I was thinking I might have to send it back to John the way it came.
As it is, the Balance doesn’t hold a lot of ink, but it holds ink, and the nib behaves as its namesake would suggest; with a feather touch.
The only thing I couldn’t fix was the end of the barrel packing seal unit and its mangled threads.
This blind cap will never stay screwed down to the back of the barrel again.
I’ve got a bit of a workaround by introducing just a bit of bluetac or blue stick-tack to the inside of the blind cap, it holds the blind cap and vac rod from spinning or, worse, extending during use.
It is a bit of a cludge, but it does work for using the pen.
This Sheaffer Balance Vacuum- Fil would have sold for $5 US back in 1940, or about $110 US today.
It might have been part of a pen and pencil set that would sell for $8 or $10.
Here is a Sheaffer Balance pencil in a greay stacked celluloid.
This Balance pencil was from several years previous to the fountain pen.
You can see the older- style clip which dates this pencil from around 1935.
In my video of the restoration of this pencil, I incorrectly identified it as being from the 1940s.
And there you have it.
Thanks go out to John Somers for providing these four wonderful vintage pens for Pen Resurrection Sunday!
And as always, thanks for watching,
And that’s all she wrote!
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