Sheaffer Imperial II Deluxe

Ah, the majesty of the unfurnished basement.  Upon its shelves can be found treasures beyond your wildest dreams strewn amongst the greatest junk one could ever find.  I haven't even fully searched the entirety of my basement, which means that there may be more vintage fountain pens and other gizmos and doo-dads.

Eye candy...

The next in the series of pens I found is the Sheaffer Imperial II Deluxe.  The pen's barrel is a very nice blue that feels comfortable in the hand, just like so many of the other vintage pens that I have been using.   Perhaps it is due to that "worn-in" feeling, but every pen thus far feels as if it has a unique personality of its own.  I intend to get to know each pen better, but for now, back to the Sheaffer.

This pen is somewhat similar to the Parker 51 in body design
but the nib and filling mechanism are different. The Parker 51
is a classic pen, but this Sheaffer is a pen that is similar and
cheaper.

This pen was found in fantastic condition, needing very little cleaning.  A quick inspection of the parts and then rinsing of the black rubber filler and I was ready to write and practice some language, but I wasn't sure which one, so I tried a couple. I found this pen worked really well for Arabic, because it has a smooth medium point nib.  This nib is absolutely fantastic and is much better than the medium nib that I have for my Lamy Safari.  I used Noodler's Empire Red which is a very smooth ink too. The combination was without a doubt one of the best combinations that I've been able to find for an ink and a pen.

 The Sheaffer Imperial II Deluxe is a pen that is made predominantly of plastic and as such weighs very little, and is a bit lighter than you would guess just by looking at it. A distinguishing feature of this pen is the smaller clip on the cap, which does make it a little less useful in a pocket, but still keeps it from rolling around.  The filling mechanism was new for me, but I absolutely loved it.  It's called the "Touch-Down Method" in which you pull the end of the pen out and then push it back down.  The trick to getting this to work is to leave the pen in the ink bottle for a few seconds after the lever is fully depressed because that is when the ink is being drawn into the pen.

                                                              Long live the vintage pen!

Bad Green Gator feathers a lot on Moleskine Paper and with a wet pen, but this pen is still fantastic.