Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 566

Hot on the heels of yesterday's blog post, here's another vintage Wahl-Eversharp review by Christopher!

He writes:

"It was with a great creative foot forward that the Eversharp design department came up with the idea of developing a pen and mechanical pencil line that was so different. It is my educated guess that they were getting part of this idea from Parker and their 51 because the Eversharp 5th Avenue does capture at least some of the elements that made the Parker 51 so successful. Then again, truth be told, the Eversharp 5th Avenue does a very good job of being different in its overall makeup than any other pen of its time. But sadly, there was a very unsettling shortcoming regarding the early introduction of this pen; not that it was the fashion of the Eversharp company to cut a corner, but in using their existing Skyline model's nib, feed and breather tube in the newly designed 5th Avenue's now-hooded section, the fit was so tight and the breather tube so lengthy, that the pen, in essence, was challenged to write or. for that matter. perform properly. This newly designed hooded section was unique. It was designed with long flat areas along the upper sides for finger purchase. But the hood more or less covered the nib, leaving just the very tip exposed. The new Eversharp 5th Avenue saw the light of day during the latter part of 1943. But, in 1945, the company solved this performance problem by redesigning a smaller, better fitting feed and shortening the breather tube a tad. In turn, they cut a small open channel on the bottom of the hooded section, which further offset the problem.

Like the Parker 51, the 5th Avenue came with both an inner cap clutch and, between the barrel and the section, a clutch ring. This allowed the cap to be removed and/or mounted without having to unscrew it or screw it back onto the barrel. Like the Skyline before it, the 5th Avenue is a responsibly well working lever filler, but let us take a look at the Eversharp 5th Avenue I am featuring in this article." 

(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)

"Right off the bat, one can tell by the overall length, that this was a pen intended for a man. It posts quite well at a full 6 inches but, in turn, caps back to a comfortable 5 ¼ inches. The barrel and section have a shiny black finish, but all of the fittings are solid 14K Gold. That includes the cap, which is marked as such, the smartly designed clip, lever for the filler, the clutch ring and the blind end cap. The clip, in turn, carries the double tick Eversharp marking which signified a lifetime warranty of Eversharp's better writing instruments. The nib, which I had a good look at when I disassembled the pen, is a fine, high quality one indeed and 14K Gold in its makeup. As for performance, this pen is an excellent writer, laying down ink in a even, smooth and controlled fashion. Subsequently, it is a joy to write with and will in turn become a well-earned part of my vintage pen collection."

Christopher--thank you for the review! For more information on the Eversharp '5th Avenue', check out Richard Binder's excellent profile of it here.