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Which is the more famous pen brand, Parker or Sheaffer?

The legendary Parker 51 and the outstanding Sheaffer Duofold, two fine roads that get you to the same place...the joy of writing. Every Fountain pen user should one of each in their pen tray ready for use.
 
The legendary Parker 51 and the outstanding Sheaffer Duofold, two fine roads that get you to the same place...the joy of writing. Every Fountain pen user should one of each in their pen tray ready for use.
Now, I've got a Parker Duofold...but a Sheaffer Duofold?
Those must be as rare as finding hen's teeth on a blue moon!
 
Speaking as a ballpoint/rollerball kind of guy, I have to go with Parker, then Cross. Sheaffer is a name from my distant past. I think I may have had a Sheaffer fountain pen in grade school. In fact when this thread opened I had to look them up to see if they are still around. That pen leaked a lot which is probably why I haven't used a fountain pen since.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
Speaking as a ballpoint/rollerball kind of guy, I have to go with Parker, then Cross. Sheaffer is a name from my distant past. I think I may have had a Sheaffer fountain pen in grade school. In fact when this thread opened I had to look them up to see if they are still around. That pen leaked a lot which is probably why I haven't used a fountain pen since.
LOL! Well, rest assured that the higher-end Sheaffer pens don't leak. But Sheaffer was really late to the ballpoint market and that's probably one of the things that did it in an independent company. Their take was that people were going over to ballpoints because they didn't want to get their fingers inky, so their answer was a fountain pen with a complicated filling system that used a tube to dip into the ink bottle. :frown2:
 
I don't know which is more famous (I'd be inclined to believe Parker is), but I prefer vintage Sheaffers over vintage Parkers. The vintage Sheaffer nibs are just that good.

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I thought about just not responding, but couldn’t help myself. I recall Parker and Sheaffer (SP?) from back in the 60’s, but while I see Parker today, I can’t recall seeing Sheaffer.
 
You guys make all the coolest stuff in Wisconsin. Harley's. Thorogood boots. Cheese.
I go you a few more: Pabst, Miller, Leinenkugel's, Spotted Cow, Usinger's, Husky tools, Milwaukee power tools, Dremel, Wisconsin is where the snowmobile was invented (no matter what Ski-Doo says), Kohler, its the place where labor unions started, Frank Lloyd Wright, Les Paul and at once point in time it was the home to the oldest GM plant in the world.
I honestly do believe that you can find something cool and fun about just about anywhere but if you dont mind long, cold winters and living in the middle of nowhere; Wisconsin is a cool place.
 
Well in my household as a child, my mother used a Papermate Profile and my father a Parker Jotter. Sheaffer or Waterman were seen as more upmarket and were given as gifts. The current Sheaffer range is quite limited. Today my money would be on a Pilot MR aka Metropolitan Retro.

My own pens as child and young adult were a Parker Vector roller ball and a Vector fountain, purely for the aesthetics.

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Whilliam

First Class Citizen
I believe that in their respective heydays, Parker had a greater international presence, while Shaeffer held greater sway in the US. This is just my sense of the market; I have no real data to cite, save that Parker had factories operating overseas for foreign markets.

Not to be overlooked is Waterman, which was a power brand in its day also.

Remember, this is just a soft guess. Anyone with solid numbers, please set me straight here.
 
Sheaffer was sold last August to the Indian "lifestyle products" company William Penn.
Various Indian media outlets carried stories about the deal -- here's one of them:


The new ownership was a big reason why I got such a good deal on my Prelude (half off).
The Fountain Pen Hospital was clearing inventory.
 
For fountain pen manufacturers, there were the big four: Parker, Sheaffer, Wahl-Eversharp & Waterman. I have favorites from each.
 
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