Post office pens

A long time ago I was in a thrift/junk store and I found a lot of vintage post office pen nibs. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. They were cheap, so I bought them all, about a dozen boxes. I have no idea why.

Anyway, before my last move I got rid of most of them, but I kept a couple of boxes, "just in case".

I was looking around for something this morning and they turned up, and I tried one out. They work well enough, very fine line, a good bit of flex. Very scratchy on the paper compared to a fountain pen nib.

What were these pens used for, back in the day? Why are they called post office pens? And do the nibs wear out really fast? They come in boxes of one gross, so I guess they must. I'm not even sure what a gross is, but there are a heck of a lot of nibs in there (just googled it, 144. So I kept 288 nibs "just in case" )

I found this.

http://justwrite.com.au/justwrite8/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1536

August West said:

I found this.

http://justwrite.com.au/justwrite8/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1536

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Hmmm... $8 for ten. I should have kept those boxes, I guess.

Congratulations! You now have more dip pen nibs than I do.

And yes, you should have kept them.

Cynomys said:

Congratulations! You now have more dip pen nibs than I do.

And yes, you should have kept them.

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Yeah, you never know when 1728 dip pen nibs might come in handy.


The thing that is bugging me is I can't remember what I did with them all. I think they may have gone back to a charity shop, so the circle of life continues. I wouldn't have thrown them out.

Legion said:

The thing that is bugging me is I can't remember what I did with them all. I think they may have gone back to a charity shop, so the circle of life continues. I wouldn't have thrown them out.

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Well, it's at least good that you didn't throw them out.

Such pen nibs would have been used by any and all people who had occasion to visit the post office, so they are likely pretty rugged so as to be able to stand a certain amount of abuse. In that sense, my guess is they are like the old-time school pen nibs used by young students when they were first learning how to write. They would be expected to be able to accommodate themselves to a heavy hand.

very interesting. Instead of having a pen cup or those pens on chains they had nibs?
broke, stolen, lost. So they kept a lot on hand I bet to replace them as needed. Everything was done with a pen back then so that makes sense.

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/M._Myers_and_Son

I don't know how to make a link. Google has a few things about these nibs.

I like that you saved them "just in case". I have a LOT of "just in case" things. As soon as you decide to part with it, you need it for something the next week.