So, back in December I posted about my favorite old fountain pen (an affection shared by author Joe Haldeman among others)—the Koh-i-noor Inkograph, which was modeled on a Rapidograph technical pen, but had a funky tip that wrote at virtually any angle and was a pleasure to work with. Article came with a photo of that old crusty Inkograph. Lo, this month, while clearing out some old boxes, I stumbled upon the never-used Fine point version: the extra pen that I’d bought as Koh-i-noor retired the line, back around 1976.
I have since hunted around on Ebay and pen shows, but nobody seems to have any of these anywhere. All the Inkograph listings seem to be for less-appealing earlier models of the pen. And, boy, do I wish I’d bought a dozen of them when they were being discontinued… In any case, here’s a glimpse of one of the strangest fountain pens ever designed, with its original packaging and insert.
–gf
P.S. A followup, courtesy of Poe scholar Edward Pettit: An article that answers why pencils are yellow, and where that “Koh-i-noor” brand originated: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-little-known-reason-pencils-yellow
I must have missed your earlier posting. I’d never heard of this before. I used Rapidographs as a technical illustrator, and liked them, except for the problem of cleaning them. Did this pen have the same problem? Also, was this a standard tip, or did it have caligraphic options?
Yeah, I used Rapidographs, too. Not my favorite technical pens (preferred Faber Castells back then). It was simply a writing tip. There were no calligraphic options. Fine or Medium point were your choices, but as the pen wrote at any angle, you could be left or right-handed; unlike most modern fountain pens, it didn’t matter. It used fountain pen ink instead of technical pen ink. And for maybe 5–10 years it was the only “fountain pen” I owned. I think that was true for Joe Haldeman, too. It was the favorite pen. Light weight, didn’t clog. A pleasure to use. And then it ceased to be.