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Sheaffer snorkel pens

'Snorkel' because the pen is able to screw out at thin hollow metal pin, a snorkel. The idea is that you place the snorkel in the ink container, suck up the ink without getting nib and finger dipped in the colouring stuff. A great idea, but in my experience the snorkels often get stuck, and they can be quite obstinate and reluctant to get out again.

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Baby blue snorkels

A few nice and also funny pics of three baby blue snorkel pens. The non-metal cap pen is not a life time pen, and it does not carry the 'white dot'. As you can tell the nib is not a gold nib, but still an elegant nib that suits the pen very well. I have added a few pictures of the nib design so you can appreciate it, and I have also taken a picture with a protruding snorkel to illustrate the idea of not getting neither pen nor fingers stained with ink. The snorkel pen was introduced in 1952 and discontinued around 1960. (According to David Isaacson's very informative homepage:  http://vacumania.com/website/sheaffersnorkelguide.htm)

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Snorkel nibs above and protruding snorkel to the right.

Sheaffer PFM or pen for men

The PFM was introduced in 1959 and lasted until 1968, but with limited succes. The design, including a bold new nib-design, went against the tendencies of the period which saw the introduction of many slender pens and slim line pens. And the PFM is not a slim line pen! The pen shown below is a PFM V (the edition with gold filled cap). It is a snorkel filler as it neighbours on this page. Note the beautifully engraved date on the cap: 27-6-61. The date tells us that the pen was bought or offered as a gift approximately two years after the introduction of the PFM line.

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PFM or Imperial?

It can be rather tricky to distinguish a PFM from the later imperial if you have have two actual specimens to compare directly. But if you look at the pics below you can easily see the difference in size and form. The Imperial is the more slender pen, whereas the PFM is more robust.

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