I am not putting steel-pointed pens on display here, but rather pens with stainless steel bodies… or ones that look close enough to pass. There is a tendency to call this sort of pen a “Flighter”, after the first of the breed, a Parker “51” developed to please the eye and aeronautical tastes of Kenneth Parker. That’s an incorrect tendency, as the term is used correctly only on Parker pens (and some pedants would restrict it only to that specific sort of “51”). However, I find the brushed-steel finish rather attractive, and since this is my site, I’m indulging myself in a gallery of pens that sort.
This is not a Parker Sonnet. Honest.
Earlier models were rather closer to the original “51” source
As a Parker, it might technically be allowed the Flighter designation
Parker definitely advertised this one as a Flighter
The later versions lost the little plastic tail
This pen takes the notion of “all-steel” to an extremity
There is something overly literal in the naming of an Arrow Flighter
Just because it’s a low end Parker doesn’t mean it can’t be pretty
Well, maybe it’s pretty in someone’s estimation.
The late 1970s saw an awful lot of pens this shape.
Pilot had actually beaten Parker to the “really, really all-steel” punch.
I’m not sure if this is so much fashionable as stylish
This is actually brushed chrome plating rather than steel; Sheaffer seems to not have gone in for steel bodies
However, the material was not unknown to them
One wonders if steel were cheaper than chrome and brass in the 1970s.
It also appealed to Sheaffer’s partners in Japan
Sheaffer (neé Sailor) Sentinel
It’s interesting that the sections are generally black, isn’t it?
A very dedicated effort to emulate the Parker Flighter look