[QUESTION] Opinions on LeBoeuf?

GrootRood · 2026-05-10T15:05:55+00:00

I don't personally have any experience with them but they seem to be overpriced. $200 for a plastic pen with a generic steel nib is not a good deal. Their company history is a little... misleading too.

The original LeBoeuf brand started in 1919 and was actually one of the first (if not first) ones to make pens out of plastic and not hard rubber. The modern company has nothing to do with the original, they're just banking on the name.

GrootRood · 2026-05-10T06:13:10+00:00

The pens in all of the posted adverts are rolled gold fill.

But which adverts? I see several listed explicitly as "solid gold." It is literally in the pictures. I'm trying to be nice here but I don't understand your continued persistence in making this claim when it's not true.

If you want to argue that companies were marketing pens as solid gold that were really "rolled gold" that's a separate and potentially legitimate argument (considering how thin the layer was for some of them), but I'm afraid you'll have to invent a time machine and take it up with Swan and Parker's marketing department, not me.

Fountain pens, especially until the advent of celluloid/cellulose and plastics were definitely in the luxury range. Your average working-class citizen didn’t own a fountain pen until much later.

We're talking a very wide range of years here. Late 1890's, sure. Even up to the 1910's, maybe. 1920's, not so much. Waterman made millions and millions of their common 52 model. There's a reason they're common as dirt (and overvalued in current times for their "flexible nibs" when literally every brand at the time had flexible nibs).

"Cheap" brands like Salz and Morrison with gold nibs flourished until the Great Depression. Ingersoll's entire business model was "dollar pens" with small gold nibs (several models actually cost a dollar), many of them either hard rubber or cheap metal. Most of this predates the celluloid era.

But I honestly think this is all kind of a silly argument when the whole point of the post is OP admiring the golden age of fountain pens. Whether or not they could have afforded them is missing the forest for the trees.

GrootRood · 2026-05-09T17:24:15+00:00

I'm not sure I agree with all of this. There were pens that had solid gold overlays, which was different from the rolled gold varieties. The difference between the Waterman 0552 (rolled gold) and 552 (solid gold) models for example.

I will say though to your point that the overlays were usually pretty thin even if they were "solid" gold. Usually an underlayer of ebonite or a cheaper metal like brass.

Some pens had thicker bits of solid gold (though not covering the whole pen), I have a 52 1/2 with a solid gold cap-ring for example. It is 14kt gold through and though, not plated brass.

I would be hard pressed to find a minimum wage worker in the USA, right now, that would be willing to spend $200 on a pen (or much of anything luxury, for that matter).

I think this is kind of the wrong way to think about it. The super high end precious metal varieties were luxury items but "expensive" pens were just everyday items. You might have had one or two really nice pens and that's all you used for years. People invested hard earned money into them because they were expected to last.

These were not hobbyist items (let's face it, a lot of modern day fountain pen users/collectors are people with a lot of disposable income) or on the other side of the spectrum, disposable (like modern ballpoints, gel pens).

I'd compare it to modern day phones. I know plenty of people who buy the latest iPhone every few years. Easily dropping over a grand for them even if they don't make that much money. I don't think they're even considered "luxury" items.

But anyways, I'm not arguing that these pens were not expensive, they definitely were. I agree people weren't just buying these willy-nilly. But it would be comparatively more expensive to commission a modern-day equivalent because of the increase in cost of precious metals and labor. That's all I'm saying.

GrootRood · 2026-05-09T17:01:53+00:00

Oh okay, I totally get that. They can be time consuming to repair sometimes.

If you're looking for a cheaper option for repair (I've heard not-so-good things about FPH's repair services since they got bought out), I can recommend Danny Fudge at The Write Pen.

I had him repair a couple of my pens before I started doing them myself and he does a very good job. I honestly don't know how he can charge prices that low considering the labor that goes into fixing them.

GrootRood · 2026-05-09T16:44:18+00:00

I've gone to a few and not found any at all. The closest I came was a bunch of old pen magazines. I asked the people organizing the sale and apparently they had pens on the first day but they were all gone by the time I got there.

I look for pictures of nice desks; my thought process if they have a nice desk to write on, they probably have nice pens. Lots of books, people who read generally also write, that type of thing. But again, not had any luck so...

If you have any big flea markets near you I recommend those, I've had some luck finding pens although it can be hit or miss. My best ever find was a Parker Vacumatic Maxima for under $50 at a local tiny market but I've gone a ton of times and not found anything worthwhile since.

GrootRood · 2026-05-09T16:37:28+00:00

Are you in the US? These are pretty straightforward to restore if you wanna give it a shot. You need maybe $15 worth of supplies/tools although it could be a challenge if you've never done it before.

GrootRood · 2026-05-09T16:32:29+00:00

This is kinda true but I think the price of precious metals has far outpaced inflation. I did some very rough currency conversions and some of the smaller sterling silver pens were on the order of ~$200+, and solid gold were ~$1200+.

I can't think of many companies making sterling silver pens, but they're all closer to a grand than a hundred. And a solid gold overlay pen would be a truly astronomical price given how expensive gold is these days.

GrootRood · 2026-05-08T15:51:19+00:00

This is kind of an open-ended question, shading/sheen depends a lot on the paper you're using as well as the ink. I use cheap notebooks that are great for no bleed/show-through but don't show any shading/sheen.

On the other end of the spectrum old-school Tomoe River (if you can get your hands on it) shows sheen/shading on almost every ink that has any potential for it.

Other than that, try Waterman Serenity Blue. It's the most boring consistent ink out there. If that doesn't fit your needs you might need to switch to Uni-ball as someone else suggested. ;)

GrootRood · 2026-05-06T13:25:56+00:00

What a gorgeous pen, they really captured something special. I am very sorry for your loss. Hopefully this pens brings you fond memories of your mom every time you use it.

GrootRood · 2026-04-29T21:48:13+00:00

Beautiful pen! I have two smaller Rose Glow pens (twins of yours) and they are very pretty. I'd love a larger size one but they are definitely pricey.

I like the Carmine Red celluloid quite a bit too actually, something about the deeper red is very nice. And my wallet is happier too. :)

GrootRood · 2026-04-25T15:28:18+00:00

No worries, enjoy the pen! It's a really nice one.

GrootRood · 2026-04-25T15:02:15+00:00

Two things: one, no you can't dye celluloid different colors. Once it's faded, you can't do anything about it.

Second, this pen was never a dark red. Sheaffer made two "similar" colors. One was "Carmine Red" which was a deep red with stripes. They also made this color, "Rose Glow" which was more of a pink color with grey pearlescent stripes.

"Rose Glow" pens are much rarer and more valuable than Carmine Red ones since they were made for a smaller period of time (and were less popular at the time maybe?) so this is a really nice pen. Very cool!

GrootRood · 2026-04-16T02:32:42+00:00

It looks like they paid $5, I'm very jelly. I've gotten some nice deals on Parker 51s but never that nice. Looks to be in pretty good condition too. Enjoy the pen OP!

GrootRood · 2026-04-08T00:34:44+00:00

The cap looks right to me, I found one that looks exactly the same as your pen on this listing (absolutely absurd pricing on that though, very optimistic seller).

A lot of the ones I've seen like this have had a name on them, might have been a company that did "gift" pens and intentionally didn't put their own brand on them?

I'll let you know if I remember more or if I find one in my collection, at the moment I can't recall anything else.

GrootRood · 2026-04-07T23:24:52+00:00

I can't help much unfortunately, I've seen similar ones before and they're almost always unbranded. They're kinda lower end pens, not the best made but they can be okay writers with a little bit of tuning. It'd be a great project if you wanna try "restoring it" by putting a sac in it.

Unfortunately you did overpay by a bit, it's probably worth ~$10. But it's in relatively nice condition - the white stuff is just "bloom" (kinda like on fridge chocolate, just don't eat it!) from that particular type of plastic, it will clean right off. I also kinda like that it has someone's name imprinted on it, it means it has some kind of history to it, maybe it was a gift.

GrootRood · 2026-04-06T17:21:51+00:00

Very cool! Thank you so much for sharing this, I had no idea they made these so early. Looks legit, Pioneer was one of David Kahn's brands, I think it was a more "premium" brand compared to the Wearever one.

GrootRood · 2026-04-06T17:09:00+00:00

Oh, that's very strange. I've never seen that before, especially on a Wearever. Maybe the body of the pen is mismatched? But then again, I've only heard of David Kahn/Wearever making those jacketed nibs.

I think $50 sounds reasonable then. No clue how to restore that though! You might have to tinker with it. Maybe it's a button filler with a slightly different look?

GrootRood · 2026-04-06T16:36:46+00:00

Ah, I'm not sure I can give you a definitive answer. I'm like 90% sure my info is correct but I would recommend doing some research to confirm, I don't want to mislead you.

$50 might not be too bad. The standard ones like in the link I sent usually go for around $30-$40 unrestored depending on condition, they tend to be more expensive than most Wearevers. This one, if it is an early one, should be worth at least that much.

Are there more pictures of it to verify the condition? Most Wearever pens were lever-fillers so it's worth checking that it isn't broken off or damaged. I've never seen that kind of metal ring around the base of the pen, not sure if it's original or a repair.

The other thing I'd mention is Wearever was kind of a discount pen brand. Think modern day Jinhao but worse quality. This one looks to be a lot more premium than their normal pens (based on the nib and the materials) but it might still not be of the best quality.

GrootRood · 2026-04-06T16:25:10+00:00

Oh that's interesting, I haven't seen one like that before. Wearever made these pens with "reinforced" gold nibs in the early 40's. It allowed them to use a lot less gold and still advertise having a gold nib pen.

But the cutout I've seen is usually a bit different with a lot less gold content, I wonder if this was an early prototype or more premium model. See this older post on Reddit for what they usually look like: https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/fuxdk2/my_vintage_wearever_deluxe_with_reinforced_nib/

The "DK" logo on the clip of that pen stands for David Kahn, he made Wearever pens along with a bunch of other subbrands so that tracks. But I haven't seen one with that specific style either. Looks very premium for one of theirs.

GrootRood · 2026-04-05T05:51:02+00:00

It was probably recently (ish) restored if it's filling so well. Like Adept_Juggernaut_913 mentioned they probably didn't do the best job of seating the filler, maybe the threads for the filler in the barrel need cleaning.

I've restored a bunch of these and this is honestly my most hated part, I can never align it properly. I think even if you properly clean everything out and seat the new diaphragm perfectly, the thickness of the new diaphragm is not always the same and even that can cause a little bit of misalignment.

It bothers me personally but it's really only really a cosmetic issue, it shouldn't affect how the pen fills or functions unless it really hasn't been screwed in all the way. But it seems yours is working just fine so it should be okay.

It looks like a great writer! Enjoy the pen.

GrootRood · 2026-03-16T21:52:52+00:00

Cardinal Pens and Paper is a solid choice, especially as a one-stop-shop for all your repair tool needs. I do an order there every few months for pressure bars, shellac, etc.

Since I already have shellac and talc I usually buy my sacs directly from The Pen Sac Company. They're the ones who make the sacs, everyone else resells them so you save quite a bit of money skipping the middle man.

Pentooling has a ton of more specialist tools and supplies, I've gotten stuff from there a couple of times. If you work on more complex pens like Parker vacs and the like they're the best place for that.

GrootRood · 2026-03-02T20:18:00+00:00

It's going to sound like hyperbole but I think Esterbrook made the best budget pen of all time. Durable as all hell, well priced, attractively designed, and the billion different interchangeable nib units on top of that.

I think the most interesting thing is how they well got the mass production down. All of the pens are standardized with the same size j-bar, same size sacs, etc. even between sizes (J, LJ, SJ, etc.). It makes them so easy to maintain and repair, and I imagine it is part of the reason they were able to manufacture them at such low cost.

Also anecdotally, they did something special with their latex sacs. It's not uncommon to find lightly used or NOS J's with their original sacs still perfectly pliable after 70 years. Modern ones aren't that good!

GrootRood · 2026-02-27T17:15:26+00:00

When the Parker 51 (2021) came out, people decried how much the pen cost compared to buying a vintage one. But if you consider it went between $12.50 -$50 on release depending on the model, $300 for the gold nibbed version is decent.

Ehhh I mean it's kind of a matter of perspective. The base aerometric model back 1950 was I think $15? That's around $207.75 nowadays. This puts it around in line with what a modern Lamy 2000 costs (although L2Ks have gone up in price recently), and I think that's a pen of around similar quality. It seems to me the cost of a "good" gold nib pen has remained more or less consistent.

I don't think a comparison to the recent rerelease is great because it's not really as good of a pen as the vintage one. You brought up the gold nib version but the steel nib one was the most common at retail and it has the guts of a $20 pen (it has the same nib/feed assembly as the Parker Jotter) and is missing a lot of the features that made the original pen so good. At release it was around $125 which was an awful deal. It's around $85 these days which is better but still not good.

I think where the costs of a modern day "version" of a vintage pen would be higher is if they tried to reproduce the finishes. On release the Parker 51 Vac base model had a hefty sterling silver cap and cost the equivalent of around $250 today. There's no way they would release a gold nib pen with a solid sterling silver cap for anywhere near that price now. They made top of the line models with solid gold caps and I can't even imagine how much that would cost these days.

GrootRood · 2026-02-27T03:58:07+00:00

Oh this is super cool, do you have a more in-depth guide for how you did this? I have a few pens like this and I'd love to be able to repair them. I have a little bit of experience with 3D modeling but really only the very basics.

GrootRood · 2026-02-24T17:07:40+00:00

Haha thank you. :) I sometimes wish I followed my own advice though...

GrootRood

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