Slightly longer than the longest...the 2-in-1 ruler black ebonite from Guider Pens,

Some time after I had purchased the 2-in-1 ruler pen (in green ebonite) from Deccan Pens, Hyderabad (posted earlier), I was browsing the net and hit the usual pen sites…I saw that Guider Pens had renovated(?) their site and it was looking much better…they now had moving images on their masthead…and one of the images was of the 2-in-1 ruler pen in mottled brown…I wanted a FP-BP combination so that I could use a red ink refill for the ball pen and fill the FP with black or blue ink…as I had purchased a ready-made 2-in-1 pen @ Deccan Pens which had FPs at both ends, I had no choice then…

I teach in a college and there are frequent tests and many occasions for me to use red ink…and sometimes the answers are so exasperating that I indicate my state of mind and inflict great force on the pen and paper while correcting answer scripts… I tried this with a FP and ended up with a damaged nib… I then felt that a BP would be ideal for such purposes…but I wanted something unusual, and decided to ask Mr Lakshmana Rao of Guider Pens if he would make me one such pen… I spoke with Mr Rao and told him what I wanted…complete black ebonite, with one FP and one BP and the BP end should be marked in red to indicate the colour as well as the type of pen… I left it to him to decide the length and thickness…He then asked me to decide the refill model and size that I would be using for the BP so that he can prepare the BP accordingly… I told him that the only BP refill model and size that I was familiar with was the Reynolds 045…and that if he could make the BP compatible with this model, I’d be happy…he agreed to this…

I received the parcel about 5 days later…the pen was dismantled and packed…I put them together…it looked good…I had already purchased 2 red ink Reynolds 045 refills and fitted the ball pen with one of these…the FP, I left alone for the time being… I found out that Mr Rao had very thoughtfully fixed a red celluloid band at the end indicating the BP…it looks very cute… and sophisticated…

The pen is about 14 ½ inches in length and is a couple of millimetres longer than the Deccan 2-in-1 ruler pen…both pens uncapped are 7 inches each…and the middle section acts as a common 2-sided cap and is hollow unlike the Deccan 2-in-1 ruler pen, the capped BP is 9 ¼ inches in length and the capped FP is ever so slightly more than 9 ¼ inches…the nib is Guider custom and so far I have only dry tested it, and it is smooth…should see how it reacts to ink…

Jayasrinivasa Rao