The Double-Headed Fountain Pen and The Double-Barrel Fountain Pen

I had posted reviews of two variants of the Double-Barrel FP (labelled as 2-in-1 Pen) earlier (i.e., long back).  I acquired the Double-Headed FP recently and now that I have both models, these conceptually similar, but modularly distinctive fountain pens could be seen in one place.

Both models are Indian ebonite ED filler models, except at one ball-point end. 

I bought the Double-Headed model on the same day I bought the Deccan Majaz.  Both Hari and I had finished our purchases at Deccan, and Hari suggested that we pay a quick visit to another pen store in the vicinity, before heading for dinner.  Though I was not very hopeful of finding anything new, we both went there and after some initial browsing found these double-headed fountain pens and a couple of slim mini fountain pens.  These were not there the last time we visited the place, or maybe we didn’t observe properly.  To cut the long story short, we bought one Double-Headed pen each and Hari bought both the slim minis, and I am glad now that I went to the pen shop …    

The Double-Headed FP has a common barrel part with two nib-sections at each end.  Each end has a separate cap.  Though the barrel is common, each nib-section has its own separate ink reservoir.  The ebonite rod is sort of bored from either end till a particular predetermined length so that there are ink chambers at both ends.  Threading, sections, and caps are made for both ends. 

The Double-Barrel FP, on the other hand, has a common cap part, with cap threading at either end of the hollow/almost hollow ebonite rod.  Two separate FP units (or ball pens or one ball pen and the other an FP), one on either end can be threaded onto these caps.  I have two versions of the Double-Barrel FP; one with two FP units and another with an FP unit and a ball-pen unit.

Technically speaking, both are Twin Pens…

If one notices, all three pens have no clips.  These pens are designed as desk pens.  The length is forbidding; one just cannot carry them in one’s pocket; or even otherwise carry them along.  So, these are not daily carry pens.  The other reason for clips being ‘clipped’ in these pens is that these pens also doubled as rulers or more precisely, “roller rulers.”  

Curiously, in the FP-BP Double-Barrel model that I have, made by Guider Pens, the common cap part has been bored through and one can see the light at the other end … and, the FP-FP Double-Barrel model, made by Deccan Pens, is shuttered in the middle … no light at the end of the tunnel … 

These pens were made specifically for use in government offices in India (and also study rooms in houses).  One end would have either hold blue or black ink and the other end would invariably have red ink.  One for writing, and one for correction.  And these perfectly cylindrical pens could be used for drawing horizontal lines in books; one could just “roll” the pen down the sheet and “rule” the page, so to speak.  The pen need not be lifted from the page, just rolled along.    

This kind of double purpose pen would have been envisaged during the colonial period, maybe even earlier, and would have continued for another 20-30 years after independence.  Sheets would have been line-less and needed to be ‘ruled,’ and instead of a thin flat slat, a long cylindrical ruler might have seemed a better option.  Those days, I am sure, both pens would have been fountain pens, and the ball-point pen option is a comparatively recent innovation.

I had reviewed my two Double-Barrel FPs here long back, as I mentioned earlier in this post … the first one is the both-sides-FP model from Deccan Pens, Hyderabad, Telangana; and the second one is ‘one-side-FP’ and ‘other-side-BP’ model from Guider Pens, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh… and in case you are interested, you can find them here…

http://jaisiri.blogspot.in/2008/08/longest-pen.html

http://jaisiri.blogspot.in/2008/10/slightly-longer-than-longestthe-2-in-1.html

The Deccan Majaz – a new Deccan FP model, the first in 2015

It was just a routine visit to Deccan Pens at Abids … whenever Hari comes to Hyderabad, we set out in the evening ... it is a long drive from where I live to Abids and that gives us enough time to catch up on events and happenings in the pen and watch worlds on FPN and elsewhere … we meet up with Wasim bhai, and the younger generation brothers and the sales people … and if Wasim bhai is free, the conversation can go on for a long long time … sometimes no pen is bought, but the visit to Deccan at Abids is part of our liking and passion for pens … it is like paying obeisance at the altar of superior pen-making …

Yesterday, 19^th February 2015, Hari and I visited Deccan and both of us were happy to see a new model under the glass … it is a shiny black ebonite number, suitably restrained with only the bright golden coloured clip for any visible embellishment … a classic cigar shaped fountain pen, it is an ED filler … the size is slightly smaller than the MB 146 … the flat clip is nice and quite springy, but not spring loaded … except for the dome at the cap jewel, the cap is cylindrical and forms a straight line and cuts smoothly at the cap lip and embraces the barrel gracefully when the pen is capped …

Once the cap is unscrewed, you see the trademark Deccan lines and meticulous finishing … the section is so elegant and the lines form a beautiful and subtle hourglass, just about straightening out ever so slightly at both ends at the last millimeter … look at the place in the section where the nib & feeder meet the section and it is so shiny … this attention to detail is rarely seen … and that is what keeps Deccan at the top among Indian fountain pen makers …

The pen came with a regular nib, but I didn’t like the shape and got it changed for a custom Deccan Medium nib … I had to pay extra for that, of course … and after the pen was inked, it just took off … Hari, who was overseeing the change of nibs, tested the smoothness and flow and said, ‘what need for any other pen …?’  I want to call it the Deccan Majaz …

Here are some photos of the pen ... 

Pettkammi … God's Hammer ... (Tulu terms)

I am a Mangalorean and am rather proud and happy about that … Mangalore is the headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka … most people are naturally trilingual here, speaking Tulu, Konkani, and Kannada with ease … I could speak in Tulu so long as I lived in Mangalore, but once I left the city, I couldn’t find Tulu speakers among my friends and lost my ability to speak the language … my father speaks fluent Tulu even now; that’s because he was born and brought up in Mangalore and lived there till his graduation and started his career there … my father’s brothers, my uncles, also speak Tulu fluently …

Though I can’t speak Tulu, I understand it well … and the words that come off the top of my head to describe the language are rooted, earthy, folksy, etc., but that would only be a small part of it and all people who love their languages would have the same thing to say about their languages … so, after we shifted from Trivandrum to Mangalore, I started to pick up Tulu slowly, but it took me some time to muster enough courage to speak with friends in Tulu … some terms and words would stump me and I could ask my father for explanations and meanings … and some of these have stayed with me after all these years … here is one – Pettkammi – people who would often behave in an eccentric and unexpected manner would be dismissed casually as “aaye pettkammi-mbe…”

‘Pettu’ means beat or beatings; and ‘kammi’ means ‘less’ … I asked my father if ‘pettkammi’ means ‘less beatings,’ why should someone who behaves in an eccentric manner or in an odd and peculiar manner be called ‘pettkammi?’ Does it mean that the person was allowed to be a wayward child and therefore has grown up to be like this? … My father explained the concept behind this … he said it has got nothing to do with a person not getting enough admonitory beatings as a child … and the concept is beautiful and hilarious … it is to with the concept of God as an ‘artisan,’ if you wish, one who creates human beings as metal statues first and breathes life into them … and sends them to earth, so to say … and God creates each statue with care, with all the tools – hammer, chisel, etc., and beats each statue into shape and perfection with his hammer … and sometimes God is distracted or disturbed or tense, just like any of us, and under such circumstances the statues don’t get enough attention and care and get ‘less beatings with the hammer’ or ‘not enough beatings with the hammer’ and turn out to be ‘less than perfect!!’ … and therefore, when life is breathed into them and they become human beings, they behave in eccentric, unexpected, peculiar, or strange ways … and hence, ‘Pettkammi’ …