Sheaffer is the American pen name a lawyer's parents would recognize. Walter A. Sheaffer, a jeweler in Fort Madison, Iowa, patented the lever filler and founded the company on it in 1913, and for decades a Sheaffer was the pen an American graduate was handed. We carry two of its lines, in every form a lawyer might reach for: the 300 — full-sized, with the slotted clip and the wide cap band, in matte black, glossy black with gold, glossy blue, and an engraved barrel under a chrome cap — and the slimmer 100 in coffee brown. Each is one listing with four choices: fountain pen in fine or medium, rollerball, or ballpoint.
What a Sheaffer offers is a good pen at an entry price: a steel nib that writes the first time, a cartridge that changes in a moment, a barrel with the weight of a real instrument, and the maker's own black box, which opens like an eyeglass case. It is the first fountain pen for a great many lawyers, the pen a graduate is still glad to be handed, and an easy gift to get right. Sheaffer's cartridges, converter and refills are in Inks & Refills. On which form to choose, read Fountain, Rollerball, or Ballpoint?