Penco Bullet Pen

Bullet pens reached their heyday in 1947.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  GI’s had come back from the war, and they brought with them tiny notebooks.  Before WWII, all notes were taken on huge rolls of papyrus, by a scribe who trained from birth to write PERFECT grocery lists.   But the war brought the need for regular schmoes to take notes, and the age of the scribe was out.  My Grandfather brought back a little note book, the first to be seen in Vermont.  It was to keep track of mortar fire (was the shot over, left, right, etc) but he adapted it to keep track of two things that were far more important.  Who won at Scat, the very simple but oddly hard to win card game he played, and what books he’d read.  He was an omnivorous reader, quality and content did not matter.  Volume mattered.  Lots of books.  Ideally purchased by the bag at library book sales for a buck a bag. 

Point is, his little notebook needed a little pen. Even smaller little pens exist, but the bullet pen is the easiest small pen to use, 

‘cause it’s more or less standard thickness, just short.   

The best small pens are kinda heavy, which helps offset their short length.  These bullet pens are brass or aluminum, and so they have some heft.  Not as much as a pen made of Osmium, but decently weighty, in a reassuring way, like a Tolstoy novel or a second portion at thanksgiving on a rainy day.  

Made by Penco in Japan.   Silver or Gold