The first great success for the ballpoint pen came on an October morning in 1945 when a crowd of over 5,000 people jammed the entrance of New York’s Gimbels Department Store. The day before, Gimbels had taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times promoting the first sale of ballpoints in the United States. The ad described the new pen as a "fantastic... miraculous fountain pen ... guaranteed to write for two years without refilling!" On that first day of sales, Gimbels sold out its entire stock of 10,000 pens-at $12.50 each! With the increasing popularity of turning wood comes beautiful handmade ballpoint pens with artistic appeal and high quality. Ballpoint pens serve well when making duplicate copies that require pressure. All ballpoint pens for sale on this site use refills readily available at most office supply stores.

Ballpoint pens use an oily ink that doesn't permeate deeply into the paper. This charactersitic is what makes ballpoint pens well suited to making duplicate copies with pressure sensitive copy paper or carbon paper where pressure is required.

Images & content © Robert Altig Turnings 2007

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