Black Sheaffer Balance Miss Universe - Vacuum-fil - fine nib

 The Sheaffer Balance Miss Universe was a low cost student pen though you might never guess from looking at this example. The pen is equivalent to the Sheaffer Junior though it has gold trim rather than silver. It was obviously marketed toward girls.

Though it is a small student pen the cap posts on the barrel to make the length perfectly comfortable for even large hands. I can attest to this with the added point that I tend to grip pens above the section and on the barrel threads. Even so, this pen is plenty long for me.

The transparency of the barrel is truly as new. It retains the green hue it has had since the celluloid was cured ~83 years ago. There is a bit of wear to the plating on the cap band and the edges of the clip ball. The only notable thing about the celluloid is a faint posting ring at the end of the barrel. This is nearly inevitable on a small pen that must have it cap posted for use.

Many users are misled into believing the #3 nib is semi-flexible. It is not. It is simply a very thin, entry level nib that is soft and bouncy and so much fun to use. But, if it is treated like a semi-flexible nib it will likely break. It can produce nice line variation during normal writing but should never be pushed to do so.