1949 Umber Sheaffer Touchdown Desk pen - fine-medium nib

If you have a desk, you need a desk pen. I try to avoid words such as need. In this case it is appropriate. The unfortunate thing is that you may not realize how much you need a desk pen until you have one. Then you will wonder how you managed without.1949 was a singular year for Sheaffer pens. The Triumph was replaced with the Touchdown - so named for its filling system. The Touchdown lasted for only ~1 year. In 1950 it was replaced with the Touchdown Thin Model (TD TM). The TD TM is the same pen but thinner in diameter.The Touchdown filler is a pneumatic system with a sac. I liken it to a bicycle pump. The filler is a hollow, steel tube surrounding the sac. It has a clever valve comprised of an o-ring, a dimple in the filler tube and a pin hole in the barrel wall. Pushing the tube into the barrel compresses the air inside the barrel and thus compresses the sac, purging it of air. When fully closed the valve allows air into the barrel, the sac expands and fills with ink. Simple, relia