Help Identifying This Waterman

October 21, 2011

I recently was lucky enough to be able to acquire my first fountain pen for the wonderfully low cost of $0 courtesy of a very generous friend. He sent me the pen he offered to people he knew if they wanted to try writing with a FP. I'm just not sure what model it is.

The converter has a little dried ink and a blue staining inside, the body had a few dried ink spots which I removed with a damp q-tip. I put the converter on and soaked the business end in a dish of warm water with a few drops of soap in it. I flushed it out pretty good since the water in the bowl was quite inky afterwards. I let it sit for a bit after wiping down with a paper towel and put in a black Waterman cartridge.

The pen seems to write very smoothly, no scratchy noise or feeling. I found the ink flow would cut out occasionally, particularly on an up-right direction stroke. I read another thread about someone else taking a stiffer piece of paper and gently sliding it between the nib and the feed to clear out any possible build up. I couldn't find anything better than some copy paper, until I noticed a scrap piece of Mylar film used for archiving plans. Gently fed it in the gap, slid it through and out... and out came a small lump of old ink and paper fibres, I assume. Now it's writing flawlessly!

I already have my eyes on some other inexpensive pens and ink.