Couple Questions About Wwii "servall" Pen

November 25, 2012

Hey, everyone! I have a couple questions for anyone with expertise on older pens. My main hobby and interest is WWII living history/reenacting and through that I've discovered fountain pens (and FPN) so when I found an actual WWII pen at a militaria garage sale, I was pretty excited. I've attached pictures of it. The nib is marked "Servall" and "Made in U.S.A." I'm guessing this is probably a fairly inexpensive pen sold at PXes during the war so I was pretty surprised that, after running quite a bit of hot water through it, it still writes really well. I filled it with Noodler's Air Corpse Blue-Black and it's a very smooth writer. I only paid $7.50 for it so not a bad deal at all.

The main question I have comes from its tendency to dry up fairly quickly; even after only a couple hours the nib will take a little bit of writing before the ink will start flowing. I have tried storing it nib up and laying it flat and have the same problem either way. I forgot to take a picture of it, but the top of the cap is inset with a piece of black plastic that might be part of the problem as well: when looking into the cap light is visible between the black plastic and the rest of the cap. There is also a hole drilled into the side of the cap. Could it be that too much air is getting into the cap? Or is the Air Corps Blue-Black possibly an issue?

My other question is about the plunger mechanism: after submerging the nib and pulling the plunger back out, I noticed that a small amount of ink comes up with the plunger. Is that normal for this type of pen or cause for concern?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Edited November 25, 2012 by mattwiggins

November 26, 2012

The pen is what is referred to as a syringe filler.... similar to the Morrison Patriot I have (see pic below)

On the Morrison the body unscrews to show the filler, your pen has a blind cap...

If ink is coming out of the filler rod the seals are going and will need to be replaced... not a job for the faint of heart... definitely a job for someone who really knows what they are doing who has the right seals or can make them...I recommend Ron Zorn at mainstreetpens.com

These pens were not meant for uniform wear due to the fact that they would cause a bulge in the flap of the blouse (shirt) pocket which was not allowed...

I am not familiar with the Servall, but the Morrisons were generally sold to the public and were also found as leather cased pen/pencil sets in both gold and steel nibs... mine is a gold nib..

November 26, 2012

Tom: thanks for the correction and info! I was afraid that there might be a bad seal and it wouldn't be an easy fix. Will check out that site! Any thoughts on the ink drying up in the cap?

June 2, 2014

Sorry to add to an old thread, but there is very little about this brand on the forum. In a recent lot of beater pens I picked up there was a Servall pen. Thanks to this thread I learned it was a syringe-filler. Sadly, the rod is slightly bent and stuck with dried ink, it didn't come with the blind cap. I wanted to add this as an example, which perhaps is post war period, and probably was meant as a ladies pen given it's small size.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1401726695__img_2192.jpg

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1401726729__img_2193.jpg

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1401726764__img_2197.jpg