What's Next With A 'new' Watermans 12Vs Safety?

[MercianScribe]

I have this. It's lovely. It's my first Safety. Anyone care to take me through a reasonable course of action?

 

[MercianScribe]

The story so far.

 

Cleaned up the nib and the inside a little with a very gentle pipette brushing. Filled it up with water. The propelling mechanism works fine, and there is no leakage from the nib when fully extended and held nib-downwards, nor from the knob end of the barrel. So, all that told, it seems in good condition.

 

However, when pressure is put on the nib to write, it doesn't retain its position: i.e. it gets partially pushed back in.

 

I strongly suspect I'm going to have to send it off to get it fixed (the nib also needs a wee bit of adjustment, and I don't have the equipment for it).

 

Questions:

 

1. What is the problem with the nib going back in likely to be?

 

2. Is stopping the nib going back in something simple I have overlooked? I.e. for example, something like having a bit more confidence to screw the nib into the out position to 'set' it?

 

3. Anyone any recommendations for someone who can fix it without it costing me an arm and a leg?!

[CraigN]

MercianScribe,

 

I replaced the o-rings in a Waterman's 12. It has been a few years ago but I recall having the same issue with the nib retracting when under pressure. I disassembled the pen and added an additional o-ring to increase friction between fixed and moving parts.

 

I hope your solution is as simple.

 

Regards,

Craig

[MercianScribe]

Thanks a lot Craig.

 

I've done a fair bit of 'minor restoration' work, replacing sacs, opening some very stubborn and very old pens, some nib tuning both in situ and taken out of the sections. Haven't damaged anything yet.

 

How hard is the disassembly part of the Safety? And where did you get the O-rings, and where did you put the extra one?

[Ada]

MercianScribe, you might want to look at David Nishimura’s Vintage Pens site. He has instructions for dissassembling a safety pen that I think included inserting o rings. (I’ve never disassembled a safety pen, so I haven’t tried his instructions).

[CraigN]

Mat,

 

I also purchased o rings from David Nishimura. They worked fine but you cannot purchase just a pair of o rings. If you have a few A safety pens in your collection you will have enough seals to rebuild several pens.

 

Disassembly of the subject pen was easy and I am sure that adding a third o ring ( in the same location as the first two) must have been part of the instructions.

 

After this one rebuild I attempted the disassembly of another Waterman's safety pen. I was not able/willing to exert the force needed so it sits in as found condition.

 

If all else fails, people on this forum will provide names of people with the skill set to make your pen work like new. Whatever way you choose, I wish you luck. They are nice pens.

 

Regards,

Craig

[siamackz]

Disassembling is not so hard. It’s a little tricky and delicate process though, and worth doing only if you’re interesting in learning about restoration processes. If you decide to do it, I can share some pics of how I did for my 42 some time ago. I never got around to writing a post on it.

[eckiethump]

Having the correct cotter type drift rod, is great help in disassembly of these pens. This something you make yourself with use of a dremel correct drift rod.

[Stylomeister]

I've worked on some German safety fillers which are different and a European one similar to a Waterman's. If I remember, you need to take care striking out the rod from the turning knob - I used a bamboo drift for this so I wouldn't damage the BHR. Sometimes its best you lube the end for a few days before attempting this. The German fillers have a pin that fasten the knob and can be a real pain striking out if the original pin is slightly frayed when it was originally cut.

 

You can use cork or you can use o-rings to reseal the pen - cork is a little more work. Once this has been done the mechanism holds together and the nib doesn't retract back into the body.

 

If you have some callipers you can measure the rod and the inside of the running knob to get the right size of o-ring. These cost less than $5 on eBay for around 10 vs. what you may end up spending for 'fountain pen' o-rings where someone has done the hard work for you.

 

O-rings are measured by the inside diameter of the 'O' and then the thickness of the nitrile (or similar) rubber band. So a rod with a 4mm diameter with a housing of say 6mm would need a 4x1mm o-ring (4 + 1 + 1 = 6mm)