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Hi Folks, I have a vintage Stetson that Greg Menuskin re-tipping and cleaned wonderfully. It has a rubber end with a small metal tube inside for filling. It holds a tremendous amount of ink and is my favorite pen, smooth and free-flowing. The issue with this pen is that I don't know how to fill it. I've tried putting the nib in ink and sucking ink in by squeezing the rubber but this only fills the reservoir a little. Does someone here knows how this fill mechanism is supposed to work? Also, what is the name of this pen? The barrel is marked "STETSON P&P Co. Ink. N.Y."

I have recently inherited two Pelikan pens, a 100N in tortoiseshell, and a 100N in grey marble, whose restoration process I would like to share with you. These pens originally belonged to my grandfathers, hadn’t been used for many years, and were suffering from several problems, which a number of specialized repairers that I contacted in Europe – namely in Portugal, Spain, England and Germany – were unable to solve. Then I was lucky enough to learn about the work of Mr. Francis Goossens, also known as ‘Fountainbel’, who is a retired mechanical engineer from Belgium who nowadays dedicates to develop prototypes of new fountain pens, and to restore old ones. I wrote to Mr. Francis asking him if he would be kind enough to have a look and try to repair my pens, to which he promptly replied saying he would do the best within his power to repair my pens. Last month I sent my pens to Mr. Francis, and he has just sent them back in a mint and fully functional condition. Mr. Francis was extremely attentive throughout the reparation process, patiently explaining all the problems he came across, the different possibilities to approach the repairs, and what was at stake. Throughout this process I have come to admire his work and his ethics, which I think should be known in the fountain pen world. Mr. Francis is a true master of his craft, and a perfectionist unwilling to compromise in the impeccable quality of the work that he so passionately does. Below I am posting a few images of the repaired pens, and listing the problems that Mr. Francis came across, and which he was able to repair. Pelikan 100N in tortoiseshell 01_The pen was missing the golden cap rings. Mr. Francis fabricated new brass ones in his lathe, had them “two cycles” gold-plated by a specialist, and finally swaged them into the cap grooves using an internal back up plug. The rings grooves in the cap were deepened during a previous repair attempt. Consequently the new cap rings were made with a thicker wall in order to get them tight at the bottom of the grooves nearly flush with the outer cap diameter. Swaging was a particularly delicate procedure because the cap wall was very thin, and because the rings had to be swaged to get a perfect fit. 02_The cap clip had at some point been replaced a non-original one, and Mr. Francis was able to find an original one and have it gold-plated together with the newly fabricated cap rings. 03_The cap had two lengthwise cracks that Mr. Francis was able to chemically fuse. 04_The cap also had a bit of glue near the rings grooves because a previous repairer, supposedly a specialist, had tried to glue new rings to the cap, and the result was a nightmare. Fortunately Mr. Francis was able to remove the glue and polish the whole pen, restoring its original shine. 05_Mr. Francis discovered that at some point part of the nib housing of the cap enclosure plug had been cut off, probably to provide a longer screw thread fit between barrel and cap – but which most likely led to the aforementioned cracks. Mr. Francis was able to elongate the bush, restoring it to its original condition. 06_The piston seal was not fully tight, so Mr. Francis installed a new piston seal using two O-rings with silicone grease between both rings, and cleaned the filler. 07_The nib had to be fine tuned, which Mr. Francis also did. Pelikan 100N in grey marble 01_The filling system was not functional at all. The ink window had shrunk over time, and for that reason the piston seal was not sealing any more. In addition, there was a linear crack in the barrel threads, which would result in ink seeping through. In the face of this Mr. Francis fabricated a new green acrylic ink window in which the piston can make its full stroke, with the exact characteristics of the original one. Below you can also find the technical sketch that Mr. Francis elaborated as a preparation for the piece fabrication. The work was so impeccably executed that it is impossible to notice that this is a newly fabricated piece. 02_The ebonite feed missed one of its external fins, so Mr. Francis installed a new feed, now mounted in a new screw-in nib housing allowing easy swapping of nibs assemblies. 03_The cap lip had a long linear hairline crack, and Mr. Francis was able to find an original cap in perfect condition to replace the damaged one. 04_The pen needed a thorough cleaning and polishing, and nib fine-tuning, which Mr. Francis also did.

I am seeking information on this unusual, modern looking, blue marble Safety Swan Pen with a gold-tone patterned cap. Can anyone tell me the type of ink reservoir or cartridges needed?. Barrel markings: "SWAN" SAFETY PEN, Mabie Todd & Co. Ltd Trade Mark Made in England NIB markings: SWAN 1 K 14C-585 Mabie Todd & Co.

I recently found a vintage BCHR lever filler at an estate sale and decided to try to restore it (i posted earlier about this). The lever seemed to be stuck halfway in, and I couldn't get it out. I eventually got it- but now I'm even more confused. Any advice would be extremely appreciated. I got out what I thought was the lever- and I don't think that's what it was after all. I'm guessing the lever is missing altogether and what I thought was the lever is something else all together. http://imgur.com/mXegDCc you can see above what I thought was a lever and turned out not to be as well as the J-bar that I pulled out. Here are all of the parts: http://imgur.com/k623KQx And just because if anyone has any idea who may have made this pen, the nib and chasing pattern:http://imgur.com/hj7DpSphttp://imgur.com/uSrCgLLIf anyone has ideas about -who made the pen-what I need to do to restore it-what parts I need-where I can find them that would be much appreciated!

I was just ruminating on the fountain pen filling system history. What I can't figure out is, why piston filling mechanism was not widely used in the UK and US, since it is superior to filling systems using ink sac. I have nothing against lever fillers but looks to me like advantages of piston fillers are the reason it is today the only widely used filling mechanism apart from cartridge/converters. Was there an issue with the patent? I know Pelikan bought the original patent from a Hungarian engineer Kovacz. But I believe other European manufacturers started using same or similar filling system soon after. Why didn't Parker and others follow suit?

I have bought through eBay a Conway Stewart Churchill, to discover that it features an unseen before (by me) filling system in a CS. Could anyone tell me about it? Is it similar to a Vacumatic? (?)

Hello, or perhaps I ought to say, 'Bonjour', This French Watermans pen, possibly a Ligne 60(?), has a filling system that I haven't come across, before. http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/2/5/3/2/1/0/webimg/827324423_tp.jpg Dipped in ink, the 18k nib writes beautifully, but I can't fathom out how to fill the 'cartridge'. The aluminium cartiridge has a hinged, brass tab at the end. Does the cartidge screw, or pull out? I'm reluctant to use force for fear of breaking something. http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/2/5/3/2/1/0/webimg/827324814_tp.jpg http://ti2.auctiva.com/web/supersize/clicktosup_000000.gif I'd be grateful of any guidance you can offer. Thankyou. http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/2/5/3/2/1/0/webimg/827324854_tp.jpg http://ti2.auctiva.com/web/supersize/clicktosup_000000.gif