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I would like to know where to repair or adjust a plunger filler from a vintage ONOTO Magna 1876 from the 1940s (all plunger fillers are the same, just vary its diameter, I just wanted to specify that is a post-war Onoto Magna 1876). Thank you in advance for your answers.

I bought this from the Egyptian stationary chain Samir and Aly in 2010. It writes well and has clean molding and is much better than I expected for a 3$ pen. I could not find anything about the company and the nib is not an IPG and the nib engraving is not helpful. https://imgchr.com/i/1AR9C8 https://imgchr.com/i/1A0f0O https://imgchr.com/i/1A0WnK https://imgchr.com/i/1A02X6

I am heartsick as I write this post, but wanted to warn others of the danger so they can avoid the disaster I have just suffered. It applies to something at least some repairers do when repairing plunger fillers and replacing the steel rod. If you have no pens like this, you are safe. To explain, I have to set up the story. I am a writer. Pens are my life. And once I heard of Onoto-the-Pen, I had to have one. Finally, I found one that was unrepaired. It was a nice black 5601 with an amber ink window, probably made not long before World War Two shut down production for a while. This last detail only made the pen that much more precious to me. Before I could use it, I had to have it restored. I will not name any names here, but will say I chose an individual with an excellent reputation. When I got it back, in the fall of 2011, one thing bothered me. Onotos are plunger fillers. The rod on this one, which had corroded, had been replaced not with stainless steel, as I had hoped, but with some new, high tech black rod which was flexible, unlike a steel rod. Since it did not, when I filled it, look quite like the original, this troubled me. And as I began to use it, I noticed that since the rod was somewhat flexible, it was somewhat hard to "drive home". This seemed a bit dangerous to me, but I got away with it various times, and the person who fixed it was supposed to be an expert. I didn't feel I quite had reason to complain over not getting stainless steel. Today, I was filling my beloved Onoto. After my cat, and my manuscripts, this pen is the first thing I would grab if there were a fire. Well, some of you will have guessed how this tragedy ends. In fighting with the stupid, high-tech (bleep) which seemed so clever to use - and which needs to be thrust home while the pen is nib down in the ink - a terrible mishap resulted in just what I have always feared, a bent nib. As I am disabled, I will now have to live without this pen until I can save up to get someone to repair the nib AND replace that evil flexible rod with a nice, firm, stainless steel one. I do not know the name of the black substance which was used, but this is clearly not suitable for the needs of a plunger filler. Having such a rod in place is just waiting for a disaster to happen. In my opinion, any repairer who has been foolhardy enough to use such a material ought to offer to replace it with stainless steel free of charge to all their customers who are stuck with beloved pens which are also disasters waiting to happen. As upset as I am right now - near to tears, to be honest - that may or may not be reasonable, but it is how strongly I feel. In the future, if anyone so much as suggests using such a material in a plunger filler, I will no longer trust that person to work on ANY of my pens. If it were not for the fact that I am very sure the manufacturer does not market it for this purpose, I would consider suing the maker of the material. However, if they didn't suggest it was suitable for this type of use, then the blame comes down to the "experts" who failed to think it through and realise that even a tiny bit of bending would increase the force needed to thrust the plunger back in, and thus would in time lead to a very bad end.

I have been through a long process of restoring a vintage Onoto 6233. It took me longer than expected mainly due to my trial & error learning process. I had to order my spares twice through Roger Wolfe's custompenparts.co.uk. I also am most grateful to Richard Binder for his instructions, both from his book and website. In spite of this guidance, I am not entirely at ease with this plunger mechanism, which I find in Onoto pens unnecessarily complicated in design. I replaced the rod, which I had broken in my learning process and followed Roger Wolfe's instructions in identifying the proper position for drilling a hole through the rod. With the section opened and the plunger in working order, I hear a sharp pop when the pluger reaches the end position, therefore I believe than air tightness is not an issue. What I am not too sure about is the correct position of the plunger tip, once the plunger knob is screwed in. Should it rest against the feed assembly or should it leave a gap? I've read somewhere that the Onotos have some safety feature to prevent leakages and that one needs to partly unscrew the plunger knob when writing. I hope some Onoto expert is reading my message and willing to help.

Hi! Perhaps a noob question, but I couldn't find anything in the forums that addresses this particular issue. I have a circa 1940 Sheaffer Balance Vacuum-Fil that works great, with one exception. Every time I unscrew the blind cap to pull out the plunger rod, the cap unscrews not just from the body of the pen, but also from the end of the rod. I'm afraid that if this happen repeatedly, the screw will be stripped. What is the best way to safely secure the cap without causing damage or doing something irreversible? I could just super-glue the thing, but that seems like a terrible idea. What is the best practices for this situation?

I have two problems with the De La Rue Onoto plunger fillers and would like to know how you handle these. 1) Because the rod shuts of ink supply to the nib the ink is drying up at the nib and it takes a while until the pen writes again. This happens with the pre-Great War pens and also a between wars celluloid pen. Do you have also this problem? How do you handle it? 2) It is not advised to use the plunger mechanism when the pen is filled because of the rod seal. With the pre-Great War pens I can unscrew the section and remove the liquid that weay. The section at the celluloid pen is not easily unsrewed. How do you clean the pens? Cepasaccus