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I happened upon some new-old-stock bottles of "Waterman's Permanent Blue Black" ink. They were in pristine condition, and the cap sealing was good such that no ink appears to have evaporated. I see no precipitate or any other issues. The ink has a chemical scent I can't quite identify accurately, but it makes me think of paint and art supplies, for the lack of better description. I don't know if this ink has any amount of iron gall or not, but I suspect it has a small amount. If anyone wishes to contribute to this ink's description and dating, it would be great. The bottle has the following embossed on the underside: There are no visible dates on the bottle or the carton, but the following is stamped on the inner side of one of the carton flaps in black ink with silver shimmer--and it's difficult to read. Box #1: Box #2: The ink itself goes down on the page in a cool-toned (with a very slight purple tinge) hue of medium saturation and then dries to a muted very slightly teal-tinted blue. The color change is gradual over the next day or so to what you see on the photographs. The final color of the ink is quite consistent with the bottle cap. I can't explain why that is, but, subjectively, the color of this ink feels just right to me -- a classic. The water resistance test was a wash under running water, 3 days after the writing was done. I really like the look of the paper towel "chromatography" -- medium blue fading to slightly more cyan vintage light blue to almost cream. The more ink is concentrated, the more the blue is shifted toward green, as can be seen on the Col-o-Ring card. There is some red-magenta sheen. Not sure if I am going to hold on to both bottles yet--I got them out of curiosity, but it turned out that the ink inside was surprisingly good. And the bottle, along with the carton, look great on my desk. That "19 cents" printed price

Hello Everyone! I recently purchased this pen, and am eager to learn as much about it as possible. What are the best resources for any information on this pen? I would love to learn as much about its entire history as I am able to. From the artist, to any of the old marketing information or catalog information, or pictures of the original box and papers, etc. etc. I have no idea what I bought or if I got a good deal, I just know I love the look of it and can't wait for it to arrive. As far as I can tell its from the 70's? Thanks!

I have enjoyed the heck out of the Parker thread. And since I have a couple of nice Sheaffers scheduled to arrive as soon as Monday, I thought I would start this topic up. So, what Sheaffers have you added to the fold of late? Modern, vintage, rare, easy-to-find. All are welcome in this general discussion thread. Bring photos when you can!

Exec Summary for those just joining I bought a pen from Peter Twydle, a 9ct gold Waterman with a 14ct medium nib with an autograph from George Grossmith (actor / playwright). Which I am over the moon with. This thread is not accuse Peter. I think he did the best job possible and charged fairly. I love the pen. This is now just historical curiosity. I shared the pen here and on a sub-reddit which led to questioning of the date provenance Grossmith died 1912 Waterman screw tops were not yet invented Waterman numbering system (54) was introduced in 1917 The pen has two different gold hallmarks dating the barrel to 1923 and the cap to 1924 (London) Grossmith had a son (Grossmith Jnr) who was also an actor / playwright and died in 1935 Higher resolution photos in the thread below The mystery continues... My original post in quotes below.

Hi folks, I wanted to add a shout out for Quill Stilografiche in Turin. Whenever I'm in Italy I like to explore the local pen shops, flea markets and any local manufacturers. In Turin I went to the Aurora factory (another post), picked up a few Aurora at the Saturday Balon, and found the lovely Quill. The picture below shows Patrizia, who was able to help me find an Aurora 88K pencil (not easy to find) and a lovely striated blue Novum with the flip up lever on the tail, as well as an NOS Auretta. (Sorry Patrizia, not a great picture!). She was great fun to deal with, enormously knowledgeable, and very helpful. She asked a collector friend to bring in a few pens for my second visit and I was able to handle some rare and very valuable celluloid Aurora. It was a fantastic treat. In the store they have a great range of modern pens as well as a few trays of older pens in great restored condition. A particular favourite was a silver Vac OS for a very reasonable price given its condition. Overall, Quill is very much recommended. They are easy to get in touch with through their website (https://www.quillstilografiche.com) and speak excellent English for those of us who are still learning Italian (Che bella lingua, ma i preposizioni!). It's so important that we work together to keep shops like Quill Stilografiche in business, and such a wonderful way to build the collection! Hope this is useful to folks, Ralf

Hello. My husband has been collecting fountain pens for a few years now and his tastes are becoming a bit more decerning with them and I'm beginning to aquire a taste for them aesthetically (I have a heavy hand so writing with one can be difficult). I want to be able to buy him gifts and surprise him without having to ask for links for pens that are to his liking. I know what he likes, but it's the meticulous eye and knowledge of vintage pens that I am oblivious to. He loves vintage, flex nibs. I know some people on here turn their nose up at using the term "wet noodle" but he loves them. I was looking at a vintage esterbrook with a 2048 nib. I previously attempted bidding on a waterman pink keyhole and was sniped at the last second. If there are any recommendations for super flexible old school pens, please please let me know. All suggestions are welcome.

So I got this tiny Sheaffer at an antique mall this morning. Can't pull the piston out more then maybe 5mm. White Dot, Lifetime, Triumph Nib, Vac Filler, Striated Barrel. No idea of what to label it as. But it looks cute and while I might gently try to take it apart it will probably be shipped off to RonZ to be restored

Recently visited Pens Point, a pen store in New Delhi, India, more known perhaps for the handmade fountain pens it markets under the brand Delmoon. Got a Sheaffer Fashion II, as in the 2nd edition of the Fashion line offered by Sheaffer, manufactured in the United States of America through the 1990s. In fact, this is the first and only Sheaffer pen that I have from that period till now. This probably also ranks among the last Sheaffer pens to be manufactured in the US before the production units in Hong Kong took over. It’s splitting hairs but it might be the smoothest medium steel nib Sheaffer I have come to own till date. This one probably takes the cake not only because of the sweet spot but more because of the lack of almost any feedback whatsoever. Performance wise, there are absolutely no issues so far, save for it being too smooth a medium nib for the writing to be controlled sometimes! This unit has a slightly loose clip on the cap, but these issues can be expected from used pens. So, I am definitely not looking forward to wearing it clipped to my shirt. It’s a 1990s production as I stated earlier, so probably attracts the debate as to whether it would qualify as a true vintage – I mean, I have lived longer than this pen has been in existence. Playing around with it for a visual review here.

Recently visited Pens Point, a pen store in New Delhi, India, more known perhaps for the handmade fountain pens it markets under the brand Delmoon. Got a Sheaffer Fashion II, as in the 2nd edition of the Fashion line offered by Sheaffer, manufactured in the United States of America through the 1990s. In fact, this is the first and only Sheaffer pen that I have from that period till now. This probably also ranks among the last Sheaffer pens to be manufactured in the US before the production units in Hong Kong took over. It’s splitting hairs but it might be the smoothest medium steel nib Sheaffer I have come to own till date. This one probably takes the cake not only because of the sweet spot but more because of the lack of almost any feedback whatsoever. Performance wise, there are absolutely no issues so far, save for it being too smooth a medium nib for the writing to be controlled sometimes! This unit has a slightly loose clip on the cap, but these issues can be expected from used pens. So, I am definitely not looking forward to wearing it clipped to my shirt. It’s a 1990s production as I stated earlier, so probably attracts the debate as to whether it would qualify as a true vintage – I mean, I have lived longer than this pen has been in existence. Playing around with it for a visual review here.

Hi FPN Community, I'm hoping that someone can help me identify this fountain pen. It is tiny, about 3 inches unposted, 3.75 inches posted, about the diameter of a Kaweco Liliput, and has a 14k warranted nib. It is an eyedropper, and there are no brand or other markings on the body. It feels like a plastic/resin material. The section is threaded, but the cap is not. My first guess is that maybe it is a type of compact fountain pen that a soldier may have carried, but I have no idea who made this pen and how old it is. Any thoughts?

Hi FPN, A little while ago, I managed a great deal on a vintage Kaweco V12 and 619 set from around 1965. It was a bit of a risk, bought it on eBay with only one picture so didn't really know what condition it was in. Fortunately, it arrived and when I started to clean it and take it apart it turned out to be in VERY good condition and needing nothing other than a cleaning and some silicon grease. I've done a review of the pens here. However, between winning the auction and getting the pen, I was looking online on how to restore them, I was worried it had a cork piston seal, I couldn't find much. When I couldn't find one, I thought I would take some pictures of the steps as I did it to my new pen, so here's a quite guide on how to take apart a Kaweco V12 and what the parts look like. To start things off, here's a picture of the pens and the case as they arrived. The first thing I did was soak the pen in some deionized water for a few hours, pulling it out of the water to let the water inside the pen drain out and then refill the pen. This washed out virtually all of the ink, which turned the water blue likely meaning it was a washable blue ink that was in it. After the water coming out of the pen stayed clear, I used some nylon pliers to pull out the nib and feed from the pen, which come out as shown below. They just pull straight out, if they don't come out easily, I'd suggest soaking in some soapy water maybe then applying a little dry heat (not too much, the pen is celluloid). The nib may come out by itself without the feed, if that happens just pull the feed out with some rubber tipped pliers. Once removed, this is what the nib and feed look like. They can/should be soaked by themselves in clean water just to make sure everything comes off them, could even give them a gentle brush with a toothbrush to make sure. While I was soaking the nib unit, I started on the piston. On the pen, the seal and piston had come loose from the nob and twisting the nob at the back didn't do anything to the piston, which had me a little worried. When I was looking at the threads, i thought they looked a lot like the threads on a Parker Vacuumatic, which I have the tools to remove. So I grabbed that and it was a match. However, as soon as the unit started to unscrew, I realized that using section pliers are a better option. You can see from the photo below, that the piston unscrews from the barrel of the pen at the metal o-ring rather than at the nob. This means that the piston forms part of the barrel at the top of the pen. This makes using section pliers on the back end of the pen the best option for removing it. My pen didn't have any shellac, but I can see some pens might, so not a bad idea to apply a little dry heat, again, not too much. (this photo is actually from putting the pen back together, that's why the piston isn't sitting in the ink window). Once out, I could see why the piston had come loose from the nob. It's different from the TWSBI piston units as there's a screw that's attached to the nob which fits into a threaded hole inside the piston. There is a square hole in the nob piece which the piston fits into to stop it from rotating and the nob turns a screw which extends or retracts the piston. The below shows the pen fully disassembled. To reassemble the pen, I started with the piston. I put silicon grease on the seal to fill the notch and all along the sides of the seal. I also put grease into the hole in the nob unit, on the outside of the piston shaft, and on the threads that screw into the barrel. I then put the piston into the nob unit and fully retracted the piston. I then screwed the piston unit into the barrel of the pen. I only finger tightened the piston unit as I didn't want to crack the barrel of the pen and was confident it wasn't going to come loose. I wouldn't recommend using section pliers to screw it in as you might over tighten and crack the barrel. You could apply some shellac to the threads to keep it in place, but I didn't want to and the fit is good enough on my pen that I wasn't too worried. The pen is much easier to thoroughly clean if I can remove the piston. It was then just a matter of putting the nib back onto the feed and sliding it into the pen. It goes in smoothly and there is a final little bump you can feel it go over telling you it's in there securely. Because of how the nib fits onto the section, it's very difficult for it to be misaligned, but always worth a check as once on the pen it's difficult. After putting it all back together I tested the piston with some water and it worked great, so inked it up and gave it a test and been very happy ever since. For the 619 ballpoint, the pen came with a refill in it, fortunately, but it had long dried out. I was able to find out that the Schneider 75M refills fit the pen and ordered one black and one blue. To remove the refill, the front of the pen simply unscrews. As you might be able to tell in that photo, the Schneider refills are a little too long for the pen and need to be cut down slightly. I used the refill that came in the pen to get the correct size, unfortunately I don't know the length of what I cut off, but it's around a half inch I think. There was a bit of foam in the piece of the refill that I had to cut off, so I pushed it out and put it back into the back end of the refill to stop it from drying out. I then rounded off the corners a bit and put it into the pen. Worked great and writes very well. The click mechanism is a bit unique. To extend the pen, you push the button down halfway and it will stay there with the pen extended for use. To retract it, push the button the rest of the way and it will go back in. This means if you push the button all the way down in one go, it will extend then retract the pen in one push. This took me a couple of tries to figure out and I think would catch your typical ballpoint user off guard, they are likely to think it broken so if you let someone borrow the pen, best to explain. You can see in the below, the pen extended and the button half pushed. Hope that was useful to someone and if you get a chance to get one of these pens, I'd highly recommend it, they look to be very low maintenance and rather easy to restore if there aren't any broken pieces. Again, you can read my review of the two pens here.

Hi everyone, A few weeks ago I bought a used Waterman DG (Directeur General) in the gold plated spec. When I received the pen, I didn't expect it was that used. The area round the nib is very corroded ( I guess because it's a brass body). So much it is unsuitable to write with I think. Then there's the nib... I truly feel sorry for it. It is an 18kt gold nib so that's that 😅. Writing with it will be impossible as I'm too inexperienced to repair this kind of damage. Nonetheless I think it is a wonderful and quit rare pen I saved from permanent death. I also found some documents in the original box of the pen, I don't know if they are correlated. It's an original French pen I bought on a holiday in France (I'm Belgian). I discovered the document later at home. Any ideas on what I could do with this pen? After feeling this pen, I feel very tempted to buy a silver one, but they are even rarer. For context, see photos :). Keep on writing, Lars

Does anyone else also use manual or vintage manual typewriters? What do you use it for? Correspondence?

Has anyone ever attempted to convert a Parker Vacumatic (Second Generation) into a cartridge-converter? I love the material of the Vacumatic but am not a huge fan of the filling system. Any tips or photos would be immensely helpful. Thanks in advance!

My sincerest apologies if somebody has done this already, but I would like to inquire about the definitions of the commonly used terms Vintage and Modern. 1: Is there a certain commonly-accepted year of delineation, like 2000? Or is there a more general and broad period of time, such as Sheaffer´s abandonment of their traditional US manufacturing sites in the early 2000s? 2: does it vary per the type of pen in question? For example, an original mid-century Parker 51 VS the modern attempt at a remake? 3: does it vary per whether the pen is discontinued or still in production? For example, the now-discontinued TWSBI 530, VS the modern replacement, the 580? Does this make my particular variant of the Platinum Preppy WA from the 2021 release a “vintage” pen? Obviously, there is probably no real universal answer to this question. I am simply looking to collect some opinions, pointers, and useful information as I start gearing up to enter the vintage fountain pen world. If you know of any particularly interesting “vintage VS modern” case studies, I would be delighted to read about them. Moderators, if you know about an older thread that this would merge well into, *please* do it. In a bygone era, I was once a forums moderator, and I know how ridiculous redundant threads can get. I am simply at present not able to find a thread that explicitly discusses this topic. (I could also just be blind)

I have a cute, tiny, vintage Eagle Pencil Co. ringtop with a cute, tiny, flexible nib. I have no idea the age/model name of the pen; however, based on the flat-top shape, I’m assuming it’s from the 20’s/30’s. I’ve cleaned it out and would like to put a sac in it; however, the section seems to be integrated into the pen. I was able to take out the nib and the EXTREMELY LONG feed, but the section truly doesn’t seem to be able to come off. I can’t see any gaps between the threads (for the cap) and the body- even with a 10x magnification. Is it possible that the sac needs to attach to the feed?? There was no sac in it when I took it apart and cleaned it. It’s truly a cute little thing and I’d love to actually use it. Has anyone seen something like this?

Hello everyone, I recently bought a vintage Pelikan 100N and the pen writes really wet and smooth. It has a full flex nib. But I have a problem, the tip of the pen is unfortunately not springy enough and the tip is not thin enough. Even when I don't apply any pressure it writes like a medium. My question to you is, can the nib be thinned with a nibmeister? Can it be converted to F or EF nib? Thank you very much in advance.