My First Pelikan - Have Some Questions

[Bo Bo Olson]

Cork when shaped to fit, boiled in mineral oil & bees wax and then smeared with silicon grease is the smoothest of all.

Recommended in the great pen repair book by Marshal & Oldfield, over plastic gaskets.

 

I wouldn't worry about the problem you perceive in I don't see any problem at all. One gasket is working fine. It appears you cut the other gasket a bit short.

 

But if you yank your pen jet again apart....cork it. Should be good for 70 years.

[Christopher Godfrey]

Murky, you need to read Christof's remarks about this changing of seals: he does not approve and it is through <experience> (He wrote about this quite recently and I hope he'll chime in here). There may be reasons for sticking with cork (suitably impregnated with paraffin wax)

 

Lovely pen and I trust you will enjoy it. They are rugged enough instruments and this will last your lifetime, I imagine. I cannot see that there is much to be done about the Pelikan feeding her off-spring: just take care -- the ends don't usually get much wear-and-tear if you are as careful as you say.

 

PS: Murky, I see Bo Bo has chipped in -- listen to him: he's one of the valuable ones!

Edited January 12, 2016 by Christopher Godfrey

[dragos.mocanu]

Murky, you need to read Christof's remarks about this changing of seals: he does not approve and it is through <experience> (He wrote about this quite recently and I hope he'll chime in here). There may be reasons for sticking with cork (suitably impregnated with paraffin wax)

 

Lovely pen and I trust you will enjoy it. They are rugged enough instruments and this will last your lifetime, I imagine. I cannot see that there is much to be done about the Pelikan feeding her off-spring: just take care -- the ends don't usually get much wear-and-tear if you are as careful as you say.

 

PS: Murky, I see Bo Bo has chipped in -- listen to him: he's one of the valuable ones!

 

Thank you all for the answers! One thing though, I don't think there's any way I could use a cork seal for my pen, since it is a post-WWII version, which had the synthetic seals (like the ones on the 140 or the 400)

 

http://i.imgur.com/080kAqp.jpg

Edited January 13, 2016 by Murky

[Bo Bo Olson]

They did not go away from cork because plastic was better, plastic was lots cheaper.

PM Fountainable, he could tell you more than I can.

They did not boil the cork in mineral oil and wax and silicon grease is new.

 

Better plastic gaskets came in in @1955...but cork if it can be done and I think with expertise it can be.

 

If you have a new old stock pen with cork...do soak it with water before inking. Just fill the pen with water and wait a day for the old cork to re-hydrate. It prevents the cork from becoming dirty with the first filling.

[MarkTrain]

If the pen originally came with an elastomer seal, it should probably be replaced with one. What I understand is that David Nishamura has both a regular sized seal (9mm) and a slightly oversized version (9.1-9.2). The oversized ones might be worth a try, especially if you can measure the diameter of the barrel with a caliper to determine the proper size of the seal.

[dragos.mocanu]

The seal which is in the pen right now is a 9mm one from Mr. Nishimura...however, I don't understand why only the bottom half of the seal sits flush to the barrel, while the top one seems smaller in diameter.

[dragos.mocanu]

Hello everyone,

 

It's been a very long time since I posted anything, and I wanted to revive this thread since I didn't really get an answer the last time around.

 

I have a gorgeous Pelikan 100N that I would like to write with, but there is a little caveat about the piston (see attached photo). Although the seal looks pretty flush, liquid still manages to somehow get behind it. This is one of Mr. Nishimura's seals, because my pen did not originally come with cork (it's one of the later versions).

 

I remember buying both black and green seals (the green being the slightly wider one), and I remember I couldn't manage to get the green one in (I didn't force it, lest the barrel could crack).

 

Is there anything I can do about this, or should I just use the pen and clean behind the piston from time to time (the piston unit can be disassembled quite easily).

 

Thank you!

[amberleadavis]

 

@dragos.mocanu  I don't have an answer, but it is a lovely nib.

[Bo Bo Olson]

If you can trust your post office, send it to Fountainble/Francis Goossens in Belgium. Have it insured and registered.

 

Contact him, it is affordable. I've had 7-9 pens re-corked by him.

 

francis.goossens2@skynet.be