Interesting Parker Vac Blind Cap..

[kirchh]

OK, is everyone on the same page now? JotterAddict62's blind cap is missing its tassie.

 

--Daniel

[JonSzanto]

Well, I am! I'm going to take good care with my pen to ensure I never have the tassie fall off. Now all I need to do is find a 1st Gen Golden Pearl blind cap. For the second time in my life (why, oh why did I buy two pens with missing blind caps?)

[Ron Z]

 

 

(why, oh why did I buy two pens with missing blind caps?)

 

Because they were cheap?

[JonSzanto]

Because they were cheap?

 

Hehehe... well, they were pretty reaonable! The first was so early in my pen life, and that black blind cap didn't seem strictly kosher, but once I had the pen I really loved it (the 1st Gens just appeal to me). About 6 months later I managed to find a perfect match from Rob Lott at the LA Show (after his brother helped me plow through piles of blind caps and didn't have one!). Sure enough, about a year later, I found another, maybe slightly better barrel clarity... missing the bc.

 

Hilarious.

[jdllizard]

No not missing the tassie.

Blind cap is all one piece. Machinist must have gotten carried away when tooling the blind cap.http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f239/Jotteraddict62/005_zpsved9li4p.jpg

A early Vacumatic blind cap is comprised of 4 pieces. The celluloid part, a threaded brass insert, a metal tassie, and the screw in jewel that holds the tassie in place by threading it into the brass insert. Somewhere along the way Parker had to simplify or lower their production costs so they started machining the end of the blind caps with grooves to friction(?) fit the tassie directly onto the end of the blind cap, leaving what looks like a jewel but is actually just the end of the blind cap. That's know as a faux jewel.

 

This is what the OP has pictured, minus the pressed on tassie, I have several like that as well. The one JonSzanto has pictured is an earlier, multi piece blind cap and a completely different assembly than the later one with the faux jewel.

 

Which again, is simply a celluloid piece with grooves machined into it for a tassie to be fitted to, no separate jewel or brass insert.

 

There seemed to be some ongoing confusion so I hope this helped.

Edited September 17, 2015 by jdllizard

[JotterAddict62]

A early Vacumatic blind cap is comprised of 4 pieces. The celluloid part, a threaded brass insert, a metal tassie, and the screw in jewel that holds the tassie in place by threading it into the brass insert. Somewhere along the way Parker had to simplify or lower their production costs so they started machining the end of the blind caps with grooves to friction(?) fit the tassie directly onto the end of the blind cap, leaving what looks like a jewel but is actually just the end of the blind cap. That's know as a faux jewel.

 

This is what the OP has pictured, minus the pressed on tassie, I have several like that as well. The one JonSzanto has pictured is an earlier, multi piece blind cap and a completely different assembly than the later one with the faux jewel.

 

Which again, is simply a celluloid piece with grooves machined into it for a tassie to be fitted to, no separate jewel or brass insert.

 

There seemed to be some ongoing confusion so I hope this helped.

Thanks, that is what I thought a one piece blind cap that was machined but did not know why it was that way. I thought it was a machinist error or an experiment.

 

Now I am done with this topic.