Vintage Pen Trouble: Waterman 92 Can't Hold Its Ink.

[Recta Pete]

Hello All,

 

I have recently bought a vintage Waterman 92 (see pics). Pen was said to have been serviced and new sac installed. The only apparent flaw I saw was the broken head on the lever - the lever still works fine. However, after I inked it up (Diamine Green/Black for reference), I noticed that it was easily the wettest pen I have written with. I barely shook the pen forward and what had to have been half the ink in the sac fell straight out onto the paper. I did the same to produce the ink drop in the pictures.

 

I will be disassembling the pen shortly - I hope I don't find that the feed is destroyed or something. I can imagine this is a fairly common problem with old lever-filling sac-pens. Is there a fix?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

[anderl]

Are nib and feed lodged firmly in the section, or are they easily wiggled around?

 

(I may be imagining this, but to me the pictures suggest that one can see a bit more of the feed sticking out under the nib than is normal -- so that perhaps the feed isn't pushed into the section far enough --, and also that the nib comes out at a very slight angle from the section.)

 

(Since the sac seems to suck up ink, this shouldn't be a problem with the filling system.)

[gregamckinney]

My first guess would be that the sac is not completely attached to the nipple, allowing a significant amount of air to get in.

 

Depending on the angle the pen was held when filling or writing, this would manifest itself to varying degrees based on how the sac was angled in the barrel of the pen (and therefore the pressure against the neck.)

 

When you are going to disassemble the pen, be sure to check for a complete seal of the sac.

 

Best Regards, greg

[Recta Pete]

Thank you Greg and anderl. I'll be sure to check both these things out. The nib and feed are very firmly wedged in there - section too. I'll have to grab some pliers and pads to get the section out it feels like. The nib was polished (at least on top) when I got it but it looked dirty underneath and there was dried ink on the bottom of the feed at first too. I'll report back later - probably with pics too. Thanks again.

[gregamckinney]

Don't remove the nib and feed if you don't have to. Only as a last resort.

If they are mated, and set well together, you don't want to change that.

 

You should also drive them out with a nib block from the other side if you do choose to remove them.

 

Best, greg