Reform Rekord; Seeking Advice

[stephanos]

I have a Reform Rekord 18 that needs a new cork. I understand it's from the 1940s.

Unfortunately, I don't know which end of the pen I should be trying to open and I haven't found anything online that would help.

 

I did post a more detailed request - with pictures - on the Repair Q&A forum, but haven't had any responses. So I'm asking here, too, in case it gets a different audience.

 

Advice gratefully received!

[stephanos]

Bump

 

If nobody has any advice, I'll apply heat to the back end and see what happens.

[RMN]

I suppose not many people in the know about Reform pens are looking here.

I have never seen one in the flesh, so I can't help you either.

Sometimes even FPN can't provide the answer, alas.

 

 

Good luck

 

 

D.ick

[Bo Bo Olson]

Francis Goossens - also known as Fountainbel here on the com...does a great job at re-corking, he boils the cork in paraffin and beexwax as it should be and then smears on some silicon grease. The pen is then good for the next 70 years.

 

 

Before The War Reform made good top quality pens many for export....how good...right after the war, the wholesalers sent him cash in advance so he could buy supplies to make his pens again. He was big in the Export business of pens. I have two solidly made War pens.

What I need to do is to buy some early '50's pens from him that are real nice.

 

Reform had only made top of the line first quality pens. Then in the '50's ball points killed him, in he refused to make a cheaper pen. He closed down his factory instead.

 

 

A few years later he sold his name and machines to Mulschner(sp) an other Heidelberg company that made only second and third tier pens. ( I have a Mulschner/Reform that is not the 1745 but is not of quality....but n the nib really shocked me by how good it was, in maxi-semi-flex in a spade nib.)

The 1745 was from that Mulschner era...not a pen that Reform would have even dreamed of making in it is second/third tier...but when Mulschner(sp) went bankrupt, they sold t.he machines to China. China ships the caps in one box and the bodies in another and sells the 1745 in Germany....two for 5 Euro or so, on German Ebay.

For that price well worth it.

[stephanos]

Thanks for this, Bo Bo - a fount of information, as always.

 

One of the reasons I'm so keen to get the pen fixed is that the steel-nib version that I have is a wonderful, characterful writer, and I'm hoping the gold-nibbed one will be at least comparably good.

 

D.ick, in the end FPN delivered (in the other thread), and I ended up using the information to successfully open the front end. I'm planning on using information from this thread to help me work out how to get the cork just right. I have replaced sacs before, and got the odd Pelikan 100 working again (using the plastic rings that are so commonly used), but this is shaping up to be my first proper full restoration project.

[Bo Bo Olson]

The O rings are a major mistake....you have to yank the pen apart every couple of years to smear them with silicon grease. That shortens the life of the pen.

 

Richard Binder has modern plastic gasket material and punches to cut to fit your pen....that is much, much better than O rings. The '40-mid 50's plastic was improved in 1955.

 

If you don't want to cut and fiddle your own cork, Peter Twydle the son of the famous Arthur Twydle in England, can make and sell you cork sized for your pen.....then boil in paraffin...the thick stuff not thin mineral oil, and beeswax and then smear with silicon grease. That is the smoothest of all....according to Marshal and Oldfield's book. Arthur Twydle taught them and was going to do the book with them when he died. Peter has a few pen books too.

[stephanos]

Thanks for the tips, Bo Bo. I'll have a look at Richard Binder's site. Actually, I rather like the idea of cutting and fiddling my own, even if I'm terrible at it to start with, and have to make several attempts.