My Poor Wahl-Eversharp Skyline

[FPSymphony]

Hello,

 

I have a confession to make. I ran into some issues while restoring a Wahl-Eversharp Skyline, and suffice to say, while I was not the cause of all of them, I handled it like an idiot. I am sorry to both the pen and the kind people that are reading this. The images that follow are slightly graphic.

 

With that out of the way allow me to tell the tale - To remove the barrel I used gentle heat and it felt like the barrel was coming off with no problem. Suddenly, POP! I feared the worse only to find that everything looked normal...or so I thought. I continued to work on the pen; cleaning, polishing, disassembling the clip. My fears resurfaced as I saw a crack running across the base of the threads. With my hands shaking I reached for super glue to fix the now broken-off threads. I applied small amounts as I convinced myself that everything was alright.

 

Indeed, all was fine until I tried to reassemble the clip. My heart dropped as I held all four pieces of a once three piece clip. I once again returned to my good friend super glue to restore the clip to no avail. Multiplicity of a failed action does not lead to a successful action. The clip was lost until the next day when I had derived a solution, which was to assemble the glue-covered clip on the pen to hold it in place. As with the threads, it works.

 

The third nightmarish episode came when it came time to insert the barrel back into the pen, the embodiment of dread. Even with more gentle heat the terrible glue job on the threads had broken and a new crack had developed, the barrel was simply too small to fit over the section.

 

With the three deadly trials over, I could now rest and fill the pen. Although the clip looks like trash and doesn't fit the derby, the plastic is severely discolored and cracked, and the lever having too much play, the pen writes...wonderfully.

 

For the love of penmanship, please use extreme caution when restoring a vintage pen and don't use super glue, it looks terrible. Take note however, that early polystyrene pens such as the Skyline are much more prone to cracking and shrinkage than many celluloid pens (in my experience). The solutions shown here seem much more effective than mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jody_fpn]

It seems to me that you won - the pen works.

Jody

[amk]

fixing cracked threads needs a little metal tube to be inserted inside to strengthen the joint (and you neef a lathe to remove just enough material for it to fit flush) - tricky to do.

 

ypu're right about superglue!