Pelikan 100 Rebuilt

[penwash]

I've always wanted a Pelikan 100. But as much buying, restoring and selling pens that I did, one never landed at my lap. Until a couple weeks ago I managed to snag 3 Pelikan pens, one of which is a 100 with crumbling barrel.

 

After ordering a replacement, wait forever for it to come, unstuck the nib from the cap, disassemble the seized piston, replace the equally crumbly seal (black like rubber but flaky like old cork), and of course, pick the wrong replacement o-ring sizes. The pen is now writing again. The nib is interesting in itself. A steel alloy CN nib whose tines are one shorter than the other... but it writes.

 

Of course, now it's missing a binde. I'll see what I can do.

 

Edited June 6, 2017 by penwash

[Bo Bo Olson]

Sigh, paraffin is a thicker English mineral oil, that boiled with bees wax is what the cork should be boiled in....and then some silicon grease. That is the slipperiest, long lasting seal. Marshal&Oldfield like that in their Repair Book. Fountainble does that.

If I ever get around to re-corking, I have everything but a clean desk to do the work on.

 

A proper sized gasket cutter and 2.0 plastic gasket can be had from Richard Binder.

O rings are for the cheap ready to toss in the garbage pens, in you have to yank your 100 apart all the time to replace the O rings, which are not made for decades of use......see Ahab and Twsbi.

 

Plastic gasket 1.0 came in @1940, when importing cork from Portugal was draining the German Economy and was more labor intensive. Plastic Gasket 2.0 came in @ 1955.....we are still using 2.0....no 2.1 has come along.

 

Am glad you redid your pen.

Edited June 7, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[penwash]

O rings are for the cheap ready to toss in the garbage pens, in you have to yank your 100 apart all the time to replace the O rings, which are not made for decades of use......see Ahab and Twsbi.

 

I guess we'll find out decades from now whether I have to take apart my 100 "all the time" or not.

I don't think so, but I am human, so I could be wrong

[joss]

You did a real fine job rescuing this pen, although it may be a bit disabled still.

It is a pity that these fine replacement barrels are not available as real demonstrator barrels, which would exclude the necessity to add a binde.

[penwash]

You did a real fine job rescuing this pen, although it may be a bit disabled still.

It is a pity that these fine replacement barrels are not available as real demonstrator barrels, which would exclude the necessity to add a binde.

 

Thank you joss, the pen writes just fine as is. I just want to see if I can attempt to make a binde for it.

[penwash]

Finally, a binde!

 

 

Then the new transparent barrel just begs for a new binde. So what to do? Inspired by Shawn Newton's binde replacements that is so gorgeous, I tried to make my own.

 

The Material: Some of you know that I love ebonite. And I know that ebonite is probably one of a few materials that can retain its structural integrity when shaped into a sub-1mm thickness cylinder sleeve (or 'binde'). So I picked my orange woodgrain ebonite rod and go to work.

 

The Lathe: Having worked with lathe for some time now, It started to sink in that when you are making a workpiece 3.5cm in length, you probably want to cut a +/- 6cm piece of ebonite so you have something to secure in the chuck when you're finishing the actual 3.5cm piece. That's what you see in the inset in the photo above. I drilled the hole where the Pelikan cylinder would go into and thanks to the other 2.5cm of material, I can take off the thickness down to about 1mm with the lathe without any accidents.

And I discovered a new way to use a drill bit in the tail stock. Wouldn't have thought of this had I not taken on this project.

 

The Polishing: After I successfully got the binde to size, the ebonite surface is full of radial marks and just not smooth. Then I go in with 100 grit sandpaper, then 320, then 600, then 1200. Then I polish it using Novus 3. At this time the shine kinda matches the rest of the pen, so I stopped.

So in the end, I'm very happy, I now have a rebuilt Pelikan 100 with orange woodgrain ebonite binde

 

Anyone has a Pelikan 100 that needs a new barrel and a binde?

Edited June 12, 2017 by penwash

[mana]

Wow! Very nice! I have a 100 with otherwise beautiful and clear celluloid barrel which would be peeeeeerfect aside from the threads... which are severely crystallized (and thus bleed and are prone to breaking at will). So yeah, that one needs a new section with cap threads...

Would not mind a 100N with a nice custom binde though. Never thought of ebonite... I wonder how much more difficult it would be to work on some nice swirly celluloid blanks instead of ebonite?

...and yes, I know they were not machined but manufactured from sheets on vintage Pelikans. Anyway, just wondering.

[penwash]

Wow! Very nice! I have a 100 with otherwise beautiful and clear celluloid barrel which would be peeeeeerfect aside from the threads... which are severely crystallized (and thus bleed and are prone to breaking at will). So yeah, that one needs a new section with cap threads...

 

Would not mind a 100N with a nice custom binde though. Never thought of ebonite... I wonder how much more difficult it would be to work on some nice swirly celluloid blanks instead of ebonite?

 

...and yes, I know they were not machined but manufactured from sheets on vintage Pelikans. Anyway, just wondering.

 

I can order a replacement barrel, but not the section.

 

As for acrylics, I've seen it done So I can try to make one if I had another Pelikan 100 to work on and the acrylic rod or blanks. I think resin-infused wood would also work as long as it can hold its form being so thin.

[captain1796]

Rick Propas sells the replacement barrels.

[Christopher Godfrey]

<Rick Propas sells the replacement barrels>

 

Ah, but does he? I always understood that he would sell you "a demonstrator" 100 -- quite different, surrely? Somewhere on his site, doesn't he say, categorically, that he does <not> sell spare parts?

 

That's what I think, but I may be wrong...

 

Penwash: that binde of your own manufacture is glorious! It looks totally authentic and the colour as if it were of the period: now what about going into business to offer...blue, wine, coral...and so on? ;^) (The line starts here!)

Edited June 22, 2017 by Christopher Godfrey

[watch_art]

Yes please. I won't mess with the older pens. I can't afford the risk. I'm perfectly happy tooling away with 800s and 1000s though.

[penwash]

<Rick Propas sells the replacement barrels>

 

Ah, but does he? I always understood that he would sell you "a demonstrator" 100 -- quite different, surrely? Somewhere on his site, doesn't he say, categorically, that he does <not> sell spare parts?

 

That's what I think, but I may be wrong...

 

Penwash: that binde of your own manufacture is glorious! It looks totally authentic and the colour as if it were of the period: now what about going into business to offer...blue, wine, coral...and so on? ;^) (The line starts here!)

 

I don't know about going into business just yet, but I like making the binde and would love to do a couple more to improve the process.

 

I prefer to make the binde for a new replacement barrel (I bought it from David Nishimura, not Rick Propas). The reason is as Shawn said, the risk of breaking the -- already brittle -- original barrel is very high, a new replacement barrel is sturdier and thus we have a better chance to fit a nice binde over it.

 

About the material, I use orange ebonite, I currently have red and purple, and I can order different colors from that place in Vermont. I have worked with acrylics but not making a 1mm thin binde, so don't give me a rare vintage material unless you have a lot of it

 

Christopher, if you're still interested, feel free hash out the details with me over email: redeempens@gmail.com.

[rustynib]

Excelent work penwash !!!

[penwash]

Excelent work penwash !!!

Thank you.

 

Here is my pen with its cousin, a Pelikan 101 Lapis (this one is not mine):

 

 

One lived a pampered life, the other has been to hell and back, rebuilt and customized.

Edited July 12, 2017 by penwash

[rustynib]

WOW !

[mitto]

Beautiful. Just beautiful. I know the joy of bringing back to life a dead or ailing pen.

[penwash]

Here's another photo of the pen with the cap open and the ebonite rod where the binde was fashioned from:

 

[LanceSaintPaul]

Great story & result.

But that Lapis example...I've never seen that before & sort of wish I still hadn't - one of the more stunning Pelikans of all time I reckon. I'm certain it commands a premium I'm not ready to meet. It seems way outside the usual spectrum of Pelikan colors.

 

Now this would be a place for modern day Pelikan to pursue.

 

Thanks for showing, I think. (Is it like candy if you lick it?)

 

Lance

[penwash]

Lance,

 

Thanks for commenting.

The Lapis I believe is about $900 in the used market today. It is that rare in a condition like this.

 

I think the blue pen will taste minty because it's celluloid.

It will taste better than mine which is ebonite

[LanceSaintPaul]

Lance,

 

Thanks for commenting.

The Lapis I believe is about $900 in the used market today. It is that rare in a condition like this.

 

I think the blue pen will taste minty because it's celluloid.

It will taste better than mine which is ebonite

Yes, since I wrote that have been researching further. Vintage & re-issue. It is as I suspected, sigh. My only strategy would have to be reducing my collection to a very select few & using the proceeds to get just one in replacement - this Lapis.

 

Has anyone here ever done anything like that? (That's a rhetorical question son, rhetorical - said in the voice of Foghorn Leghorn....)

 

Good taste(s) in pens....