Adding To The Flock

[Lam1]

1 minute ago, lamarax said:

 

I guess besides the usual E-bay "bait-and-switch" game, there are some esteemed dealers in the market, who're trying the reverse-sumgui figure on us 😄

 

 

😱😱

That is absolutely insane!

If anyone were willing to pay that much, I'd sell mine! 🤣🤣

[RedPie]

21 hours ago, carola said:

There is an update to my family heirloom 100N Green Marbled I posted about on October 6th. It came back from repair on Friday and it cleaned up really nicely. It is now functional, the bent clip is straight again and the bent tine, too. And it has been polished a bit. Basically, it looks like a new pen.

Now the thing about the dating: It is indeed a pen from somewhere between 1948 and 1952, BUT it had a cork seal (I had been thinking my eyes were going so bad I was seeing things). My pen repair guy also found out, how this was possible. This pen had been heavily used and one day, its plastic seal must have called it quits. Someone then took it apart and fumbled a Pelikan 100 piston with a cork seal in there. Supposedly this had held up for the moment, but definitely not for a long time because the old piston´s ebonite couldn´t take the pressure.

The pen is now back to an original piston with black plastic seal and everything´s fine. The only issue for us is, that this means it simply can´t be my grandmother´s brother´s pen because he died before the war had ended. The botched repair on the other hand has made me think that my father MIGHT have something to do with it or at least know something about it. I am going to ask him about it when we meet around New Year.

 

In the meantime, two other birds have come to roost with my flock. They met the green 100N when it was out for repair and simply followed it home.

 

Pelikan M101N Tortoise Brown

 

Pelikan M101N Bright Red

Interesting find on the repair! Congrats to those two beautiful new pens you got. 

[carola]

2 hours ago, RedPie said:

Interesting find on the repair! Congrats to those two beautiful new pens you got. 

Thank you, RedPie!

[mana]

On 11/10/2024 at 5:36 PM, carola said:

There is an update to my family heirloom 100N Green Marbled I posted about on October 6th. It came back from repair on Friday and it cleaned up really nicely. It is now functional, the bent clip is straight again and the bent tine, too. And it has been polished a bit. Basically, it looks like a new pen.

Now the thing about the dating: It is indeed a pen from somewhere between 1948 and 1952, BUT it had a cork seal (I had been thinking my eyes were going so bad I was seeing things). My pen repair guy also found out, how this was possible. This pen had been heavily used and one day, its plastic seal must have called it quits. Someone then took it apart and fumbled a Pelikan 100 piston with a cork seal in there. Supposedly this had held up for the moment, but definitely not for a long time because the old piston´s ebonite couldn´t take the pressure.

The pen is now back to an original piston with black plastic seal and everything´s fine. The only issue for us is, that this means it simply can´t be my grandmother´s brother´s pen because he died before the war had ended. The botched repair on the other hand has made me think that my father MIGHT have something to do with it or at least know something about it. I am going to ask him about it when we meet around New Year.

 

In the meantime, two other birds have come to roost with my flock. They met the green 100N when it was out for repair and simply followed it home.

 

Pelikan M101N Tortoise Brown

 

Pelikan M101N Bright Red

Lovely! Also, glad to hear that the 100N has been restored successfully, always a happy story, that. 👍🏻

[carola]

On 11/12/2024 at 2:49 PM, mana said:

Lovely! Also, glad to hear that the 100N has been restored successfully, always a happy story, that. 👍🏻

 

Thank you. And yes, getting an old battered pen not only up and running but also back to its original beauty is always a special treat which tops simply buying a new one by far (although I do love the two new birds of course). The old bird is now about 75 years old, it has spent the last decades in a dark drawer, maimed and forgotten, but lo and behold, it is back and now it can spread its wings and take off again. How could anyone not love this?

[Mercian]

39 minutes ago, carola said:

The old bird is now about 75 years old, it has spent the last decades in a dark drawer, maimed and forgotten, but lo and behold, it is back and now it can spread its wings and take off again. How could someone not love this?

 

I am sure that you are already well aware of this but, given that your 100N has been 'rejuvenated', I advise you to beware! (In case its youthful fecundity has also been restored.)

After all, it is known that these things are wont to breed in captivity

[carola]

6 minutes ago, Mercian said:

 

I am sure that you are already well aware of this but, given that your 100N has been 'rejuvenated', I advise you to beware! (In case its youthful fecundity has also been restored.)

After all, it is known that these things are wont to breed in captivity

 

Well, it HAS already brought home two new birds from restoration. I am afraid its fecundity is beyond any doubt...

 

Oh, and did I mention it has already brought a second bird with it when it initially came to me?

[alfredop]

That is the problem with Pelikans, their number grows in a uncontrolled way 😃.

 

Alfredo

[mana]

12 hours ago, alfredop said:

That is the problem with Pelikans, their number grows in a uncontrolled way 😃.

 

Alfredo

It is like magic... but for some reason my account balance goes down also? Hmmm...  nah, they can't be connected, just a coincidence (correlation does not imply causation, etc.).

[carola]

Speaking of growing uncontrollably... All I can tell you, is that I started out with ONE in the 1980s. Counting the two I have currently on the way, I am at 37 now (pencils not included). Which is a third of my little collection. 🤪

[inkstainedruth]

8 hours ago, mana said:

It is like magic... but for some reason my account balance goes down also? Hmmm...  nah, they can't be connected, just a coincidence (correlation does not imply causation, etc.).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Merrick]

While everyone else is drooling over the bright red, I'll just be over here quietly lusting after that tortoise brown--what a stunner!

[inkstainedruth]

I don't blame you -- my first bird was a 1990s era M400 Brown Tortoise with an F nib (I had really wanted an M400 Blue Black, but that's the one that came up first on eBay that I was able to snag).

It wasn't until after it came that I realized that the cap and piston knob were actually dark brown, rather than black. 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[stoen]

On 11/10/2024 at 4:36 PM, carola said:

The pen is now back to an original piston with black plastic seal and everything´s fine.

Please, pardon my late joining this conversation. Congratulation for the three new pens, @carola! They’re beauiful. 

As for the family heirloom 100N restoration, congratulations as well! Would you please be so kind to share its photo showing the new original plastic seal as visible through the “ink view”?

May I please be allowed for few technical comments to add, hoping they may shed some extra light on its piston history? Please, pardon my comments possibly going off-topic, I’ll gladly (re)move the post, if advised so:

 

1. Early post-ww2 100Ns were originally hosting piston seals made of a synthetic rubber-like material called “black elastomer”, snap-fit to plastic piston rods. The elastomer material was prone to shrinkage and routinely service-shop replaced with either of two snap-fit clear plastic piston seals, such as those in 400 series pens, which were more durable, once guys at GW became aware of this problem. Those elastomer pistons were notorious for being most likely to fail in a couple of years, no matter how lightly or heavily a pen used.

 

2. It isn’t much likely that a “100 cork/ebonite piston” assembly would be repair-shop-installed in a 100N, simply because of the internal threading in an ebonite 100 piston rod which cannot fit the turning knob spindle helix of a 100N. 

 

3. Ebonite is as strong material as plastic and can stand as much pressure as well. Pre-ww2 100N ebonite/cork piston mechanims might have occasionally been retro-fit into post-war 100Ns, if original spare parts weren’t available at the moment. These were compatible with post war 100N piston helices. They were working great, only the cork had to be replaced once in a while.

 

4. The pre-war 100N pens had two delicate, fragile spots (celluloid barrel/mechanism threading and thin machined ebonite section) which could break. Broken pre-war 100N barrels were also service-shop-replaced with new one-piece post-war barrels, and the old caps, nib units and ebonite/cork inking mechanisms were preserved and simply transferred (migrated) to new barrels.

🙂

 

BTW, did your pen repair person return your previous failed “cork piston assembly”? If so, it would be great if you could share a photo?

 

Thanks and good luck with your new and restored flock members!

 

FYI, here are the three generations of pistons installed in post-war 100Ns (L->R): black elastomer (1948-50), clear plastic 1 (1951-53), clear plastic 2 (1953-54, approximately).

 

 

Pre-war 100N ebonite/cork piston assembly (L), shown next to the 100N ebonite section (R).

 

 

Failing elastomer piston taken off the  piston rod, ready to get replaced.

 

 

Pre war ebonite/cork piston assemblies of 100 and 100N, next to each other. Because of the different and incompatible internal piston shaft internal threadings they’re not interchangeable:

 

Hope you don’t mind this comment; hope it can help.

🙂

[stoen]

An unexpected addition - a flea market acquisition:

Early wartime 100, only lightly used, with a lovely, smooth, flexible CN B nib. I only had to take it apart, clean it and put back together. Even the dreaded “black elastomer” piston seal still works! I can’t understand how, but it does!

Only a slight defect in the binde, which can easily get fixed by solvent welding.

[carola]

@stoen As I didn´t have any use for them, my pen repair guy didn´t send me the piston parts back, but he did send me a picture:

 

 

It was evidently taken when he had already pulled the cork I had seen off.

 

I wasn´t very successful in getting a clear picture of the new piston seal inside the ink window. What I did notice though, when I put a strong light to it, that it didn´t look black anymore, but rather white. The green ink window, the applied silicone grease and me only taking a quick look in poor lighting had made the seal look dark to me, but in fact it seems to be the third one in your picture.

[stoen]

On 11/17/2024 at 11:56 PM, carola said:

my pen repair guy didn´t send me the piston parts back, but he did send me a picture:

Thanks for sharing the pic, @carola. As far as I can conclude, this was a “frankenpiston” made of a plastic post-war 100N piston rod (please observe the shiny surface and snap-fit circular groove on the right-hand side, glued to a pre-war ebonite 100 piston cork seal holder. It must have not only been an improvised repair, but also a rather poor and heavy handed repair with excessive use of glue, because a friction-fit top plug, holding the cork seal in place could otherwise easily go off in experienced hands, without having to break the assembly.

Your description of green ink view indicates that the barrel material must be acetate or acrylic (please, see my wartime 100 in a previous post), which does not have a fragile spot on threads joining the inking mechanism. Therefore opening the pen for piston replacement poses no stress on the repairperson.

I have seen few pens having been “repaired” in such a way (probably in countries behind the iron curtain, where original spare parts weren’t available, but old pen scrap instead).

 

Quote

…seems to be the third one in your picture…

That would be, I dare say, the best, safest and most reliable, factory choice.

 

Hope this conversation can help reconstruct your valuable family pen’s history.

🙂

 

PS. Sharing a photo of your restored pen would be great!

 

[carola]

On 11/18/2024 at 9:09 AM, stoen said:

Thanks for sharing the pic, @carola. As far as I can conclude, this was a “frankenpiston” made of a plastic post-war 100N piston rod (please observe the shiny surface and snap-fit circular groove on the right-hand side, glued to a pre-war ebonite 100 piston cork seal holder. It must have not only been an improvised repair, but also a rather poor and heavy handed repair with excessive use of glue, because a friction-fit top plug, holding the cork seal in place could otherwise easily go off in experienced hands, without having to break the assembly.

Your description of green ink view indicates that the barrel material must be acetate or acrylic (please, see my wartime 100 in a previous post), which does not have a fragile spot on threads joining the inking mechanism. Therefore opening the pen for piston replacement poses no stress on the repairperson.

I have seen few pens having been “repaired” in such a way (probably in countries behind the iron curtain, where original spare parts weren’t available, but old pen scrap instead).

 

That would be, I dare say, the best, safest and most reliable, factory choice.

 

Hope this conversation can help reconstruct your valuable family pen’s history.

🙂

 

PS. Sharing a photo of your restored pen would be great!

 

 

What you have described here about the "frankenpiston", is basically what my repair guy told me had happened. And that the friction fit assembly had already been broken when he removed it. Exactly this very unprofessional repair attempt is why I want to have a word with my father at our next meeting, because there is a fair chance that he was somehow involved into first breaking and then trying to repair the pen. 😉

 

Here are some pictures of the restored pen. (You can still see some a little bit over enthusiastically applied silicon grease in the ink window, but nevermind, it is mostly gone by now.)

 

Oh, and the 450 pencil in Light Tortoise has arrived today. I just can´t help sharing a picture... don´t those two look like a happy couple of newlyweds? 😍

[Mercian]

22 minutes ago, carola said:

 

Here are some pictures of the restored pen. (You can still see some a little bit over enthusiastically applied silicon grease in the ink window, but nevermind, it is mostly gone by now.)

 

If I were you, I would get that excess grease out of your pen. I wouldn't want it getting into the fins/channels of the actual feed, or into the slit of the nib.

 

I have done this in the past as follows:

• unscrew the nib unit;
• roll a corner of a piece of kitchen roll paper into a short 'spike';
• push the paper 'spike' a little way into the piston/ink chamber;
• move the piston forwards so that the seal grips the paper gently against the end of the ink chamber;
• turn the pen's body around in my hand a couple of times, so that the paper 'spike' wipes all the way around the sides of the ink chamber, and so removes the excess silicone grease;
• draw the piston back and pull the paper out;
• screw the nib unit back in.

It is easy to add a teensy bit more grease if one finds the piston movement to be slightly 'dry'. I have not yet needed to add more grease after removing excess grease in this way.

 

 

22 minutes ago, carola said:

Oh, and the 450 pencil in Light Tortoise has arrived today. I just can´t help sharing a picture... don´t those two look like a happy couple of newlyweds? 😍

 

Ooh! Those are indeed very beautiful

[carola]

10 minutes ago, Mercian said:

 

If I were you, I would get that excess grease out of your pen. I wouldn't want it getting into the fins/channels of the actual feed, or into the slit of the nib.

 

I have done this in the past as follows:

• unscrew the nib unit;
• roll a corner of a piece of kitchen roll paper into a short 'spike';
• push the paper 'spike' a little way into the piston/ink chamber;
• move the piston forwards so that the seal grips the paper gently against the end of the ink chamber;
• turn the pen's body around in my hand a couple of times, so that the paper 'spike' wipes all the way around the sides of the ink chamber, and so removes the excess silicone grease;
• draw the piston back and pull the paper out;
• screw the nib unit back in.

It is easy to add a teensy bit more grease if one finds the piston movement to be slightly 'dry'. I have not yet needed to add more grease after removing excess grease in this way.

 

 

 

Ooh! Those are indeed very beautiful

 

Thank you, Mercian.

 

And don´t worry about the grease. In the picture it looked a lot more than it actually was in the first place (I just failed to notice it before I had put the light box away again and was too lazy to start taking pictures a second time) and I have already got out most of it afterwards. Your description sounds pretty neat though and will probably come in handy.