What is on your bench?

[es9]

The first time I read about the Waterman 20, I thought it had to be a joke.  I always wondered what kind of person would have bought one. 

[eckiethump]

Here is a photo of the Onoto Mammoth Beside the biggest pen made for use Waterman 20.

[VacNut]

18 hours ago, eckiethump said:

Here is a photo of the Onoto Mammoth Beside the biggest pen made for use Waterman 20.

When I found a Parker Giant, I thought it was mad trying to write with such a monstrous pen.  I have heard stories of stream train engineers using the pen with leather gloves. The stories seem to make more sense if one had to write wearing leather gloves.

 

This black Italian Montegrappa makes absolutely no sense.

 

I photographed it next to a Parker Giant. It is almost 1-inch in diameter, and 9-inches long.

 

 

The nib is almost half the length of the Giant cap. It is a cartridge pen, so it must be fairly recent. There is a treaded cap that protects the cartridge insert. Completely useless pen.

 

 

 

 

[ralfstc]

Wouldn't want to lose a costly (and measly) 149 inside one of those! It's amazing, really, how different everyone's ideas of the perfect pen are. Not just size, but all the rest . . .

 

Thanks for the great photos!

 

Ralf

[VacNut]

Post Office has been busy.

A Silver Vac OS and a Silver Max came in the post. Had to rebuild parts of the OS from the parts bin, but it cleaned up nicely. Hoping to find an unambered pen one of these days. Nice two-tone nibs.

 

 

 

 

[Paul-in-SF]

I recently repaired four Vacumatics, of various sizes. Three without incident, one not so much. I got careless with the heat gun and partially melted the section threads so that they came apart on unscrewing, leaving 2/3 behind in the barrel. So now I have to wait for a replacement section to arrive (I don't do enough repairs to have much of a parts bin). At least I was able to get the remainder of the section threads out of the barrel without too much trouble. 

[VacNut]

6 hours ago, Paul-in-SF said:

I recently repaired four Vacumatics, of various sizes. Three without incident, one not so much. I got careless with the heat gun and partially melted the section threads so that they came apart on unscrewing, leaving 2/3 behind in the barrel. So now I have to wait for a replacement section to arrive (I don't do enough repairs to have much of a parts bin). At least I was able to get the remainder of the section threads out of the barrel without too much trouble. 

Are you using a construction-type heat gun or a smaller hobby heat gun? I always use my wife’s hair dryer without incident. Could the threads already have been broken? I think it would be difficult to melt the section, without melting the barrel.
I have found that barrels or sections shrink over time, and sometimes  I have to match several section and feeds to get the correct fit. Good luck.

[VacNut]

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, unless you are Parker; then it becomes a copyright issue.

Two pens this week. The first is a black Vac Max with a Speedline filler. It arrived in good condition with a nice semi-flex two tone nib. Less ambering would be better, but still a beautiful pen. Here are the parts.

 

 

The next pen is an European Old Gold Pen.  I think it is Italian. It is almost 13.8 cm long, so longer than a Vac Max. Similar diameter to the Max, but it has a screw-off blind cap connected to vac-type filler with a rubber diaphragm. There are two alum collars. One for the diaphragm. The other is threaded to keep the filler in place. There is an ebonite(?) rod that pushes down on the diaphragm. The clip is more simple than a Max, but with 3-bands - similar to the Vac OS.
. 
 

The barrel imprints are worn, so I am solely going by the nib.

 

The filler collars are overly complicated. It is an Italian piston-type filler combined with a vac-type diaphragm. The feed, section, and tube are identical to a Vac.. The barrel has longitudinal clear sections that difficult to photograph. I’ll post more pics of the two pens, once I reassemble them.

 

[Paul-in-SF]

It's a hobby heat gun, but the heat can be intense, more so than a hair dryer. I thought about the possibility that the threads were already broken, but when the section came out, the edges were gummy and soft. I think the section threads area is less thick than the barrel. 

[VacNut]

42 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

It's a hobby heat gun, but the heat can be intense, more so than a hair dryer. I thought about the possibility that the threads were already broken, but when the section came out, the edges were gummy and soft. I think the section threads area is less thick than the barrel. 

I am not sure about the thickness of the section,  but the feed should be inside the section so it should have helped dissipate the heat. Could the gumminess be the resin on the threads? I wonder if the pen section had been previously “repaired”. I once had a pen section ‘shellac-ed” in place because the section threads were broken. 

 

good luck on the replacement section.

[es9]

I recently switched over to a slightly more sophisticated hobby-style heat gun (Wagner) that has two settings: low and high.  It still lets me get localized heat, but it gives a touch more control.  It also has these little feet that hold the gun upright, which is nice when I want two hands.  It was around $20.  So far so good.  

[VacNut]

When is a Slender Maxima not a Slender Maxima?

I received a great silver Vacumatic set by post this week. Great barrel clarity. Strong made in the USA imprints. Little or no wear to the trim. Very clean filler unit with almost no wear. The only sign of use is the dried ink inside the cap.

 

The pen is 135 mm long. The band is slightly narrower than the typical Slender Max. The two tone nib is most interesting. It is larger and longer than the Major Vac Nib and has 9-barbs on the arrow imprint. 

The imprint has a ‘9’ date code, which is the correct timeline for a Slender Max.

Here is the pen compared to what I would consider typically accepted Slender Max Pens (Pen is on the left with narrower band). The caps are interchangeable.

This is the pen compared to a typical Vac Max with a speedline filler.

There are several posts on this forum concerning the Slender Maxima vs Long Major vs Major; as well as internet pages. 
 

What I find interesting about this Vac is the length + larger nib + narrower cap band + Made in USA date code ‘9’ imprint and barrel clarity.

 

The matching pencil makes it unlikely that the pen is a “franken” pen made from different pens.

 

[VacNut]

A Black Max arrived this week. It was partially restored by the previous owner. Lighter ambering than usual. Almost no brassing to the trim.

 

 

 

The most beautiful part about this pen is the two-tone Vacumatic nib made in the USA. Previous owner had it re-tipped but it has an amazing flex. 
 

 

 

Very smooth writer. I am actually use this pen...

 

[VacNut]

I may someday stop buying these black pens, but not this week. It arrived missing a clip with scratches on the cap and minor solvent(?) burns/spots on the barrel. I don’t usually polish the pens to high luster, but I had to use micro-mesh on the cap and barrel. I had to pull a clip from the parts bin for the clip.
 

 

 

 

The nib is the typical Vac stiff nib. The imprints were polished off long ago, but I like the Owners etched signature. I am told this was an extra cost, and likely never matched the Owner’s actual signature. Although it looks like there was an attempt.
 

 

 

[VacNut]

Finally getting back to the pens.

The Burgundy Vac OS was missing the end jewel and the tassie. The first cap ring was a replacement from another pen.

 

It was a little rough, but at least the cap edge wasn’t cracked. It has a two-tone Vacumatic nib with a striped cap jewel with little brassing on the clip.

 

 

 

Barrel clarity is good, but previous owners have been a little aggressive on polishing the imprints. 
Not perfect but worth the effort of replacing the end jewel and tassie. After all, it is still a Burgundy OS.

[VacNut]

Two more in the queue. Looking forward to bringing these back to life. Although I may have to pull replacement parts from the parts bin.

 

 

 

 

 

[FarmBoy]

Is the cap band correct?

[VacNut]

2 hours ago, FarmBoy said:

Is the cap band correct?

The band is too wide. It came with the cap. I would have preferred to have the band missing. 
I will have to decide whether or not to sacrifice a OS cap for the replacement bands.

Are there similar size bands from other pens?

[VacNut]

Finally got back to the pens.

Two silver OS Vacumatics this week and a black OS. The silver pens cleaned up nicely with good imprints and great 2-tone nibs.

 

 

The furniture looks untouched on one pen, but the other is brassed. Both pens are made in the USA, but one is almost 3/16” shorter than the other. 
 

The black OS Vac is unique with a made in Canada imprint and vertical striations. I think this is the slotted black pen, but in the size of an OS. 2nd OS pen in the collection with the slots. Both pens have been Canadian. The slots are only visible at certain angles otherwise it looks like a solid barrel.

 

I would be curious to discover how they made the barrel. I assume it was flat stock rolled into a cylinder.

 

 

 

[VacNut]

2 minutes ago, VacNut said:

Finally got back to the pens.

Two silver OS Vacumatics this week and a black OS. The silver pens cleaned up nicely with good imprints and great 2-tone nibs.

 

 

The furniture looks untouched on one pen, but the other is brassed. Both pens are made in the USA, but one is almost 3/16” shorter than the other. 
 

The black OS Vac is unique with a made in Canada imprint and vertical striations. I think this is the slotted black pen, but in the size of an OS. 2nd OS pen in the collection with the slots. Both pens have been Canadian. The slots are only visible at certain angles otherwise it looks like a solid barrel.

 

I would be curious to discover how they made the barrel. I assume it was flat stock rolled into a cylinder.

 

 

 

I have heard of a “sub” Max for the Vacumatic Oversize and Maximas. I will have to go through the pens to compare those pens. The shorter silver OS is just a hair longer than a standard Vac