What is on your bench?

[FarmBoy]

A pen that can sit on the bench and kick your ass a bit is far more interesting than just putting a sac in a lever pen. 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Well, to be fair, this one was a lever fill pen and it still kicked my ass.

[gweimer1]

3 hours ago, LoveBigPensAndCannotLie said:

Well, to be fair, this one was a lever fill pen and it still kicked my ass.

 

David killed Goliath with a rock. 😎

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

So... after replacing the sac with a slightly undersized one (originally had a #17 in there which fit well but was just a touch snug, now a #16), it is not burping anymore. Will give it a few days to know for sure though, it did not start burping immediately when I originally restored it either.

 

I am guessing it gets worse when there is less ink in the sac, leaving more room for air to push the ink out. Still, hopefully it will be a little better than before.

[Ron Z]

This is typical in fountain pens in general, though some pens are more prone than others.  The modern Parker repair manual has a line with a complaint that the pen floods.  The "repair" is to "tell the customer to fill the pen."  i.e. the pens can flood when almost empty.  Let's hope that the smaller sac helps.  It sometimes does.

[GlenV]

Eyedropper pens flood easily when almost empty, (and when first warming them up), but eyedroppers really can't control the flow usually as well in general as a sacked pen. Taperites are cool pens but really weren't made of highest quality from Waterman. It seems like the deep channel would not control the air going into the pen normally, so is just a poor quality control issue like mentioned. I've always thought that the rubber sac as it empties puts a little negative pressure on the ink flow (?)...maybe that negative pressure can suddenly escape with the deep feed?  I  have avoided trying to remove the feed/nib on a taperite too, they don't have materials that age that well.

[cat74]

Recently going down the Waterman CF rabbit hole and I have my first one with an issue.

 

It was running dry and mine also has a crack in the section (that I didn't notice...😒) .

I thought I had welded it together...but after a few soaks and ultrasonic sessions I can see the crack again...maybe it had dried ink before that prevented the weld from taking?...oh well....will try the weld again or maybe go crazy and demel the crack a bit a fill with crazy glue and or epoxy??

 

I can unscrew it but I can't seem to get the feed etc. out - anyone know if there is a specific trick? I was just trying to push the feed from the top but  seeing some photos on an old post I think there is much more to it than I'm grasping....

 

Hopeful that a crack repair will take but failing that I would like to pull the feed and then maybe swap the gold nib into one of my steel nib versions (if the crack repair doesn't work..)

 

 

 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

An update in case anyone's interested, been using the Taperite for a while now, no burping issues. I guess it wasn't the feed? Or using a smaller sac counteracts the deep cut feed channel.

 

On another topic (and a mini rant), I got a really nice Morrison mottled hard rubber pen recently. When I opened it, the old pressure bar was dust. I replaced it with one of the modern j-bars and I cannot overstate how much I hate these.

 

They take up way too much space in the barrel, and the metal is too rigid. Didn't put it in the right way the first time? Well, good luck getting it out without breaking the pen. Once you get it in, the pen will only take a sac 2 sizes smaller than it should, and it won't fill all that well even with that considered. They are so so bad. I guess beggars can't be choosers and I should be glad replacement parts are so cheaply and widely available for such a niche hobby, but how hard would it be for someone to actually make a decent spring steel j-bar?

 

I am also kicking myself because I was bored a few weeks ago so I restored a cheapo Wearever I had lying around and used a spare vintage j-bar I got out of another broken pen. Great j-bar, very thin and works perfectly. I should have saved it for a pen actually worth restoring like this one...

[gweimer1]

20 hours ago, LoveBigPensAndCannotLie said:

 

On another topic (and a mini rant), I got a really nice Morrison mottled hard rubber pen recently. When I opened it, the old pressure bar was dust. I replaced it with one of the modern j-bars and I cannot overstate how much I hate these.

 

 

PM me.  I can help you.

[Ron Z]

21 hours ago, LoveBigPensAndCannotLie said:

I was bored a few weeks ago so I restored a cheapo Wearever I had lying around

 

Wow, you were really bored, weren't you? 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

Alright, well, I am peeved. This is the inside of the section on a "Waterman Executive" - I got this a while ago but didn't get a chance to ink it until now.

 

 

Does that look normal to anyone? It looks to me like it is missing the connector bit that is supposed to go around that extension of the feed and hold the cartridge in place.

 

Didn't realize anything was wrong with this pen, I put a Waterman short cartridge in it (after the debacle with the Waterman Exclusive, I learned my lesson) - fit fine, I closed the pen up and it wrote great! I opened it back up because I wanted to check something and got ink all over my hands, the cartridge just fell out.

 

At this point I just don't know anymore. Am I really unlucky? Is this another example of Waterman's (bleep) with cartridge standards? A long cartridge "fits" (and came with the pen) but only because the outer diameter of the cartridge and the inner diameter are tight enough to keep it inside, I do not think it is air tight. Same for the converter that came with the pen. I ended up reinking it with the converter and the pen has a ton of ink on the metal collar by the nib every time I uncap it. I am guessing the vacuum from uncapping it along with air getting in from the inside is causing it.

 

One thing I know for sure - never again with these 1980's/1990's Watermans. Great nibs, junk pens. Modern(ish) day equivalents of Wearever in terms of build quality, although with admittedly much better nibs.

[Ron Z]

There should be a piercing tube around the feed.  I've seen these break off and say in the converter nipple on a couple of pens.  Don't look to Waterman for the parts....

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

7 hours ago, Ron Z said:

There should be a piercing tube around the feed.  I've seen these break off and say in the converter nipple on a couple of pens.  Don't look to Waterman for the parts....

 

Ugh, that's what I figured. It wasn't in the converter or the cartridge that was in the pen when I got it. Do you think there's any way to fix this? The pen is in decent condition otherwise with a fairly good nib.

 

This is probably not the right fix, but would it be a bad idea to put a coating of silicone grease around the outside of the cartridge converter? I figure this might act as enough of a sealant to stop the ink from leaking into the pen. The converter is pretty tight fitting, just not airtight so maybe the silicone grease will help it along.

 

It still kind of works as a desk pen, it does not leak that badly during normal writing. But I took it to work and it was a mess... ink everywhere when I uncapped it. 

[VacNut]

I am not familiar with the Waterman Executive Pen, but it doesn’t seem like a major repair to replace the piercing tube to keep a 40-year old pen functional. Did the pen have a piston filler option? 
Is your pen the large 140 mm model?

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

It's this one: https://www.peytonstreetpens.com/waterman-executive-fountain-pen-brown-marble-lacquer-gold-trim-medium-18k-nib-superior-works-well-12555.html

 

Not literally that exact pen, but a little too lazy to take a picture of mine right now. I don't know how you would go about replacing the piercing tube. I would guess you would have to manufacture a new one and then glue it into the assembly.

 

But gluing it seems like a big ask since it is right near the feed, mess up and you will glue the feed in or worse just block the feed altogether. This is a clearer pic of the problem, posted this in another thread:

 

 

 

[Ron Z]

The piercing tube is molded as part of the back end of the nib housing, the feed goes through that.  Nib and feed pull straight out of the section.,

 

I don't know that you can fix that because the end of the housing is pretty thin, and I can't imagine being able to secure the back end of a tube to it.  Sheaffer's are about the same outside diameter, but no way to hold it in place or seal around it.  Sheaffer pressed it in from the inside.  The inside end of the Sheaffer piercing tube is flared out and presses against  inside of the hole in the end of the section, which is pretty thick. 

 

But I suppose that you could try a Sheaffer student pen piercing tube.  They can be knocked out with a little effort.  The diameter of the hole you drill has to be pretty darn close (or maybe a smidge under) the diameter of the Sheaffer's tube.  Don't do it with the feed in place.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

1 hour ago, Ron Z said:

The piercing tube is molded as part of the back end of the nib housing, the feed goes through that.  Nib and feed pull straight out of the section.,

 

I don't know that you can fix that because the end of the housing is pretty thin, and I can't imagine being able to secure the back end of a tube to it.  Sheaffer's are about the same outside diameter, but no way to hold it in place or seal around it.  Sheaffer pressed it in from the inside.  The inside end of the Sheaffer piercing tube is flared out and presses against  inside of the hole in the end of the section, which is pretty thick. 

 

But I suppose that you could try a Sheaffer student pen piercing tube.  They can be knocked out with a little effort.  The diameter of the hole you drill has to be pretty darn close (or maybe a smidge under) the diameter of the Sheaffer's tube.  Don't do it with the feed in place.

 

Ah, I think that is way beyond my repair skills. Probably by several magnitudes. I think I will just have to keep an eye out for parts pens or a replacement section I can use. Or two, this is the second broken section I have (the other on my Waterman Exclusive - they really like their "E" names, don't they).

 

If anyone has experience with these pens, do you know if there are any modern (or other vintage) pens that are compatible with these Waterman nibs? They're nice nibs and I'd love to get some use out of them.

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

So... I got a couple of pens to work on. One of them is an off-brand jade green celluloid pen but the celluloid appears to be very close to going bad. It's not crystallized but it's near translucent.

 

I'm debating if I should even try to open it, I am pretty sure that when the celluloid is this fragile it will break in half as soon as I try to get the section out. What do you all think?

[cossar]

Well it’s been awhile since I posted here, but over the course of the past 4 months or so a pen restorer friend of mine has taken me under his wing and I’ve been able to work on quite a few pens recently! Mostly focused on Snorkels and Vacs. 
 

here are some of his snorks I just wrapped up:

 

I’ve really been enjoying the snorkels. It’s been good practice repairing lots of different components and troubleshooting things. Here’s a desk set I refurbished. I’m keeping this one. 

[GlenV]

Those snorkels look great! Good job. I have a desk set in front of me right now