Japanese eyedropper+celluloid shrinkage

January 17, 2021

Hi, this vintage Pilot is pretty neat but the celluloid shrinkage has the cap threads mostly impossible to engage and impossible to secure as they run off the end. It is a functioning Japanese eyedropper (original packing cork) with an ebonite section which screws in and seals well so expanding the barrel doesn’t seem like the best option. The cap band is also loose, but the cap and barrel threads meeting is my primary concern. The barrel has nearly a mm of shrinkage apparent at the size decrease where the cap sits. Does anyone have any recommendations?

It is such an interesting half-transparent pale purple and clear celluloid with hardly any yellowing I’d love to get it capping and writing again! Cheers!

January 18, 2021

Update: The pen has been filled with Serenity blue for the past day and, oddly, the threads seem to be engaging much better than before, with a stop at the end after one full turn. I know celluloid is unstable in the long term but this seems a bit wild! I hope it won’t be stained blue.

I’m dating it to 1939/1940 based on it being “Pilot”, having the fancy clip and being a steel nib, and it is apparently now only suffering a loose cap band, bit of chrome damage and some rust inside the cap. It works very well with that characteristic Pilot smoothness and a notable amount of softness, not flex.

I can’t help but be reminded of many of PenBBS’ semi-transparent swirled novelty-fillers, but this one has vintage proportions (hooray) and some interesting history based on its dating. As a functional, unrestored semi-demo japanese eyedropper with a nice soft xf nib, I’m enjoying it a lot! I might head over to the Japan sub and see if anyone can give me any more insight into its history/model/celluloid pattern.

In the first pic you can see, from the left, shut-off valve knob; cork; other packing; ink; cap w. loose ring; nib; rust through cap at the top.

In the second pic you can see the nib’s dramatic upside down-V-shaped breather peeking through a transparent area of the cap and see very small ridges in the transparent material, possibly from turning.