vintage " MAHAG " by Kaweco

[Mech-for-i]

Here I present to you all a vintage mid 1950's MAHAG piston filler by Kaweco

 

FOA , thanks to all the vintage Volkswagen fan over at multiple automotive online groups and forums who answer my questions and give info

 

 

 

For a bit of History , MAHAG is a major automotive dealer in Germany starting out in 1930's and still around today, after the war they center all theirs on Volkswagen and added Porsche. Just as any other of such they give company branded merchandise to customers and also employees. 

 

This pen as far as info and speculation goes ( according to the Volkswagen fans ) was only given to priced customers who purchase up market model like the Karmann Ghia, Porsche or the full option Beetle or the famed 23 windows bus and also likely to distinguished employees. It's actually a rare item accordingly. A fascinating and interesting piece of automotive and fountain pen memorabilia.

 

 

This pen was OEM manufactured by Kaweco and everything tells , the piston mechanism had the distinctive pin through the knob construction and the whole pen exhibit a variety of the Sport model's character. 

 

 

It had the model 12's piston mechanism but it's got the early post war 112 construction of mix celluloid + ebonite BHR. It had a Bock 14C gold nib that is fine and surprisingly soft and almost full flex. With an all round cap with the MAHAG logo

 

Technicals and restoration info on coming post

[Mech-for-i]

Technical and Measurements

 

Weight : ( Empty ) 13.3g , cap 6.0g , blind cap 0.7g

 

Length : Capped 101.5mm , Uncapped ( not including the nib ) 74mm , Nib exposed by 20mm , section 10.5mm , blind cap 15mm , posted ( not counting nib ) 133mm

 

Girth : ( read note below ) 12mm at the blind cap , 11mm at the ink window , section 9.5mm taper to 9.0 at center and flare out to 9.5 at the nib

 

a careful check with the photo will reveal that the barrel celluloid had shrinkage which likely cause the difference in girth , the length at the end where the ebonite BHR piston assembly are screwed in had a flare out likely cause by the BHR parts just held back the material

 

This pen come to me in a far worse state than the photo , its coated inside and out with caked and dried BB ink , with all parts seized and nib will not write. In fact the barrel is so opaque that I was lead to believe its a pen with a solid opaque barrel. On observation and check the ebonite piston assembly shown tool mark and was slightly screw off from the pen with an apparent slit between the seat and the barrel, the blind cap also will not screw off ( ink dried cement ) , both ebonite and celluloid parts shown dull and user marks as well as some scratches. Discovering that the barrel shown shrinkage I fear disassembly would further weaken the parts and might even crack it so this pen goes into a warm bath of water soaked overnight , which take off most of the dried ink on the outside, and blind cap finally give in , both that and the Cap were showing no shrinkage so they were both taken off the pen , cleaned and as best polished so not to be so tarnished , decide against a full polishing considering the weaken material over the years.

 

The pen itself go through a series of soaking , flushing, soaking , light cleaning on the outside and using mild soap to clean the exposed threads , feed , and nib  and after like Nth soaking the piston start to move and I ran further rinse, soak and flush into the body using mild soap. Its then that I find that it actually had an ink window .. LOL .. it had the pale amber yellow ink window more seen on some old 112 or the 712 instead of the green and later blue one on the 112 / 12 while at it I gently screw the piston assembly back tight and flat seated onto the barrel. It take a number of soaking, rinsing, flushing and repetitive cleaning for most of the dried ink inside the barrel to be rinsed off , you can still see trace of that on the ink window next to the capping thread. Again only light cleaning and buffing done to the barrel just to take off the worst of the tarnishes. The nib , well the exposed part though take a good polishing. It was dull all over when I receive it , its quite shiny now.

 

Vintage Kawco Sport of this period should come with a cork piston but this one actually had a much latter rubber piston , and considering seeing tool mark on the piston assembly this lead me to believe that much earlier in its working life its old piston got replaced. None the less this piston now work flawlessly. 

[txomsy]

Great find and a wonderful restoration work. Thanks for the full report. It's most interesting and useful.

[Parcival]

Honestly, this pen doesn't look like Kaweco.

[ethernautrix]

Wow! That's a cool-looking Kaweco!

 

[Mech-for-i]

14 hours ago, Parcival said:

Honestly, this pen doesn't look like Kaweco.

 

No it certainly does not and it is not a Kaweco but examining the physical parts tells , I compare it to the two Sport 12 I had and then it really tells. It's not uncommon for OEM Mfr to utilize proven parts and put into contract production item , that had been so since way way back and still so today.

 

If one just look past the cap and blind cap then the resemblance are more apparent. 

 

One theory the automotive enthusiast give is that it might also be involving agents ( gift market ) .