Antique Store Suprise!

[Ink stained fingers]

Just now, joss said:

That is a nice pen set indeed. The "demonstrator" imprint on the pencil is remarkable because you expect transparent parts on a demonstrator pen. Is there also such an imprint on the fountain pen?

not currently, but there is a similar sized segment of the barrel that looks like it may have been scratched off. I'm curious about that now. 

[Ron Z]

A nice find indeed, especially being a store demonstrator and in the box.  Very cool.  Nice that you were able to flush it out as well.  The Imperials typically have nice writing nibs.

 

The filler on the pen is not a "Vacuum", but rather a Touchdown filler - i.e. a pneumatic filler.  The air in the barrel is compressed when you push the plunger down which squeezes the sac, and released when it gets to the bottom of the stroke, allowing the sac to expand and ink to flow into the pen.

 

At some point you will want to replace the sac and the 0-ring in the barrel.  If its the original sac, and I expect it is, its about 60 years old, and while it works now, exposure to ink may cause the sac to fail.   Not an especially difficult repair, but something that you may want to keep in the back of your mind.  I suspect that rather than leaking, the clue will be that the pen doesn't fill,or fill as well.  Once the parts are replaced, it'll give you many years of service.

[Ink stained fingers]

7 minutes ago, Ron Z said:

A nice find indeed, especially being a store demonstrator and in the box.  Very cool.  Nice that you were able to flush it out as well.  The Imperials typically have nice writing nibs.

 

The filler on the pen is not a "Vacuum", but rather a Touchdown filler - i.e. a pneumatic filler.  The air in the barrel is compressed when you push the plunger down which squeezes the sac, and released when it gets to the bottom of the stroke, allowing the sac to expand and ink to flow into the pen.

 

At some point you will want to replace the sac and the 0-ring in the barrel.  If its the original sac, and I expect it is, its about 60 years old, and while it works now, exposure to ink may cause the sac to fail.   Not an especially difficult repair, but something that you may want to keep in the back of your mind.  I suspect that rather than leaking, the clue will be that the pen doesn't fill,or fill as well.  Once the parts are replaced, it'll give you many years of service.

After I shared this story, I did a little more research on the pen and did learn about the touchdown filler. I cannot be sure, but it does seem to me as if maintenance has been done on the pen because the ink sac appears WAY more supple and pliable than I would consider possible for a pen this old, and there appeared to be some grease on the touchdown filler rod when I first retracted it. I am hoping that will buy me some time to learn and practice on maybe a rougher pen before the time comes to work on this one. Thank you for the information!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Some 13 years ago, when I first came on the com. I had a 60 year old Esterbrook that failed a couple years alter. (It had sat around in the dark of two drawers  for 30 years empty.)

The then old guys; most of whom have passed or are no longer posting; talked about rubber sacs being normally 30-40 years good. (Pre-supersaturated inks.)

 

Great looking pen, priced right!!!!

[Ink stained fingers]

34 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Some 13 years ago, when I first came on the com. I had a 60 year old Esterbrook that failed a couple years alter. (It had sat around in the dark of two drawers  for 30 years empty.)

The then old guys; most of whom have passed or are no longer posting; talked about rubber sacs being normally 30-40 years good. (Pre-supersaturated inks.)

 

Great looking pen, priced right!!!!

Thanks for the heads up and thanks for reading! 

[MarcoA63]

you have disassembled the pen before buying it in the shop or have I misunderstood? All the vintage pens I bought were 'as is' no mucking around in the shop

[Ron Z]

On 10/20/2021 at 8:35 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

The then old guys; most of whom have passed or are no longer posting; talked about rubber sacs being normally 30-40 years good. (Pre-supersaturated inks.)

 

Esterbrook sacs it seems, are an exception.  I would not expect that from the latex sacs made today. Ten  or fifteen years, maybe...

 

Its not uncommon for me to find a usable sac in an Esterbrook VS other brands.  I bought a bunch of pens that came out of the estate of a guy who was a chemical engineer for Esterbrook.  They had project numbers stamped on them.  Caps and barrels didn't match, and they weren't the most appealing colors. I suspect (no proof at all) that they were used to test the durability of the sacs because except for the numbers,  they were basic Esterbrooks.   Put in the test sacs, hand them out for use, and see what happened.

[Ink stained fingers]

21 hours ago, MarcoA63 said:

you have disassembled the pen before buying it in the shop or have I misunderstood? All the vintage pens I bought were 'as is' no mucking around in the shop

I asked the owner of the store before I did anything at all. She was super accommodating and didn’t mind letting me fiddle with it so long as I did it in front of her. And the booth selling the pen had a real eclectic mix of items, so I believe it was just another old thing to sell in their  eyes. 

[MarcoA63]

I imagined you asked before starting 🙂 thank you for your reply

[wspohn]

I have rarely had good luck in antique stores. They don't seem to understand that functionality is usually paramount to a collector. Saying things like "But the nib is missing" or There's no cap" gets responses like "Yes, but it is old!"

[inkstainedruth]

Or as in the case of a Waterman lever filler with the nib bent at about a 90 degree angle, get offended when you laugh and point at the $295 US price tag and tell them they got ripped off.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

A few years ago when a pen nib was only worth a 2-pack of beer instead of the 3-pack of today.....gold was more valuable to them than it was to me.

When told it wasn't worth a fortune just because it had a gold nib.

[Ink stained fingers]

7 hours ago, wspohn said:

I have rarely had good luck in antique stores. They don't seem to understand that functionality is usually paramount to a collector. Saying things like "But the nib is missing" or There's no cap" gets responses like "Yes, but it is old!"

I’ve definitely struck out many times. I found an old eversharp skyline once that looked beautiful and seemed like a reasonable deal. Then I handled it and found a large hole drilled into the cap, I’m talking 3mm or better, the owner did not understand why it was a problem 

[Ink stained fingers]

2 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Or as in the case of a Waterman lever filler with the nib bent at about a 90 degree angle, get offended when you laugh and point at the $295 US price tag and tell them they got ripped off.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

They want you to be impressed, not informed 🤷🏻‍♂️

[mitto]

Nice pen set and a nice story. Enjoy using it. 

[Ink stained fingers]

18 hours ago, mitto said:

Nice pen set and a nice story. Enjoy using it. 

thank you! its been a pleasure so far

 

[inkstainedruth]

On 10/27/2021 at 8:13 PM, Ink stained fingers said:

They want you to be impressed, not informed 🤷🏻‍♂️

Yeah, well, the problem there is that someone who ISN'T informed is going to go "Who'd pay nearly three hundred bucks for an old pen, when you can get a 60-pack of BICs for less than $8.50 at Staples?"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ink stained fingers]

3 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Yeah, well, the problem there is that someone who ISN'T informed is going to go "Who'd pay nearly three hundred bucks for an old pen, when you can get a 60-pack of BICs for less than $8.50 at Staples?"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

you do make a very good point 😅

[inkstainedruth]

Of course sometimes I go to antiques shops and find a whole lot of nothing.  Like yesterday....  The last place, an antiques mall inside what appeared to be a dying shopping mall, was particularly depressing -- at least a third of the booths were empty, and a lot of what I saw was more in the line of "collectibles" and not "antiques".  

The first place I was in and out of in maybe five minutes.  The second place, Google Maps tried to take me up a road that led to a fracking well, and then continued out a road ONLY accessible to the well traffic.   And I had to backtrack a couple of miles to the main road -- only for Google Maps to THEN say "Oh, here's an alternate...."  GRRRRR.  Then it turned out that the place hadn't been under the listed name for a DECADE and I got lucky and it was actually open (under the current ownership it used to only be open on weekends; now it's by chance or appointment -- and I got lucky that there were actually people there.  But no pens....  The third place I had to backtrack to and again was in and out in about 5 minutes).  And the final place was the dying antiques mall in a dying shopping mall (I think I maybe saw about 5 or 6 other stores actually open and not empty storefronts with the gates down and the lights out...).  Even a business just inside the mall entrance (which was some sort of wellness center type business for stuff like AA meetings and the like) had a closed sign on the front door....

There was what looked like a back corridor to the mall, but I didn't bother to check to see if anything was open (I couldn't even find any sort of directory or map listing what stores there were).  The only apparent anchor store -- a JC Penney's -- might have been open but I couldn't tell and didn't feel like traipsing all the way down to it.

The whole afternoon was just sort of depressing.  At least the weather was good (unlike today, where the next front is coming through and it's been raining all morning and is just gloomy out).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ink stained fingers]

34 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Of course sometimes I go to antiques shops and find a whole lot of nothing.  Like yesterday....  The last place, an antiques mall inside what appeared to be a dying shopping mall, was particularly depressing -- at least a third of the booths were empty, and a lot of what I saw was more in the line of "collectibles" and not "antiques".  

The first place I was in and out of in maybe five minutes.  The second place, Google Maps tried to take me up a road that led to a fracking well, and then continued out a road ONLY accessible to the well traffic.   And I had to backtrack a couple of miles to the main road -- only for Google Maps to THEN say "Oh, here's an alternate...."  GRRRRR.  Then it turned out that the place hadn't been under the listed name for a DECADE and I got lucky and it was actually open (under the current ownership it used to only be open on weekends; now it's by chance or appointment -- and I got lucky that there were actually people there.  But no pens....  The third place I had to backtrack to and again was in and out in about 5 minutes).  And the final place was the dying antiques mall in a dying shopping mall (I think I maybe saw about 5 or 6 other stores actually open and not empty storefronts with the gates down and the lights out...).  Even a business just inside the mall entrance (which was some sort of wellness center type business for stuff like AA meetings and the like) had a closed sign on the front door....

There was what looked like a back corridor to the mall, but I didn't bother to check to see if anything was open (I couldn't even find any sort of directory or map listing what stores there were).  The only apparent anchor store -- a JC Penney's -- might have been open but I couldn't tell and didn't feel like traipsing all the way down to it.

The whole afternoon was just sort of depressing.  At least the weather was good (unlike today, where the next front is coming through and it's been raining all morning and is just gloomy out).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Sometimes you just have to enjoy the adventure and keep your money. My wife likes those days significantly more than I do lol