Does anyone know exactly what THIS weird looking thing is ... ???

[nickap]

Well, I got the replacement sac (size 14) for the pen this morning and shellacked it into place, and just now I tried filling the pen and writing with it for the first time. I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised! I was kind of expecting a rush of ink, since I just used the same ink as I use in my other pens, and from reading other posts about glass nibs, I thought I might need something a little thicker. But the flow was actually quite regular, and fairly constant. I did find that periodically it would appear to dry up; turning it slightly to use a different side of the nib would get it flowing again, and then if I turned it back I would usually find it working again in the original position. After a while I found myself just naturally turning it slightly every once in a while as I was writing. At first the nib seemed to have some 'give' to it, but then I realized that it wasn't fully tight - it's just a push fit, and the section that pushes in is quite short. Once I pushed the nib in a little more firmly, it felt more solid. It requires only a very light amount of pressure - and then, as you might expect with a glass nib, it really 'glides' across the paper.

 

Below is, literally, my very first attempt at using it - you can see how shaky I was near the beginning, and then got more comfortable with it as I went along. (My handwriting is always going to be lousy, no matter how long I practice.)

 

 

[mhguda]

and it's become a very nice looking pen... enjoy!

[essayfaire]

Glad you stuck with this!  It looks like it has been worth the effort.

[dipper]

On UK eBay are two similar glass pens selling as part of a lot of vintage pens. The item auction ends very soon, sometime on Saturday 19 March 2022, or maybe 18 March depending on your time zone.

See photo number 5 for a view of the glass tips.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325097732574?hash=item4bb155b9de%3Ag%3Ad2AAAOSw5ThiLOFI&LH_Auction=1

[inkstainedruth]

On 3/9/2022 at 10:02 AM, essayfaire said:

👀Oh my!

Well, that's still better than the alternative -- that it's turned to goo first....

A couple of years ago I saw some glass nabbed fountain pen in a booth at an antiques mall (trying to remember where now).  But I didn't know enough about the pen to buy it.  I do have a glass nib dip pen (one of the J Herbin ones) that a friend was giving away a few years ago -- someone had given it to her only she never really used it, and brought it to a New Year's Day party at another friend's house.  It came with two small bottles of ink (one blue and I think one purple) but couldn't really get the pen to work.  And don't know if the inks are FP safe or not.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[nickap]

These Spors pens seem to come up fairly regularly at decent prices. The problem is that many of them have the tip of the nibs chipped off. I did pick up another one from eBay, almost identical to the one I have restored - the eBay one was $20 including the shipping. It's not in as good shape as this one, but it's not bad - the nib is intact - and it has a clip, which this one does not have. I may use the new one for parts. Here's how it looks (hasn't been cleaned yet):