New to Forum need advice

[LoneCrone]

Hello,

I'm new here but have used fountain pens in the past, mostly for professional music copying.  I keep coming across old fountain pens as I attempt to clean out an accumulation of stuff from this old house. My father, who passed away in 1995, never threw anything away and I have found a few old fountain pens in various states of disrepair or missing parts.  Right now I have a simple black Osmiroid 65 which says England under the name on the side.  It has a lever fill and screws apart but there is no bladder visible inside.  I would love to get it working as I like the feel of a fountain pen. The nib looks pristine.  I've searched the forums but don't seem able to get good results looking for repair info.  Can anyone help me or point me to a tutorial on how to find things here?

Thanks!

[ajoe]

I can not help with your questions, but I can...

 

Welcome to FPM!

[OCArt]

[northstar]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[Recursion]

[mizgeorge]

Hello and welcome

 

Sounds like your ink sac has probably degraded to the point where it's completely hard, and may well be stuck to the inside of the barrel.  

 

It's a pretty straightforward replacement job, and can be accomplished with very few tools, but you will need one or two things - you don't say where you are, but there are good sources in both North America and the UK, but limited choices elsewhere. 

 

There are some video tutorials around - and these may be easier to follow than some of the more traditional written versions.

 

Try something like: 

 

 

 

[Wahl]

[Sailor Kenshin]

13 hours ago, LoneCrone said:

Hello,

I'm new here but have used fountain pens in the past, mostly for professional music copying.  I keep coming across old fountain pens as I attempt to clean out an accumulation of stuff from this old house. My father, who passed away in 1995, never threw anything away and I have found a few old fountain pens in various states of disrepair or missing parts.  Right now I have a simple black Osmiroid 65 which says England under the name on the side.  It has a lever fill and screws apart but there is no bladder visible inside.  I would love to get it working as I like the feel of a fountain pen. The nib looks pristine.  I've searched the forums but don't seem able to get good results looking for repair info.  Can anyone help me or point me to a tutorial on how to find things here?

Thanks!

I have a few Osmiroid 65s.  First, gently try to move the lever.  If it moves, you may be able to flush the sac.  If it doesn't move, un-thread the nib (as you have already done) and fill the body with water.  See whether any ink comes out.  Meanwhile, soak the nib in a glass of clean cool water and see if any ink dissolves.

 

Unfortunately, many people used India ink in these pens.  Re-saccing isn't too difficult, and this may be your option if the sac is ink-bound.  And welcome aboard.

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! So glad to have you as a member!!

[LoneCrone]

5 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I have a few Osmiroid 65s.  First, gently try to move the lever.  If it moves, you may be able to flush the sac.  If it doesn't move, un-thread the nib (as you have already done) and fill the body with water.  See whether any ink comes out.  Meanwhile, soak the nib in a glass of clean cool water and see if any ink dissolves.

 

Unfortunately, many people used India ink in these pens.  Re-saccing isn't too difficult, and this may be your option if the sac is ink-bound.  And welcome aboard.

Hello Sailor (never got to say that before, 😁) and thank you so much for the advice and video.

Gee, strange that I didn't give those details.  The lever works fine but I tried putting the nib and body in water and no ink came out.  Truthfully, I may have done that years ago and don't remember.  As I said,  I have used a dedicated music writing pen with special ink (music ink is thicker and lays on top of special music paper) so, knowing ink, I would have soaked any pen I found.   I do know that my dad only ever used Parker brand Quink so no worries there.

 

The video is well done but I have one question (for which written instructions would be better).  I understood the logic of the length measurements for the bladder until he appeared to subtract the length which would be required to go onto the nib. Why did he not leave that extra length taken up by the nib?  Is it in order that the bladder not go all the way to the bottom of the body?

 

I live in upstate NY. Can you recommend somewhere I could buy the bladders and the special tweezers for stretching the tube to place onto the nib section?  

BTW, I thought the nib was just the metal part.  Isn't it? 

 

Thanks for the help!   I'm looking forward to finding more of these pens as I empty boxes!

[JungleJim]

LoneCrone, I highly recommend Danny Fudge over at theWriltepen.net because he has been repairing and replacing sacs in pens for many decades. His prices are reasonable and turn-around time is about 2 weeks.

 

And Welcome to FPN !

[LoneCrone]

11 minutes ago, JungleJim said:

LoneCrone, I highly recommend Danny Fudge over at theWriltepen.net because he has been repairing and replacing sacs in pens for many decades. His prices are reasonable and turn-around time is about 2 weeks.

 

And Welcome to FPN !

Thanks JungleJim,

Do you mean to recommend him to do the repair?  I'm pretty handy and am sure I can do it myself.  Just looking for supplies.

[JungleJim]

Danny just does repairs and nib tuning. For supplies, try pentooling.com or andersonpens.com

[LoneCrone]

A BIG thank you!  This is a great group!

[Sailor Kenshin]

1 hour ago, LoneCrone said:

Hello Sailor (never got to say that before, 😁) and thank you so much for the advice and video.

Gee, strange that I didn't give those details.  The lever works fine but I tried putting the nib and body in water and no ink came out.  Truthfully, I may have done that years ago and don't remember.  As I said,  I have used a dedicated music writing pen with special ink (music ink is thicker and lays on top of special music paper) so, knowing ink, I would have soaked any pen I found.   I do know that my dad only ever used Parker brand Quink so no worries there.

 

The video is well done but I have one question (for which written instructions would be better).  I understood the logic of the length measurements for the bladder until he appeared to subtract the length which would be required to go onto the nib. Why did he not leave that extra length taken up by the nib?  Is it in order that the bladder not go all the way to the bottom of the body?

 

I live in upstate NY. Can you recommend somewhere I could buy the bladders and the special tweezers for stretching the tube to place onto the nib section?  

BTW, I thought the nib was just the metal part.  Isn't it? 

 

Thanks for the help!   I'm looking forward to finding more of these pens as I empty boxes!

 

Did I post a video?  

 

Yes, the nib is just the metal part.  But Osmiroids (as well as Esterbrooks, and some Pelikans) have nibs attached to their feeds as well as the threaded part.  

 

They are meant to thread in and out of the body, and many Osmiroid 65s came in sets with about five different nib units, sets for writing, drawing, and calligraphy.  

 

You can indeed buy the supplies online.  Re-saccing a pen isn't very difficult, but I can see that you might want to have a pro do it.

[LoneCrone]

56 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Did I post a video?

Oops, sorry, that was mizgeorge who posted the video.

 

Thanks for the additional info on Osmiroid 65 nibs.  This brings up a question I asked more fully on the repair forum (which I only found by clicking links in other comments, not through the various tabs or searching...this is not the easiest site to navigate!{ 

My question  involves nomenclature and where to learn more about pen physiology in general.  I don't really understand what you mean by "nibs attached to their feeds as well as the threaded part".  Does that mean that the metal nib cannot be detatched from the plastic part it is attached to?  The pen I have for music writing, a Pelikan Graphos, came with many nibs that just push on and pull off.  I don't want to assume that the nibs of the Osmiroid, or all fountain pens, do the same.  

 

So, any recommendations for learning materials?  I visited both the suppliers' websites you mentioned and found searching on them less than user friendly to beginners.

 

Thanks again for your help

[Sailor Kenshin]

This has always been a good site for learning pen physiology:

 

Richard's Pens

 

I agree, all this probably seems confusing at first.  It certainly was for me!  It took a while to understand what everything meant.  And there's a fair bit to learn.

 

 I never tried pulling an Osmiroid nib because it's so covenient to change them by threading the whole thing into the body.  

 

Some nib and feed units, like certain Pilot pens, do pull out.  Generally, I don't take anything apart unless it really needs it.

 

I'm sure you'll get more help from a lot of people here as you go along.  

 

There's a Pen Repair sub-forum here, too.

[The Duck Hunter]

Welcome to FPN! 

[LoneCrone]

On 1/27/2023 at 10:58 AM, Sailor Kenshin said:

I have a few Osmiroid 65s.  First, gently try to move the lever.  If it moves, you may be able to flush the sac.  If it doesn't move, un-thread the nib (as you have already done) and fill the body with water.  See whether any ink comes out.  Meanwhile, soak the nib in a glass of clean cool water and see if any ink dissolves.

 

Unfortunately, many people used India ink in these pens.  Re-saccing isn't too difficult, and this may be your option if the sac is ink-bound.  And welcome aboard.

Hello again SailorKenshin,

After visiting multiple suggested websites,  I'm still finding it impossible to locate the sac that I need to resack my Osmiroid 65. (don't know if I said that correctly). They seem to all do it by searching by brand and none have Osmiroid listed!

Since you say you have a few of these pens, perhaps you could help me with a size designation I can use to get the right one?  I've checked inside and the lever and lever bar look perfect.  Putting in the sac should be easy for me (I have worked as a piano technician for decades...lots of specialized tools and fine repair work).

 

Thanks again!

[Sailor Kenshin]

47 minutes ago, LoneCrone said:

Hello again SailorKenshin,

After visiting multiple suggested websites,  I'm still finding it impossible to locate the sac that I need to resack my Osmiroid 65. (don't know if I said that correctly). They seem to all do it by searching by brand and none have Osmiroid listed!

Since you say you have a few of these pens, perhaps you could help me with a size designation I can use to get the right one?  I've checked inside and the lever and lever bar look perfect.  Putting in the sac should be easy for me (I have worked as a piano technician for decades...lots of specialized tools and fine repair work).

 

Thanks again!

 

I've heard two different sac sizes for repairing the Osmiroid 65: 16 and 18.  The 16 might be a safe bet; I've read that the size 18 tends to get twisted when re-assembling the pen.

 

You'll also need a small amount of pure talc (not baby or bath powder) to coat the outside of the sac before re-assembling the pen,  and a small amount of shellac for 'gluing' the sac on.

 

Hope this is the info you need!