Sheaffer Touchdown - where to buy Ink Sac with cheap shipping

[pen lady]

Ron, I've had something similar happen with a Vac diaphragm that was installed by a pro (not you) years ago at the L.A. pen show. It went gummy.  This is a problem that I've seen coming though, sadly we've just lost Peter Amis of The Pen Sac Company, he was a lovely man. I fear we've been putting all our eggs in one basket as far as pen repair supplies go.  I too ordered my sacs from him, though when he was ill last year I bought some from Pendragons in the UK. They were OK but too thick and inflexible for Snork/TD replacement. I remember you used to get sacs from Martin Smith at Woodbin here in Ontario, he's passed on too.  I think there will have to be a younger person to take on pen sac manufacture on this side of the Pond before it's too late. 

[Ron Z]

Farm Boy here on FPN,  has been working with Peter for the last year or so. I haven't heard anything official about the status, but it sounds like we're going to still be able to buy sacs.

 

Martin had a bad batch of sacs back in the early 2000s - around 2003 IIRC, that melted in short order.  We saw the effects from that for quite a while.   I ordered some from Martin, but after that incident bought just his PVC sacs and all latex from PSC.  That started shortly after Peter bought the machines from the White Rubber Company.

[FarmBoy]

To add to Ron’s post. What was used to clean the pen?

 

just water or some type of cleaner?

[AceNinja]

  On 3/8/2025 at 12:46 PM, Ron Z said:

Two questions. 

 

* Not all sacs are created equal.  Where did the vendor get is sacs?   There's a reason why I buy my sacs from the Pen Sac Company, and only PSC, and have for about 30 years.  I can't have sacs failing like that.

* Did you coat the sac with talc before you put the sac guard on?  I always put a good layer of pure talc on a sac when I restore a pen, especially on a pen that has a sac guard.  It helps to minimize contact with the metal.

Expand  

From Vintage Fountain Pens Ltd.  In the ebay listing, it does it is dusted with french chalk.  And when it arrives, I can see that it is lightly dusted.  After I replaced the sac in section, before i install back the metal sac protector, i dust it even more with baby powder.  Specifically Johnson's Baby Powder.

 

I still got the bottle of powder, so I reading it now trying to see what is the ingredient.  It's a 50g bottle, the text is so small, I had to use a loupe.  And luckily we (pen tinkerer) always had a loupe lying around haha.  It says:

- No added phthalates and parabens

- mild & fresh fragrance

- contains purified talc

- dermatologically tested

 

could the powder I used be the problem?

 

or... could it be the silicone grease?   I tried my best to keep the silicone grease from ever come in contact with the sac.  but i use the grease to lube the oring and the metal tube of the TD pump (sorry i not sure what to call it).  maybe i used too much and it somehow seep into the sac protector and sac?  But I just unscrew the section again to inspect while i typing this sentence.  Doesn't see evidence of silicone grease around outside of the sac protector.

 

  

  On 3/8/2025 at 4:45 PM, FarmBoy said:

To add to Ron’s post. What was used to clean the pen?

 

just water or some type of cleaner?

Expand  

Just water.  Tap water.  Nothing else.  Didn't use any soap or dish soap also.  Just water.

 

[Ron Z]

Baby powder has "other" stuff in it.  Can't say that it harms a sac, but neither can I say that it doesn't.   Pure talc can be found on line.  A little goes a very long way, and it's pretty cheap on Amazon and Ebay.