Wearever fountain pen - what the?

[LandyVlad]

So I found this 'Wearever' branded pen among my stuff.

I have no idea wherever (see what I did there?  ) it came from, and even less about the brand.

 

All I know:

• It's a lever filler
• The sac is missing
• there is possibly (probably) a metal band missing from the lid.

 

Unsure whether it'd be worth the $ to fix it. Possibly not. Bin?

 

Appreciate if anyone could shed some light on this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks  

 

[PAKMAN]

Wearever is a third tier pen brand. Normally I would say that the cost of putting a new sac on ($20-$45 depending who does it) is worth more than the cost of the pen itself. However, I do note that you have a nib labeled 14K so that makes it more worth while. 

[LandyVlad]

Ta.

[kestrel]

This sounds like an oxymoron but the Zenith was a "near" top of the line Wearever made during the mid-1940s.  The gold nib was mandated because the usual cheap steal that Wearever used previously was a priority war metal.  Gold wasn't.  Here's a link with some more info:

 

https://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Wearever/WeareverZenith.htm

 

I agree with Mr. Mamoulides that these are not bad pens.  They aren't great pens either but the two that I have fussed over a bit (mostly nib work) are good writers and I enjoy writing with them.  Yours is missing the cap band but the nib looks pretty good and should be relatively easy to tune if that is necessary.

 

Zeniths sold new for $1.95 in 1944 which would equate to a $34.97 pen today.  If it were mine I would probably restore it but then I like tinkering with and using third tier pens.

[LandyVlad]

Thanks.

If I knew more about restoring etc that might be fun. Where would one even get a cap band...  manufacture it oneself? 

[kestrel]

21 hours ago, LandyVlad said:

Thanks.

If I knew more about restoring etc that might be fun. Where would one even get a cap band...  manufacture it oneself? 

I find them on "parts pens" in discount bins at flea markets and antique shops or in eBay lots of pens "for parts or repair."  Usually it comes from a damaged cap that isn't good for anything else.  Wearevers were not made to last so I see stuff like that fairly often.  My problem is getting the new ones to stay in place.

[LandyVlad]

Ok cool. Cheers

[Paul-in-SF]

14 hours ago, kestrel said:

My problem is getting the new ones to stay in place.

 

Yes, there's a process called swaging that amounts to carefully and slowly squeezing the cap band down in size a little so that it can't slide off again. This seems to take specialized equipment, it's not something you can do with (for example) a pair of pliers. 

 

That's not to say that @LandyVlad couldn't use the pen without a cap band. This might also be a good place to start if interested in learning how to re-sac a pen, since the pen is not a big investment. There is some investment in supplies and tools to do a re-saccing, but you should be able to acquire those for less than what a professional would charge to do one re-sac job (I think). Minimum supplies you would need would be a little shellac and a new sac. A sac stretcher is also nice, to help you get the end of the sac around the nipple. Finding the right size sac can be an issue, for me it's usually whatever is the largest that fits easily into the barrel, but it also needs to be slightly smaller than the sac nipple, so that it has to stretch to go around it. So you might have to buy a small assortment of sacs.

 

First thing you need to do is to scrape off all the old sac residue until the sac nipple is down to bare plastic. For the rest, there are lots of YouTube videos that show you how to proceed. This is where I usually mention local pen clubs, it can be very useful to get friendly with a hobbyist who is willing to show you the ropes. And very satisfying to do this sort of thing for yourself. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

The Werever nib seemed to be a springy regular flex nib.; no matte how funny some of them look.

 

I had some; and was foolish enough to get rid of most of them***...Keeping only the camouflaged MP&fountain pen and the turquoise one in the picture.

 

*** Somehow thinking as a foolish noobie thought I could only really have 20 pens and they most of Wearevers, and the Esterbrooks were standing in my way. I got rid of them.

The half the pre and post War Wearevers is in this picture were second solid at least as solid as second tier Esterbrook or even more solid, second tier pens, There was a couple third tier Wearevers, in the picture. The ones with metal caps.

The long turquoise one is a common '60's pen, one of my wife's pens,...could well have had one, but not that color as a kid.

 

Wearever also made 4th class pens. They sold pens to all levels...do you want a 1,000 pens with your Department Store Name on it? Or do you sell even cheaper pens under your own brand, you flog from newsstand to newsstand...Arnold comes to mind...if it was? I don't know for sure.

There were many more workers needing a fountain pen, than middle classed families with the Family Expensive big name Fountain Pen.

 

Yes, a one fountain pen family was common.  It wasn't just One man, One Pen family of an office worker.

The family pen was in use mostly for the monthly check for the bills.

 

We were members of the Working Class with the Family Fountain pen. As a Grade school kid, I could stick my nose in the air.....yep, our fountain pen was my mother's Shaffer Snorkel, she brought into the marriage. I'd been informed it was Some Pen, and not a pen for kids to break.

 

The Great Wearever Blog is Missing!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was never pinned.

 

Wearever was then, the worlds biggest, most productive fountain pen factory in the world. Killed by Skillcraft ball points....

 

It was the greatest conspiracy of the 20th century. Parker and Sheaffer of course had to do with that...deep state trick.....back when smoking was allowed, it was then the common smoke filled backroom lobby driven politics. Deep State is so much shorter phrase than smoke filled backroom politics.

They should let politicians smoke in the back rooms again...some might die early.

....................

Dennis "Guest", one of the founders of this com, was kicked off, because he got deathly ill and forgot to return pens sent for repair.

After he was in the wheel chair, on the o2 bottle. and had to sell the worlds greatest collection of Wearever pens in the world for a nickle on the dollar.****

 

Frank couldn't keep that blog up alone...So that got lost, what should have been pinned.

Everyone chases high priced Shaffer's, and not their Crests....

Every one chases more than a worker's pen, in they are not really workers any more with wages too low for a Shaffer, or a Parker.

 

**** Here in Germany, the common, every worker pays 13 or 15% for 100% coverage in Socialized medicine, I enjoy in Germany. No one loses his house, car or a pen collection to pay hospital bills.

€10 a day for overnight hospital stays.

 

My wife tells me for a little bit more the next time she will insist on a private room to get her full sleep in. She spent over 3 weeks in a German hospital with a busted appendix....as normal insured.  She got three full meals a day for that €10.

German Socialized medicine; you know. With none of the faults of England. As good as France, Italy or Spain. I don't have to pay much attention to that factor of life. It is there, and no one complains.

 

I'm not in the States so I can never again get real nice solid second tier Wearevers....had good solid pens into the '50's. 

As a school kid the only difference I could see was only some of the Wearvers had metal caps...(I just missed the '38?-60 Colorful non metal cap Esterbrooks ) just getting the cheap solid pressed plastic and metal top Esterbrooks.

 

Some '50-late 60's Wearevers also in the picture.

 

I regret getting rid of the Wearever's  more than the  Esterbrooks.