Month: August 2021

Posted in Restoration, Stories

Basic Restoration Workflow

Posted on by Danny Watts

My restoration process is essentially the same for every pen; access the pen, disassemble, clean, install a new ink sac and reassemble, yet no two pens are the same.

Gotta begin by examining the pen, determine what it is made of, look for damage, tooth marks, and other potential problems!

As the pen is being disassembled I put all the parts into a clear plastic box that latches, accidents happen and losing parts is avoidable. Plus the box is only 99 cents at Michael’s.

The process starts with the nib and feed. I learned the hard way, that water is bad when the pen is made of hard rubber (ebonite) and you have to be super careful when using heat on resin. Remove the nib and feed, then use a Sunshine cloth to restore an amazing luster.

On to the section, use a dental pick and xacto knife to remove the remains of the old sac. Review the overall condition of the section, if it scratched, dull, discolored? Normally I lightly go over the section with sandpaper. Starting with the 1,000 grit and working to the 7,000 grit at which time the section should be scratch free and shining like new.

Grab the flashlight and shine it down the inside of the barrel – scary isn’t it? The dried up sac may have attached itself to the barrel and the pressure bar, and will need to be scraped out. Dependent on the filler system and mechanism, I often remove the filler lever and the pressure bar. With all the parts out of the barrel it is much easier to scrape any remaining ink sac off the barrel wall. The Sunshine cloth on used on the lever, snap clip and J-bar to remove tarnish, rust, stains and ink.

Unless the barrel is chased, remove scratches and tooth marks with sandpaper. Otherwise a good going over with the Sunshine cloth will remove grime and restore the shine to the barrel. The lever and J-bar get reinstalled at this point.

The pen cap receives the same treatment as the barrel and the Sunshine cloth is used to restore the clip and cap band.

Time to fit a new sac. How do you know which sac to use? The websites below provide a variety of sacs and charts to determine the appropriate sac for your pen. The length of the sac is based on the inside length of the barrel less the portion of the section securing the barrel. Apply shellac to secure the sac to the section, after a day, coat the sac with talc and reassemble the pen.

I do not apply wax to the pens, I apply a light coat of mineral oil to BHR. I probably should add wax to the BHR pens as a protectant whereas celluloid needs to breath and should never be waxed.

Posted in Pens, Stories

Vintage Trendsetting Pens, the original “Influencers”

Posted on by Danny Watts

I was reading a blog the other day by Deb Gibson (of Goodwriterspens) where she was musing about pens that she thought were the primary influencers impacting the direction fountain pen appearance has taken over the years. I was considering a posting about the history of fountain pens and felt her blog was far more interesting and considered “reblogging” it. In her humble opinion, the following are the biggest influencers:

  • Parker Duofold
  • Sheaffer Balanced
  • Parker 51

I’m not going to go into great depth summarizing her thoughts, she does such a great job. I invite you all to read her blog; however, I would venture the Conklin Crescent should be on the list, replacing the Sheaffer Balance. But more on this later.

The Sheaffer Balanced, I’ll be honest I don’t know much about this pen, I honestly don’t like it, though Walt Disney was a big fan. It’s claim to fame is the torpedo shape and there are plenty of contemporary pens with the same shape.

I absolutely agree with her choice of the Duofold, clearly a landmark design and development. Many a contemporary pen is designed with the Duofold in mind. The Parker 51, I can see that as well. It’s influence is less pervasive because it came into being when the ballpoint pens were coming of age, but I feel the design impacted the appearance of all “clicker” ball point pens.

Missing from the list is the Conklin Crescent, why you may ask? I am getting a little off topic by adding this pen based on it’s self filling mechanism which impacted it’s appearance.

The Conklin Crescent is renowned for two firsts 1) first mass-produced self-filling pen and 2) the first mass-produced pen to use a flexible rubber ink sac. The crescent filling system employs an arch-shaped crescent attached to a rigid metal pressure bar, with the crescent portion protruding from the pen through a slot and the pressure bar inside the barrel. Which in turn compressed the internal rubber sac, creating a vacuum to force ink into the pen.

The crescent filling system is the basis for the Sheaffer introduction of the lever filling system in 1912, and the subsequent Parker button filler system. Clearly the pressure bar, and ink sac self filling system introduced by the crescent filling system became the primary direction of fountain pens for the next 60 years. In order to accomplish this, pen manufactures had to incorporate self fill levers, which petruded from a slot cut into the barrel – like the Crescent fill. Or they introduced a button under a blind cap which depressed a pressure bar. I know it is a stretch but it’s just my opinion which is the reason for the post.

So I ask, what are your thoughts? Do you agree, disagree, what pens do you think made a significant impact to fountain pen appearance over the years?

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Posted in Pens, Restoration, Stories

Arnold: the Original Disposable Fountain Pen

Posted on by Danny Watts

Company Backstory

Remmie Arnold started his company in 1935, operating out of Petersburg, Virginia after his tenure with the Edison Pen Company. Arnold became one of the largest producers of fountain pens in the world, concentrating on very inexpensive pens sold primarily in low end stores.

Good can be cheap, but Cheap is never good.

How cheap were Arnold pens you may ask? Retailers could buy a gross for $22.50 or 15 cents per pen, reselling them at a 40% profit. Wow, I paid $4 for a pen that originally sold for 21 cents, hmmm…. been had again. Obviously, with such a low price point, these pens were not built to last. The Arnold Pen Company survived through 2005 having switched from fountain pen production to become a ballpoint pen manufacturer.

My Pens

I bought 3 Arnold pens to experiment with, 2 came from a seller in Richmond. Both of those were supposed to be NOS, right out of the box. Yup the pens were never used, which doesn’t mean they aged well – actually they are both butt ugly.

Even ugly pens need love – right, so I set about pulling the green pen apart. The section pulled free of the barrel and lookie there, the original ink sac is still intact and pliable. That is cool, I need to ink it up and see how well it writes. Well maybe later.

Looking at the feed, it has 2 ink channels or fissures as Waterman liked to call them. It is super cheap, the manufacturing process used a 2 sided mold to create the feed. The sides didn’t fit well and the residue plastic was not trimmed off.

Good stuff cheap

I decided to ink up the pen, it took ink without any problems. The lever is super small so it is difficult to maneuver. I have to admit for a 21 cent pen it writes really well and I’m impressed the ink sac holds ink. The sac is probably upwards of 60 years old.

I got out my old Sunshine cloth and went to work on the cap band and clip. I failed to make any progress, so I switched to a new Sunshine cloth and that made a difference on the cap band, the clip improved but not by much. The filling lever is beyond hope. The nickel finish is gone and there are signs on the barrel of discoloration by the threads. The pen has clearly been exposed to the sun in the hot, humid Virginia summers. I am toying with the option of using my DIY nickel electroplating process to restore the missing nickel plating. But that folks is the topic of a future blog post.

Posted in Restoration

My Gold Starry #256 – Are you kidding me?

Posted on by Danny Watts

The Pen

I have been Jonesing for a pen like this – mottled hard rubber, eyedropper filler and retractable. Bonus time, the pen is vintage French and the seller is in NOVA (Northern VA). The offer clearly stated the pen is missing it’s cap, figured I could live with that and hope I may stumble upon a vintage cap. The barrel has an 11mm diameter and measures 103mm in length without a cap and the nib is retracted.

The pen arrived, and I am super excited. The nib extends and retracts, the barrel colors are BEAutiful so I went about examining the nib. I pull out the nib, and immediately notice the feed and nib are held together by some crappy homemade “section.” Hmmmm!

Look at this crap, now I am super annoyed! Breathe, take a deep breath…

Once my blood pressure came down I decided to take the feed and nib out of the faux section. After more grumbling I set about smoothing the section and making it look good. As I have no idea if it will even prevent ink leakage, I thought it might as well look good. Yes I realize the availability of Gold Starry 1920-something pen parts is well non-existent but really this is horrible.

Now that I talked myself off the ledge, again, I went about taking the pen apart – I really wanted to see the inner workings. I began by separating the backend of the pen from the barrel, it unscrews. With a slight pull, out came the retracting mechanism.

The nib is retracted or extended depending on which direction the end-cap is turned. The shaft holding the section has pins which bisect the corkscrew in the channels and extend into groves cut into the inside of the barrel. The turning motion will cause the corkscrew fixture to spin thus the channels will run the pins down the length of the mechanism or return them to the beginning this extracting or retracting the nib.

At this point, I realized that the end-cap which is turned to extend or retract the nib is broken. I was able to pull the entire mechanism out of the pen. The end was clearly broken off. A quick review of the end-cap and one can see the shaft bisecting the end-cap. Thus when the nib is extended, the end-cap is twisted tightly to ensure a snug fit – we don’t want ink leaking out.

I consulted with some Fountain Pen Geeks and they recommend leaving it as is or see if the shaft is long enough to go through the cap again. All agree that glueing the shaft to the cap is a very bad idea.

How is it filled with ink? Well, the nib is retracted into the barrel, then ink is squirted in over the nib filling the barrel. Once the barrel is full the nib is extended. The section “receiver” forms an ink-tight fit around the tapered end of the barrel from when extended. Ink flows into the “receiver” through 2 holes then to the feed and the nib.

The nib is by Georg Peter Rupp, a nib manufacturer from 1920’s to 1970 in Heidelberg, Germany. It is safe to assume this nib is not the original. Can’t guess if it is pre or post war. But the gold color is odd, the nib material should be silver and if you look closely between the “P” and “O” it looks like silver or is that a reflection?

Well look at that, a nice pretty stainless steel nib, not the fake gold platted nib. Funny what a rub down with a Sunshine Cloth will show you.

I was annoyed earlier, now I am mad.

Posted in Pens, Reviews, Stories

Scrikss 419 Piston filler

Posted on by Danny Watts

Company Backstory

Scrikss is a pen manufacturer based in Istanbul, Turkey – established in 1964. Yup they make fountain pens in Turkey. The company name is of Spanish origin, derived from the word ‘Escriure,’ which means ‘writing’ in the Catalan language.

During the Spanish Civil War, Scrikss started producing fountain pens in Albacete, Spain. In the late 50s, rights to the name Scrikss are sold to a Swiss company. Subsequently, all rights to the brand are sold to Turkish investors and Scrikss Maden ve Plastik Sanayi A.Ş. is born.

Since 1964, the company has been producing Scrikss ballpoint pens in it’s factory at Bahçelievler, followed by fountain pen production in 1966. Except for the nib, everything relating to the fountain pens was manufactured domestically in Turkey.

In 1974, Waterman agreed to a deal licensing the production of the Jif-Waterman fountain pen, cartridges and ink to the Scrikss company in Turkey. Jif-Waterman is credited with the first commercially successful ink cartridge, which was made of glass ink cartridges in 1936.

My pen a Scrikss 419

Scrikss pens are not generally available in the US; however, they can be found on eBay and at the odd pen retailer. In 2020, Scrikss re-introduced the 419 model with new colors, a piston filler, and an acrylic resin barrel. I picked up a red one because it was cheaper ($28 vs $32) and I don’t have a red pen.

First impressions

The pen came in a big box, trying to make a positive impression I guess. The pen itself is very light, topping the scale at 11g (or 0.40 oz). Not a surprise as it is only made of resin. Capped, the pen measures 125mm while the barrel is 11mm across. A couple twists (one complete rotation) removes the cap revealing a gold plated Scrikss medium nib with a plastic feed – pretty standard stuff. The cap band is gold plate and tapers down to the barrel, with the name “Scrikss” repeating on the band. The cap clip is also gold plated with a large “S” within a crest.

The pen comes with a piston feed, meaning it doesn’t accept cartridges or a removable converter. Simply turn the end-cap on the barrel and a piston moves down the ink reservoir. Dip the nib into the ink and turn the end-cap the other way, and the piston retracts filling the pen with ink. When the piston is fully retracted the cap fits snuggly against the barrel. Sorry I am the vintage pen guy and I got the biggest kick out of this feature. Plus the barrel nearest to the section is clear acrylic so you can see the ink reserves.

All inked up, time to apply pen to paper, it instantly began writing. I was surprised at how well the medium nib did on cheaper paper. There are far more issues with my bad handwriting than the pen. Because it is a medium nib the ink dried noticeably slower than let’s say the Conklin All American with a fine nib. Both test I used Waterman Serenity Blue ink.

Opinions

Other then the lack of weight to the pen, I really liked it. I enjoyed how the pen felt in my hand, I am not one to post the cap but the size was good. The lack of weight does give it a cheap feel, but I’m am biased towards pens with some weight to them. Added bonus, my wallet liked it! Would I buy another? Well let’s say I was searching for other models they offer and their Heritage Black GT caught my attention. The bad news is I could only find it at a pen dealer in Romania, selling for $178. I am adding the Black GT to my wish list of pens.

Other reviews

Awesome little, great pen!

Posted in Stories

Our Personalities, They Determine Our Collections

Posted on by Danny Watts

I’d like to apologize in advance for this, while researching this topic I read a bunch of psychology articles. In light of my “hobby personality” test, that’s not surprising…….more on that later.

Let’s begin with our collections of pens, they can speak volumes about us. Just consider the ramifications of pens selected to be in the collection, the pens you chose to leave out, how the collection is organized and lastly what is on display for others to see. Do we collect purely for the satisfaction of seeking and owning pens? Duh, yeah! Is it more exact to say, some collect for possible financial gain, the pleasure, an opportunity to meet others, to preserve history, the thrill of tracking down the item, or the organizational aspect.

“Unconscious Behavioral Residue”

The pen collector is perhaps one of the better examples of unconscious behavioral residue; the commitment of time, the level of effort and the attention to detail that goes into curating and organizing a collection illuminates that collector. There are five personality traits associated with collecting: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (not my words). It may come as no surprise that those who are very particular about the organization of their collection are more likely to be very conscientiousness, compared to someone whose collection is not really organized. They tend to be more associated with openness, and tend to fill their collection with a greater variety of pens, inks and journals.

The Darkside

For those who collect anything, there is a fine line between healthy activity and mental health issues. “Collectors” can be classified as hoarders when their behavior affects their daily life. Not to say that every person who has a passion for collecting struggles with their mental health. – Wait my wife already thinks I have issues. – I imagine there are people who have used this hobby to improve their quality of life, crediting their collection for introducing them to wonderful people all over the world who share their love of pens. There is my wife looking at me making a “L” on her forehead (LOL).

“Feeling Regulators”

The pens in our collections probably meet some emotional need, no I’m not saying we are all shallow or in need of a “blankie.” It could be a pen that’s tied to a strong memory, or associated with someone special to you, or you simply just “love” it. For many, there’s a healthy dose of nostalgia tied to our collections. There will be pens that serve as “conscious identity claims,” simply put, how we want others to perceive us.

If you read this far it’s time for some fun, below I’ve found three tests for your entertainment and personal enlightenment. Ready to learn what hobbies (other than collecting pens) suits your personality?

Your next hobby should be? My results “Baking”. Eating yeah, not doing.

Your perfect hobby based on personality My results “Academics” nuts on.

What hobby should you try? My results “Music” Listening.

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Posted in Pens, Restoration, Stories

Gold Starry pens “le stylo qui marche”

Posted on by Danny Watts

Company Backstory

Gold Starry can trace its origins back to 1909 with the marketing of Conway Stewart fountain pens in France, under the Gold Star brand name. This resulted in a trademark violation, thus in 1912 the name was changed to Gold Starry, staying true to the English origin of the pen. The first pens sold by Gold Starry were black hard rubber or mottled safeties. These pens were eyedropper filler safety fountain pens, identified by two digits (models 36 & 39), indicating the price in francs.

At the beginning of the 1920s, fountain pen production began in a pavilion on the outskirts of Paris. Gold Starry became a wholly-owned French pen manufacturer, thus ending the import of English pens. The company adopted the slogan “le stylo qui marche” (the pen that works).

During the war, the company suffered through the occupation, having an English brand name only made matters worse. After the war, quality issues plagued production and market share fell with the introduction of the ballpoint pens. Gold Starry responded by introducing cartridge fountain pens and participating in 1959 consortium for the production of the “Visor Pen.”

Gold Starry managed to survive these crisis periods by supplementing their production lines, entering the world of luxury office accessories (with calendars, rulers, letter openers) and a successful line of luxury ballpoint pens, all produced using gold-plated metal. World events intervened yet again, this time the company felt the effects of rising gold prices, thus their products being prohibitively expensive. This crisis proved too much and Gold Starry was shuttered in 1980.

Model 256, retractable eyedropper

In 1925, Gold Starry introduced the 256 and the 257 Loaded safety models. On the barrel of each is engraved their trademark star, dotted rings on the clipless cap and barrel. This pen and the 257 model are unique in that on the barrel is imprinted “Manufacture Francaise,” while later models spelling is “Fabrication Francaise”

The Eyedropper Filler System

Has been around since the earliest years of fountain pens, and is pretty simple. There are 2 methods used to fill an eyedropper pen: the section is removed from the barrel and an eyedropper is used to squirt ink into the barrel, afterward the section is reinserted in the barrel. It is very important that the section is securely inserted in the barrel.

To fill a retractable safety pen, the nib is retracted, again ink is squirted into the barrel using an eyedropper. In both cases, the barrel must always be in the upright position, otherwise the ink will pour out the open barrel – duh.

Posted in Pens

…Its a new month, what’s in your pen cup?

Posted on by Danny Watts

The Conklin All American has been drained of ink, cleaned and put away. You may recall I did a review of the Conklin and decided I wasn’t a fan – it was too fluffy (fat). Now after I’ve used it for a month, I have gained an appreciation for how well it writes, though it took some time getting used to the size. I exaggerate a bit when I say it felt like writing with a cucumber.

As like many of you, I rotate my pens, it’s a new month so a new pen, I am now using my Esterbrook V-Clip. This pen is considered pretty rare, the model was only made for a period of 1 year (1932-1933), production was ceased because of inferior materials and design flaws, thus it is uncommon to find one in good shape.

When I got the pen it had a very unusually nib, a Relief 314, normally associated with dip pens. This nib is part of an Esterbrook nib/feed assembly which screws into the section, unlike dip pens. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use the pen as the nib needed to be smoothed. Since then I stumbled onto a Relief 2314-F NOS, I felt bad taking it out of the box and screwing it into the section. But damn it writes well. This is the first time the V-Clip has made the rotation and I like the way it writes.

When I got the pen it had a very unusually nib, a Relief 314, normally associated with dip pens. This nib is part of an Esterbrook nib/feed assembly which screws into the section, unlike dip pens. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use the pen as the nib needed to be smoothed. Since then I stumbled onto a Relief 2314-F NOS, I felt bad taking it out of the box and screwing it into the section. But damn it writes well. This is the first time the V-Clip has made the rotation and I like the way it writes.

So tell me, what pen are you using this month?