I've just purchased a dirt cheap CS 85L on the dreaded and as with a lot of Conway Stewarts of it's vintage it is showing brassing on the clip and lever. Does anyone know of the procedure to remove the clip from the cap of a Conway Stewart without damaging it? Also what is the best way to secure a loose cap ring, is it possible to just use shellac? Thanks

The 'jewel' retaining the clip has a central stud which passes through the top of the cap and is held by a threaded disc which has a single screwdriver slot across it. To unscrew the disc you'll need to get a flat bladed screwdriver and grind away the central part of the blade (because the stud protrudes through the disc) leaving two prongs where the blade was. This is a good tool to make because lots of the later Conway Stewarts use a similar clip fixing method.

The bad news is that ink and gunge often lock the threads so removal can be virtually impossible!

The cap ring will probably be loose because the cap has shrunk slightly over the years, I think you can use any adhesive that you are confident of dispensing in small enough quantities to make a good clean repair.

Ideally, you'd get hold of some broken caps and fittings to practise on first!

Andy

Thanks Andy, much appreciated

Think I'll need to make a section plier as well because I've just re-saced the pen and the section was a real pain to get off by hand

Yes, good section pliers are a must. Soaking the pen in warm water for an hour or so works well helping to loosen the section on the later pens but of course be very careful if trying the same technique on pre-war casein pens.

Andy

You can see the results of using something other than section pliers here on the dreaded http://cgi.ebay.com.au/CONWAY-STEWART-15-F...1QQcmdZViewItem, a real shame as it is otherwise a nice CS15 set :doh:

Nearly all postwar Conways are casein, too!
I would strongly recommend against soaking ANY Conway Stewart for section removal, and I practice what I preach. With the exception of eyedropper sections which can get gunked up by dried ink, I use only heat (variable temp heat gun) for section removal (other exception: metal-to-metal joints prone to corrosion).

When I was starting out I used to soak sections to get them out, too. I had a much higher breakage rate back then, and ruining more than a few pens through staining.

Definitely wouldn't want to make the mistake of soaking the wrong type of pen

Is there an easy way to tell a plastic pen from one made of casesin?