I went to the Philly pen show--my first show. I met some nice folks, including the folks at Pendemonium, Richard Binder's table, and Main Street Pens (Ron Z)! I had a great time, tempted by many things.

I purchased a user-grade vintage pen from Joel Allison of Lamy. As I was paying for the pen, we discovered that we are neighbors in our little suburban village (I am quite sure I have encountered his friendly dog in the neighborhood). Small world!

Anyway, the pen is a Waterman 3V with a flexy nib. Joel advised to have it re-saced, so I took it to Ron Z. I could have hung out there for a while, chatting, looking at his collection, and watching the repairs in action (fascinating), but my husband was waiting outside the hall, and we had a train to catch. Ron did the repair, closed up the pen, and then we went out to catch our train home.

Ron advised not to try the pen for "half a day" to allow it to dry. With the best of intentions, I said I'd wait until tomorrow. Knowing an enthusiast's tendencies, he predicted, "you probably won't make it through dinnertime!" Ok, I made it past dinnertime, but I'm eager to fill the pen now!

Here's my concern. To get to the show, my husband and I had about a 20-minute walk out in the cold. At some point while inside, I took out one of my pens from my handbag to take notes, and I noticed that my nib was covered in condensation. So regarding my "new" Waterman 3V, it went from having a new sac put on and closed up immediately, to outside in the cold for 2 blocks, then inside for about an hour, then outside again for a ten minute walk towards home. It has been a total of 6 hours since Ron did the repair, but do I need to worry about any condensation issue impeding the drying of the repair? Can I go ahead and ink it up?

Sorry for the long-winded post!

It should have been fine in about 30 minutes. You should be great. Ink it up!

I've been told pens repaired at shows have to wait until a full moon passes before inking.

Ron



Just kidding - half an hour is fine. With really fresh shellac 10 minutes or so is OK. By fresh, I am referring to made from good flakes or buttons the same day.

Thanks for the replies. I waited 8 hours just to be sure that no condensation from the cold had any effect on it. It seemed to work fine.

Hi,

Just want to tell you that you have just had a really good repairer do your repair! All you need to do is wait half an hour. Enjoy your pen much!

Dillon

I've learned to be conservative when it comes to curing time for sac cement. Shellac is far from fully set in thirty minutes. Depending on the specifics of the pen's construction, operating the filling mechanism may dislodge the sac or shift its position (even though it may maintain its seal). Ideally, the sac is in minimal contact with the inside walls of the barrel for best thermal insulation; the action of a pressure bar squeezing one side of a sac whose shellac is still soft can tilt the sac so that it is no longer centered (in extreme cases, as when the end of the pressure bar is very close to the nipple, the sac can actually slip off the nipple).

I like to suggest an experiment that can provide tactile information on this subject: place several dots or short stripes of shellac on a strip of something, then test the first one in fifteen minutes to see how much it has set; the next in 30 minutes; the next in an hour; and so on (eight dots should be sufficient).

--Daniel

The reason for the extra delay in this case was that I installed a silicone sac. They can slip off of the nipple on the section more easily than a rubber sac, and so you should wailt a little longer for the shellac to set up than you would with a rubber sac. I also use Giovanni's sac cement, which sticks a bit better than regular shellac.

The advantage to the silicone sac is that it will last longer, and will not cause discoloration of the barrel.

Ron, did I do ok? I saw you at around 2:15pm, and I waited until after 10pm to ink it, keeping your comments in mind. My real concern was about the condensation factor from going in and out of the cold (if there was a condensation factor, that is).

Thanks again for the repair! It was lovely to meet you.

You did just fine. The solvent/thinner in shellac is alcohol, which evaporates fairly quickly. It's also resistant to ink and water, which is why it's ideal for attaching sacs to pens.

The real concern is not the ink, but rather the stress placed on the bond when you pull the lever and compress the sac. The sac should go on with a snug fit, but even so, they could slip off or leak. You just want the bond to set up a bit before any stress is placed on it, and I doubt that the cold would be an issue.

The truth is that I rarely wait long myself - but then again if the sac comes loose, I can fix it. A bit harder for you to do.

It was nice meeting you too. Repairing pens is fun, meeting people and matching faces is really the best part!