I Thought I might Get a Better Responce Here than in the Fountain Pen Board:

I stopped by the Avalon Gallery, where Private Reserve ink is made and there is a nice little fountain pen store there too, and got a chance to take a look at several vintage sheaffers. I came home with two both lever fillers, one is a triumph conical nib, and one a normal semi-flex nib. They are great pens and really good for the price, 30 USD and 50 USD. I also saw Pelikans Place de Corda sp? it is as really beautiful pen but still not as good as the Piazza.

I was wondering how you tell what type of nib you get? And also is there anything to date these pens by sheaffer.

Also these are my first lever fillers and on the normal traditional nib I heard a hissing afterwards which I am told is normal, but on the triumph nib there was no hissing is this normal of the conical nibs to not hiss??

Thanks
A Very fun day for me
Tim

Anybody: what is wrong if there is no hissing or ink emptying on a triumph nib??? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!
Thanks in Advance
Tim

Dear Tim,

I'm not sure what you mean by hissing. A lever filling pen may or may not make much sound when filling or emptying. A "hissing" sound might be more associated with a Touchdown or Snorkel filler as they expell compressed air when they fill.

Well should you see a lot of ink come out of the nib when lifting it when the pen is supposed to be full or is that different with the conical nib???

Yes - a well working lever fill pen should expell water with a fairly strong force. If the water dribbles out, the sac may be old (stiff), the wrong size, the feed may be clogged, there are a number of possible problems.

Is it possible to open the pen and examine it? A good test of the sac is to squeeze fill it - just stick the nib in water and squeeze the sac by hand to fill and then expell. A good force of water out would indicate that the sac is ok. The sac should be supple, BTW, not stiff at all. If it fills and expells badly using this method, you can tell if the feed is clogged because the sac will resist squeezing or it won't fill completely.

I will not be able to open without fear of breaking it Im going back to the store to either have them fix it or get a different pen, another different vintage pen.