I have this old Remington fountain pen. It's in pretty good condition except that the little rubber washer at the end of the piston crumbled. Where's the best place to find a replacement? Also, the section is a friction feed into the piston, but it slips out easily. What would be the best thing to use to keep it in place? Shellac?

You'll have to make a washer. David Nishimura sells a punch set - but you may or may not get the right size from the ones that he sells. He also sells a urathane rubber that will stand up to any ink. If the section fits into the piston where the ink is held, you'll have to use shellac to seal the joint. If you don't seal the joint, it will leak.

Is it one of these, with the stick-actuated piston?



I made a passable washer (stop-gap until the proper material can be had) out of one of the foam rings from the top of a spindle of CDs. Not what you'd call elegant, but it does the job NOW

Also, I'm getting away without having sealed the section end, so you might also-- its something I was worried about, but it does seem to hold ink. When a proper washer is generated, I'll likely amend the situation.

I did try this on a pe, and it worked, much to my surprise. But not too long ago I had a Sheaffer vacuum filler come into the shop for restoration. When I opened up the pen I found that this foam (or the craft foam equivelant) had been used as the piston washer. It couldn't stand up to the ink and had started to break down, which meant that the pen would not fill. Most rubber sheeting available is to thick, but will do in a pinch.

It's looks to be identical to that pen, except that it has mother-of-pearl chips instead of a celluloid pattern. How did you attach the foam ring to the plunger?

A wee gloob of section sealant on the back (stick) side of the "washer", along with a hole small enough to need forcing onto the narrow part of the stick. Judging by the way it's staining, it probably won't last as a repair (viz. Ron's last post), but as I indicate, it does for getting it going without delay and is pretty reversable.

[edit: Also, I cut the thing to be roughly the outside diameter of the chamber, so it would press firmly against the walls, and gave it a job of silicon, with excess on the non-ink side for luck.]

The additional charm of the "repair" is that it makes for more value-for-money out of the CD stack.