Hi folks. I'm curious about a lot of things, and one of them is why my pens rarely write well. One thing lead to another and here I am joining the network and it's a whole new world. I wish I could write this post using a pen..

I suffer from the fascination of fountain pens but never really understood why they held an attraction for me.
Anyway, I've had a few Parkers and then a very thin Sheaffer which I thought was cool. My wife gave me a beautiful Waterman (how do you find out what model you have? - I looked on Waterman's site but it isn't any of those) which always leaked around the feed, and eventually it eat into the gold surround, so it is a bit of a mess. I recently decided to ditch it as although it has sentimental value, it is useless as a pen.

Now (this is becoming a shaggy-dog story) we had to buy my brother-in-law a 40th birthday present and he had recently lost his Cross ballpoint and pencil, so we decided to buy him a replacement. From an American ebayer, well they seemed to be cheaper. And while I was there I thought I'd treat myself to a Cross fountain pen with a fine nib. Well, it came with a Medium nib. What a hassle. So I called Cross in the UK and they said they'd exchange the nib for free (I don't know why but I wasn't going to ask, and it has not been used. Brilliant customer relations, although it hasn't come back yet). The nice lady said "just send the nib, unscrew the whole lot". Well I did (when they say 'unscrew', they don't mean that, do they, it is the ACTION of unscrewing) - I'm an engineer by inclination - and the nib and feed fell out, apart. I had no idea all this was just a jam fit. Anyway, I sent it all off to Cross in the hope they'll replace the nib AND put it back together properly for me.

Ok, so I start to have a brainwave about the Waterman, why not take the nib out and clean all the crusty ink off and see if that helps. Oops, you can't 'unscrew' the Waterman as the feed is keyed, so luckily my delicate touch detected that, and out it all came. The underside of the feed has a set of fine fins which I guess should all be evenly spaced. Mine are not, some are touching, some lean over and it looks a mess to an engineer. I wonder if that has been the problem all along?
So, some research later, I'm going to put the feed in hot water and try and even out the fins AND space the nib tines correctly based on a posting I read here. I'm just terrified about how to stuff it all back in without bending the nib. It can't make it any worse and it would be fantastic if it worked.

I'm off on another of my adventures, exploring pastures I never dreamed I'd have a look at. I look forward to reading more advice. Now, I'm not very experienced at Posts, have I done this one right, and how do I get a picture of Winston Churchill on the left of my post....?

Regards, John.

Be careful not to make the water too hot. A long soak in warmish water is best. A 10% household ammonia in water solution will help loosen stubborn ink.

Good luck with the pen. If you take some photos of it and post them here, lots of folks will tell you quot a lot about it including its name, vintage, age, characteristics, original cost, current value, etc. If you don't know what sort of old Waterman you have, it may turn out to be one of the very special ones!

Andy

Hello, sir!

And welcome to FPN. Having been a member here for about a week now, I feel uniquely qualified to assist with your fumblings...



First, your Waterman. You need to take some digital photos (they won't need to be huge, 640x480 pixels is probably big enough), go to the Waterman Forum on this very network and compose a new post in much the same way you did with this one. Put the cursor in your text at the point where you want your picture to appear. Now scroll down and you'll see a panel underneath your text, called "Attachments". Click on the "Browse" button, locate your photograph on the computer, click the green "UPLOAD" button, then go to the menu above it called "Manage Current Attachments". Click on the file name and it will insert it into your text at the point where you left the cursor. Scroll down again and you'll see 2 buttons, one entitled "Preview post". Check it all looks as you planned, and... Robert's your mother's brother.

Within a fantastically short space of time, Waterman experts from around the globe (and I sincerely doubt you'll find a more knowledgeable and helpful crowd in a single place anywhere else on the planet, this really is a special place) will let you know exactly what you've got.

While you're waiting for the flood of replies to come in, go to your profile page (ie. click on your own name at the top of the screen where it says "Logged in as Old Bean"), click on "My Controls", then "Edit Avatar settings", "upload a new image from your computer", find your picture of dear old Winston on your computer, "Update Avatar". And there he is.

Never in the field of human conflict, fight them on the beaches, perhaps it is the end of the beginnning, Oh Yyyesss etc.

Then go to the "Chatter" forum and pretend to be Outraged of Surrey in the thread about "Quarter of all Brits think Winston Churchill is a cartoon character". Great fun.

Regards,
Duncan.

Welcome to the FPN pasture!!

Welcome to FPN.

Thanks guys, what a warm welcome and from all over the Globe. I'm so impressed, I now have a new 'Avatar' and I've posted on the Waterman forum..

Welcome to FPN. You're off to a great start. Good luck with your pen repair project.

The guide to posting photos that is available from the New Members thread is pretty well spot on. It also has links to good free software!

Welcome (and it's good to see someone else who takes things to bits)...

Welcome,

And I'd also suggest poking about in the Repair Q&A portion of the forum. You'll be surprised at what you learn. Frankly I'd be surprised if your pens are unsalvageable.

Cheers!