Today I picked up an Admiral in burgundy in a matching pen/pencil set. This is my first snorkel filler. The pen is in pretty bad shape. I read through Da Book and disassembled the pen for cleaning and inspection. The compression o-ring (the one in the barrel near the blind cap end) is toast. The washer under the screw holding the blind cap in place looks to be pliable and reusable. The sac was DOA...totally crusted in the, erm, the...that metal tube. I worked on scraping it out some tonight, and I'll continue more another time. Otherwise everything is soaked and scrubbed and cleaned.

So, the reason I'm writing is because I want to ask some questions about his repair job.

1) What size sac should I get for this? The only sacs I have laying around are #16s but I was reading that..what, a #14 is the one to use?

2) I need to replace that o-ring which was inside the barrel at the rear of the pen. That *is* called the compression ring/gasket, right? Looking on the Tryphon site, would this be the "Sheaffer "O" ring (small)"?

3) I note there is an o-ring in the grip section around the little hole that the snorkel slides through when it's all together. The one I've got feels pretty soft, but I'm not positive it's going to seal sufficiently. What is this o-ring called? (and where can I get one?)

4) What is a point holder gasket, and where does it go? Is this the answer to my previous question?

5) Am I missing any other seals/gaskets that could need replacing?

6) I took the snorkel tube out of the "section" that the sac attached to, which was stubborn and didn't want to come out of the, erm, that metal thing right away. Now I note that the business end of the snorkel has a slit in it, and part of me thinks there is probably a proper orientation for the snorkel when I put it back into that tiny section with the sac attached...so the working/nib end of the snorkel will be aligned either towards or away from the nib/feed. Any idea? Am I being too vague? Oh, and should I use any rubber cement or anything to hold the snorkel tube into the sac/section?

Thanks for your sage support! I'm really excited to get this pen going...


Edited to add comment/question/blunder #6...

1) Well, the Pen Sac Co. catalog's Sheaffer section says to use a #14 straight sac or a #14 2 1/4 necked sac. Woodbin (in Canada) sells the thin-walled Snorkel sacs and they are #14 1/2. I purchased one of the latter as I think the thin-walled sacs may work better in Snorkels. Keep in mind that PFMs are technically Snorkels too, but they need a wider sac, a #17 1/2. .

2) Yes, the "Sheaffer "O" ring (small)" on the Tryphon site is indeed that O-ring in the barrel of the Snorkel. It fits in a very shallow groove inside the barrel, closer to the blind cap end. It can be tricky fitting it back in so that it sits in there properly. I use a wide drinking straw with some tape on its end to push the O-ring into place and I push the O-ring through the barrel by starting from the non-blind cap end.

3) The tiny washer in the blind cap knob is what some call the "blind cap seal". I believe that some repairers use rubber cement (*not* cement like Crazy Glue, etc!!) to ensure that the metal tube-blind cap knob connection is airtight. I think it says this in "Da Book" as well.

4) The tiny washer in the Snorkel pen's section (ie. near the nib) is called the "point holder seal" or "point holder gasket". Again, I don't think the one I got on eBay fits all that great, but the ones I have in my Snorkels seem to be OK so I didn't bother getting another replacement. I probably should as a lot of repair people will change all of the 3 Snorkel seals, but mine looked OK. Mind you, if there is an air leak, the pen won't fill properly. You can test it with water first and see if it is able to shoot a stream of water 2-3 feet across the room

5) The # of seals is 3 (in questions 2, 3 and 4) only, as far as I know.

6) I just use shellac to attach the sac to the sac "nipple". Make sure that you don't deform the crimped metal end of the sac protector tube when you you are resacking the pen, or it won't fit back into the section properly (just trust me on this point ). Some repair people dab a bit of shellac to make sure that black plug forms an airtight seal with the sac protector tube. Make sure the snorkel tube is oriented in the right direction so that the slit in the feed lines up with the snorkel tube.

Lots of people sell the seals you need: Tryphon (as you mentioned), Vintagepens.com, Victor Chen at Penopoly sells/used to sell the parts. Martin Ferguson at parker51@comcast.net sells them in bulk but also as kits (all you need to repair one Snorkel, for example). You can e-mail him for more info, as he doesn't have a website, AFAIK.


Good luck!

The Small O ring in the Tryphon catalog is used for all Thin Model ™ snorkels. The large one is used in the PFM. Take your time fitting the O ring in the groove: it takes a while, unless you've done many times, then it becomes easy...
The point holder gasket is the bottom O ring. You can change the worn gasket (I sell replacements): be careful while removing the old one. My advice is to use the universal point holder gasket: this is a tiny O ring that fits on top of the worn gasket. Just slide it on the snorkel ring. It works extremely well, lasts a long time and is easy to install.
Make sure to lubricate the snorkel tube and the metal sac guard base with silicone grease.
Use section sealant on the nib unit, after replacing the point gasket, on the barrel threads and I also apply a small dab of it to the top gasket (the one in the blind cap. This will give you a perfectly tight pen, which is essential if you want a properly working Snorkel (oçr TouchDown).
Best sac t use, IMHO, is a straight #14. Make sure you use shellac to secure it to the tiny section and ALLOW the shellac to cure thoroughly. Snorkel repairs should not be rushed!
Have fun!
Giovanni
www.tryphon.it/catalogo.htm

1. You can use a No. 14. I use Wood Bin's extra-pliable No. 14-1/2 because it does fill more completely. Some people find that the Wood Bin sac doesn't seal as well onto the nipple; the solutio for this is to use more shellac. I don't have problems getting these sacs to seal.

2. The "small" Sheaffer O-ring available from Tryphon is the right one for all Snorkels except the PFM and for all Touchdown TM pens. The "large" one is for PFMs and for 1949 "fat" Touchdowns.

3) The flat washer in the blind cap needs replacement very rarely. Victor Chen sells these, they are the late Father Terry's Part "U". Do not glue this joint -- use a washer!

4. The part in the section, the Point Holder Gasket, is not a washer or an O-ring. O-rings are a poor fit -- the only size that's close enough to work well is too fat, and it squeezes the Snorkel tube too firmly. The right part is a reproduction gasket from Martin Ferguson's Snorkel Solutions. Martin also has the O-rings. David Nishimura makes a thick washer out of a very long-lived rubber; I haven't tried this part, but David is as reliable as they come, so I expect that his part, although not an exact reproduction, will fit and work properly.

6. Shellac only the sac to the nipple. There is ABSOLUTELY no need to seal the nipple to the sac guard -- think about it, the sac guard is open at the back! Shellacking that joint is a bad, bad thing to do because its entire effect is to make future resacking more difficult. (If it had been appropriate, Sheaffer would have done it.)

Thanks all for your great assistance! I really appreciate it. There's one last area I'd like to be clear on.

I removed the snorkel tube from the nipple while I was trying to remove the nipple from the sac guard. (After that I finally removed the nipple by pushing through the crusted sac and pressing it out from the rear.) I would guess that there's a certain depth the snorkel tube will need to be seated at when I press it back into the nipple, so when the snorkel is fully retracted it isn't sticking out of the feed. I'm guessing this will be a trial and error operation, but should I seal the snorkel to the nipple?

Lastly, the snorkel tube has a slit in the metal at the filling end. Should that slit be oriented towards or away from the nib when it's reassembled? Maybe it doesn't matter, but I would think it's there for a reason - perhaps to send adequate ink into the feed while writing.

Thanks again!

The slit matters! The slit should be running in the direction of the snorkel tube (some have 2 slits perpendicular to each other). That slit should be oriented in the nipple so that it is oriented toward the nib. If your snorkel is atriumph nib, this will be easy because the slanted cut of the tube must match up with the slant of hte feed. If not a triumph nib, you will have to allign it according to the slit.