Having only a passing familiarity with Wahl, I snapped this up at an estate sale, thinking it was the most likely pen in the motley bunch to actually be worth more than the $10 each that they were charging. I cleaned it up as best I could, without the benefit of an ultrasonic cleaner. The nib, which is missing most or all of its iridium, is engraved "Durium, 14KT., Gold Platem No. 8, USA." The sac is obviously dried up, and the lever makes it up less than 45 degrees (I didn't try to force it). The section is a bit scratched up, and the body has minor dings and scratches. I'm hoping the experts might be able to give me information on age, value, etc.

Thanks.

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At $10, you probably did just fine in the bargain department. The pen is an All Metal model, gold filled in the "Check" pattern. However, condition means almost everything when it comes to value of vintage pens, of course, so just how many dings, cracks and dents and brassing is very important too. The pen is not all that rare, so scarrcity is not such a big factor in the value. The Durium nib is as you already know, not correct and will need to be replaced before it could be in proper condition to bring it up to par value-wise. These pens came in 5 sizes, with the #5 being the largest. Also, usually, the larger the pen, the more valuable. Hard to tell with the No.8 Durium nib which uses a different numbering system tha Wahl, exactly nib and pen size it is. Maybe another on this forum will know what the cross refererence is. From the looks of it the pen is maybe a #3,or 4. If put back to best it can be under the limitations of the hard to fix dents, dings and brassing, and section scratches however, it is hard to imagine that even with the proper nib it might have a value of more than say $55 for a #3 to about $75 for a #4, and a new nib would cost about $40 or so for a firm, but basic good writer. So overall you will probably break even or have made a few bucks on your pen.

Hope this helps
Syd

Thanks for your help. I expect I'll try to find a few more and send them off to someone in exchange for fixing one of them up.