Just less an hour hour ago, I opened the package containing a Waterman Edson. To my horror, when I uncapped the pen, I found sticky brown discharged from the breather hole. I then realized this must have been caused by the heat in my metallic letter box. There is even an engraved mark caused by the internal parts of the cap. The pen doesnt come with the original box, so the heat from the casing of the letter box must have reached the pen. Usually the postman will deliver the packages inside the doorway, but for some reason, he put the package in the letter box instead.

I have tested to see if the pen writes. It does. But I am not so sure to what extent the extreme heat has damaged the pen internally.

I have emailed the seller to check if the pen is insured. But even if the pen is insured, I am not sure how I can claim any form of insurance as I have already polished away the discharge, and the only difference is the engraved mark on the section. If I show this to the post office, how do I show proof of damage done to the pen?

thanks,
purpledog
ps the discharge was much worse than shown in the photo. the photo was taken after i have used detergent to wash and polishing cloth to remove the discharge.

actually, the engraved part is meant to be there.

after polishing, the section looks like new. but i am not sure what the brown sticky discharge is. is it some kind of sealant?

if the pen doesnt leak, i will pretend nothing bad has happened.

purpledog

While looking at the nib more closely, I observe one side of the feeder has a wider gap (from the section) than the other side. I presume the adhesive on that side has leaked out in the form of the brown sticky discharge.

Where should I sent the pen for a check? Will the service centre entertain request for a pen that is bought without a receipt and proper paper and box?

thanks,
purpledog

I'm sorry to hear you've had problems with such a beautiful pen. This is the address and telephone number of Waterman's US service/repair facility:

Waterman
c/o Sanford Corporation
Service and Repair: Parker-Waterman Service
Dept. 2200 Foster Ave, Janesville, WI 53545
Phone: (800) 523-2486

My experience (limited I admit) has been to call them, explain my problem and then follow their directions. Perhaps if you have the receipt and all of the paperwork associated with the purchase, they'll accept that.

Good luck.

The brown sticky discharge is the sealant that Waterman uses to secure the nib and the underside cover into the section. This stuff softens under heat -- it's very similar to Giovanni Abrate's section sealant if not in fact identical.

I had a point re-sized on an eBay Hemisphere (in its box, new), and the Canadian wing was content with a print-out of the transaction details screen as a receipt. The first step is to contact them and explain the situation-- just give facts, avoid value judgements ("it was left in a hot place by the mail man" is good, "stupid mail man" is not).

Over the phone, the Waterman representative told me the repair, if there is a need for it, will be charged since I do not have the guarantee booklet for it. And the repair, depending on the extent of repair work, can be as much as $500.

I am not sure what to do next: send the pen to get a quote on the repair cost, sell it, or just accept the pen as it is. I feel a bit shortchanged as the damage was not caused by me in the first place.

At this point in time, I still see some discharge coming off the joint between the underside cover and the section (not significantly a lot though). Does it take a long time for the sealant to 're-harden'?

My last question is: Will other Waterman Edson nibs match the Sterling Silver version?

thanks,
purpledog

Since it's just the sealant that melted (as opposed to physical damage), and since it appears your pen is no longer covered under warranty, perhaps it'll be cheaper to have a pen repair person take a look and reapply the sealant if needed. I don't know how complicated it is to reassemble that portion of the section, though.

-Mike

It's not a difficult proposition to disassemble the thing, clean off the existing sealant, apply new sealant, and reassemble. The task should cost out at no more than about $30.00.

Richard,

Thanks so much for the suggestion. Can you recommend someone who can do the job well? Ron Zorn is the first person who comes to my mind.

thanks,
purpledog

Or perhaps Richard himself. Richard does great work, including (I'm sure) this kind of work.

Regards, greg

Greg's right, I can do this. I've worked on bazillions (well, maybe only dozens) of Edsons.

Thanks, Richard. I have sent you an email with regards to this matter.

purpledog