Hi all

I have just taken delivery of a Gold Starry Safety pen. I have a little honing of the nib, looks like someone tried to screw the cap on before retracting the nib.

I have filled it with water to see how it all works and it drips very slowly from the end of the barrel, the bit you twist. I assume this has some sort of seal (there is a bit of cotton hanging out!) but cannot see how it comes apart.

Can anyone cast any light, recommend a repairer, help in any way?


Thanks


Greg

There is a cork packing at the end of the barrel. You can see the general construction of a safety in these diagrams:





The green part is the turning knob. The red part is the back end of the barrel, and it screws out of the barrel; look, and you'll see the joint. Screwing it out is tricky because you have to keep adjusting the knob to keep from jamming the nib carrier against the back end of the helix (which will break the helix). The magenta part is the cork seal, and the blue shaft, which is machined as one piece with the helix, runs through the center of the cork.

This is a Waterman pen, however. Gold Starry, if memory serves, doesn't use a lengthwise pin (the yellow bit) to key the knob to the shaft/helix, but rather has the knob and shaft as a single piece that's secured to the helix by a transverse pin.

I've made a specialty of repairing these pens.

excellent explanation and diagrams Richard... you wouldn't by any chance know how the Japanese EDs with the shut-off plunger and seal arrangement is constructed/disassebled/repaired

cheers Trevor

apologies for side tracking your thread Greg

Many thanks, Richard, a very useful diagram and article on your website.

The Gold Starry is almost identical, even the 'yellow' pin. However there appears to be two issues with the pen.

Firstly, the magenta seal appears to be cotton rather than cork. I left it with a draught of water inside overnight to see if it would swell to make a seal and, lo, and behold, it did! No idea how anyone got inside to make the cotton seal, from what you've said it would appear to be incorrect.

Secondly, the 'yellow' pin leaks! Its from here that the contents come, not dripping but it becomes wet. It would appear that ink (water at the moment) is leaking past the cotton seal and finding its way along the pin. Presumably a new cork seal will solve this and make the pen safe.

A side issue concerns the 'purple' pin which rides in the helix and is broken. The remainder is on one piece and long enough for the system to operate but only one side.

To replace the seal is it necessary to remove the 'yellow' pin or is there another way in?


Greg

You have to drive the shaft out of the knob. Do this by setting the barrel back-end assembly on a knockout block with the helix fitted through the hole. Make sure there is enough space beneath the knockout block to allow the helix and shaft to fall free. Drive the shaft down using a jeweler's hammer and a plastic punch that you can make by grinding down the end of a toothbrush's handle. Do *not* use metal, as it is too hard and will damage the end of the shaft. Grind the punch so that it bears on the shaft only, not on the yellow pin.

You can replace the purple pin with a piece of polystyrene -- if you or someone you know is a plastic model builder, you can make a pin from a bit of sprue.

It's necessary to separate the knob from the shaft so that you can remove the shaft from the pen. This exposes the hard rubber ring that holds the cork seal in place.

The difficulty is separating the hard rubber knob from the hard rubber shaft -- it's frequently nearly impossible. Heat and patience are your friends, but too much of the one and too little of the other will result in a broken shaft. Most of these shafts are reinforced with wire, and when they break the spiral "greenstick" fracture (medical term) is ugly, ugly, ugly.

thanks for the tips Richard... very much appreciated indeed... I will wait until I build up a little courage... and patience!!! before having a go with one of the ones I have...

Thank yo uvery much, Richard, extremely helpful. I will set myself up and have a (gentle) go. Hopefully it wont end up with an envelope full of bits being sent to you for rescue!

I'm currently looking for the sprue and a suitable knockout block. I'll let you know how I get on.


Greg

Note that the same issue arises with Onoto plunger-fillers, and can be circumvented by use of a specialized tool that allows removal of the packing retaining ring without removal of the knob from the shaft. The problem here is that not all Japanese shutoff-valve ED pens have a screw-in retaining ring accessible from the outside . . .

are these Japanese EDs without the screw-in retainers friction fitted from the inside then?

As a quick and dirty fix for a little Japanese ED that wanted to leak like a sieve from the rear seal I ended up cutting a 3-4mm thick piece of cork from a wine bottle cork... very roughly shaping it to a squat cylinder more to the outside diameter of the barrel... formed a centre hole, with a fine reaming file, that was slightly less that the diam of the plunger rod and then with a bit of good ol' silicon grease lubricated the cork... or was it spit :-) ... slowly slowly forced the cork into the barrel... and slowly slowly wound the plunger internal knob through the cork's centre hole... finally with a satay stick pushed the cork to the bottom of the barrel...

the very low-tech solution worked and worked very well with a nice firm hold on the plunger rod by the cork... with only a marginal loss of ink volume by having the cork being on the "wrong" side of where the seal is meant to be... will be interesting to see how long it will last