Ron Zorn does grand pen restoration work and is a good friend. I'm happy both to ride his growing coattails (i keep telling him to start a diet) and to sing his praises. We go waaay back in this crazy hobby.

One of the skills needed by those of us who aggressively hunt pens (which I do) is to recognize the "diamond in the rough". Think Paul has good chapter on this in his book, which I highly recommend.

So, when i spotted this 1930-ish Waterman 94 (one spot below the Patrician in Waterman's hierarchy at that time) in Mahagony celluloid, i saw the rough diamond. Good color without translucency or crazing. No cracks. No missing parts. Good imprint. seemingly unbrassed trim. Flexy Waterman "red" keyhole nib. Had plenty of schmutz in the trim, which appeared quite free of brassing and had the usual surface wear. Threads were caked with ink and the caked ink was catching on the cap threads. Diamond in the rough.

When Ron finished with it, it looked... like this. And, i suspect the pic looks less nice than the actual set. Ron does... grand work

regards

david

great color!

I thought the #7's in black were one step under the Patrician...

George

Fair point, and I might have written hastily.

I'd been thinking the 7 and 94 were similar niche, both $5. Now that you suggest otherwise, i oh so vaguely recall #7 ( both Black and Emerald Ray) might've been a $7 pen, though not a chunkier pen and with more limited color range. Still...

My bad.

And, to think i was considering letting go my title of "hack amateur newbie".

Back to school i guess

-d

Can I have it?

Geez, nice pumpkin avatar.

Wonder if i can get Vacunderdog to do that.

-d

why don't we get a before picture?

I'll tell you what, I got to say one thing for sure, it is nice to see the hobby growing with bunches of available restoration options, I have been impressed with the work of many of the newer guys, and I mean those that hit the hobby in the last 5-10 years....

Also, as a side note, I seem to see a lot of these 94's with the cap band appearing off center... noticed this one was much the same, what's the deal? Isn't that weird?

anyway, nice pen, terrific series...

I agree, but keep in mind that Ron really isn't a "newer" guy when it comes to pen repair. He has been agressively repairing pens, having read the restoration literature and having tinkered with techniques, since around 1987. Twenty years is not "junior position" in this game It's just that he only went public with restoration work when a so-called friend badgered him into setting up at a pen show 5 years ago or so, so he seems new-ish. His volume of repair work, on the other hand, seems to have grown a tad during the last few years.

-d

One thing you can't easily fix on this era Watermans are the step ends.

It's always good to see steps that are nice and crisp like your pencil.

I'm afraid my mahogany 94 is a somewhat ragged placeholder. Even so, it's still a fetching pen.

Nice pic as usual, David.

John

Verrrry neat pen

stunning waterman

DIdn't realize Zorno was around since 87, wow, learn something new everyday...

I guess I've been around about the same amount of time too...

pretty wierd when you think about it.