Swan Mabie Todd Leverless

[MrClegg]

Hello All,

For those reading the Conway Stewart section I apologise for posting something almost identical there...

 

I have had a Swan Mabie Todd leverless in black fall into my hands the body and cap appear to be in quite nice condition (the clip mounting is faded towards grey in comparison to the rest of the pen) the screw on the bottom of the body makes a "not nice" sound when turned and seems to do nothing. There is a little brassing to the appointments but not too bad. The imprint is very clear and includes the Pat number.

The nib is a Swan Eternal 2 14 CT I'm guessing F-M but the tines are very slightly out of alignment, it's got the tiniest amount of tooth (which could be the misalignment) and a little flex. Once aligned I think it might revert into a proper F but that could just be wishful thinking on my part.

 

So a question: I have no idea of Swan pens (range/date/value)- I quite like the way it writes so I'm leaning towards a restoration but other than out of a sentimental affection for the fact it's a fountain pen is it interesting enough and I suppose worth the expense of restoring it?

 

Thanks for any advice info in advance.

Craig

[red52ripple]

The Swan Leverless was made over a period of several decades, and value will depend upon which model you have, among other things. All Swans - with the exception of the very last ones produced before the company ended - are excellent pens, though. It sounds as if yours just needs a new sac and a little tinkering with the nib alignment, which won't be an expensive repair. Well worth the outlay, in my opinion.

 

Regards,

Deb

[soapytwist]

First thing to do is to unscrew the section from the barrel; if you hear horrible crunchy sounds, don't worry - it's just the dry, brittle sac inside.

 

The Leverless works by by compressing the sac with a bar that 'rolls' across it as you twist the barrel-end, hence your lack of joy at that end. After the section is off you can extricate the rest of the bits of dried sac (if you're patient you can normally bring it out in one or two large pieces using tweezers etc.).

 

Replacing the sac after that is the simplest of fountain pen renovation jobs, you just need to make sure that the sac is not long enough to get caught up where the bar attaches to the barrel end.

[red52ripple]

I hate to be contradictory, but repairing a Swan Leverless properly is not quite the simplest of tasks. The entangling bar only works well with a sac that fills the whole barrel. Essentially, the bar wrings the air out of the sac. The bar will slide round a smaller sac and not compress it fully, with the result that the pen only holds a few drops of ink. The sections are push fit. As the nipple is not especially large, a necked sac is needed, cut to the exact length. The right size of sac will not slide all the way into the barrel of itself, so the nib and feed must be removed. The sac is fitted to the nipple and allowed to dry fully, then the section is re-fitted and the sac pushed into the barrel through the section with a dowel to ensure that it doesn't crumple at the far end. Finally, the feed and nib are replaced.

 

Properly repaired, a Leverless is about two-thirds as efficient at drawing ink as an equivalent lever or button filler. Fitted with a smaller straight sac, as is often done nowadays, it holds very little ink at all.

 

Regards,

Deb