Where In Northern Ca To Get Pens Worked On?

[LizWrites]

Hello, all—

 

I have a few pens that are giving me a hard time as far as ink flow is concerned. One is the Stipula Passaporto, another is a Platinum (can't recall the model name--very simple, plain). I think I have another Stipula that may not flow either.

 

Can someone recommend a pen repair shop or person who can fix this situation. It's so frustrating and I'm afraid I'll do them harm. The Platinum started out writing very nicely and then just stopped. The Stipula Passaport which was our FPN LE, has never functioned.

 

Thanks for any specific suggestions!

 

Liz

[FarmBoy]

Peters Cafe... We had run on stingy Stipulas a while back.

 

Where in Northern CA are you, perhaps you could attend one of the gatherings in the next two weeks.

[LizWrites]

I'm in Marin. Anything nearby?

 

Do you actually work on pens at these get-togethers?

 

Thanks, FB.

 

Liz

[FarmBoy]

I'm in Marin. Anything nearby?

 

Do you actually work on pens at these get-togethers?

 

Thanks, FB.

 

Liz

This coming Sunday (March 9) there will be a Pen Gathering at Cafe Salina in Millbrae. I think we plan to start around 1 and end when everyone gets tired of pens. On occasion we do fix minor issues at the table. If there are larger problems that require bench work, I take them with me and bring them back the next time.

There is a Pan Pacific Pen Club meeting in Pacifica on the 15th of March at the Community Center. A follow up Pen Posse will be held at Peter's Cafe (also in Millbrae) on Sunday the 16th.

 

You have a good chance of getting a stingy Stipula fixed in a few minutes in Millbrae.

 

Todd

[Guest Ray Cornett]

It would be great if we could compile a list of Northern California people who repair/refurbish pens. I for one done a few over the last month or so. My current "client" wants business cards to give to the antique shops she goes to so she can give them to the owners and perhaps have them hand them out when they sell one of their old FPs.

[bcheng]

Hey, sorry to revive an old thread but was that list ever compiled? Im in the SF Bay Area (San Mateo, specifically). I have a pen I wanted to have pretty minor stuff (tine alignment and ink flow) adjusted, but google searching for repair shops in the area turned up nothing of value.

 

Thanks!

[FarmBoy]

Hey, sorry to revive an old thread but was that list ever compiled? Im in the SF Bay Area (San Mateo, specifically). I have a pen I wanted to have pretty minor stuff (tine alignment and ink flow) adjusted, but google searching for repair shops in the area turned up nothing of value.

 

Thanks!

There is a Pen Gathering in the works for one of the next two weeks in Millbrae at Peter's Cafe. Likely we can take care of this while you are there.

There is also the Pan Pacific Pen Club that meets 3-4 times a year. These meetings take on a mini-pen show format. Several regular members offer repair services.

There is also the San Francisco Pen Show in August. There will be options at the show as well.

 

Todd

[kernando]

Hey, sorry to revive an old thread but was that list ever compiled? Im in the SF Bay Area (San Mateo, specifically). I have a pen I wanted to have pretty minor stuff (tine alignment and ink flow) adjusted, but google searching for repair shops in the area turned up nothing of value.

 

Thanks!

Too specific. The area is California. There might be other whole time zones devoid of pen repair.

[LizWrites]

Who offers the regular repairs, FarmBoy? Time is an issue for me, as it probably is for others. So going down to Millbrae or to a Pen Show isn't always possible. Would love to know if there are people to whom we could send pens for assessment and repair. They wouldn't have to be in the area, I guess. Any names, contact info?

 

Thanks so much.

[FarmBoy]

Shoot me an email at eberspacher at gmail

 

I'll get you set up

[oraxia]

...I hope I'm not making too much of a pest of myself by digging up old threads (is it considered better to create a new one on this forum?), but I too am looking for a repair in the Bay Area for a vintage pen of great sentimental value. It seems like there may be repair persons afoot in this area, but every thread I've read regarding this seems to end with either a PM or an email (or refers to a Facebook community, and I am purposefully Faceless, so that is also a bit of a dead end for me). Is there a reason this is always done off-forum?

 

This thread mentions a hopeful compilation of folks who do repairs, and it sounds like it exists and is passed around in secrecy... And since there's a list, it sounds like there is more than one person? I know next to nothing about fountain pens right now, and I am very much the worrying sort, so the Clandestine SF Bay Area Repair Persons List seems a little weird to me. Is there anyone out in the open who repairs pens in this area who is trusted for vintage pens?

[Jerome Tarshis]

There isn't any Secret List. The thread above does not refer to any existing list, public or secret. Lots of people in Northern California do pen repairs.

 

"Out in the open" doesn't imply "on this message board." The best suggestion I know is one that has already been made, that a seeker of repairs show up for a Pen Posse gathering in Millbrae.

 

Other rational ways to proceed include asking at a shop that does fountain pens seriously. To my knowledge those include Flax Art in Oakland, Castle in the Air in North Berkeley, Peyton Street Pens in Santa Cruz, and Bittner's in Carmel. Shops will either employ one or more people who do repairs or will recommend someone. They will not have a long list. When Flax was in San Francisco it used to recommend Fr. Albert Grosskopf, a Jesuit priest at the University of San Francisco. He has, alas, retired and is living in a home for retired priests, so I imagine Flax will now recommend someone else.

 

About other parts of Northern California I do not venture to speak. There are very highly regarded people who do pen repairs but are not in the area. They may be found by a Web search or by reading this board.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Jerome Tarshis

[oraxia]

There isn't any Secret List. The thread above does not refer to any existing list, public or secret. Lots of people in Northern California do pen repairs.

 

"Out in the open" doesn't imply "on this message board." The best suggestion I know is one that has already been made, that a seeker of repairs show up for a Pen Posse gathering in Millbrae.

 

I think part of my frustration is that I don't seem to be able to search very well through the forums to find what I need, and I hadn't come across anything very promising that was any closer to the SF Bay Area than Los Angeles using Yelp or Google (my usual suspects when searching for shops and services). My Google Fu is not good, alas, but I was looking very specifically for repair rather than including pen shops that could make a recommendation. I will try again.

 

By "out in the open" I meant more along the lines of someone who openly advertises their services professionally (here or anywhere), since I am looking for a repair on a vintage pen of largely sentimental value, and being less than knowledgeable myself (it is actually my ONLY fountain pen ever, and I've yet to write with it), I have no idea how to identify qualifications. I guess I didn't want to ask for a "professional" by that term initially because I was worried the Pen Posse Repair Persons would be offended by implying that they may be somehow lesser, but I seem to have managed to do worse than that with my choice of words. I apologize

 

If I understood more about fountain pen repair, I'd likely be more comfortable chatting with a knowledgeable hobbyist about getting a repair done and/or tinkering to get things working, and I really do mean no offense as I'm sure they absolutely know what they're doing and may even be better than the professionals in the area, I'm just a very nervous neophyte. I got scared by a couple of reviews that were unearthed by my initial searches, and am terrified of doing irreversible damage to my great grandfather's pen. Sorry.

 

Other rational ways to proceed include asking at a shop that does fountain pens seriously. To my knowledge those include Flax Art in Oakland, Castle in the Air in North Berkeley, Peyton Street Pens in Santa Cruz, and Bittner's in Carmel. Shops will either employ one or more people who do repairs or will recommend someone. They will not have a long list. When Flax was in San Francisco it used to recommend Fr. Albert Grosskopf, a Jesuit priest at the University of San Francisco. He has, alas, retired and is living in a home for retired priests, so I imagine Flax will now recommend someone else.

 

About other parts of Northern California I do not venture to speak. There are very highly regarded people who do pen repairs but are not in the area. They may be found by a Web search or by reading this board.

 

Thank you so much for the shop recommendations! It honestly had not occurred to me to try asking shops... and I really don't know any shops, to be honest.

 

Is there a list of recommended shops by area somewhere (on this forum or elsewhere) that I've managed to miss, by chance? I realize a forum isn't a great place for that sort of thing since they usually need frequent updating, but I don't really know how to tell if a shop "does fountain pens seriously," to borrow your terms. Also, this forum is right now the closest thing I have to a trusted pen-knowledgeable friend (I don't currently personally know anyone who owns a fountain pen, much less uses them), so take that as you will. I simply don't know who else to ask

[FarmBoy]

I know many pen mechanics. The very best tend not to advertise.

I am told there is a pen meeting at Peter's Cafe in Millbrae on Sunday starting at 1:00 PM in the back room. The password if anyone asks is rollerball this week.

 

Note worthy is that different pens should go to different repair persons as some people specialize. If you mentioned the pen in question I missed it but would help in identifying a 'short list'. I doubt you will find a store front that will repair your pen while you wait, most people that do pen repair have a queue of weeks to months, some closer to a year.

 

Do consider coming to a club meeting. I can assure you that the local repair network knows you are in need.

Farmboy

[oraxia]

I know many pen mechanics. The very best tend not to advertise.

 

...really??? But, why? D: That seems completely counter-intuitive to me...! But then I suppose I've never had a rare skill to offer, and maybe there are issues with that of which I am not really aware :/ Still, I am shocked and puzzled by this.

 

Note worthy is that different pens should go to different repair persons as some people specialize. If you mentioned the pen in question I missed it but would help in identifying a 'short list'. I doubt you will find a store front that will repair your pen while you wait, most people that do pen repair have a queue of weeks to months, some closer to a year.

 

To the best of my ability, I have identified the pen as a Wahl-Eversharp Coronet (all metal). I am ashamed to say that I am still struggling with the FPN image upload tab capability (in spite of working with computers for a living), but I put the mini-collage I had intended to include with my intro post on Imgur here. Other pictures of Coronets show a feed (I may be using that term wrong, it's the black plastic bit under the nib) with fins/serrations, so I don't know if that means this is something else or if it simply means it might not be an original part. I'd read on Richard Binder's website that this pen has an atypical/unusual construction that made replacing the ink sac (without causing damage) non-trivial, which is why I gave up on the idea that I'd learn to do it myself on the internet.

 

It does make sense that pen repairers, like car mechanics, might have specializations, but I didn't realize the ratio of pen repairers to pen users in need of repair was quite so dire as to produce year long (!!!) queues... Wow. I guess getting this pen back in working order may potentially take much, much longer than I thought I had better buckle up.

 

As mentioned in the other Pen Posse post, I've added the meeting to my calendar and will be making every effort to attend! Thank you!

[Jerome Tarshis]

 

...really??? But, why? D: That seems completely counter-intuitive to me...! But then I suppose I've never had a rare skill to offer, and maybe there are issues with that of which I am not really aware :/ Still, I am shocked and puzzled by this.

 

 

 

I am neither shocked nor puzzled by this opinion. But then I used to do statistics, and I learned (and taught) that everything that can happen sort of does happen.

 

Why would a successful pen mechanic advertise? And where to do it? Full page ad on the back of the Wall Street Journal?

 

Until rather recently lawyers were forbidden to advertise, by their professional ethics. You are still not going to see the very best law firms advertising in any normal sense. (Vide supra.)

 

People who provide services advertise by doing a good job; their customers recommend them. The doctors who advertise on buses are hardly thought to be at the top of their profession.

 

For that matter, it was a proverbial thing in business education that Hershey never advertised its chocolate bars. (But they used big letters on the wrapper.) Manufacturers commonly do advertise because if they can increase the demand for their product they can manufacture more of it. Not so true of hours in the day, or days in the year. And this is, to begin with, a hobby.

[praxim]

If they are successful then by definition their current level of obvious advertising is at least adequate and if that advertising level happens to be zero...

 

As for specialisation, given you suggest you are relatively new to pens, you will find with further experience that filling systems in pens are very different, not to mention other aspects of them. For many people who skilfully repair pens (rather than market-advertising professional repairers) they usually focus on the pens they like, and for which they probably have parts. Wait times move to another area of statistics, queueing theory, and also to what else those people may be doing in their lives.

 

I hope this helps to explain things further.

[MHBru]

Classic pens is in norcal. Www.nibs.com. Sales and repair

[oraxia]

 

Until rather recently lawyers were forbidden to advertise, by their professional ethics. You are still not going to see the very best law firms advertising in any normal sense. (Vide supra.)

 

Whoa, I had no idea lawyers couldn't advertise before! Fun tidbit

 

The argument that the professionals that advertise the most aggressively are likely NOT the best in the field I absolutely understand and sort of expect, but what really strikes me about the lack of advertising is that it's a little beyond just a lack of it--it's almost actively staying out of easy reach through obscurity. (It really does, after all this, still sound like a bit of a secret list... Sorry.) Even people who don't advertise are usually listed somewhere on the internet :/ Perhaps it is showing my dependence on the internet and how accustomed I am to being able to easily search for most things I need, but my searches were all coming up either empty or for places with sketchy reviews. Searching for listings has pretty much always found me something within reasonable distance & quality parameters, so this felt akin to pouring water out of a kettle only to see it flow upwards against gravity.

 

But if it's just a hobby, that's different, and I can better understand why a hobbyist wouldn't advertise. They'd probably rather be tinkering on their own pens than that of some noisy stranger...

 

If they are successful then by definition their current level of obvious advertising is at least adequate and if that advertising level happens to be zero...

 

As for specialisation, given you suggest you are relatively new to pens, you will find with further experience that filling systems in pens are very different, not to mention other aspects of them. For many people who skilfully repair pens (rather than market-advertising professional repairers) they usually focus on the pens they like, and for which they probably have parts. Wait times move to another area of statistics, queueing theory, and also to what else those people may be doing in their lives.

 

I hope this helps to explain things further.

 

It's still a weird business model to my mind, but you're right, if it works, it works! It just doesn't work as well for the clueless first-time fountain pen owner with no existing friends in the field

 

Yup, I am definitely new to fountain pens--I think I have officially hit the two week marker of ownership of my first (the one that needs a new sac and possibly more repair) today, and my poor "clutter"-averse husband has been watching the arrival of a few introductory bottles of ink in the mail with some trepidation already I have pointed nib dip pens, so he already knows anything that gives me an excuse to acquire more colorful inks in cute little bottles is dangerous

 

And thank you for explaining, that makes a lot of sense and does help! Maybe someday I'll be able to repair my own pens, too... And then I can get on the secret list

[terim]

 

I think part of my frustration is that I don't seem to be able to search very well through the forums to find what I need, and I hadn't come across anything very promising that was any closer to the SF Bay Area than Los Angeles using Yelp or Google (my usual suspects when searching for shops and services). My Google Fu is not good, alas, but I was looking very specifically for repair rather than including pen shops that could make a recommendation. I will try again.

 

By "out in the open" I meant more along the lines of someone who openly advertises their services professionally (here or anywhere), since I am looking for a repair on a vintage pen of largely sentimental value, and being less than knowledgeable myself (it is actually my ONLY fountain pen ever, and I've yet to write with it), I have no idea how to identify qualifications. I guess I didn't want to ask for a "professional" by that term initially because I was worried the Pen Posse Repair Persons would be offended by implying that they may be somehow lesser, but I seem to have managed to do worse than that with my choice of words. I apologize

 

If I understood more about fountain pen repair, I'd likely be more comfortable chatting with a knowledgeable hobbyist about getting a repair done and/or tinkering to get things working, and I really do mean no offense as I'm sure they absolutely know what they're doing and may even be better than the professionals in the area, I'm just a very nervous neophyte. I got scared by a couple of reviews that were unearthed by my initial searches, and am terrified of doing irreversible damage to my great grandfather's pen. Sorry.

 

 

Thank you so much for the shop recommendations! It honestly had not occurred to me to try asking shops... and I really don't know any shops, to be honest.

 

Is there a list of recommended shops by area somewhere (on this forum or elsewhere) that I've managed to miss, by chance? I realize a forum isn't a great place for that sort of thing since they usually need frequent updating, but I don't really know how to tell if a shop "does fountain pens seriously," to borrow your terms. Also, this forum is right now the closest thing I have to a trusted pen-knowledgeable friend (I don't currently personally know anyone who owns a fountain pen, much less uses them), so take that as you will. I simply don't know who else to ask

 

Most of the professional restorers have more work than they can handle and don't need to advertise.

 

Your best bet is going to be a pen show or an informal meeting like the one we had last weekend here in Santa Cruz. We don't take in work, just because we don't have the bandwidth, but we try to be as helpful as possible at the LA and SF pen shows. The pen posse folks meet practically every weekend here in the Bay Area, but that is a rare luxury and most communities don't have such a generous and skilled group.

 

Maybe we will see you at the San Francisco show in August!

 

TERI