Where To Start With Old Pens

[Anne Louise Bannon]

Many years ago, my former brother-in-law found out I love fountain pens and every holiday presented me with all sorts of old pens that he'd bought at various and sundry estate and garage sales. I've had them for a long time, but never tried to use or repair them. Now, looking at all the folks who are actively using all these wonderful old pens, I'm wondering how to start checking out mine and possibly use them.

 

My concern is damaging something inadvertently by perhaps prying off where I shouldn't. Or trying to fill something that has a dead bladder. Or something I don't know about simply because I haven't learned as much as I want to.

 

Obviously, photos will be forthcoming - and perhaps getting solid IDs on these pens individually may be where I should start. That being said, is there some other methodology or tip that can help get me writing with these lovely old antiques?

[scrivelry]

Getting them identified is a very good starting point. There are known issues with various pens, so knowing what you have saves having to reinvent the wheel there..

 

I think it's nice that your former brother in law gave you pens, and that you've reached a point where you'd like to write with them. Welcome to the madness!

[risingsun]

Starting with photos and identification is a great place to start, then you can get specific advice on particular pens from there. Start with the well-known brands. I'm sure there will be plenty of folks here willing to advise if there is a good photo or two of a pen. If you want to try it yourself, look for an Esterbrook in your hoard.

[balson]

the first step is to id what you have. some pens are too rare or valuable to mess around with yourself and would be best off sending to a professional. although uncommon its also possible that you might have acquired a pen so valuable that you would not feel comfortable using it. its also a good idea to id the pens that are of the lowest value and therefore the best candidates for learning restoration. usually those would be esterbrooks or wearevers but there are lot of other sub brands that might make excellent writers but are of low value.

 

before you begin on restoration read up as much as you can about it and about fixing up the specific pens. richard binder has a lot of good info on his site, and the forums here also have a lot of good info. lever fillers and eyedroppers are the best place to start for learning pen repair, after that i would say button fillers would be the next thing to try.

[georges zaslavsky]

check gopens.com, nibs.com and peytonstreetpens.com, their site might give you an idea of what you can buy or choose according to your budget

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Simple lever filler pens are frequently easy to restore yourself. In addition to the Richard Binder reference pages mentioned above, the Esterbrook forum here has a thread on putting a new sac in an Esterbrook which is applicable to many brands.

 

If you would like to try your hand at restoring this type of pen, see if your collection includes some third tier brands like Wearever and start with those. These are often reasonably good pens, and they are good to practice on, but if you do break something then you won't have destroyed anything very valuable.

[rwilsonedn]

+1 for starting with identification. You could buy a book, do research on the Web (starting with Richard Binder's encyclopaedic site) or simply photograph one or two pens at a time, and post the photos here, maybe one per week. That last approach has the advantage of bringing a lot of informed eyes into the game, and it will also probably give you some good information on the condition of the pen and what work it will need.

ron

[bsenn]

Find out if there is a local pen group or show. Having someone show you in person how to use, fix, or adjust a particular pen is invaluable and friendly sorts may fix a pen or two for you right at a meeting.

 

Brian