My Celluloid 149 Journey

[yulie1]

Sure does look nice. I like my celluloid 149 and although I just put it away, I'm thinking about taking it out again and putting it back into the pen rotation. Nice to know there is someone in the US who can work on these and do such a nice job. I'll have to keep Brad in mind for any future repair work on my pens, too.

 

Enjoy your lovely pen!

 

Mark

[canibanoglu]

That looks amazing! Many congratulations on getting your pen back in such a good condition and I do hope that you get many years of joyful writing out of it.

 

Only one thing though, I just can't understand how you could wait during the whole weekend to open the box

[CS388]

Congratulations, zaddick. That's wonderful.

 

Enormous respect to Brad. What masterful work!

 

I really like the way you went about this and the decisions you made between you.

The end result is perfect! (Changing the heat-stamp from F to B is the icing on the cake.)

 

Hope it writes as well as it looks and that you enjoy it for years to come.

[slippery when wet]

Wonderful restoration, I hope that "connection" with the pen has been re-established and I guess this will put Brad into the small handful of craftsman able to work on these beautiful pens.

[FredRydr]

Pen envy....

 

Fred

[bstnnyc]

Congratulations on a truly stunning pen And the transformation is impressive; I'm happy it turned out so well!

[zaddick]

Wonderful work!

 

Once the lines are added to the ink window again the pen will look reall great. That's a process I really like to learn more about.

 

Was the filler knob exchanged or was the engraving changed?

 

Enjoy in good health!

 

Cheers

 

Michael

 

PS: how does it write?

 

Hi Michael - to address some of your questions:

 

ink window lines - Brad has been experimenting with this for a while, looking for the right ink to "bite" into the celluloid barrel and not wear away. He went through it with me, but it was during a call on many topics and, at the time, I did not think it would be directly related to my repair. In my simple mind I envisioned it as essentially the tip of a pen mounted at a right angle on a rod. then the pen body is turned on a lathe so that it can print the lines on the barrel. When it gets done I will get a more accurate description. I believe Fred sent Brad the original info he needed to start looking into the process. Then it was about finding the right ink.

 

filler knob - Brad changed the engraving. I am not sure if he used the age old "report card technique" some of us used back in the day when grades went home on paper report cards, or he ground it off and completely re-engraved it. I think he worked with what was there.

 

Writing - that will come a little later. I need to pick the right ink first. I'll post a sample here. I am a bit of a delayed gratification kind of guy when it comes to pens, so no big rush.

[Lamb South]

Zaddick,

 

Beautiful photos and that is a fantastic looking pen. Congrats on getting this restored beauty back. What a great looking pen. Let us know how you enjoy writing with it when time permits.

[zaddick]

Only one thing though, I just can't understand how you could wait during the whole weekend to open the box

 

That is a good question. The pen was delivered to my work address and I would have had to take the train or drive into the city to get the pen. Maybe I would have done that on a normal weekend, but it was the Chinese New Year parade and there was no way I was going to fight crowds to get to the pen. I do like the parade, and usually go with my daughter, but this year she was not feeling well.

[watch_art]

I would never have guessed such a transformation was possible. Beautiful pen there.

[JLS1]

Wonderful story, and the pen looks great! Congrats in adding such a time-worn (albeit refreshed) classic to your collection.

[pelman]

great work. Congrats on the pen and wonderful restoration. Enjoy in good health for many years.

[Opooh]

Nice restoration. Enjoy the result, Zaddick.

[sd10521]

Great restoration you will enjoy the feel of this pen.

I have a similar one from the 50's and it's always inked and used.

Thank you for sharing the update.

[zaddick]

Thank you all for the positive comments. Somehow it feels like an accomplishment even though I really did almost nothing. Perhaps it is the fact I ended up with a very good pen after feeling like I had made an expensive mistake? Perhaps I am happy to have made the acquaintance of Brad and learned something from a master craftsman? Maybe I'm happy this topic made it to 2 pages? Whatever the reason, I am lucky to be able to share the process here with people who are actually interested. Thank you all for that.

[JonSzanto]

All's well that ends well, and this certainly ends well. Congratulations to both you and Brad for a job well done, bringing a fine pen back to fine form.

[zaddick]

How dies it write? This is, of course, what matters in the end. Well, I had to run home this afternoon with an ink-free pen, but I was determined not to let another day pass without testing this pen. Because the nib is large and seems to be extended out further than I recalled, I reached for a bottle of Iroshizuku. I am not crazy about the color, but I thought kiri-same (gray) would be a safe choice for a first test. Below is a writing sample with comments.

 

 

The nib has some variation to it. I think this is common to the older 14C tri-color nibs, or at least it has been for me so far. With this ink, the flow is a bit sporadic. I don't know if the nib needs a tune or if it is just the ink. I am not ready to pass judgement on the writing characteristics, but it can go from wet to dry depending on pressure. I definitely like the line width and Brad was able to give it some of the stubbish characteristics of MB pens with B+ widths.

 

For what I asked (and without me providing any samples), I think Brad did a great job for a retip. The nib seems to be fairly forgiving so far in terms of angle and pen rotation. And the great thing is he put so much tip on there I can have some additional work done if needed at a pen show.

 

Not unexpectedly, the nib is not a good upside down writer. To be fair, I never mentioned this but I was curious. I have used some Sailor King Eagle nibs and they write super broad, but can be a fine line if used upside down. No luck here unless I have it ground to write that way. no complaints about that though.

 

Unrelated to the nib, I will say the sharp angle of the lip on the section (next to nib) will take some getting used to. It seems to press into my middle finger if I am not careful how I hold the pen. I did not really expect this, but it may affect my desire to use the pen for longer writing sessions. I'll have to evaluate this further.

[zaddick]

For anyone curious to see what the polymer piston looks like in the celluloid 149s, here are two pictures through the ink window. I figured I better get these shots while the pen was clean.

 

 

At first I was disappointed not to have a cork in the pen, but the upside is that this should require less service and maintenance during the life of the pen. Besides, my 138 has cork if I ever get nostalgic for olden times.

[slippery when wet]

Even though I am capable of installing my own cork seals, I would not hesitate using a polymer piston seal. (That's if I could locate them) I am curious to know if you intend to keep the pen. From memory you expressed at one point after the pens restoration you might part with it

Edited March 10, 2015 by slippery when wet

[johnkim424]

I have both cork and polymer seals on my 139s and 149s. Each has it own advantages and disadvantages, for example, if your barrel is slightly warped, corks seals work better. I think polymer seals were used towards the latter production runs of celluloid 149s. Pictured below is from my 139. I am thinking this 139 started out with a cork seal but later switched over to polymer seal when sent back to factory for service. I believe polymer seals were not available during 139 production.