Question About An Onoto Under/over Feed

[Daddy-O]

Hi all

 

I am waiting on my most recent purchase, an Onoto O series (or 2000?) with a 9 carat full overlay and sterling silver after market clip. From the pictures, the feed looks to be metal rather than black hard rubber. Were these ever made in gold?

 

 

Cheers

 

Mark (photos will follow)

[Cob]

This topic was covered in this forum: here's a link.

 

The feed is not gold; it is BHR with a gold casing.

 

Cob

[Daddy-O]

Thanks Cob

 

I knew you would be able to assist. A gold covered hard rubber feed sounds fragile. As a matter of interested, do the Onotos with the gold overlay including the section come apart like the unadorned ones? I have dismantled a 3000 without a problem but I suspect this may be beyond my skill.

 

Cheers

Mark

[Cob]

Well the Onoto over/under feeds are very fragile anyway - in fact over/under feeds generally are fragile.

 

I have not seen a metal overlay Onoto. I imagine that the section must unscrew as usual. The problem would be the pin in the plunger knob; obviously inaccessible. People talk about slitting the corks - they are at least as fragile as over/under feeds. However I cannot imagine fixing an Onoto without removing the rod assembly from the pen.

 

With your pen one would have to unscrew the plunger assembly from the rod. Sometimes they unscrew and sometimes they don't (i.e. stuck solid after 100 years) and one must not break the rod when the plunger knob is encased in precious metal! Special pliers would be needed. I had one where the rod broke below the flange and left the remains inside the piston. Fortunately I had a spare. Now I have 5BA LH tap and die!

I suppose soaking and an Ultra Sonic cleaner would be the answer.

 

Best of luck

 

Cob

Edited May 21, 2015 by Cob

[Daddy-O]

Here are some photos of the gold overlay Onoto. The sterling silver clip is actually stamped DLR with a 1920 hallmark date. The pen is stamped DLR 375 with a 1919 hallmark which, I believe, is quite late for an under/over feed. The section screws off easily enough and the plunger rod works although the tip of the plunger is missing. This may be the result of attempting to repair the seal without removing the rod as there is no indication that there is a pin although it may be under the gold covering. The dimensions are identical to my 1917 O series.

 

The pen is in lovely condition although there is some minor damage to the edge of the gold overlay on the section and the cap is a bit loose. Damage to the edge of the section is apparently uncommon.

 

[Cob]

A very nice pen indeed.

 

I have one of those accommodation clips which I intend to keep - I shall eventually select a home for it.

 

Right, well as I wrote earlier, the pin in the plunger knob is concealed beneath the gold casing, therefore without disturbing that (!!) the rod cannot be removed. Therefore it follows that great care must be taken in attempting to remove the piston assembly since the last thing you need on that pen is a broken rod.

 

If the tip is missing - in other words it is flat rather than conical, maybe at some time an Onoto Minor part was fitted. The Minors do not have the shut-off feature that appears in all the other models. Removal of the nib and feed (with a conical punch!) will show probably that the feed does have the conical recess. It would not be difficult to find the correct cone for the piston assembly.

 

All the best

[Daddy-O]

I'm fairly sure the feed has a conical recess. This then begs the question of how to repair the pen. Is it possible to remove the gold casing from the plunger knob to get at the pin? These pens are delicate at the best of times. I would really like to remove the overlay from the section to have the damage repaired by a jeweller. Are these things possible or should I leave well enough alone?

 

Thanks once again Cob.

 

M

[Vintagepens]

I've done a fair amount of work on Onoto overlays.

One can remove the overlay on the filler knob to get access to the cross-pin, but there is much less risk of breakage using a proper Onoto tool to unscrew the closure washer from the packing unit compartment, and replacing the packing without removing the knob (or its overlay).

Would strongly recommend sending the pen to a specialist repairer, as the learning curve can be steep. Removal of the overlay from the section is also a task that is relatively straightforward once one has the experience.

[Daddy-O]

Hi David

 

You are right of course. This is beyond my skill. The gold on the section appears particularly fragile at the edge and there is a very fine crack to about half way along the length. If it could be removed then I'm sure someone skilled in fine gold repairs could put it right. Do you do that sort of work?

[Vintagepens]

I've got such a backlog of my own work that I stopped taking in outside work some fifteen years ago.

In any event, I always relied on specialists for metal repairs of that sort -- though finding anyone willing to take on 9K gold that thin may be impossible (I speak from experience, alas).