Stratford Bulb Filler Barrel

[BamaPen]

I got a pretty little Stratford bulb filler pen in a lot of pens from ebay. I bought the lot for another pen in it, but the Stratford caught my eye and I decided to try to fix it. The bulb was missing, but the remainder of the pen was in very good condition.

 

Unfortunately, the formerly clear, now very yellowed, barrel was crazed and as soon as I applied even a little force, it simply crumbled into pieces. I thought about finding some clear tubing of the right diameter, but the top end of the old barrel was threaded for the blind cap and then had a nipple for the bulb. So, I'm sure that fabricating a new barrel with the right threads and then the nipple will be beyond my capability.

 

All that said, I could be looking for a donor pen if its barrel were not crazed or perhaps some advice on how I might create a replacement barrel. I can take some pictures of the broken pieces if that would help.

 

John

[robert1962]

Hey Bama Pen,

 

Do post a picture, with some dimensions. I may have a barrel that will work.

 

BTW, I like your posts on Cromer products.

 

Take care, Bob

[BamaPen]

Here are some pictures that may help. The barrel measures 11mm or 7/16" outside diameter. It measures 2" from the end where it fits over the section to the shoulder where it becomes smaller for the blind cap threads. It had some markings on the side that indicated the number of "drops" of ink in the barrel. There are two sets of threads, one set on the outside of the barrel at the section end so that the cap screwed on there, the other at the bulb end for the blind cap to screw on. You can see in the pictures that I attempted to replace the broken bulb nipple with a bit of styrene tube, but in the process the crazed plastic just disintegrated.

 

I can't measure the diameter of the section where the barrel fits over it without pretty much destroying the threaded area, but if that is a necessary dimension I will get it.

 

Barrel "assembled"

 

Barrel "exploded"

 

Bulb end of barrel

 

Section end of barrel

Edited August 6, 2015 by BamaPen

[robert1962]

Bama pen,

 

I have what you need. Other than a bad nib and clip, it is all there. A few 1/1000s off, but it is a Stratford with the graduated numbers. Nice clarity with no cracks. PM me.

[BamaPen]

Thanks to Robert1962, this little Stratford is alive and well again. I realize that it is a third tier pen of little monetary value, but the faceted cap and blind cap plus the lovely marbled celluloid really caught my eye and I wanted to restore it. As my earlier posts in this thread show, the barrel was crazed and simply disintegrated when I attempted to build a replacement nipple for the bulb.

 

The barrel is a rather complex piece, being threaded inside and out for the section and cap, threaded for the blind cap, and necked down to a nipple for the bulb, so replacing it with something hand made was well beyond my capability. I posted here and Robert1962 responded with an offer of his very similar Stratford.

 

The pen from Robert1962 arrived a couple of days ago and I decided to see what I could do with all these parts. I wound up using his section and barrel, my cap and blind cap, and a nib from my parts bin (I did not attempt to unscrew the section from the barrel due to fear of destroying the barrel).

 

Fortunately, I was able to pull the feed and nib from his section without having to knock it out from behind. I cleaned all of the staining from the inside of the barrel with warm water and a tiny bottle brush and the clarity is quite good aside from mild ambering of the plastic.

 

The barrel is marked with a scale of "drops" of ink on the side, with instruction to Refill at the zero level. A test with water showed that the barrel can be completely filled with about fifteen squeezes of the bulb. This pen holds a LOT of ink!

 

Neither his nor my blind cap would tighten onto the threads on the barrel, so I built up the threads just enough to work with both blind caps.

 

Robert1962's cap and blind cap are red and black marbled and his hardware is gold rather than silver. The clip on his cap was badly bent; I was able to straighten it, but could not repair the rather obvious crease across the clip. I used Renaissance Pre-Lim and Museum Wax on both sets of caps and blind caps, so the pen can now be dressed out in either color scheme.

 

I had fun working on this little pen and I really appreciate the generosity extended by Robert1962.

 

John

 

 

 

[mmg122]

Excellent restoration, John! Thanks for taking us through the steps you used to bring this pen back to life. You, my friend, are a pretty talented guy...and thanks to robert1962 for helping you do this. Although a third tier, it's a lovely pen.

 

Mary