Parker Vacumatic Gray Stripe Fountain Pen

[antiquedigger]

Hello,

 

I am working on another pen today. I have this Park Vacumatic with a "4" imprinted on the barrel, which I believe would denote either 1934 or 1944. Your assistance here is appreciated b/c I am still a newbie at this.

 

I disassembled the pen with relative ease, only real issue was getting the ball portion from the ballsac out of the filler pump. I was able to use a dental tool, poke a hole in it and gentle pull it out (this took about 45 mins.

 

The clip looks to have a zinc? finish that is losing its finish (is there a way to restore this?) Same with the banding.

 

The nib reads, "Parker USA with a #4 and the letter R". What does the 4 stand for and the R?

 

I put the parts in an ultrasonic cleaner for 5 minutes using a 10 parts water to 1 part unscented ammonia with a couple drops of dawn dish soap. Used a q-tip to clean out all the grime (not much) after the ultrasonic cleaning. Dried all parts and this is where I am at.

 

 

 

[Huxley]

Can't help with anything other than the date, I am afraid. Your pen is from 1944 based on the style of the blind cap, the filling button, the clip and the band around the cap. In 1934 the filling button would have been lockdown and made out of aluminium. The pen would have had jewels on both the blind cap and the cap and the band around the cap would have been two or three very thin metal rings - not the wide band. Finally, the clip would not have featured the blue diamond and would counter-intuitively, looked much more like the clips used from the latter 1940's through recent times.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Huxley

[Ron Z]

The clips were I think, nickel plated. The worn condition of the trim on your pen is common, and one of the reasons why one with good, bright, clean trim draws more money. I clean up the metal, polish and replate with rhodium, which holds up to use pretty well.

[antiquedigger]

Can't help with anything other than the date, I am afraid. Your pen is from 1944 based on the style of the blind cap, the filling button, the clip and the band around the cap. In 1934 the filling button would have been lockdown and made out of aluminium. The pen would have had jewels on both the blind cap and the cap and the band around the cap would have been two or three very thin metal rings - not the wide band. Finally, the clip would not have featured the blue diamond and would counter-intuitively, looked much more like the clips used from the latter 1940's through recent times.

I appreciate it, Huxley. Thanks for your info!!

[antiquedigger]

The clips were I think, nickel plated. The worn condition of the trim on your pen is common, and one of the reasons why one with good, bright, clean trim draws more money. I clean up the metal, polish and replate with rhodium, which holds up to use pretty well.

Thanks, Ron. How do you go about replating the Rhodium? Something you can do on your own or do you have to send it out?

[antiquedigger]

This is the vacumatic completed with cleaning, polish and new sac.

 

The NIB is a bit jacked, but that is how I acquired it - the tines are not straight and there is a mar at the "R".

 

How does one go about straightening NIBs?

Is this an "art form" or can a regular Joe do this? If so, what are the techniques and or tools needed to do this?

Who does the best job at straightening NIBs if I have to farm it out? And what type of price should I be looking at to get this done?

 

 

 

 

 

[FarmBoy]

If you can't straighten this nib yourself it would be more economical to just purchase a replacement.

[tamiya]

...

I disassembled the pen with relative ease

 

 

all just by hand or do you own specialist tools for the P Vac?

[tamiya]

If you can't straighten this nib yourself it would be more economical to just purchase a replacement.

 

wondering what's ballpark $$ for a serviceable replacement P Vac nib... tried googling on the weekend & didn't get very far

[northstar]

Hello,

 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SaDeSK208sM

 

Best regards.

[antiquedigger]

Hello,

 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SaDeSK208sM

 

Best regards.

 

Thank you for the info. Educational video.

[antiquedigger]

 

wondering what's ballpark $$ for a serviceable replacement P Vac nib... tried googling on the weekend & didn't get very far

 

Tamiya, I spoke with a NIB meister and he said that the Parker Arrow can be bought for around $60.00. His charge was $85.00 to work on the nib.

[antiquedigger]

 

all just by hand or do you own specialist tools for the P Vac?

I had a punch out tool/bench and aluminum rod for the feed section with some heat from a blow dryer to loosen up the shellac. Along with Parker Filler tool to remove the filler unit.

[inkstainedruth]

A while back I spotted an Azure Blue Pearl Vac Major in the wild; the nib was horribly borked. I did some research as to how much it would cost to have a nibmeister work on it vs. getting a replacement nib, planning to then go back to the antiques mall where I saw it to try to get the dealer to come down on the price some. Both options ended being economically unfeasible for me; when I went back to the store a couple of weeks later the pen was gone, though, so it ended up being a moot point.

I didn't trust myself to try to straighten the nib. I did do that with a nib on an Esterbrook, working on it with a couple of pairs of jewelers pliers on the grounds that anything I did wouldn't make the nib any worse. I then took the pen down to DCSS and shopped it around to have my work cleaned up: three different people told me to just toss the nib unit and get another one, but Mike Masuyama didn't blink an eye and cleaned it up for me. (I've since been able to find another pen with the same nib unit, which was a 9128; but at the time replacement nibs for that size were running on Ebay for more than twice what I'd paid for the pen in the first place...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ron Z]

Replacing a vintage nib may be cheaper than straightening.... for now. There will come a time when the supply of nibs will dry up, which is why unless the nib is very badly damaged I prefer to try to straighten the nib. On larger nibs, or uncommon ones, I will spend the money to have the nib retipped. Someday the $35 nib will be $135, or more. Its already reached that point with modern nibs. I haven't sold them for a few years now, but just 3 years or so DEALER cost for back a basic modern gold nib from a well known manufacturer was over $130, meaning that retail would have been about $260. At that price, even the price for a retip makes sense.