Picked Up A Sheaffer. Is It Worth Repairing?

[Witsius]

I just took delivery of a Sheaffer 350 Balance Short Slender Girth from the 'bay. Thankfully, I only paid $4.95 for it. The tipping is missing from the nib, and one of the tines has a small kink at the tip, there is a small hole through the side of the cap, and the blind cap will not turn. I was hoping to take a crack at restoring an old pen, but the missing tipping will mean that at least that part muse be done by someone else at considerable expense.

 

Is the small hole in the side of the cap supposed to be there? Is this pen worth repairing seeing as the nib is in such rough shape? I suppose I could always hunt for a replacement nib, but I don't know how easy they are to find.

 

 

[Roger W.]

Yes the hole should be in the side of the cap (it relieve the pressure on the feed when the inner cap engages the threads - briefly - when you unscrew the pen the pressure in the section has been reduced so that ink is not forced through the nib resulting in a blob on the paper). Since you have a blind cap you have a vac filler - personally hate these but, they do wonders repairing these fillers and they hold a lot of ink. I've never written that much all at once so the lot of ink bit I think is over emphasized by many. Replacement nibs can be had. So you need a nib for $30+ and the vac restored $40+ so you need to put at least $70 in it to get it working. Unfortunately, I think that makes it real marginal to repair. And BTW restoring a vac fill is a major undertaking - not a place to start. Find a lever filler, those are easy to fix.

 

Roger W.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Roger W.

[Ron Z]

While Roger and I have a friendly disagreement about whether or not the Vac fillers are good pens (I like them) I do agree that this is not the the best pen for your first repair. Restoring one is not rocket science, but there are a lot of pitfalls waiting along the way. A lot of amateurs do them these days with a fair degree of success, but better to start with a lever filler.

 

The methods and materials we use today are a distinct improvement on Sheaffer's original design. Even so, Sheaffer made pens using various changes on the same basic design for over 20 years. A remarkable number of the pens have survived.