Waterman's L2: To Repair Or To Swap?

[KingRoach]

If this is not the right place for this kind of post, please guide me.

 

I have only one waterman's in my humble collection (joblot I got off ebay 5 years ago).

The Waterman's is very good looking L2 in shiny dark blue and golden highlight (clip, rings, nib).

 

Not being working, I took the feed and nib off, and used the body and the feed temporarily in separate DIY ideas.

 

Now that the fetish for writing with fountain pens has awoken, I decided to find the nib which I hid somewhere, and to repair the thing. However, having found the nib, I discovered it was a Calligraphy "Waterman's CAL 14ct England" nib, and not a normal writing nib which is what I want.

 

I put the pen together anyway and dipped it into ink to test it. The nib was very smooth and pleasant, enjoyable, and left a lot of shading. I had tried no less than 5 other calligraphy nibs today (getting all my pens out of the box), in addition to dip nibs that I've been using recently and Pilot Parallel pens. The Waterman's nib has been the smoothest calligraphy nib I've seen, and it exhibited a very precise control of the ink/line/edges.

 

I still want a pen for writing/signing, that looks good.

 

Should I restore this pen and keep it, or would I find someone who's maybe interested in this kind of nib or body, who would swap me (in the UK) with a pen that suits my purposes better?

 

 

 

Photos can follow if asked but it's nearly 3:30AM and I should go to sleep, rather than type this, take a photo and run an entire workflow just to get something uploaded somewhere.

 

Thanks for dropping by.

[Sinistral1]

I would be interested in buying your pen with the calligraphy nib - provided there is no slant to the nib either way. I'm left handed and could not use a nib that has a right foot slant. It sounds intriguing!

[KingRoach]

It is a horizontal flat, no slant, kind of calligraphy nib. But you're in the USA, don`t you think postage would be much?

Try PMing me, I`m still new to this forum so I'm worried about breaking any rules here. I'm hoping to hear from people who know this pen, who might either offer me help restoring it (I just need a sac and shellac, I guess), or someone more local to make a reasonable swap.

 

Still, PM me and we'll see how it goes. If everybody else here is like me, I'm sure everybody wants to see a photo of the pen anyway, so I'll take one soon hopefully.

[Sinistral1]

Post a photo or two of your pen and nib and then I'll PM you to see if there could be a deal in the making. Do you have the sac to put a new one in?

[KingRoach]

Hi again, sorry I was never notified of your reply. Appears I forgot to "follow" the topic. I will take pics and post them later, and we'll see where this will go.

 

the body is in great condition in my opinion. The feed is funtional but has some cosmetic damage. The nib is in top conditoin. The sac, I suppose it needs replacing but I cannot see it because I cannot open the pen (and will not try too hard).

 

The question here was whether I should buy a sac and shellac and attempt the repair (only needs a new sac to work like it should), or just get a pen that I know I would use.

 

Personlly, I love the aesthetic of this pen, blue and gold, but I just know I won't use a calligraphic nib on daily basis, that's all.

[Sinistral1]

I'm going to send you a PM to further this conversation in private.

[KingRoach]

Here are photos of the pen. I hope they are good indications of what it is.

[KingRoach]

There are more photos but it seems I cannot upload.

 

Strange I took them at a reduced resolution to shrink file size and yet I they were about 200kb each. =/ Is there a way to shrink files WHILE they are on a phone, or already on OneDrive before attaching to this forum?

[Sinistral1]

I don't know anything about posting pictures and resizing them, but the photos you did post show what the pen and nib look like pretty well to me.

 

Does the nib have flex to it at all?

 

What, if anything, does it say on the barrel of the pen?

Edited February 6, 2017 by Sinistral1

[KingRoach]

The nib has some flex but not dramatic flex (so if it is 1mm wide, you can get it to 1.5mm, I suppose)

Then nib says Waterman's CAL 14ct England.

The barrel says Waterman's Made in England L.2.