Car Booting Update

[amk]

It's been a few weekends since I've seen anything interesting. And today, suddenly, the pens started coming.

 

http://i.imgur.com/FYSRP6ul.jpg

 

It started with a transparent blue Waterman kultur. Cheap, common, but one of my favourite models, so I was glad to tuck that into the pen pocket in my handbag. Then came a pen I almost passed up because I thought it was a Creeks, a common and not very lovely pen - but turns out to be a Reform, a German maker I have quite a few pens from. I'm now wondering if at some point French Creeks and German Reform were associated. Have to do a proper comparison and do a bit of research. Then I found a lovely Reynolds box, in purple moire, but alas not with the original gold filled pen - it's an 'AA' syringe filler. Came with a free, full, vintage bottle of Waterman blue ink. And a whole mug full of Pilot V-Pens at 10 cents each could hardly be overlooked.

 

Next up? A lovely heart shaped pen stand with crystal ink well. It must be real crystal - it shines and sparkles, and when I compare it to my lemonade glass, it's a completely different quality. Really lovely. Alas one of the little decorations has been broken, but I should be able to cast a replacement. You can't see them in the photo but it has little bronze feet, too.

 

Then came a Pelikano, that's the black pen with chrome cap. I thought at first it was a Parker 45, and I'm not at all upset that it wasn't.

 

Then came a set of glass cartridges for Waterman. And just as I was about to lament this stall didn't have any fountain pens, only a load of dip pens, my eye fell on a little case. Two sweet matching Parker 75s in thuya style lacquer. a fine nib FP and a mechanical pencil.

 

Final sale of the day turned up nothing but a local shop was open - and had a Bayard Excelsior in bronze marbled celluloid. The day had kept the best for last.

 

Wallet empty, heart full!

 

 

[PaulS]

quote ................ "Two sweet matching Parker 75s in thuya style lacquer. a fine nib FP and a mechanical pencil.​" must make a note to start following you around

The Waterman glass carts. sound interesting - I have one or two French Watermans with these things - was it only the French pens that used these - I could be very wrong.

 

I've not been to a quality b.s. for some weeks - did find a white spot Sheaffer Targa in black lacquer during the week in a charity shop, but nothing as good as your haul - well done.

 

P.S. perhaps the secret is that I need to get a handbag

Edited June 25, 2017 by PaulS

[mitto]

Congrats. Very productive day for you, indeed.

[inkstainedruth]

Nice haul. The last Waterman I saw in the wild was a lever filler. Missing the lever....

Of course here in Pittsburgh, "car booting" means something completely different. It means you parked illegally, or the meter ran out before you got back to your car, and the city has put a "boot" on your tire -- making it not drivable until you pay the fine. My husband once got his car booted at Carnegie-Mellon, after he had broken down and had gone off to call a tow truck (this was back in the late 1980s, before everyone had cell phones).

It's not as bad as having your car towed to the pound, but it's still annoying.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[welch]

Nice haul. The last Waterman I saw in the wild was a lever filler. Missing the lever....

Of course here in Pittsburgh, "car booting" means something completely different. It means you parked illegally, or the meter ran out before you got back to your car, and the city has put a "boot" on your tire -- making it not drivable until you pay the fine. My husband once got his car booted at Carnegie-Mellon, after he had broken down and had gone off to call a tow truck (this was back in the late 1980s, before everyone had cell phones).

It's not as bad as having your car towed to the pound, but it's still annoying.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

First thing I thought, also, but remembered a post from Henry Simpole about stopping on his way back from Cornwall. Why don't we have those in the US? I've been to yard sales, thrift stores, and antique stores, but the closest I ever came to a fountain pen was a WASP (WA Sheaffer Pen Company). Opened the cap and discovered a nice nothing..."pen" was a cap and barrel with no nib, section, or filling system. Owner suggested I "fix" it.

[amk]

It's all law of averages. (And a few real outliers. I found a Waterman 92 pencil at one annual fair, early in my collecting career, didn't know what it was, didn't buy it... next year it was there, on the same stall, same price. What are the odds against that?)

 

For every haul like this there is at least one sale with absolutely nothing but baby clothes, shoes that have been thoroughly broken up, and last year's clever gadget (this year, it's bread machines; two years ago, it was foot spas; the year before that, it was Nespresso machines). And an awful lot of sales where there's not much, and what there is, isn't pens.

 

Welch, I think your averages are low... which is telling me the next yard sale *could* be the one!

[PaulS]

stating the rather obvious, perhaps, but in case the meaning of 'boot sales' isn't entirely clear to some ............. Originally, when such activities started, at least in the U.K., some thirty five - forty years back, the goods being sold were vastly smaller in quantity and size, and because of this were suited to being sold quite literally out of the boot of a car - this was when Brits. had cars with boots - the hatchback was yet to arrive, here

Now it's different - I've seen a Rolls Royce offered for sale, table top surface areas more akin to the size of a school hall, lorries the size of house removal pantechnicons disgorging enough stuff to re-stock Asda.

Edited June 28, 2017 by PaulS

[amk]

Well, the barrel is cracked and the nib is missing and someone's bitten it, or possibly it was in their back pocket when they came off their motorbike and skidded a hundred yards along the road....

 

But for one euro I thought the cap might be worth it. I happen to have a spare P45 nib, and I think I should be able to turn a barrel in something nice, if I can work out what thread I need...http://i.imgur.com/NJkT3HVl.jpg

There were a couple of no-name cheap pens in the same box - I passed.

[PaulS]

most British pens were standard 36 tpi (turns/threads per inch), but according to Marshall & Oldfield (Pen Repair Manual - third edition), 61 (capillary's), 65 Mk. II and 45s, use 32 tpi single start Acme threads with rounded peaks for shells and barrels.

 

From your comments you obviously have a lathe, so all you need now is to get a machine shop to make you a master thread pattern as per the above specification, which you can mount to the lathe spindle which in turn is fitted to the chuck - plus you will need the same machine shop to make the accompanying 'follower' which will mesh with the master thread pattern. This allows for control of the guide rod and cutting arm, so that the reproduced thread matches exactly that of the master pattern.

 

Really quite simple when you know how.

 

Even allowing for the one Euro price, think I'd just keep the cap and bin the rest.

[mitto]

A very clean burgundy P51 with clean dingless gold filled cap but looking as if there was something wrong with the nib. Perhaps a bent tine. And a capless forest green P51. Both bought from local weekly 'Sunday Bazar' (yesterday) for $30.

[PaulS]

well done - you seem to have been very fortunate and found some great pens at very good prices ............ probably less that Sterling £24.

My only wild find last week was a Flighter version of an Parker Arrow, but I've someone to see this afternoon who says they have some f.ps. of which two 'have sticks on the side' - l.f. I'm assuming.

[mitto]

The bonus with the deal was a spare P51 hood in black and a nice P75 section.

[amk]

Oooooh, that's a great deal you got, mitto. Forest green is a lovely colour.

 

The nice thing once you've been collecting for a while is that you end up with the bits and pieces ... do you have a spare P51 cap or are you going to have to go out looking for one?

[mitto]

Oooooh, that's a great deal you got, mitto. Forest green is a lovely colour.

 

The nice thing once you've been collecting for a while is that you end up with the bits and pieces ... do you have a spare P51 cap or are you going to have to go out looking for one?

I do have spare lustraloy as well gold filled 51 caps. At least half a dozen or perhaps more. But some are without the jewels.

 

Yes, I rotinely pick up bits and parts. I have many a pens especially 51s completed from parts so picked.

 

I once found in the wild a P51 with almost NOS gold filled VS cap. I was about to put a replacement 51 clip on the cap to use it with one of my 51s. But then one day I found a NOS capeless (dark grey) VS pen in the same antique store wherefrom I had bought the 51 with the VS cap.

 

The VS is now complete. A few days ago I have also resaced it.

Edited July 10, 2017 by mitto

[mitto]

The funny thing was that the store owner didnt know anything neither about the VS pen nor did he remember he had given the cap of the pen to me in a previous deal. The VS pen looks to have never been inked. Prestine feed, shiny button and pristine pressure bar. The hardened sac had no signs of any ink been filled in it. It has very crisp marking on the barrel with 7. as the datecode.

Edited July 10, 2017 by mitto

[amk]

C'est le Quatorze Juillet and we celebrated the Fall of the Bastille by finding pens. All of these have issues, but they came to me for a handful of spare change.

 

Top to bottom: 1. UNIC black lever filler,which someone has given a dip pen nib (ugh!) 2, unnamed candystripe lever filler, with the section stuck in the cap, and.. someone left in their Renault 100 on a hot day... 3. 'Loterie Nationale' pen in rather lurid mustard-teal-burgundy mix and without a cap, 4.no name on this one, but apart from being about 5mm shorter and having one cap band (and being in red mottled celluloid) it's identical to no 5. Stylomine lever filler, with no clip, and a chunk taken out of the section.

Plus a nice red mottled celluloid cap - which has a section stuck in it.

 

I think I can have a bit of fun with these. The two Stylomine are really sweet lookers.

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/TuZD5vdl.jpg

[mitto]

Two 51s minus barrels and caps for Rs.10 ($0.10) from a junk seller in today's Friday Bazar. The pens were lying thrown (on a mat) on the ground mixed with other stuff consisting mostly small electronic parts, ballpoint pens, broken Pakistani and Chinese pens and out of order cell chargers etc. I badly needed a couple 51 nibs. Both the pens are English. One is with black hood and the other is with Bloody Brit Red hood. The sacs as well the sacguards are in good/shiny condition. The nibs are M and B with ample tipping material.

 

A nice near perfect red Esterbrook J (full size) with nice 2314-M nib for Rs.400 ($4.) and;

 

A blue English aero Duofold junior (#10 nib) that is missing the metal sac protector. I hope I already have the sacguard in my part bin. The seller of this pen knew it was a Parker and hence was not willing to part with it for less than Rs.1000 ($10). However, managed to pick it for Rs.700=$07.

Edited July 14, 2017 by mitto

[PaulS]

nice finds amk and mitto - you'll be making everyone green with envy .............. anyway, you've now something to do on a wet Sunday afternoon.

​​I have a boot sale tomorrow morning, but doubt that I shall do very well - near London, there are now too many people looking, and unless you happen to walk past the table just at the moment something is put out, there's not a great chance of success.

[amk]

Nice finds mitto!

 

Today was back to very poor form - one big box of Bics, and nothing at all in the way of fountain pens or indeed any other finds except a rather nice Seiko automatic diver's watch for eight euros. Nice, but not the 'monster' Seiko that I covet.