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Celluloid Rot And Visctonti


watch_art

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A friend gave me this pen to fix up for him a while back and I got to it yesterday. He's happy with how it turned out. :)

 

The celluloid just crumbled. The cap is almost collapsing in on itself as if there's permanent pressure being applied to certain parts of it.

The barrel crumbled apart in my hands.

 

visctonti-red-rebuild-1.jpg?resize=840%2

 

visctonti-red-rebuild-2.jpg?resize=840%2

 

visctonti-red-rebuild-3.jpg?resize=840%2

 

visctonti-red-rebuild-4.jpg?resize=840%2

 

visctonti-red-rebuild-10.jpg?resize=840%

 

 

 

 

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Looks like one of the pens they made for Rebecca Moss. I thought they were resin. Interesting.

 

Your "Newtsconti" is an elegant replacement, though I do miss the cap bands.

Edited by zaddick

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Nevrmind my comment about the material. When I looked closer, that does clearly appear as celluloid. The one I had was orange resin. Darn phone screen!

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This makes me nervous about some of the Visconti celluloid I have in my collection. Hopefully you'll still be around when these pens start falling apart.

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And we hope you are not going away either! Thank you for showing us there can be a renewed life for a crumbling pen; it is a beauty.

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Makes me glad that I didn't buy the Voyager at the Ohio show several years ago. Another example of why I don't trust modern celluloids.

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Is there anything that can be done to protect celluloid pens? For example, certain enviroments (heat, humidity, etc) to avoid or applying some sort of material?

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Is there anything that can be done to protect celluloid pens? For example, certain enviroments (heat, humidity, etc) to avoid or applying some sort of material?

 

Re: Visconti Anniversary Voyager Lapis Blue and Coral Red celluloid pens c. 1998.

 

This is a recognized issue. What happened to the Coral Red above recently

happened to one of my Lapis Blues

............Turned to { }..........................

 

I keep celluloid pens in..a cool..dark..dry..well ventilated ..segregated area apart form all other pens.....

 

By the way....I treat me hard rubber pens the same way...........................................

 

Fred

 

Redactin' Shawn....Outstanding solution.

Edited by Freddy
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I have some of the very early pens produced in celluloid when Visconti was founded, but no issues at today,

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Well, yes, this is a known issue, YES,

but sadly it also applies to certain vintage celluloids.

 

I have a very interesting book on "making celluloid" from 1934.

in the chapter about celluloid and its properties,

it reads: its C´s nature to disintegrate into its components.

It also clearly says, to slow down the process or stop, it needs the use of basic pigments,

so the acid produced while disintegrating is neutralized.

Then laconically: this is why transparent celluloid crumbles first: there is no pigments added.

 

Now, modern celluloids, my guess: they forgot about this simple rule and used modern, cheap, sintetically made pigments.
Or as an alternative reason: lots of the bright colors of the past sure were anorganic and poisonous, so even if they wanted, their use would be forbidden today.

 

I have some archived communications between Mazzucchelli and Omas about a Galileo gone bust, both flatly refuse that the celluloid is faulty,

they blame it on bad galvanic of the trims and bad handling of the pens by the customer.

Ignorance or self defense against warranty claims?

Tom Westerich

 

See whats newly listed on PENBOARD.DE

 

email: twesterich@penboard.de

Abruzzo/Italy and Hamburg/Germany

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...and who made the trim that reacts ("galvanics") with the celluloid. :roller1:

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A while back I had a conversation with Brad Torelli. He indicated that when celluloid production was shifted to china these issues arose. He recommended I stay away from modern celluloid pens. What a shame.

"It ain't so much what people don't know that hurts as what they know that ain't so."

-Artemus Ward

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Some great insights here. What is considered a 'modern' celluloid pen these days? Post 80's/90's?

Short cuts make delays, but inns make longer ones.
Frodo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring, A Short Cut to Mushrooms

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A while back I had a conversation with Brad Torelli. He indicated that when celluloid production was shifted to china these issues arose. He recommended I stay away from modern celluloid pens. What a shame.

 

That seems to be rather general. As far as I know, OMAS was producing its celluloid "in-house" right up to the end, and from what I understand, Visconti does its own "in-house" production as well ... at least I have seen a relatively recent video suggesting that.

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So what's considered adequate ventilation for celluloid? I assume not portable pen cases. What about a pen tray/chest?

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So what's considered adequate ventilation for celluloid? I assume not portable pen cases. What about a pen tray/chest?

 

By saying ventilation, I presume they mean moving or open air, not in a closed container/box.

Likely what is needed is to dissipate/remove the outgassing from the decomposing celluloid, so that it does not affect other pens.

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