Old Big Reuter Pen, Questions

[LinnT]

Hello all,
A few months ago I stumbled across an Yahoo auction in Japan for a pen which was unlike any I had seen at the time and still haven't seen one really similar yet. The price kept coming down until it got low enough I could not resist any longer. It has the old over/under feed for the "14KGOLDPEN" "WARRANTED" nib. It measures about 177mm in length and 17mm in diameter. The hard rubber has oxidized to a green brown and has a pattern that kind of reminds me of square fish scales in the rubber.

After cleaning, I realized there was some faint writing embossed on the pen's barrel. I turned it over to my eagle eyed son, who knows nothing about fountain pens, to see if he could make out the words. After a minute or so of twisting and turning the pen under a bright light, he starts to read of letters; r, e, u, t, e, r, and trade mark. I run upstairs to my computer to check it the name is on Stan's manufacturers list, and yes it is.

So, what do I have? The rear of the feed has what appears to be an ink shut off attached to the feed which moves easily back and forth about 10mm, but to shut off the ink one would have to pull the nib forward. Seems messy. I looked down the barrel, checking if there was evidence of an shut off rod, nope flat bottom and the end of the barrel does not seem to be a separate piece.

Then there is the cap. It has a ring with a loop on it, the ring stamped "SILVER" which seems to match older convention in Japan according to the internet. Then there is the slip on clip. It appears to be brass with an alligator style clip, what appears to be a cherry blossom with a fan inside it on one side, and some kanji on the other side.

So, any ideas of what I have here?

The last picture has a Pilot Custom 823 next to the Reuter for a size comparison.

So wade in and help me understand the pen. I am guessing pre-WWII, the clip might be military due to the cherry blossom stamp, and the nib did not get melted down for its gold.

Thanks,

Linn

[mke]

If you make a better photo from the Kanji, I could try to identify them. Second in the upper row is SHIN (new) as far as I can see.
The lower row could be a date?
I would say there is 1 1 2 7 1, written in Kanji - whatever that would mean.

So, the upper row could be a name.

 

I tried to post several times this answer. As long as there are Kanji in it, it doesn't work - strange.

[Tinjapan]

Whatever it is, it sure looks nics! Hope some one can tell you/us what it is.

[LinnT]

If you make a better photo from the Kanji, I could try to identify them. Second in the upper row is SHIN (new) as far as I can see.

The lower row could be a date?

I would say there is 1 1 2 7 1, written in Kanji - whatever that would mean.

 

So, the upper row could be a name.

 

I tried to post several times this answer. As long as there are Kanji in it, it doesn't work - strange.

 

Thank you for the offer. I am attaching three pictures, the Kanji is hard to photograph, especially the last two. I ended up rubbing a pencil over the Kanji to darken them.

 

[LinnT]

I have been thinking about the ink shut off or lack of one. A very bad thought crossed my mind. The pen started to leak at the rear seal and someone cut the rod off, glued the rear knob, placed a disk in the bottom of the chamber to seal it, and attached the shut-off valve cone to the nib feed some how. I still don't understand how the shifty feed/shut off would work though. I hope this is wrong.