Restring 4 Vintage Pens (Wip)

[sodul]

Edit: Excuse the typo in the title, I can't fix it unfortunately.

 

With a growing collection of pens, new and vintage, I've finally decided to do more advanced restoration of some pens that I plan on documenting in this thread, and I'll request advices on some steps from the experts for some of the steps.

 

I just received 4 pens that I won at auction for about $4 a pen. The pen that attracted my attention the most was the black and golden stripped Essex with a 14k Warranted nib. The blue swirls Arnold only has a 'special alloy' nib but looks in very good shape. The small yellow/green marble Arnold has a Signature 2 nib. Finally the red Supreme has a boring spoon nib, but a transparent feed.

 

 

Above are the pictures from the auction and this is a picture that I took a few minutes ago:

 

All of the pens have working nibs, and feeds, but they all need at least a new sac, maybe more in order to be fully restored.

 

Striped Essex

Definitely the one in the best shape overall. It was left to dry with a blue-black ink. A dip in water and the pen is able to write.

• Nib: It is stamped 'WARRANTED 14KT USA', 16mm out from the section and 6mm at its widest with ball tipping. The breather hole is heart shaped. IT writes fine and has some flex, but has a lot of feedback and might need adjustment.
• Feed: A black plastic feed with 5 large cuts on each sides for the ribs. I might need to get the feed out as it is misaligned wit the nib.
• Section: A small black plastic section only 15mm long and 10mm diameter at the widest.
• Cap: 60mm long, 13mm diameter. The texture is in great shape, the final is screwed and needs polishing. The clip is a little rusted on the surface and is a simple design. The underside is yellow but the visible parts have worn of. I'm not sure if I can easily and cheaply brass plate it. The is a large ring band a simple design. It was probably originally yellow colored as well.
• Body: 85mm long and 12mm diameter. The stripes are in great condition and there is no visible deformations from the filling system. The black plastic finial is easy to unscrew.
• Filling: The rubber sac is gone, with just a bit around the section, but the lever and spring are in great shape with little to no visible signs of corrosion. I'll have to source a new rubber sac but I'll have to clean the section to get the size.

Blue Arnold:

This pen is not as nice but a good model for Arnold. I like the black and blue swirl pattern. The nib was clean with no apparent ink residue but might the hardest to restore since the section and body are still securely glued.

• Nib: Stamped 'SPECIAL ALLOY MADE IN USA'. It is 19mm long (from the section) and 7mm wide. Has a hint of corrosion on the slit but seems to write smoothly with a medium line and no flex. There is a rough residue on top of the nib that will need to be cleaned.
• Feed: Plain back plastic with no ribs. A little misaligned with the nib.
• Section: Black plastic section that is 20mm long and 11mm at the widest.
• Cap: 60mm long, 13mm diameter. The plastic is in great condition. There is a small flat ring by the bottom the cap that is loose and the plating is gone, the metal looks black now. The clip i a simple folded design and very stiff. Some corrosion over the A and R of ARNOLD. There is a black plastic finial but it does not seem to unscrew.
• Body: 84 mm long and 12mm diameter. In pretty good shape, with just a hind of deformation around where the lever bar is.
• Filling: The lever bar is rusty and the mechanism inside is rusty. The lever ring seem to have rusted out on one side and I'm guessing the spring is useless. This will require separating the section from the body to investigate further.

Small marbled Arnold:

• Nib: Stamped 'SIGNATURE 2 MADE IN' ... I assume 'USA' is under the section. It is small with 14mm out of the section and a little over 5mm at the widest. The tipping is the cheap butterfly design. It was left with blue ink and seems in overall good shape beyond some plating gone. It writes nicely.
• Feed: small black plastic feed with no ribs. It is aligned with the nib so I might be able to leave the nib and feed in the section if I can clean them well enough.
• Section: Black plastic 18mm long tapering from a 9mm diameter to 7mm diameter. The surface is not smooth as it should be, like chemically burned but fully functional. There is no sac reside at the end of the section.
• Cap: 53mm long and 11mm diameter. There is a medium metal band with stripes with some corrosion but minimal. The clip is a simple folded metal design and in good shape but is corroded at the top of the cap with the finial which is also metal. Ink leaked in the cap so it will need a good cleaning.
• Body: 78mm with a 10mm diameter and solid to the end (no finial). There us dried ink on the threads and minor cosmetic damage at the bottom. Other than that the material is in great shape.
• Filling: the lever and ring seem in good shape with minimal corrosion. The spring was broken in half. Apparently made from a 68x4mm brass strip folded at 52mm.

Red Supreme:

• Nib: Stamped 'STAINLESS USA'. The plating seems still pretty good considering the pen has lots of dried ink. It is 18mm out of the section and 7mm wide. Unfortunately a spoon nib, but surprising smooth and of course with no flex.
• Feed: It is a transparent nib, other than that boring with no ribs. Hard to sell more due to the dried up ink.
• Section: Black plastic 17mm long, 10mm diameter.
• Cap: Nice red/burgundy plastic with a nice contrast with the bras tones. Almost no corrosion on the clip and the band. The finial matches the cap color and unscrews easily. The plastic doe need a cleaning and polish. The is hole in the cap, frequent in pens from this era.
• Body: Plain burgundy plastic, 86mm long, 11mm diameter, cigar shaped. There is hint of deformation by the filling mechanism but in good shape.
• Filling: The lever is in excellent condition, including the plating. The spring also seem fine but the sac has ossified so it is not testable without opening the pen. The section is still glued to the body unfortunately.

Edited November 17, 2017 by sodul

[sodul]

Here is the Essex with the cap polished but not the body:

 

Both cap and body polished:

 

The section with the bit of sac still attached. You can see how the nib is misaligned with the feed:

 

My home made nib extraction toolkit. It was quite tough and always a bit scary but the section and nib got out safely. There is a broken rib but I did not find it in the container and I'm guessing it was already broken, maybe during a prior maintenance attempt.

 

I'm soaking the feed, nib and section in pen flush to get them as clean as possible. Braking off and scraping the old sac was a slow and delicate process done with a small box cutter blade.

[sodul]

I can't seem to be able to put the nib and feed back in the section. I was able to insert just a bit of the feed, not much of it, and I'm afraid that forcing it in will break it. I'm suspecting that the section might have shrunk just enough that the feed will be hard to insert.

 

I've confirmed with my caliper that the feed has a pretty consistent diameter of 5.08-5.09mm while the inner diameter of the section is between 4.85mm and 5.2mm with on oval shape.

 

What is the recommended approach here? Should I lightly sand the smaller diameter of the section until I'm closer to the 5.08 of the feed or should I sand the feed a bit so it can fit the section?

[eachan]

It was in there before so it will go in again. It is a pity you didn't note how the nib was aligned in the section. Use heat to expand and soften the section. I'm afraid that's really going to need a heat gun. I don't think a hair dryer will be enough. Some people advise using silicone grease but that's bad practice. It will move around and eventually foul the feed channels. I can get nibs and feeds in with just my fingers but some people use parallel plers to hold them and push them back into the section.

 

Restoration requires a proper toolkit.

[sodul]

Hi Eachan,

 

I'm not comfortable with the idea of using pliers. I ended up using a very small round file to get the feed in. After lots of attempts the feed finally got it without requiring brutal force. The nib ended up being a little loose, but I fixed that with a bit of shellac.

Due to the section shrinkage it is loose with the body so I shimmed a little bit of paper until I get a new bladder and will use shellac there as well.

 

Some more specs about the pen: 114mm uncapped and 147mm posted.The cap is 5.5g and the pen is only 7g, 12.5g posted. The bladder should probably add less than 2-3g. The section is between 6.5 and 6.75mm where it attaches to the bladder. I'll have to figure how it translates to bladder size number. I'm estimating I could get a bladder up to 70mm long.

 

 

The nib and feed cleaned up nicely:

 

Here is the picture of the final look, although before the new bladder, and a written sample:

 

 

[sodul]

Here is the cleaned up small Arnold.

 

It looks nicer in the hand. The finial is rusted with the clip and I cleaned that as much as I thought safe. I did not pull the nib and feed out of the section since they are pretty well aligned already and the nib is probably a little rusty in there.

 

Additional specs: the pen is only 109mm uncapped and 136mm posted. The cap is 4.5g and the pen is 5g. It is 9.6g altogether but missing the spring and the rubber bladder. The section is a very constant 6.3mm diameter and fits tightly with the body. The brass spring has a 0.64mm thickness. I might be able to make a new spring myself if I can find raw material.

 

[sodul]

I moved onto the blue Arnold. I let the pen soak in pen flush for a little while and that got the nib and feed to be very loose. The feed came out with the back very mushy and crumbling and is pretty much ruined. I don't know how it happened but considering the white coat on top of the nib I'm guessing the pen was 'cleaned' but a former owner with an aggressive cleaner that ate through the feed and sac, eventually rising out the metal inside the pen.

 

 

The feed diameter is 5.68mm so a modern #5 or #6 feed will not do. I have a few low quality chinese #6 feeds and I could try to sand one down to 5.7mm. I should be able to salvage the nib but there is nothing special about it. In the worst case a modern #5 seems to be a close match.

 

 

[Zookie]

Check the inside of the section. Is there a slight flat spot to be seen? I've found that on a couple of old pens, and that was the only way I could get the feed and nib back in.

[sodul]

Check the inside of the section. Is there a slight flat spot to be seen? I've found that on a couple of old pens, and that was the only way I could get the feed and nib back in.

 

 

The issue on the Essex was definitely section shrinkage as also evidenced with the section being very loose with the body. I ended up filing the barrel, albeit just a tad much where the feed is tight in the back but the nib is a little loose. I'm applying shellac to re-add just enough thickness to get a tight fit.

 

The nib ont he small yellow Arnold has missing material on the right tine and the nib is scratchy since that tine bends a lot more than the left one. Sourcing a new small nib of this size might be difficult so I'll put the restoration on hold for this one. I don't think jewelry solder would work, and the area is so small and sensitive that I don't think I would even be able to do a halfway decent job.

 

The nib on the blue Arnold seems in very good shape besides the white residue on it. I was able to clean most of it already. The section is still glued to the body and I'm waiting for a small heat gun and IR thermometer before moving on disassembling it. I could use hot water but I'm afraid it could damage the body. The filling mechanism seems completely rusted out and with the melted feed I do not have high hopes to do a full restoration anytime soon.

 

Lastly the supreme cleaned up nicely. There was a lot of ink in the feed and after cleaning there is a bit of missing feed under the tines, but noting dramatic. The filing mechanism seems perfectly healthy. The lowly spoon feed writes surprisingly nicely. With the help of hot water I was able to heat up the section and remove it. The sac was almost entirely hardened and broken open. The part on the section was still flexible which made removal easy. The feed pushed out without too much force, whit the section warm from the hot water.

 

 

It is really unfortunate that the feed is so mangled up at the end. Should I try to restore it with say crystal clear gorilla glue? Should I just leave it alone or at least polish the nasty end? The nib is in very good shape and only lost a minimal amount of plating

 

Since these are third tier pens I'm considering salvaging the sacs form $1 chinese pens (sometimes I can get one for $0.65 shipped) as most sacs I've seen in small quantities come down to $3-$5, or more, per sac. I will most likely get a proper rubber sac for the Essex pen.

 

I've put this project aside a little bit since I'm waiting for more equipment and I received a Gold Bond Stonite circa 1930s with a Warranted 14KT #4 nib. It turns out that pen was fully restored recently and has the nicest nib I've ever tried. Much nicer than the other 14K nibs from the 50s, 60s, or 70s that I own.

[sodul]

It turns out the right tine on the small Arnold is half rusted and get sprung easily, and will probably break off eventually. Since it is a small nib which is very hard to procure (19mm long, over a feed with 4.75mm diameter) I decided to try the nib from a Baoer 801 and it fits pretty well. For the sac I used the one from a cheap chinese pen. For the pressure bar I used solder to re-attach the pieces followed by some bending to make it work. I now have a functional pen.

 

Here is the rusty original nib with the Baoer 801 nib and feed:

 

Soldering the pressure bar:

 

The pen with the new nib and new sac:

 

And the completed work:

 

Note that I have not used shellac on the sac since there is a tight fit and I plan on eventually getting proper sacs for the repairs. For the bar I'll get a brass sheet, apparently 0.015" thickness is correct.

 

The back of the pen is curved to the left and I might use a heat gun to help straighten it in the future.

 

For now, even if the repair is temporary, I'm happy to have this pretty little pen writing smoothly.

Edited December 22, 2017 by sodul

[Zookie]

Great job!