Sheaffer's Desk Pens Catch

[sodul]

I found two sheaffer desk pens for $5 at the local flea market today.

 

The Ballpoint was missing a writing bit. I only have a MontBlanc and it is 4mm too long. I managed to modify an Office Impression Gel ink 'refill' (they only sell the whole pen AFAIK) by cutting 21mm from the back, then 1mm from that to put to the front and voila, very nice fit, and the pen writes nicely. I had to put the spring I found in the back of the barrel which may or may not be correct. I have a Sheaffer's 500 touchdown (aka dolphin) this is the same size and shape so they'll match nicely, although the 500 is not a White Dot model.

 

The lifetime pen is in a sorry state but the nib is excellent and has some softness to it, and that's my first 14K Sheaffer nib. IT has many issues such as the missing band ring (I've seen it red on pictures) near the white dot and I'll probably put an o ring as a temporary fix. The back of the barrel has 2 hairline cracks. The sac is gone but the filling mechanism is fine. The front of the barrel is heavily cracked and the previous owner did some wonky work to 'fix it', installing a metal bar in the section to match the crack and provide stability. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to salvage here, but I'll probably go with Loctite 480 do increase my chances of success. The feed has a crack at the end that runs right along the nib slit, probably not a big issue but I'll have to remove the section and feed to inspect further.

 

Anyhow for 5 bucks the nib alone was well worth it. I'll post more pictures when/if I find the time and materials to repair the pen.

 

 

[Roger W.]

OK, you don't know much about the earlier pen at all. Let's start with the poor previous owner who did nothing with this pen. The "metal bar" or key in the section belongs there. It is for the first style dry-proof 1935-1939 in which this key engaged a ring in the socket to bring tabs down to air tight the chamber. Sadly, it didn't work that well then hence the 5 year run and it looks terrible on the pen not to mention that many of these have been cracked from trying to get the section out. The damage at the section is pretty bad but, it may still be functional if you clean it up and it seats properly. Also, it does not have the red ring as the red ring was only for the red pen in the double set. Of bases offered between 1935-39 only 20% were double sets so you will mostly find this pen without the red spacer ring - so please don't put a needless O-ring on it.

 

Roger W.

[sodul]

Roger, you can call me John Snow, I indeed know nothing about dry-proof pens :-)

 

In my defense the quality of the groove for the did not seem to match the quality of manufacturing on the rest of the pen, but it was just shellac that made it look that way. See the attached close up.

 

 

I've since cleaned up this area and it looks a lot more genuine now and have found this 'user manual' and a detailed picture showing the key. So you can consider me informed now. Thank you!

 

The key on mine is worn off, so no more plating, except on the covered part (the key slides away relatively easily), which makes it look a little hand crafted.

 

I think that Loctite 480 will be the only viable solution to fix the crack. The barrel fits somewhat tightly even with a wide gap in the crack and joining the sides of the crack together would make it impossible to fit the section. I have a couple of tofflemire matrixes on the way so it will be a few weeks before I even get started on that repair.

 

[Roger W.]

That is the thing about the dry-proof type I, if you didn't read the original instructions, and how many original buyers would have, these units got abused. I've got three sitting on the back desk (meaning I haven't put some new arrivals away) and one is damaged. I've also got two of the type II dry-proofs where the key is removed from the pen and the socket has a bell on the top of the socket that turns by hand. This lasted from 1940-42. Then they go to threads on the pen that screw in like a pocket pen would to a cap. By the 60's they just slide in - the fountains being like your ball point.

 

Roger W.