Jump to content

"grail Pen" Bagged. Now I Need Advice On Vacumatic Restoration...


Methersgate

Recommended Posts

I had set out to collect the set of first generation "top line" Vacs in silver pearl, that being the commonest colour. I bagged the Standard at once, of course, followed by the Oversize, then the Slender, but the last of the set of four, the Slender Oversize, aka the Senior, is as common as hen's teeth; it was only made for one year and it seems that hardly anyone bought it. (These two facts might be related, of course). Had I known that, when I started, I might not have set out to get the set.

 

Anyway, one popped up on a well known auction site, and, having used the simple method of paying more than anyone else, it is now mine. To judge by the deep gloss on the barrel and cap the perfect state of the imprint and the complete lack of brassing,it has led a very sheltered life for the past eighty years. This particular specimen has a "W" feed and what would be by European standards a medium nib, but to judge by the nibs on my others, two of which have "A" feeds, it would have been considered a broad in the States in the Thirties.

Incidentally, it has got the "wrong" colour trim - it is rolled gold, not" chromium or nickel plated".

 

It has got the biggest and deepest "personalisation" that I have ever seen on a pen, "Lt Col E.S. GOSS, MC IMS MDC CLUB, MADRAS 12th March 1938" which led me, via Google, to the "London Gazette" for the 30th September 1938, which told me that Lt Colonel ES Goss, MC, of the Indian Medical Service, retired on the 25th of September that year. So in this case I reckon that the personalisation adds to the pen rather than detracting from it, and we have the little mystery of how a pen made in the USA came to be in India when Parker would have been supplying the Indian market from Canada.

The fly in the ointment is that the "rhodium or palladium" plating on the two tone nib is starting to "blush", and if I look at its companions, the plating on the nibs of the Standard and the Slender has "gone" completely, the Oversize has a loose and slightly distorted clip and the Slender has a replacement black cap jewel which is a poor fit, so, having now completed my set, in a perfect world I would get all these faults sorted, but plating and making cap jewels is a bit beyond me. Is there an expert Vac restorer who could do all this?


Edited by Methersgate
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 31
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Methersgate

    12

  • Brian-McQueen

    6

  • FarmBoy

    5

  • mitto

    4

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Can you share some photos of your find?

Kind regards,

vieuxcarre

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

------------------------------

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am no good at pictures of pens!

 

86366DF4-F576-4225-81DD-54F70ABD866A.jpg

 

From the left:

Oversize, date 26

Oversize Slender, date 27

Standard, date 17

Slender, date 37

Pencil has no date that I can see.

Edited by Methersgate
Link to comment
Share on other sites

E5EB462D-7BDC-42D0-9B2A-A90E8F4A306D.jpg

 

The wider middle band on the cap of the Slender Oversize aka Senior is correct for the pen, according to Parker Pens .net

But interestingly the one shown there has a split arrow clip not the Art Deco clip that mine has.

 

https://parkerpens.net/vacumatic.html

Edited by Methersgate
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2A5F18C5-25E7-48D3-ADF7-EF3636755641.jpg

 

All are Geo. S Parker. Parker Vacumatic. Made in USA.

 

Nibs are

PARKER

USA

 

except for the Oversize Slender which is

USA

PARKER

Edited by Methersgate
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those are really nice vac's Methersgate!! Congrats on completing the set!

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do not plate the gold trim. It should remain gold, it is not a mistake, rather it is a feature.

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you.

 

As regards the rolled gold trim on the Slender Oversize, I have no plans to alter it. For one thing, it is in remarkably good condition. I was just wondering about the rhodium (or is it palladium?) plating on the two tone nibs. Is there a way to restore that? Should I even think about it?

 

To my way of thinking, doing the diaphragm isnt restoring a Vac; its just routine service, like the oil and filters on a car. The diaphragm is a consumable item. Doing anything more than that - even aggressive cleaning - requires careful consideration.

 

Is the ambering of the barrels due to oxidation, to reaction with inks or to UV light? I ask because the clear rings in the Slender in the pictures is a very pale straw colour, whereas, as may be seen, the Oversize, while still clear, is a dark orange hue.

Edited by Methersgate
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, a few things are at play here.

 

First, congratulations on completing your set!

 

Ron Zorn would be able to handle all the ailments of your pens. It will take a while and be costly, but he is the one person I know of who is well-equipped to handle all the tasks you are seeking to be performed. He may or may not have the correct rear jewel on hand.

 

The Senior should not be called a "Slender Oversize." Anyone who is Vacumatic savvy will recognize the name "Senior" as it is the proper, official Parker model name.

 

The trim on your Senior is possibly chrome trim that has worn down to the brass, instead of rolled gold. A true rolled gold trimmed Senior would be an extreme rarity. The person you get to restore your pen will be able to tell you for certain if the trim is gold or brassed. The clip is a later replacement, as the "split arrow" clip wouldn't have been made in that size for about 2 years after the Senior model was discontinued. If the rear jewel on this pen is black, it stands to reason that the rear tassie is possibly also a gold replacement, suited to match the bands.

 

The ambering is due to a combination of ink and off-gassing from the rubber diaphragm. Vacumatic transparency runs the gamut from "water-clear" to "kind of yellow" to "amber" to "ruby" to "such dark red that it's almost black." All pens (with transparency, as some Vacs didn't have transparent sections) originally would have started out water-clear, but various conditions have led them to amber. Unfortunately, this is irreversible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dear Brian,

Thanks. But I am in the UK.

Thanks. I used an image hosting service which has just lost interest in life, so I re-attach the photos using FPNs own server, here.

It is undoubtedly rolled gold, not even slightly brassed.

The split arrow clip is not on my pen, it is on the one in the illustration in Penography.

The pen with the black "jewel" in my set is not the Senior but the Slender.

 

Thanks for your advice on "ambering".

 

I would take it that the worst thing that one can do to a Vacumatic that one wants to keep from "ambering" is to renew the diaphragm and fill it with ink, so the better course of action for my set would be to remove all the diaphragms..

 

I see that I need some - user - Vacs for writing with - and, fortunately, I happen to have some!

post-142010-0-60021200-1523455341_thumb.jpeg

post-142010-0-42778300-1523455407_thumb.jpeg

Edited by Methersgate
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it is truly rolled gold, then you have a truly rare Vacumatic. Collectors call this "reverse trim" when pens have the opposite trim from what was advertised.

 

Sorry for the confusion regarding your clip. Your clip is correct.

 

I would try Laurence Oldfield, but it doesn't look like he takes repairs anymore.

Edited by BrianMcQueen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks! It is indeed "reverse trim", and that goes along with its other mystery, which is - "How on Earth did a USA - made pen end up in India, a few months after it was made?" It "should" have been made in Canada, for export to the British Empire. Which is why, to me, the personalisation adds to, rather than detracting from, this pen.

I am in touch with Dr Oldfield on something else, so I may ask him nicely in due course!

post-142010-0-77051900-1523458924_thumb.jpeg

Edited by Methersgate
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Incredible find! Congrats!

PAKMAN

minibanner.gif                                    Vanness-world-final.png.c1b120b90855ce70a8fd70dd342ebc00.png

                         My Favorite Pen Restorer                                             My Favorite Pen Store

                                                                                                                                Vanness Pens - Selling Online!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do not plate the gold trim. It should remain gold, it is not a mistake, rather it is a feature.

Farmboy thinks it is reverse trim.

 

Farmboy would also state it is the one variation on this theme he is missing...

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, everyone!

 

Beginners Luck!

 

Here is a slightly better picture of the cap, showing the clip, and the nib:

post-142010-0-90821400-1523537864_thumb.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Farmboy thinks it is reverse trim.

 

Farmboy would also state it is the one variation on this theme he is missing...

 

I am very much leaning toward reverse trim, too. I am always skeptical until I examine a pen in person, but the cap bands look like they have crisp edges and do not look worn or plated.

 

When you say it is the one variation on this theme you're missing, what theme do you mean?

Do you mean the theme of reverse-trimmed Vacumatics, or the theme of Vacumatic Seniors?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...