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German (?) Mystery Pen..


Methersgate

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An old friend in North Germany has sent me this:

 

7_CDF2_CE6-20_ED-4668-_A0_E2-0_D34163_B5

 

The name on the nib is Wabeck and the same name is on a cartouche on the cap. Material is chased black celluloid, I think. No fins on the feed. The red hard rubber button is pinned to a shaft in the manner of an Onoto, but whether it is a plunger or a piston, its frozen up, and barely moves at all. I cant see that there is a join between the section and the barrel, but surely there must be?

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Oh, and the very substantial washer type clip is Pelikan shaped!

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I suspect it is piston rather than plunger. if it were plunger then (like Onoto) surely it would simply be attached to the cap rather than having a thick, grippable, knob inside.

 

With a loupe you should be able to see from the way the threading ends whether there is a join at the section. If so, the usual methods.

 

If you find it too risky or impossible to remove the section (try also unscrewing the nib and feed) then I would try knocking out the pin to see whether you can remove the knob. This may make it easier to get a very slippery (and preferably soluble) lubricant into the barrel, which will serve to get the piston moving.

 

Is that an unscrewable ring at the back end of the barrel? The picture is a little dark. If so, it may not unscrew until you have removed the turning knob.

Edited by praxim

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Thanks for the advice. I am sure you are right and it must be a piston filler.

There may indeed be a screw ring at the top, to give access to the piston screw - the top is milled as if to form a grip.

Stylistically it seems a bit Pelikan - like.

 

Updated:

An experimental soaking revealed a transparent section of the barrel, just above the section, which as you say must surely be capable of being separated. I had not been able to see it, before. Further rinses unclogged the piston mechanism and it is now operational.

 

Poking about on the Interthing turned up:

 

Wabeck Fullhalter GmbH, Flughafenstrasse 32 D-! Berlin 44. No record of this company before WW2.

 

eBay turned up a couple more examples or roughly similar pens. It's very nicely made, but a bit let down by the chromed steel nib, which is very hard, and the unfinned section, which does what unfinned sections do!. (If it had an Onoto 5 nib it would be a winner!)

Updated again:

 

More poking about on the Interthing in German led me to a thread on the Penexchange forum which revealed that it's a rare post-WW2 German pen, made by a small company in Berlin, and rare even in Germany. The piston mechanism is brass, and the whole set up is high quality. More cleaning got the nib and feed working well and I would describe its writing performance as similar to my Montblanc 149.

I assume that in post-WW2 Germany there was not room for three companies making nice piston filler fountain pens.

It's a keeper!

Edited by Methersgate
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I don't think I'd remove the section... Based on your photo, I suspect the filling mechanism can be removed using a vacumatic filling unit removal tool. A search in this sub-forum for "Vac tool" or "vacumatic tool" should get you all sorts of pics and recommendations.

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I don't think I'd remove the section... Based on your photo, I suspect the filling mechanism can be removed using a vacumatic filling unit removal tool. A search in this sub-forum for "Vac tool" or "vacumatic tool" should get you all sorts of pics and recommendations.

I know what you mean, and, having a few Vacs and the Oversize tool, I was thinking about it.

 

But happily I was able to get it going by just soaking and rinsing.

 

Its a really high quality pen, despite the base metal nib. It had just got totally clagged up.

 

The piston turning knob under the blind cap is a new feature to me.

 

Size wise, this is a Standard Vac size, but the thread at the top of the barrel is more like Oversize.

Edited by Methersgate
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I havent myself seen another pen in which the operating mechanism for a piston filler is concealed under a blind cap.

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I have some. Tabo of Italy did it, plus the Hardtmuth Airless, and a more or less unbranded thing on which I am working at the moment. I think Montblanc had a blind cap on the 246.

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Thanks. It really is a beautifully made pen. The workmanship reminds me of Onoto, in the machining, and of Montblanc and Pelikan in the general design. I found some references to these pens, in German, here:

https://www.penexchange.de/forum_neu/viewtopic.php?t=6829

 

Looking carefully, I think Don is right and one would access the piston mechanism by using a Vac tool or similar (for sure it will be a metric thread!) on the blind cap screw, because the inner cap goes into the cap in the same way.

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Post WW2, there were still many good piston pen companies...the Original Reform...wa a very solid pen...the companies he exported to before the war send cash in advance so he could buy supplies. In the mid '50's he closed his factory rather than to make a pen to compete with ball points. A few years later he sold it to Mutschler who then made 3rd tier pens under that name.

Tropen, Herlitz, Lamy, Osmia, are others.... Geha started in 1950.

There must be very many more......Diplomat was one.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Here is a Herlitz made Luxor visifill that has languished in my 'to do' drawer for a number of years
​This is a very similar pen in what I thought was BHR but may be celluloid and is a near twin to my Osmia which I have posted about elsewhere. [Luxor was a good quality German name and nothing to do with the Indian company]
The piston seems to be rubber that has hardened and shrunk so it moves freely but does very little

and the blind cap is split
cheeers

Dave

fpn_1534591950__dscn1191.jpg

fpn_1534591818__dscn1194.jpg

Edited by Aislingean
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  • 2 weeks later...

I have am Osmia 774D that looks very much like it, I have not been able to disassemble the piston side of it. Pushing on the pin doesn't seem to do anything.

post-143078-0-13150900-1535651739_thumb.jpg

Edited by CarrotBasket
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I have am Osmia 774D that looks very much like it, I have not been able to disassemble the piston side of it. Pushing on the knib pin doesn't seem to do anything.

Sorry to sound agricultural or to horrify others, but you may just need a bigger hammer.

 

Earlier this week a Soennecken 101 had a pin which was both stuck and also quite short. Using a staking tool alternating sides, and a 90g rather than 30g brass hammer, I was able to get it moving but the end of the staking tool was too short to get it out, and it could still not be pushed out (I use a bit of paperclip wire in the end of dowell for that). I made a miniature drift by cutting 1 cm off the shaft of a 0.8 mm HSS drill then was able to hammer the pin out (then push out the drift which was now inside!).

 

Preliminaries included USC treatment of that end, and feeding a little safe lubricant into the hole. Most important is always to have the pen stable and supported.

X

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Sorry to sound agricultural or to horrify others, but you may just need a bigger hammer.

 

Earlier this week a Soennecken 101 had a pin which was both stuck and also quite short. Using a staking tool alternating sides, and a 90g rather than 30g brass hammer, I was able to get it moving but the end of the staking tool was too short to get it out, and it could still not be pushed out (I use a bit of paperclip wire in the end of dowell for that). I made a miniature drift by cutting 1 cm off the shaft of a 0.8 mm HSS drill then was able to hammer the pin out (then push out the drift which was now inside!).

 

Preliminaries included USC treatment of that end, and feeding a little safe lubricant into the hole. Most important is always to have the pen stable and supported.

Turns out I the piston unit does come off the same way a vacumatic pump does, with less torque required. :doh:

Still, the pin holds the upper part of the piston. I am not convinced to take it out yet, it seems to work fine. I have to fix the seal in the piston first, the rubber is seriously worn.

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  • 3 weeks later...

...

Its a really high quality pen, despite the base metal nib. ...

...

 

Don't think less of the pen for its base metal nib - some of the very best nibs I have are steel of that era, with manufacturers making a virtue out of the shortage of gold. I don't know how they did it, but steel nibs of that time are very often unusually expressive by today's standards (in my limited experience).

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  • 2 months later...

I havent myself seen another pen in which the operating mechanism for a piston filler is concealed under a blind cap.

Senator pens have filler under a blind cap . Osmia has some pens with the filler under a blind cap . Any number of others also including Montblanc.

post-145609-0-01040900-1543032906_thumb.jpg

Edited by EdwardSouthgate
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Osmai, had to produce a fine steel nib in either semi or maxi semi-flex, in they were too poor to make gold.....in fact they lost their nib factory in 1932 because of debt to Degussa silver and gold company.

Osmia had to have a steel nib as good as their gold nibs....to try and stay in business.

 

When Degussa took over the nib factory and still made Osmia gold and steel nibs, they were as good as when Osmia made them.

Eventually Degussa marked nibs were made and sold, I have some in steel and one in gold....of course they are as good as Osmia...they were Osmia nibs under a new maker's mark.

The grand Geha nibs be they gold or steel in the piston pens, were made by Degussa.

So great steel nibs started before WW2 era in Germany, with Osmia/Degussa.

Pelikan, Soeneecken, Kaweco, Reform, MB were playing catch up.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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