A Quartet Of Watermans Picked Up From St.louis Pen Show!

[coleb87]

Hey all!

 

This past weekend I ventured to my first ever pen show, the St. Louis one!

I *thought* I knew what pens I wanted.... I was WRONG.

Upon gazing for hours, I found a waterman that caught my eye. Then another. And another.

Now, I have a couple of vintage pens, being vacs, dorics, flat-tops, etc. But I didn't have a Waterman! Not a single one. I had always wanted one, but for some reason I always found them to be "elusive".

Well, this all changed at the show. There were quite a few!

At the show, I picked up 4 watermans, 1 of which is having its nib worked on.

All of the pens have no brassing, except for the 55, on the very edge of the clip.

 

(In order of me getting them)

-Waterman 55, Woodgrain, account nib

-Waterman 3, celluloid (color???), flexy #2 nib.

-Waterman 12, mottled pattern, very flexy/wet New York nib

-Waterman 7, Red Ripple, "Brown" Nib. (Nib is being worked on at the moment, was missing some tipping material)

 

All pens have clear imprints that are not faded and can be red with the naked eye. The 55 has a patent imprint on the center of the barrel, as well as the end of the barrel. (not the number)

 

As always, I have some questions for you keen-on-waterman people.

 

-The account nib on the #55 is very, very fine (as it should be) but writes very dry. I must write pretty slow or else it skips.

-Speaking of the 55, I don't hear much about it. What is there to know?

-The New york nib on the #12 is noticeably more of a wet noodle than the "reg. US pat off." nib on the #3. What makes this nib better and more valued?

-Is there any way to really narrow down the year of these pens?

-What is the general rarity and price range of these pens, in good shape?

-How careful with ink selection should I be? I currently have 4001 black in all of them.

 

Here's the 55

 

And the 3

 

...And lastly, the 12.

 

So how are these?

 

[EDIT] - In the photos, the barrel imprints and whatnot have rendered to be much more unclear than they actually are.

Edited July 7, 2018 by coleb87

[pen lady]

Nice finds! I can answer one of your questions, the colour of the #3 is called "steel quartz" and I'd say that the pen is from the early 30's. Hard to pin things down as Waterman made the same model for several years and no "handy-dandy" date codes a la Parker!

[sidthecat]

That #12 is a real treasure. You've fallen down the rabbit hole, dear...enjoy it!

[gregamckinney]

I don't know who is working on your BROWN nib, but they can probably tweak your account nib to make it a bit smoother writing.

 

Great pens, all from a wonderful era of Waterman.

 

Best Regards, greg

[coleb87]

Nice finds! I can answer one of your questions, the colour of the #3 is called "steel quartz" and I'd say that the pen is from the early 30's. Hard to pin things down as Waterman made the same model for several years and no "handy-dandy" date codes a la Parker!

 

Ah, okay! Thanks. It would have been convenient for there to be date codes, but now it's part of the hunt!

That #12 is a real treasure. You've fallen down the rabbit hole, dear...enjoy it!

 

What do you mean by treasure? How collectible is it? I understand it's an early waterman with the new york nib, But I don't know the story behind its collectibility (I'm a total newbie to collecting watermans, I'm used to parker/shaeffer/eversharp)

I don't know who is working on your BROWN nib, but they can probably tweak your account nib to make it a bit smoother writing.

 

Great pens, all from a wonderful era of Waterman.

 

Best Regards, greg

Minuskin is working on the 7. As for the 55, I managed to get the nib flowing better by running a brass shim between the times 3 or 4 times. Wet writer, thin line!