Busy Day Cleaning Pens.

[JotterAddict62]

I have been lazy for 2 years and finally started working on pens today. I restored 9 Esterbrooks & 7 Parker Vac's.

 

Had problems with 2 Vac's, cap jewels are loose. A 3rd Vac, the feed that was in the pen was not tight in the section.

 

I started at 8AM with a 2 hour lunch break. I'm wiped out. I think I have 50 more to do.[ I lost count ]

 

Need to find some food.

 

 

Ken

[Parker51]

Oh how I long to be in your situation. I want to work on my pens, work on my office, work on my garage, etc. I am eligble to retire, but can't comfortably afford it for several more months.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have a pen cup full of clean it tomorrow pens..........sigh cubed.

Hell, just cleaning 2 or 3 a day would do wonders..............then I'd have some of my favorite pens back in use...........or be able to put them up and dig out others, that there are no space for.

 

Having something to do when one retires outside of getting underfoot is a must. One loses status, so new status must be found (a major reason men croak faster then women when they retire) ..........one needs a time structure. If one has started before hand, it's easier to slip into it, I think, than waking up one morning late....with nothing to do, and not doing it.

 

I was scribbling before I retired so continued..........the wife wants me to do odd things....like turn on and pull an odd electrical machine.....or disturb star dust. In 1 1/2 years she retires...........then I'll not have to worry about enough to do. Even if we don't know any Generals....she has the white gloves all ready.

[PaulS]

tempted to say that collectors, as opposed to mere scriveners, are blessed with waking every day and having something to do - often multiple hobbies and pursuits - thus putting off the day when the grim reaper knocks at the door - it's back to that old adage about having a passion for many things which keeps us younger than those who don't collect.

 

But why men turn up their toes earlier than the fair sex may have something to do with our cave dwelling past, when we had to be the hunter gatherer, the warder-off of other males who might have stolen our partners, the maker of tools and chaser of mammoths - so we ended up being knackered most of the time. The consequence of this shows itself in our contemporary behaviour where we now need to sit down and drink some beer or Scotch, read the paper in comfort and put off until tomorrow all those debilitating gardening jobs.

In view of the old saying that 'if you want something done you should give it to the busiest person you can find', means I shall be sending my pens for renovation to JotterAddict62

[PAKMAN]

Ken, sounds like a great day to me!

[Bo Bo Olson]

I favor growing a Russian Weed Garden.....wild, nature....and a rusted shut law mower. A scythe to get to the hammock...one does have to live far enough from OCD no higher than 1 full inch high grass fanatics.

 

Well, I don't have to mow the lawn, there is the housemeister to do that....living in an apartment even if just a yard over the grass, does have advantages.

The housemeister before cured me of gardening. I'd planted flowers on the border of a elevated once house play ground..............and he mowed them.

 

I love work, I can watch it for hours...........and as long as I have a book, don't get bored when there is no one working...............not that I go out of my way to watch. It is a bit much to take your fold up chair to find work to watch....I'm not into TV.

[JotterAddict62]

I work 3 to 4 days a week [ 12 hour shifts ] and I travel 100 round trip [ I allow 3hrs for this ]. That is a 15 hr day and sleep maybe 4hrs between

each shift. With the yard work done since Thanksgiving I should have more time for inside projects. Like always December is always a bust for

that. Today is house cleaning day so pens are on hold until next week when I have 4 days off. Maybe when all housework is done and I stay up until

5AM, I may do a few pens. My goal when restoring pens are to make them work. I rate myself at a 2 or 3 out of 10 when it comes to polishing the pens.

It will take time and many pens to rate myself to an 8 on that part of the process. My thought on that is I take a part from the parts bin that is the most

dull and scratched part and make it shine. Then I will have the process down to where I like how the pen looks. The more pens I work on the better I

will become. I'll stick to what I know [ Vintage Parkers ] and from time to time I will try other vintage pens.

 

Back to the housework now.

[PaulS]

quote "Back to the housework now" ……….. and don't forget to put on the pinny first prize for industry in the home - well done.

[JotterAddict62]

quote "Back to the housework now" ……….. and don't forget to put on the pinny first prize for industry in the home - well done.

pinny? - I had to look it up. Do you wear your with/without trouser ?

[ParkerDuofold]

Hi Ken,

 

I envy your free time... ...enjoy the task... I can think of a lot of worse jobs.

 

 

- Anthony

 

 

ETA: I know that's the sick emoticon,... but it means I'm green with envy.

Edited January 19, 2019 by ParkerDuofold

[Parker51]

I will have worked forty-five years when this month ends. Not all full time; but also sometimes two jobs, the worst occurance being during Graduate School when I stupidly tried to pursue a masters full time while working full time and being a teaching assistant. It didn't work. The best was delivering newspapers while in high school. My current position which has almost constantly changing duties, responsibilities, expertise and knowledge requirements is the one I have had for over thirty years and hope to retire from this year. I have been blessed with good health and good skills and thus I have only been unemployed for a single two month stretch thirty-eight years ago. I do not take my identity from my profession, possible because most people have no idea that such a job exists and when asked to explain it, unless the listener is in a related field, they typically can't quite understand it. Our superintendent once did a humorous dialogue describing our jobs which took a half an hour and that was using the specialized vocabulary we use. Trying to get a regular person to understand it is about the same as trying to get a non-fountain pen user to understand how and why a fountain pen works.

This means I have a lot of pens to clean, polish, organize and try to learn how to repair and/or sell as I have been actively collecting for about thirty-five years and I have kept about 90% of those I have bought.

[JotterAddict62]

I will have worked forty-five years when this month ends. Not all full time; but also sometimes two jobs, the worst occurance being during Graduate School when I stupidly tried to pursue a masters full time while working full time and being a teaching assistant. It didn't work. The best was delivering newspapers while in high school. My current position which has almost constantly changing duties, responsibilities, expertise and knowledge requirements is the one I have had for over thirty years and hope to retire from this year. I have been blessed with good health and good skills and thus I have only been unemployed for a single two month stretch thirty-eight years ago. I do not take my identity from my profession, possible because most people have no idea that such a job exists and when asked to explain it, unless the listener is in a related field, they typically can't quite understand it. Our superintendent once did a humorous dialogue describing our jobs which took a half an hour and that was using the specialized vocabulary we use. Trying to get a regular person to understand it is about the same as trying to get a non-fountain pen user to understand how and why a fountain pen works.

This means I have a lot of pens to clean, polish, organize and try to learn how to repair and/or sell as I have been actively collecting for about thirty-five years and I have kept about 90% of those I have bought.

When I found pens back in Aug.2008 when I switch jobs needing a good pen to do the shipping paperwork when signing out drivers. [ Parker Jotter ]

Working in the food warehousing environment [ AKA freezer ] -10 to - 20 deg. 60-70 hours a week [ 6 days ] paychecks were nice and fat.

Somehow I amassed my Parker collection in 7 years. Changed jobs and back to where I was working since Aug.2015. If I want to sign up for OT

I will. Work weeks are 3 -- 12 hrs shifts one week and 4 -- 12 hrs the next week [ back and forth ]. I will only sign up for OT on a 4 day week, making

a 60 hr work week. Do the math for the OT hrs. Come next month I will have been in the work force 41 years. I started working when I was 16 on weekends and summers. First job lasted 8 yrs. I bounced around until 93 working in WI & NV. While in NV [ Reno ] I worked and went back to school

for 2 of the 3 or so yrs I was there.

 

One of my grandfathers told me never let them make you a boss. He had 6 kids to be boss over. I do my job the best I know how and go home.

Leave work at work and you know the rest.

[PaulS]

I wear neither the trousers nor the pinny in my house - neither do I have the cleverness to cook though I love good nosh, but I do spend Sunday morning vacuuming the house, the garden is more my domain - this involves cutting the grass three or four times a year - I also feed the birds, especially in the winter, put out the re-cycling material and rubbish once a week, and tend to all the usual D.I.Y. jobs.

 

I'd love three lifetimes to get to grips with so many interests - and to paraphrase the first Elizabeth - so many pens, so little time.

Edited January 19, 2019 by PaulS

[ThomasB]

50-60 hour work week here too...Working on pens, along with hitting the gym is my down time and stress reliever (along with beer )

[mitto]

I have been busy restoring pens (100+ mainly P51, Swan MTs, Conway Stewarts and UK aero Duofold Maximas) that I received from UK. All except a few were won from eBay.UK and mailed to a friend's address in London who then despatched these to me via a third party visiting family here in Islamabad (Pakistan).

I have another pile of (about 150 to 160) pens (mostly P51s alongwith a sizable number of replacement parts again mainly for P51s) received in two batches through the good offices of Ken (JotterAddict62) that needs to be cleaned, resaced and restored.

 

Can't say when I would be able to find time for working on these pens as I have already opened two more pen collecting stations in Saudi Arabia and Peshawar (another city in Pakistan) that are keeping me SUPER busy.

 

Right now I am in Peshawar picking up P51s from parties here and there.

Edited January 19, 2019 by mitto

[mitto]

As for work, I am a retired person. But before retirement I was known in the Federal Govt Secretariat as a workholic officer who would always burn the midnight oil.

 

The powers that be would - most often - appreciate; Yet others - mainly lazy colleagues and subordinates - would hate me for that.

 

Unfortunately, I find it difficult to change my routine even after retirement and can only go to sleep at or around 3am in the morning. What I do until 3am is for ye all to guess, though.

Edited January 20, 2019 by mitto

[Aysedasi]

Oh how I long to be in your situation. I want to work on my pens, work on my office, work on my garage, etc. I am eligble to retire, but can't comfortably afford it for several more months.

 

So familiar..... End of this year for me, I can't take much more!