W-E Pacemaker - A Couple Of Questions

[Paul-in-SF]

This pen arrived in the mail today from Jersey - not New Jersey, but the Channel Island (anyone collect stamps? It had a boatload on it.) It's a blue one, I already have a green one, so I'm just looking for three more colors. I might live long enough.

 

Important question: the feed has a hole for either a breather tube or one of those "lucky curve" things. As there is no airhole in the top of the nib, which I've usually seen on feeds with breather tubes, I assume it wants to have the "lucky curve" thing. But it arrived without one, and I don't have a spare. How well will it function without? (I think my other pen has one, but I don't remember for sure, and I don't want to take it apart to find out.)

 

Less important question: The nib has more than the usual information engraved on it, including that it was made in England, and it says 55 (or possible 5.5) near the tail. It is certain a W-E nib, and it seems to be the right size. Is it possible this is not an original nib for this pen? I didn't know W-E made nibs in England, and the pen barrel says Made in USA, so I'm curious what, if anything, anyone knows about this.

[carola]

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/147225-skyline-breather-tube-confusion/

 

Seems to be the same problem as in this Skyline thread from 10 years ago. Not sure if it helps but you can always take a look..

[Paul-in-SF]

Thank you, that helps a lot. I guess it might have been either a breather tube or a "magic feed" but at least I do have a breather tube I can put in to try if it gets me a better fill. I only ever write at home, but also I like to put my pens in as good a condition as I reasonably can.

 

Thanks again for finding that thread, I was searching too specifically for Pacemaker information.

 

Edited to add: I have one reservation, though, about using a breather tube. When I put it in the hole in the back of the feed, and blow through it, there is nowhere for the air to come out -- as I mentioned above, there is no air hole in the top of the feed. The link to Richard Binder's page about the "magic feed" is broken, and I have so far not been able to find anything about it on his site.

 

Anyway, I am trying it, and I will report back whether I get a better fill, or if it has any effect on the writing.

Edited August 22, 2020 by Paul-in-SF

[carola]

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/200124-is-this-a-wick-i-see-before-me/

 

In this thread, there is a picture of the wick you are looking for (the second picture, not the first!)

I would try to contact someone who repairs vintage Eversharps in the USA, they should have wicks like that in their parts box. At least, my pen repairer has.

[joss]

That is a very nice catch congratulations!

 

In respect to your "lucky curvy thingy" question: David Nishimura calls it an "ink-wicking tail":

www.vintagepens.com/skyline.shtml

 

check FPN also for the term "ink wick":

www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/230299-wierd-skyline-feeder-thing-not-a-tube

www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/200124-is-this-a-wick-i-see-before-me/

www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/139045-skyline-curved-feed

www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331931-do-eversharps-need-their-breather-tubes

 

Eversharp started advertising the "Magic Feed" circa 1941 initially for the Pacemaker, Bantam and Doric and from 1942 onwards also for the Skyline. The advertisements claim that the "Magic Feed" prevents leaking "high in a plane - so at ground level too" but it is not explained what this Magic Feed actually is.

 

I do doubt though that "Magic Feed" referred exclusively to the ink-wick. Virtually every Eversharp Skyline advertisement of 1942 to 1946 mentions the presence of the "Magic Feed" but Skyline pens with a breather tube are much more common than Skylines with an ink-wick. So "Magic Feed" might have been a broader term for some adaptations at the feed.

 

A breather tube would be correct for this pen I think. You can find pictures where you actually see the tube through the window of the ink-view section, although you find as many pictures where no breather tube is seen. Whether the breather tube was functional (eg does the hole in the feed extent to the bottom) is another question. I remember a discussion here on FPN on the useless breather tubes in a Parker Duofold Geometric (or was it a Royal Challenger?) that were of purely visual purpose in an ink-view section.

 

In respect to the nib on your pen: can you share a picture of the nib imprint?

[carola]

Once, I got a presumably restored Skyline with a breather tube that should have had a wick. It worked - for about three quarters of a page, then the ink flow was rather an ink non-flow.

 

My pen repairer took it apart, laughed, pulled the breather tube out, put in a wick and from then on the pen wrote like a new one. I´ve had no issues ever since.

 

Maybe you will have to try both versions, breather tube and wick, to determine what works and what doesn´t.

[joss]

Once, I got a presumably restored Skyline with a breather tube that should have had a wick. It worked - for about three quarters of a page, then the ink flow was rather an ink non-flow.

My pen repairer took it apart, laughed, pulled the breather tube out, put in a wick and from then on the pen wrote like a new one. I´ve had no issues ever since.

 

That is interesting. Possibly, mounting a breather tube in a feed that was designed for an ink wick may simply block ink flow into the feed. It would be interesting to know how your repair person recognized the difference between a Skyline "breather tube feed" and "ink wick feed".

[carola]

 

That is interesting. Possibly, mounting a breather tube in a feed that was designed for an ink wick may simply block ink flow into the feed. It would be interesting to know how your repair person recognized the difference between a Skyline "breather tube feed" and "ink wick feed".

As far as I remember he said something about the feed and older/newer model. It took him about 5 seconds to determine that the breather tube was the problem.

[Paul-in-SF]

Well, I have put in the breather tube that I have, and I will be writing with it later today. I guess I will plan a long writing session so that I can test my experience against carola's.

 

I always wonder whether pen repairers with stocks of old parts that can't be replaced any more are willing to sell those parts, or whether they wouldn't rather have us send in our pens to be fixed instead of selling off a part for a few bucks. Or would they price the part so high that no-one would buy it? Anecdote: one fella, nothing against him, he has a living to make, recently quoted me $125 for a very rare replacement part for pens that don't cost much more than that. In fact I just bought a working pen in good condition that uses that same part, for exactly that price. The economics of vintage pen repair are not always logical, I guess.

[carola]

Logical? No, definitely not and that doesn´t apply for the repairs only. If I want something nice to write with, I don´t need to spend LOTS of money on two vintage pens (which I just did). I could have said, I don´t take the rare colours, I choose the colours you get everywhere for a fraction of the price. I could have said, I don´t need a vintage pen, I can take a modern Jinhao for something under € 10,00. Both options would have been far more "logical" than the one I chose.

 

It is not simply about "something to write with", that is, not exclusively. It is about beauty, history, hunting instinct, owning a treasure, enjoyment, feelings and so on. And that´s where logical economics go overboard pretty fast. Are the pens I bought "worth" it? Who knows. I wanted them, I got them.

 

I have never asked my pen repairer if he would sell me just the parts instead of repairing my pens. I suppose, he wouldn´t like it too much, as he also has a living to make and moreover he would have to straighten everything out if I messed it up. I neither have the time nor the knowledge to repair my own pens. I am very happy my pen repairer is able to make a living as I would miss him greatly if he wasn´t. If I find myself in a situation like yours at the moment, my approach is to bring him the pen saying "Do something about it!"

 

However I am really curious how your repair will be going and I hope to read something about it soon.

[Paul-in-SF]

The breather tube seems to work okay, I wrote a couple of pages with it yesterday and it had no problem keeping up the flow of ink. I don't think I got any better of a fill than I did with no breather tube, but it's hard to tell for sure with a heavily ambered ink window. So I will be leaving it as is and not trying to hunt down the elusive "ink-wicking tail."

 

As for my anecdote above, that was about a completely different sort of pen, and if it ever gets fixed I will post about it in a separate thread.

[carola]

That´s the main thing. The pen writes nicely. Enjoy!