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Knowing my interest in fountain pen, my father walked casually to me a couple of days back and said that “this is your grandfather’s pen. He had used it during his grad days. Try it if you like”. I was so excited and jumped at the prospect of holding a writing instrument that slid across my grandfather’s pockets since 80 years back. I didn’t care whether it would write well or not. I just wanted to be close to the family’s historical instrument that has seen more of my ancestors or know more stories of my grandfather than me. I soaked it in fresh water for half day and cleaned it. To my surprise I noticed that the nib is 14 C SWAN nib of Mabie Todd, made in USA. With a magnifying lens, I, with lot of difficulty traced the worn out brass barrel a much faded print saying “SWAN, Mabie Todd & Co, Made in…..”. From the nib, I understand that its made in USA. There is a crack emanating from the base of the breather hole to the base of the nib. The crack is distinct and long. However, since the nib has survived more that 80 years and with the hope that the flex nib will not transfer too much load for the crack to grow in my gentle limited usage in the next years, I inked the beauty and made it glide over my paper. I felt elated with lot of childhood memories with my grandfather gushing inside. Did I mention that my father’s casual chat and exchange incidentally happened on my birthday J J