Tuckaway Statesman

[David V]

So I finally received my Sheaffer's Tuckaway yesterday. This is the one I initially referred to as a smallish balance with a funny clip. I was wrong about my initial impression that it had the TD filler. All I can guess is that I was looking at far too many pens at the same time... It has the more common vacuum filler, which appears to work, but not at peak level, I am guessing. It doesn't leak anywhere, and really does look to be in good shape, but I think the piston is worn and therefore not making much of a vacuum to draw up ink. It gets enough ink to write maybe half a page of notes before I have to refill. I know Tucky's are small and don't hold much ink, but that seems a bit on the short side to me. Thanks to Richard Binder's webpage, I've identified the pen as a Statesman model- black with a 1/4" gold band. It interestingly doesn't have a white dot anywhere. My understanding was that all Tucky's were supposed to have them. It does have a lifetime nib, which is single color 14k, and shines nicely now that I've cleaned it up. It writes with a bold wet line and is very rigid feeling. It actually seems to write the same right-side-up and upside-down, maybe making a slightly finer line with the latter, but almost imperceptibly. The body is very nice, with minimal scuffing, and the furniture is not brassed at all. The imprint doesn't look the slightest bit worn to me, right down to the miniature "875" underneath "Made in USA". When I unscrew the knurled knob, it wobbles a little bit on the end of the shaft, but looking at it, I think that is just the way it is made(?). The sleeve of the body itself unscrews from behind the threaded part to reveal a straight sided cylinder, but I don't see the way to remove the section. I think I remember someone saying that the Vac-fill is worse than the TD for difficulty to repair, is this correct? Looking at Richard's diagram of a Vac-fill system, it doesn't look that complicated, but I'm new to this. As it is, the pen works, so I'm not in a rush to go tearing it apart. It would just be nice to be able to carry more ink in it. Do I have the fill procedure right that these don't take the 10 seconds that the TD's do? You just dip, push, wait a second, and then remove, right? When I was testing it/rinsing it with water, it didn't seem to make any significant difference whether I left it in a while, or pulled it out immediately. (And yes, I understand that the mechanism works on the downstroke, not the upstroke, thanks.)

 

Is there anyway to figure the date more closely than sometime in the 40's for one of these? Does anyone have records for what years they made Statesman models? (probably all, I would guess...) What about the monochrome nib? Did they offer those at the same time as the two-tone? Were they different levels of nib, or did the two-tone supplant the mono? When I can, I'll try to post some pics.

 

Thanks,

David V

[David V]

Just a quick update, the filling system doesn't work properly, but it doesn't leak either. By removing the body around the ink cylinder, I can see through it well enough to see that it doesn't really draw any ink by vacuum. I can, however, get ink to go in by using an upstroke then tipping it over and very slowly pushing the piston back in. It takes a long time to fill in this manner as I have to repeat the process numerous times, but the benefit is that I've only had to fill the pen once this week, and I didn't get anywhere near full (probably less than half). The pen writes with an exceptionally wet line, and a very stiff nib, but I'm still not comfortable with with using enough pressure to manifold with it. I tried it today for that, and using what I deemed to be the most force I would be willing to use only yielded a very faint duplicate. So I will have to keep a BP around for that purpose at least...

 

I find the absence of a white dot on mine rather odd, but it does have the lifetime nib, so what might be an answer to that? A non-white-dot-lifetime-Tuckaway? I welcome any insights on this.

 

Thanks,

David

[oliverob]

David,

As far as I can tell, not all Tuckaways had white dots. I have three equipped with clasps which do not. One is a Sentinel with a price point of 1250 emprinted on the barrel. The Sentinel was a top-of-the-line Sheaffer which generally carried a white dot. Mine has a Triumph 79 Lifetime nib. I also have a Persian blue and a carmine red Statesman, both with open two-toned non-Lifetime nibs, neither with white dots. I suppose it is possible in all three cases that barrels and caps were switched about in such a manner that, whereas, originally, all three had white dots located somewhere on the pens, none do now. This however seems somewhat improbable.

 

The fact that your Tuckaway has a clasp, as that particular clip is called, dates it to 1945 or after. The fact that it is a vac-filler dates it to 1948-49 or before, so that narrows down the time span a bit. If yours were carmine like mine, instead of black, you could date it to 1945 exactly, as this was the last year that color was employed if I'm not mistaken.

 

Yes, the vac-fils are far more difficult to work on than TDs, unless you have the sort of tools and parts Francis Goossens in Belgiun makes specifically to service these pens.

 

The section, I believe, is bonded to the inner ink cylinder and doesn't remove.

 

You're right the blind cap wobbles, probably by design, but certainly as a result of it. The plunger rod is not attached directly to the blind cap on all vac-fils. Where it was, there is a tendency for the plastic female threads of the blind cap to strip from excessive force and repeated use. The superior design with the plunger being held in place by a threaded metal insert which itself threads into the blind cap can withstand a lot more force when the plunger is extended.

 

Finally, you should give the ink time to be drawn up by the vacuum. I'd say ten seconds would be a good number for a properly functioning pen.

 

I hope I've answered some of your questions correctly, and, if not, that one of the more knowledgeable individuals here will come along and correct me. Enjoy your pen, they are indeed wonderful little toys!

Oliver

[David V]

David,

As far as I can tell, not all Tuckaways had white dots. I have three equipped with clasps which do not. One is a Sentinel with a price point of 1250 emprinted on the barrel. The Sentinel was a top-of-the-line Sheaffer which generally carried a white dot. Mine has a Triumph 79 Lifetime nib. I also have a Persian blue and a carmine red Statesman, both with open two-toned non-Lifetime nibs, neither with white dots. I suppose it is possible in all three cases that barrels and caps were switched about in such a manner that, whereas, originally, all three had white dots located somewhere on the pens, none do now. This however seems somewhat improbable.

 

The fact that your Tuckaway has a clasp, as that particular clip is called, dates it to 1945 or after. The fact that it is a vac-filler dates it to 1948-49 or before, so that narrows down the time span a bit. If yours were carmine like mine, instead of black, you could date it to 1945 exactly, as this was the last year that color was employed if I'm not mistaken.

 

Yes, the vac-fils are far more difficult to work on than TDs, unless you have the sort of tools and parts Francis Goossens in Belgiun makes specifically to service these pens.

 

The section, I believe, is bonded to the inner ink cylinder and doesn't remove.

 

You're right the blind cap wobbles, probably by design, but certainly as a result of it. The plunger rod is not attached directly to the blind cap on all vac-fils. Where it was, there is a tendency for the plastic female threads of the blind cap to strip from excessive force and repeated use. The superior design with the plunger being held in place by a threaded metal insert which itself threads into the blind cap can withstand a lot more force when the plunger is extended.

 

Finally, you should give the ink time to be drawn up by the vacuum. I'd say ten seconds would be a good number for a properly functioning pen.

 

I hope I've answered some of your questions correctly, and, if not, that one of the more knowledgeable individuals here will come along and correct me. Enjoy your pen, they are indeed wonderful little toys!

Oliver

Thanks for the information. Yeah, I deffinitely am not making any vacuum inside this pen- it doesn't actually draw anything on the downstroke. As I said before, I can get it to pull some ink in working it backwards and tilting it back to let the ink settle to the end. It takes quite a bit of time, but at least I only have to ink maybe once a week, and it doesn't leak out the back, so for now I have a semi-working Tucky.

 

I would guess that there must be some way to remove the section from the ink cylinder only because it would be essential to do that to change the piston and rear seal. Probably shellac, I presume.

[fountainbel]

David,

As far as I can tell, not all Tuckaways had white dots. I have three equipped with clasps which do not. One is a Sentinel with a price point of 1250 emprinted on the barrel. The Sentinel was a top-of-the-line Sheaffer which generally carried a white dot. Mine has a Triumph 79 Lifetime nib. I also have a Persian blue and a carmine red Statesman, both with open two-toned non-Lifetime nibs, neither with white dots. I suppose it is possible in all three cases that barrels and caps were switched about in such a manner that, whereas, originally, all three had white dots located somewhere on the pens, none do now. This however seems somewhat improbable.

 

The fact that your Tuckaway has a clasp, as that particular clip is called, dates it to 1945 or after. The fact that it is a vac-filler dates it to 1948-49 or before, so that narrows down the time span a bit. If yours were carmine like mine, instead of black, you could date it to 1945 exactly, as this was the last year that color was employed if I'm not mistaken.

 

Yes, the vac-fils are far more difficult to work on than TDs, unless you have the sort of tools and parts Francis Goossens in Belgiun makes specifically to service these pens.

 

The section, I believe, is bonded to the inner ink cylinder and doesn't remove.

 

You're right the blind cap wobbles, probably by design, but certainly as a result of it. The plunger rod is not attached directly to the blind cap on all vac-fils. Where it was, there is a tendency for the plastic female threads of the blind cap to strip from excessive force and repeated use. The superior design with the plunger being held in place by a threaded metal insert which itself threads into the blind cap can withstand a lot more force when the plunger is extended.

 

Finally, you should give the ink time to be drawn up by the vacuum. I'd say ten seconds would be a good number for a properly functioning pen.

 

I hope I've answered some of your questions correctly, and, if not, that one of the more knowledgeable individuals here will come along and correct me. Enjoy your pen, they are indeed wonderful little toys!

Oliver

Thanks for the information. Yeah, I deffinitely am not making any vacuum inside this pen- it doesn't actually draw anything on the downstroke. As I said before, I can get it to pull some ink in working it backwards and tilting it back to let the ink settle to the end. It takes quite a bit of time, but at least I only have to ink maybe once a week, and it doesn't leak out the back, so for now I have a semi-working Tucky.

 

I would guess that there must be some way to remove the section from the ink cylinder only because it would be essential to do that to change the piston and rear seal. Probably shellac, I presume.

 

As rightfully stated by Oliver,the section on your Tucky is permanenltly fused on the ink container and can not be removed.

Thr nib assembly can be removed, allowing replacement of the piston seal from the section side.

Removing the nib assembly ( nib, feed and the threaded housing) is however rather tricky.

Without proper tools the nib will screw off separately in 50% of the cases.

In this situation one can probably pull the feed out, but the threaded bushing is still stuck in the section and has to come out allowing the plunger to pass.Since this brittle bushing only sticks 2mm out of the section- so one has no proper way of gripping it- this remains a very

delicate operation, mostly resulting in the fact one cracks the bushing.

I would therefore suggest to leave this repair for a pro, or at least someone who has the proper tools.

Just my 2 cents.

Regards, Francis

[David V]

Here are the long ago promised photos. Sorry the camera is low quality...

 

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/ExGovermentRebel/MVC-012S.jpg

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/ExGovermentRebel/MVC-013S.jpg

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/ExGovermentRebel/MVC-014S.jpg

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/ExGovermentRebel/MVC-015S.jpg

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/ExGovermentRebel/MVC-016S.jpg

 

I know, my handwriting isn't very good right now. I've been printing for the majority of my life and have only recently started to try to write in cursive again. I tend to get ahead of myself all the time and end up with half-written letters or omitted letters and my words end up looking a little funny, especially if I try to "fix" them. At least I'm trying to recover my lost skill.

[georges zaslavsky]

sweet pen

[MicheleB]

Neat pen and I think your handwriting is pretty darn great too!

[David V]

Thanks. Yeah, my handwriting is a work in progress, but I appreciate the feedback!

 

What I failed to get a picture of is how clear the visualated reservoir is. Once I cleaned it out, it became a nice light brown and very transparent, where I can see the plunger piston fairly well. I can't see enough detail to determine just how bad it is, but it deffinitely doesn't create vacuum. At least it can draw on the upstroke, so I can still use it. It doesn't appear that I can open it up to get at the piston to change it. Da Book indicates that some of these pens may have been intended to replace the whole component if it failed (or maybe it means that it was supposed to be sent in, I don't know). It does look like it's pretty well sealed up. The piston should be the only thing needing repair, as the packing is still good, and supposedly that packing can last a long time as it is. It would be nice to figure a way out to get inside to change that washer... (hint hint, anybody?)

 

Cheers!

[jar]

I just had one serviced by Aaron at Pentiques.