Montblanc 146 Barrel Discoloured

[fountainpende]

But what I still don't understand: The pen looked perfect when I received it, polishing never came to my mind because it almost looked brandnew, no scratches or wear on the outside, like the owner had hardly used it. Neither threads nor that spot were visible! The only thing I really applied form the outside was water, dish soap and a little heat from my hairdryer, not even hot enough to hurt myself. It's a mystery to me what happened. Hopefully Horst will bring some light into this darkness!?

 

"it almost looked brandnew, no scratches ..."

May be the previous owner polished the pen?

 

Water and heat should not cause that problem. And I do not expect dish soap to cause this ...

[shrinknib]

:clap1: Gosh!

 

As someone with a couple of celluloid pens, I have been following this thread with facination. Thank you very much Michael for your valued directions (as always ) and thank you Greg for helping in the clarifications. A valuable thread for owners of vintage MB pens. :clap1:

 

Pavoni.

 

a couple of celluloid pens.... :thumbup: :roflmho: :roflmho: :roflmho:

 

yes thanks to all, a very interesting section indeed.

 

I have a celluloid MB from the 1940's with a small discoloured patch on the barrel near the in window.

 

Are you suggesting it is possible to recoat the barrel with black celluloid to make it look perfect again??

[fountainpende]

it is possible to recoat the barrel with black celluloid to make it look perfect again

 

Sure, however, the process is quite complex and takes a while ... I therefore guess that the costs of doing so might not be justifiable for many pens

[FredRydr]

... it is possible to recoat the barrel with black celluloid to make it look perfect again??

Yes. PM me for details.

 

Fred

Edited February 8, 2013 by FredRydr

[shrinknib]

Thanks Fred and Michael

[newlife]

Dear fellows!

 

Now I finally succeeded recolouring the spot and thread, let me tell you how I did it.

 

I went to a toy store and bought a little pot of Revell acrylic black paint, I did not want the usual paint, not knowing which kind of solvents it contains, after all it's a celluloid pen! Then I applied a thin layer on each of the threads, barrel and telescope as well and let it dry over night. The label read, one hour would be sufficient, but I wanted to be sure. Now I had an additional layer of paint added to both threads adding to the diameter. Now what to do? Applying heat when screwing together did not seem the right choice because the paint would become soft. So I did it the other way round - I deep-froze the telescope, hoping to reduce its diameter! Desperately hoping for success I added a drop of paraffine oil to the telescope thread and worked it back into the barrel with Francis' phantastic tool. And hooray, there I was holding a refreshed 146 in my hands with no sign of threads shining through, even that ugly spot had disappeared!

 

Well, sometimes it takes a lot of courage trying unknown methods on an expensive pen, and so much more am I lucky about doing the right thing.

 

Thanks to everyone here for your help!

 

Klaus

[fountainbel]

Hi Klaus,A picture would be nice !!

Francis

 

 

Dear fellows!

 

Now I finally succeeded recolouring the spot and thread, let me tell you how I did it.

 

I went to a toy store and bought a little pot of Revell acrylic black paint, I did not want the usual paint, not knowing which kind of solvents it contains, after all it's a celluloid pen! Then I applied a thin layer on each of the threads, barrel and telescope as well and let it dry over night. The label read, one hour would be sufficient, but I wanted to be sure. Now I had an additional layer of paint added to both threads adding to the diameter. Now what to do? Applying heat when screwing together did not seem the right choice because the paint would become soft. So I did it the other way round - I deep-froze the telescope, hoping to reduce its diameter! Desperately hoping for success I added a drop of paraffine oil to the telescope thread and worked it back into the barrel with Francis' phantastic tool. And hooray, there I was holding a refreshed 146 in my hands with no sign of threads shining through, even that ugly spot had disappeared!

 

Well, sometimes it takes a lot of courage trying unknown methods on an expensive pen, and so much more am I lucky about doing the right thing.

 

Thanks to everyone here for your help!

 

Klaus

 

 

 

[newlife]

Hi Francis!

 

I'll be home tomorrow, I have no camera with me, but believe me, there's really nothing that could be photographed but deepest black! I'll have to put some white markers on the barrel to make you see when I turn the pen, because, I don't know where the spot actually was . . . :embarrassed_smile: It's vanished totally!

 

Klaus

[CS388]

Dear fellows!

 

Now I finally succeeded recolouring the spot and thread, let me tell you how I did it.

 

I went to a toy store and bought a little pot of Revell acrylic black paint, I did not want the usual paint, not knowing which kind of solvents it contains, after all it's a celluloid pen! Then I applied a thin layer on each of the threads, barrel and telescope as well and let it dry over night. The label read, one hour would be sufficient, but I wanted to be sure. Now I had an additional layer of paint added to both threads adding to the diameter. Now what to do? Applying heat when screwing together did not seem the right choice because the paint would become soft. So I did it the other way round - I deep-froze the telescope, hoping to reduce its diameter! Desperately hoping for success I added a drop of paraffine oil to the telescope thread and worked it back into the barrel with Francis' phantastic tool. And hooray, there I was holding a refreshed 146 in my hands with no sign of threads shining through, even that ugly spot had disappeared!

 

Well, sometimes it takes a lot of courage trying unknown methods on an expensive pen, and so much more am I lucky about doing the right thing.

 

Thanks to everyone here for your help!

 

Klaus

 

Paint applied inside the barrel?

 

Well done, can't wait to see it.

 

Enjoy!

[newlife]

Hello everybody!

 

Now that I'm home again, things look a little different. As well the first cleaning as also the latest mounting took place at my girlfriend's home where I mostly spend my weekands. She's fond of my pens too, so working on them doesn't bother her. Only disadvantage - the place where I can do my repairs is lit by energy saving lamps whose use the EU here is forcing on us. No halogen lighting at the kitchen table there.

 

So I noticed the above mentioned spot when I was back home. Get the picture? I now believe that spot was already there when I got the pen and took it with me to my girlfriend for a first check when I had received fountainbel's tool. And everything seemed fine that weekend. Well, until I came home, switched on my working lamp and finally opened this thread.

 

Same procedure last weekend, you've had my optimistic description already. But now I'm home, and I even have halogen lighting here, wow! So, what can I say? A little bit of the spot is still visible, but all in all my repair has improved the pen, as you can see here:

 

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img259/9026/img0101ed.jpg

 

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img823/734/img0103ed.jpg

 

 

When you look at the pen without strong light you will only notice something if you know where to look, it's just my camera flash showing what you see above.

 

 

So if I have raised anybody's hopes about reblackening celluloid too much, I have to make an excuse. On the other hand I really don't know how I could have done it better!

 

Klaus

 

P.S. Forget energy saving lamps . . .

Edited February 11, 2013 by newlife

[BMG]

I couldn't see the discoloration in the above two photos.

[hari317]

.

[omegabenz]

If, and when, the resin cracks, I've been thinking about doing a gold inlay repair. I recently saw some info on kintsukuroi that I wanted to try.

[fountainpende]

Dear all,

 

I hope that my comment is not too boring, but I highly recommend not to do such repair work on your own. At least do not use "some" paint. First, because of the chemicals ... and second because of the color (at least I do not expect that "some" black colour is comparable to the black of the original celluloid).

 

Dear hari317,

 

you are right, this seems to be a crack.

[georges zaslavsky]

good luck for having the exacty same match on a celluloid body, it is like restoring a vintage patek complication dial

[fountainpende]

when using celluloid from other MB masterpieces (e.g., a brocken cap), the color is pretty similar ... at least that was my impression. But I what I wanted to say is that using "some" other paint might just look different than celluloid

 

... and I personally would prefer pens that are restored in a way that keeps the pen as much "original" as possible (i.e. I would not add new type of material to it).

[shrinknib]

agreed