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gte930d

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this is unfortunate. i bought the pen off ebay relatively cheap, then discovered the cracks. i feel as if they're growing, but perhaps it's my paranoia. in either case, there are three cracks total - 2 big ones, and a tiny one in between. this is my daily fountain, for which i have grown to love! im new here on the forum, but perhaps you can all welcome me with some fantastic advice on who to send this to for repairs!? or can it be repaired at all? i'm really stressed and disappointed about it, but have continued using it. the daily use and pleasure of the pen has been overwhelmed by fretting over the cracks, however - and fear i may have to shelf it.

sorry for the focus problems, but you get the idea of the scope of the cracks. these pens are IMPOSSIBLE to casually photograph!

 

heeeellllp!

(and thanks for any advice you can provide)

 

 

 

 

post-93668-0-27493900-1367791789_thumb.jpg

post-93668-0-23906900-1367791802_thumb.jpg

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Welcome to FPN!

 

You came to the right place for an answer. My MB 234 1/2 had the same exact problem! Not to worry, it can be fixed. My go to guy for fixing fountain pen is Francis Goossens(fountainbel) out of Belgium. He does excellent work and has great track record here on FPN. You can pm him thru FPN or you can pm me and I can give you his email address. His prices are great and has super fast turn around time. Good luck.

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My favorite pen, a 234 1/2, fell out of my pocket and cracked. A Bay Area friend with a lot of patience tried his best to chemically weld the cracks, but alas... it just didn't hold up to the pressure of water and the piston. So... my experience is that it is definitely possible that cracks might not be fixable and it might leak.

--

Glenn (love those pen posses)

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Chemical weld for a cracked celluloid barrel is not a permanent solution. If you are going to display the pen and use once in a while, it might be ok. You either have to go with a new celluloid barrel or sleeve the cracked barrel. If the crack is not extensive, putting a sleeve on a barrel is the economical choice.

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Chemical weld for a cracked celluloid barrel is not a permanent solution.

 

I don't agree with you. Your statement is too broad. I have extensive experience in repairing cracks in celluloid, and have had a chance to examine pens that I repaired several years after the repair was done. In general if you use the right solvents to weld the celluloid, it is permanent.

 

Having said that there are caveats. First is that you need to use the right solvents. Acetone is not one of them. There are some cases, especially with certain colors from certain manufacturers, where the solvents can trigger or exacerbate the decay of celluloid. Red veined gray Sheaffer Balance celliloid and Wahl Equipoise black and peral and green are a couple examples. To do a successful repair, the crack must be spread so that the solvent comes in contact with the walls of the crack to work. If this can not be done, which may be the case here, the solvent reacts with the surface of the celluloid instead of penetrating down into the crack.

 

Some of the German celluloids from the WWII era are more susceptable to decay than many of the US or Italian celluloids. It may not be possible to

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Thanks for the input Ron! By no means am I an expert in pen repair but since I have been exclusively collecting Montblancs, my experiences are limited to MBs. Most of MB experts I have talked to did not recommend chemical weld if I was going to use the pen as my daily. Most of the time it came down to where and how extensive the crack was.

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Hello, gte930d, welcome to FPN.

 

Can't see the fine crack in the middle, but can see those two big ones alright.

Yeah, I'd get that seen to. That big chunk of barrel could crack right out etc.

Not trying to alarm you, or anything!

But I'd be getting professional help on that one, if the pen is a 'keeper'.

 

Or I'd casually just ring-twist a hunk of wire around it and use it as my daily beat-up?

Only joking. Probably.

Looks like you posted just in time..

 

Nice pen, the 2341/2, Congratulations.

 

Enjoy.

 

And thanks to Ron Z, too. Great info.

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the "middle crack" as it were, it right under the "0" in the second picture...and very small. almost looks like an errant fabric strand, but it is indeed a hairline, and less worrisome but nontheless only in comparison to the others.

 

no one has yet mentioned the repair facility in texas (?). do they only repair contemporary MB's? i've heard it's the north american authorized repair facility, or something or other. am i making this up?

additionally, i've been recommended to a fellow FPN'er who has detailed a potential repair as "cutting off the cracked end of the barrel, reducing (outside?) diameter of barrel behind ink window, making new HR barrel sleeve and gluing w epoxy onto reduced barrel part, and finally machining/polishing new seam to obtain optimal concentricity".

 

this sounds a bit drastic, but practical in a way. does this effectively destroy all value of my MB?! on the contrary, cleaving off of the barrel would also make the pen only worth it's parts, i suppose....

 

any advice or similar experience with this means/method of repair from anyone? thanks so much so far, you've all been very helpful! (my poor little MB ....~)

 

-matthew

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  • 1 month later...

as recommended by johnkim424 above, i sent my pen to francis goosens in belgium....and received it back in perfect order just last week! i'll have to post pictures of the results, but they are no less than miraculous! while the repair performed was drastic, the results are nothing short of perfect! he cut off the end of the barrel, turned the shortened barrel down to receive a hardened rubber extension piece to replace what was cut off. polished, it is seamless! i'm over the moon with the results, and would recommend him without hesitation. i'll see if i can't post pictures of the pen tomorrow! thanks again to johnkim424 for the recommendation, and again most of all to francis - a true repair wizard!

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Hi, I recommend Mr Goossens (fountainbel on FPN) as well. He has repaired a montblanc of mine, and I have bought another that was repaired by him, and he does miracle work.

 

You can also send to Mr Westerich. He has made a new celluloid sleeve for my Pelikan 100n that is great too.

 

However, from your pictures, a new celluloid barrel might be a better solution if you use it as a daily writer and want it to last for a good deal more years.

 

Aged celluloid will always have an infinite shelf life. And I believe once it starts falling into disrepair, the decay won't stop. You could fix a crack now, but the chances of a new one appearing later will be high.

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The work by Francis Goosens, fountainbel, is excellent.

Congratulations, the 234 1/2 is a great pen, wish I had the DRP model.

I'm curious, does the sleeve run up to the ink window? It is impressive how Francis deals with the filler mechanisms, truly brilliant solutions.

Looks like a couple of my pens will be taking a slow cruise to Europe.

Thanks for an interesting post.

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If Francis did not tell me how he repaired my cracked pen I would have never figured it out. Yes, the sleeve does run up to the window so that all important ink window can be saved.

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Congratulations, gte930d. You did the right thing and it paid off.

 

And hats off to Francis. That is craftsmanship - and then some. Superb!

 

Great to see a happy ending.

 

Thanks

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