Vintage Pen Repair Tools, 1

[rhr]

Waterman's Knock-Out Block

 

Here's an interesting repair tool I found some years ago. It came from the last effects of a pen repair shop here in my city. At first I thought it was just a generic knock-out block that the local repairman made for himself.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/rhrpen/tool1.jpg

 

It's made from a nice block of shellaced or varnished golden oak that's been drilled out with 3 holes, and reinforced with a top metal plate. On one side it has a lead plate attached, and one corner of the block is shaped into a protuding stem. I'm only guessing, but the soft sheet of metal and the rounded stem seem like they would serve perfectly as a nib anvil.

 

Well, the golden oak wood looked so good, despite the fact that the wooden side was scorched by a cigarette burn. The repairman must have forgotten his cigarette butt on the wooden side of the tool one day, I guess. So I decided to take the lead plate off and refinish the surface underneath, and use it as my own knock-out block, but then I made a fascinating discovery. Look at what I found underneath, on the underside of the plate.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/rhrpen/tool2.jpg

 

I removed the plate very carefully, saving the nails, and trying not to damage the plate. To my surprise, there was an image engraved on the underside of the lead plate. It was part of a Waterman's pen advertisement! This lead sheet was part of a printing plate for a very recognizable Waterman's ad, the one with a row of various styles of nibs at the bottom edge with various widths of ink lines extending up from the iridium points, and an eyedropper pen placed diagonally across the ink lines. If someone has a copy of the ad, please post it in this thread.

 

Waterman's must have had a stack of these types of lead printing plates kicking around in the warehouse and decided to pull them out of storage and put them to good use. I have since restored the piece and replaced the plate, even to the extent of taking great pains to replace the nails in their original holes. Each nailhead had a distinctive shape and left its unique imprint in the lead.

 

Does anyone else have any other interesting pictures of repair tools with a story?

 

George.

 

:ph34r:

Edited July 14, 2007 by rhr

[ElaineB]

George, can you do a detail shot on just the plate? I'd love to see more of the image. What a wonderful tool, and what a wonderful piece of history to have on your bench. Thanks for the story!

 

ElaineB

[Elaine]

Amazing! Ditto on the detail shot request.

[chris burton]

I'll echo the requests for more detailed shots George. Thank for posting the pics. What a nice surprise that must have been when you removed the plate!

[rhr]

Now that I have successfully got the piece back together, I really don't want to chance damaging it any further by taking it apart again. It's only a small portion of the ad in any case, perhaps about a sixth to an eighth of the image. What I suggest you do is save the image, and then rotate it 180 degrees and blow it up. Sorry, but that's the best I can offer, until someone comes up with a copy of the ad.

 

I seem to recall that the ad might have used the line, "The Army of the Dip-No-Mores". Someone really should publish a comprehensive book of early Waterman's ads.

 

George.

 

:ph34r:

[rhr]

Hi ElaineB, Elaine, and Chris,

 

It's a little late, but I finally found a copy of that ad that was printed from one of those plates. I say "one of" because there were probably many of them, at least one for every magazine where the ad appeared, maybe more if the plate wore out during a long print run. My plate shows the lower right corner of the ad image. First the correct images in the initial post, then the ad.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/rhrpen/tools1.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/rhrpen/tools2.jpg

This version of the ad appeared in the August 1910 issue of The Busy Man's Magazine, p.1.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/rhrpen/WatKnockoutBlockad1.jpg

Here's another version of that ad. It appeared in the Apr 16, 1910 issue of The American Stationer, p.1, but with different ad copy.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/rhrpen/7bcc4983.jpg

George Kovalenko.

 

Edited July 9, 2012 by rhr

[manoli]

Hi All,

 

Having worked my entire career in the Printing trade (I am 63) and using those Letterpress plates to print from early in my career,

I would say what you have is that someone recycled part of that original printing plate and re-purposed it for another cause.

My reasoning behind this is that those 4 nail holes that you removed for this "show and tell" go right through what would

have been the printing image area. What this tool that was made from part of the printing plate, I have no idea but it was

not used in the Printing business. The Waterman vintage ads that were shown above were used in National Trade publications

for stationers and other ads appearing in retail magazines for retail sales such as Life, Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic,

and such. The ad piece that you found may have come from a regonial source, a local newspaper and such, that the town Stationer

had placed to drum up local retail business.

Regards -- Manny D.

Edited July 9, 2012 by manoli

[publishing guy]

Very cool under any circumstances. Thanks for the additional pictures.

[rhr]

My pleasure, John. And Manny, the tool is a knock-out block for removing nibs and feeds from sections. It came with a group of Waterman's repair tools from a Canadian pen repairman's shop, and it was probably made in the Waterman's factory in Montreal around 1910-11. It's a dual-purpose tool, primarily a knock-out block, but it also serves as a nib-straightening anvil. The little projecting piece of the lead printing plate has been rounded over, and would serve perfectly to hold a nib while being serviced. The resilient lead anvil would allow for burnishing a nib without fear of damaging it.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

Edited July 10, 2012 by rhr