Worth Salvaging? Vintage Nassau

[Gump]

I recently acquired a beautiful brown Parker Vacumatic, and the seller included a second pen to sweeten the deal a bit. The brand is Nassau, which I understand was a spinoff of the Morrison Pen Company. I was quite excited to see the 14k Gold imprint, although further cleaning revealed that it was indeed simply plated. Any idea if this is worth having resacced? The nib looks rough, and I'm unsure on which direction to head with this.

 

Here are a few photos from before and after I cleaned it up a bit:

 

 

 

 

[dcpritch]

I love this caramel swirl celluloid used by Nassau, Jefferson and others of this era. I'd toss the nib ASAP and look for a nice a Warranted No. 8 nib to fit the feed; often you can find No. 8s with a bit of flex. Then you'd really have a great looking, sweet writing pen!

[Gump]

Thanks for the reply! The nib does appear to be a lost cause, lots of pitting and no tipping material to speak of. I'll need to source a nib, j-bar, and a sac to get this going, and given its inexpensive nature this may be a good candidate to a DIY repair at some point in the future.

 

Any good sources for the Warranted 8 nibs?

[penmanila]

A no. 8 might be pushing it, size- and budget-wise. The pen's not that big, and even a no. 4 or a sheaffer no. 3 might do. (I mean the pen is longish at 5" capped but the original nib doesn't look like a true no. 8--I see this ll the time on vintage pens, and some no.8s will even be smaller than others) This is the kind of pen you might want to practice resaccing on--it'll be nice to revive, but no great loss if you botch it

Edited May 28, 2014 by penmanila

[dcpritch]

My bad, I didn't notice the ruler in one pic and see it is only 5" long. I was thinking it was an OS like some others I have in similar material. Penmanila is right, a No. 8 would be too big. He's also right that this would be a great pen to practice repairs on. Richard Binder's site has a nice list of tools and materials needed for basic sac repair and I think he sells them all. If you get decide to get into repairs there are a couple of outfits that specialize in sacs and have better pricing for higher volume sales, but I wouldn't necessarily start there.

[Scribblesoften]

I agree that this is an excellent pen to practice your skills upon. If you need an inexpensive nib you should check out the ASAPens and Fountain Pen Revolution sites. They list inexpensive steel nibs in several sizes. Think what you would have to pay for a new celluloid sac filler and you will see the value of your pen. Please post a picture when you finish your work. We would love to see it.

[stan]

A salvageable nib in a donor pen can be easily had on eBay for $25 -$30. Always consider going for it.

 

After posting I went through my pens and see the same caramel swirl model is in my collection. Not the same pen - different swirls. I recall it needing a new J-bar and sac. Cleaning the cap and barrell with Simichrome was of great benefit. There were a few 14K nibs in my storage box and a good fit was not hard to find.