Confession Of A Restoration Wreck

[jrobert6]

I now have a nice selection of both new and vintage (restored) pens. I love many of them and dislike very few. I also have a small collection of vintage pens in need of service - basic things such as cleaning, sac replacement, light nib smoothing, polishing and so on.

 

Over the summer I invested in some basic poem repair / restoration supplies. I read books. I watched videos. I started off with cheap pens with lots of problems. I built up some confidence in turning $3 EBay finds into decent writers.

 

And then I tried my hand on something a little more expensive, with only a few cosmetic problems. It was - and I emphasize "was" - a Waterman Stateleigh with a "wounded" section and some light wear on the nib and barrel. I got out my trusty micromesh and polishes and cloths. I rewatched some videos. And I set to work.

 

I did a fine job on the nib. The scratches vanished from the section and barrel. I put it back together and capped it - only to notice that the little gold ring was not there. I took off the cap and the ring was rigidly affixed to the section. Hmmm. I tried to pretty it off with bare hands then rubber grips. No movement. So I thought maybe a few seconds with the craft heat gun might help.

 

Well, I thought wrong. Two bouts of 5s each didn't work. So I tried 6 seconds. Then 7. 7 seconds is too long. I'm glad I was holding it with rubberized pliers as the section started smoking uncontrollably and I dumped it into a water glass. What was left in the grayish water was a little pile of ruined taperite, a tiny gold nib, and that stupid gold ring.

 

$29 is not a lot of money to learn a valuable lesson. But I shouldn't have needed to learn it firsthand. I should have known better. Oh well. I'll pay more attention next time.

[risingsun]

Even the pros dislike the taperites... Sorry to hear of your mishap. Most of us have had 'em. We live and learn.

[pajaro]

All three Waterman pens I have tried to use heat on to remove the section for resac have gone up in smoke to some degree. On the plus side I had three 18K nibs to use in replacing Laureat corroded nibs.