Jump to content

My Two And A Half Euro Apostrophe


amk

Recommended Posts

A nice weekend, as I managed to pick up two Watermans very inexpensively. One, a chrome Graduate, had a broken clip and a medium nib, and was mine for 50 cents. The other, a green lacquer Apostrophe in matching green leather Waterman pouch, was three euros, but when I pointed out that the (fine) nib had one tine broken off, the lady reduced it to two. We were both happy with that deal.
(There's a small chip on the lacquer of the barrel, too, but otherwise the pen is in nice shape.)

 

Here's the broken nib (with its feed). Oh dear, it's really bust. Strangely, I had a Waterman Expert fine nib that broke in exactly the same way. And it's horribly dirty. Nothing to be done with it but the bin.

 

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/IMG_20140915_203058.jpg

 

So, time to do a little swap. Soaking in warm water for half an hour, and then using textured latex covered gardening gloves for a bit of grip (they work for me! not the pair I use in the garden, though) I pulled the nibs and feeds out of both pens. The nib came out of the Apostrophe very sweetly - the Graduate took a bit more soaking and effort.

 

A bit of cleaning up, swap the intact nib into the Apostrophe, and hey presto! a pen that writes!

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/IMG_20140915_203154.jpg

 

And it writes quite smoothly. The nib is nothing special, but it's reliably smooth, laying down a nice slightly broad side of medium line quite wetly even when just dipped.

 

The Apostrophe is a good looking pen. Reasonably thick 'gold' ends and a 'gold' ring round the cap, and a deep green marbled lacquer. It's quite light, and subjectively I'd say (because I haven't got a Laureat to hand at the moment) feels a bit lighter and cheaper than the Laureat. The split clip appears to be very similar if not the same as that on the Phileas and Kultur, and the back of it is noticeably not flush with the cap. And there's a bit of the black plastic section showing, uncovered by the 'gold' band of the cap, which seems a bit strange and amateurish.

 

Still, I'm very happy with this little Apostrophe, for slightly less than the price of a Pilot V-pen!

Too many pens, too little time!

http://fountainpenlove.blogspot.fr/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 4
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • amk

    3

  • georges zaslavsky

    1

  • RMN

    1

Not bad for 2.50 and an afternoon of fun work...

 

D.ick

~

KEEP SAFE, WEAR A MASK, KEEP A DISTANCE.

Freedom exists by virtue of self limitation.

~

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember of those pens very well, great writers

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I managed to find another nice Apostrophe at the weekend - a blue rollerball, in its box. Mint!!!

 

I really love the lacquer on this pen. Lovely vibrant colours. The blue and green look delightful together. Yes, it's a cheapie, but it's a good one.

Too many pens, too little time!

http://fountainpenlove.blogspot.fr/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...