Diamonds In The Rough

[siopaopei]

My friend was cleaning up her office and found a few rough-looking fountain pens. She gave them to me, after I said that I could probably still fix them. A cursory inspection showed them to be Parker 75s. One looked virtually unused, the other was inked and then forgotten. Here's a photo of what they looked like:

 

 

Fast forward to a few hours after (I brought them home and excitedly started to polish, check the nibs, etc, read all about the restoration effort here), here's how they now look like:

 

 

One of the pens was unused, there was no trace of ink in it when I flushed with water. The other one took some work, but both of them write perfectly well.

 

To think she was about to throw these out! Even the ballpoint pen (which I polished up for her) was also still working.

[OakIris]

Thank you for rescuing these pens from their "almost" trip to the dump. What luck that you were in the right place at the right time!

 

They cleaned up very nicely indeed, and now you have two excellent fountain pens; the Parker 75 is on my (very long) wish list so I am envious! I hope your friend is as pleased with her "new" Parker ballpoint pen as you are with your new fountain pens.

 

Holly

[siopaopei]

Thank you for rescuing these pens from their "almost" trip to the dump. What luck that you were in the right place at the right time!

 

They cleaned up very nicely indeed, and now you have two excellent fountain pens; the Parker 75 is on my (very long) wish list so I am envious! I hope your friend is as pleased with her "new" Parker ballpoint pen as you are with your new fountain pens.

 

Holly

 

I shudder to think that she would have thrown them out if she didn't have a friend who was crazy about these pens, whatever condition they are. haha. They're pretty good writers too!

 

Edited April 23, 2015 by siopaopei

[Fountain Pen Mike]

Nice work. Beautiful pens. Even (gasp) the ballpoint.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Well-done!

[masterguns]

Those look sharp. Nice job!

[JotterAddict62]

Good job on the clean up [ both ways ]

[Octo]

My Goodness! I have the BP and MP of these and had no idea they would clean up so well. They were included in a bundle of old pens I picked up at a tag sale. Unfortunately, no FP in the set, so I won't be using them. Did you use anything other than silver polish on the outside?

 

Thank you for providing the identification.

[farmdogfan]

Very good find, and also a nice job fixing them.

[siopaopei]

My Goodness! I have the BP and MP of these and had no idea they would clean up so well. They were included in a bundle of old pens I picked up at a tag sale. Unfortunately, no FP in the set, so I won't be using them. Did you use anything other than silver polish on the outside?

 

Thank you for providing the identification.

 

I didn't use any chemical on it, just a damp jeweler's cloth and lots of rubbing. ^_^