Halbur (British Made) Fountain Pen

[bentomlin123]

I have a Halbur fountain pen....never heard this name before and no trace on the internet. Can anyone throw any light on this make? Also I have no idea how to fill it..........you will see on the attached photos that it appears to be a plunger fill......the black cap unscrews revealing a short metal plunger which moves in and out a little but also pulls right off revealing a small semi circular tube which won't move at all......anyone out there who can help?......Cheers, Ben

[PaulS]

hi - sorry can't help with the name Halbur - it doesn't come up in the index in Steve Hull's book on the British Fountain Pen Industry - it may be the name of some commercial outfit for whom the pen was made - rather than relating to a maker - a sort of corporate advertising imprint perhaps.

The blind cap and button look to be standard fitments of a b.f. pen - is it possible that the thin metal rod protruding is simply the end of the pressure bar? Have you removed the section to see if this might be the case?

What if anything is imprinted on the nib - may we see a picture of the nib please. Take it that the barrel imprint include the words British Made?

 

the colourway of this pen looks a lot like something called Pearl and Black Permanite - it was prone to discolouration - often from out-gassing of the sack, and this brownish appearance was the result - a shame.

 

P.S. apologies - I'd overlooked this was your first post, so welcome to FPN from me too.

Edited January 10, 2019 by PaulS

[Bo Bo Olson]

Pretty pen, well worth restoring, even if it is unknown. (Restoration has nothing to do really with selling it...it has to do it's too pretty not to fix it up.)

 

Removing the section requires some skill (padded pliers, hair drier to start with. (Easy to ruin a pen the first time one wants to remove a section)....go to the repair section to see how.

.....IMO it's easier if one don't have a lot of pens, to have a professional do it....for the price of one Saturday night out.....or less.

 

The rubber sac will be shot...the old ones were only good for 30 or so years....and that pen looks pre war.

Jim Marshal, Lawrence Oldfield who wrote the Fountain Repair book, dedicated to this man's father: Peter Twydle are well known British repairmen.

 

I use Fountainble/(on the com) Francis Goossen in Belgium, for my repair and nib work . He invented the Conid pen. Affordable and quick turnaround time.

He will go the extra yard for you.

 

What's the nib look like, what is written on it? We always want to know that.

 

I don't know what experience you have with fountain pens.....but they are always held (very lightly) behind the big index knuckle.....45 degrees right after it, or 40 degrees at the start of the web of the thumb.

In the nib tip floats/skates in a small puddle of ink, there is no pressure required, like with a ball point.

Hold a fountain pen like it is a featherless baby bird.

Don't make baby bird paste.

Many to most of us have/had to fight The Death Grip.....learned from forcing a ball point pen's ball to roll. So no pressure is the goal to writing with a fountain pen.

 

Writing is 1/3 nib width/flex, 1/3 paper and 1/3 ink and in that order.

 

We are living in the Golden Age of Inks.

 

Richard Binder's site, is the bible of fountain pens, great info on nibs, filling systems, good advice on inks, and so, so many :puddle:pictures of old pens.

 

If you go to Ink Reviews, and look up any of the threads by Sandy1, our Ink Guru, you can see what a huge difference the width of a nib, and 4 or so good papers can make to an ink. One can not believe it is the same ink.

Do Not use, Ink Jet paper with a fountain pen. It is designed for rapid ink absorption, so feathers to the max with fountain pen ink.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[Scrawler]

Can we see the nib? Can you show close up of the text? Halbur may have been an owner name. That looks like something suspiciously nice.

[mitto]

+1 for the nib picture request. That is a nice looking little button filler pen.

Edited January 10, 2019 by mitto

[bentomlin123]

Thanks folks, my pens are all lever fill so not familiar with anything like this at all.......some more pics attached including the nib, the name on the barrel and one where I've managed to pull out the little metal whatsit at the bottom end to its fullest extent.....you can pull it in and out a little like a plunger but it doesn't seem to do anything, doesn't suck up fluid and is quite loose.....it just doesn't look right, just a bit of thin metal semi circular in section, surely it wasn't made like this?.....I unscrewed the nib end there is no ink sac there.......

 

Anyway, grateful for any more thoughts.......Cheers, Ben Tomlin

 

 

 

 

[JakobS]

Yeah that is a button fill, and the metal part you pulled out of the barrel is the pressure bar. The button presses down upon the pressure bar which then squeezes the latex sac. Latex sacs, pressure bars, and shellac are pretty cheap to get, I would look up how to repair button fill pens, as the hardest part is opening the section, which you have done. Now it's just a matter of getting the right size latex sac, checking to see if the pressure bar is the right length, or fully intact and if it is sanding off any rust, and then attaching the sac on to the pen, placing the pressure bar, and button and putting the section back in. Should be writing in no time...

Edited January 10, 2019 by JakobS

[Zinonas]

It is a button filler. The object you call a plunger is a pressure bar. By pressing the button at the end of the pen the pressure bar squeezes a latex sack. Releasing the button decompreses the sack drawing ink in the pen. To repair the pen you may have to get a new pressure bar, since the one in the pen looks damaged.

[Scrawler]

This is a nice copy of the 1930-ish Parker Lady Duofold Pen with a streamline Ring Top. I know nothing of Halbur, but there were many small and independent makers. It has a nice Warranted gold nib, which went into quality pens. The Warranted #2 is one of the most frequently found generic nibs. The celluloid the pen is made of is good quality material, showing signs of use. The original jade pearl has turned brown due to sulphur used in the manufacture of sacs. It needs to be dissembled, cleaned and the sac and probably the pressure bar replacing to make it work. What are your plans for it?

[robmorrison]

I found a Halbur pen too, and it came with more information that sheds some light. It came in a box that says it was sold by the Houndsditch Warehouse, a London department store, and inside the box was a Swan ink ad. The parts of the pen itself look like a '20s Blackbird. On balance I'm persuaded it's a Mabie Todd product. Yours may not be a Mabie Todd (looks Valentine-ish to me, but I'm not too familiar with UK brands), but it would seem possible that Halbur was a store brand bought from the big pen makers, like with Sears in the US.