Waterman 44 Safety Pen - Some Questions

[Paul-in-SF]

A friend of mine came across a pen at home that she believes belonged to her grandfather. Between us we discovered it is a Waterman 44 Safety pen. There are some photos below. She came to me for help, but I've never seen a safety pen in person before so I was starting from nearly zero.

 

We found some information online that allowed us to extend the nib successfully (it works, but it's a little stiff), clean out some of the old ink (discussed in next paragraph) and re-ink it to see if it would write. It does write but it is quite dry and you have to press down harder than should be necessary to make it write. The nib does not have much flex. All it says is Waterman Ideal 14Kt 3 (as best as I can remember, I don't have it in my hands as I am writing this). I have not been able to find anything online about this specific model in this configuration.

 

I cleaned out much of the old ink by squirting water with a syringe into the top recess of the pen with the nib withdrawn, and then shaking the water out into the sink. I did this 15 or 20 times, and at the end the residue was still not clear but the remaining ink was pretty faint. We were able to re-ink the pen, with the writing result I described above. So here are our questions.

 

1. The way I cleaned out the pen also seems to be the way ink is loaded, by using an eyedropper or syringe to drop ink into the top of the pen, with the cap off and the nib withdrawn, and the pen held strictly vertically. Is that correct?

 

2. The pen does not seem to hold much ink when loaded in this way, but when I checked the syringe it actually came to maybe 1.5ml or more. Is that correct? How high up in the chamber is it safe for the ink to rise to?

 

3. We found four apparent seams on the pen (besides the one for the blind cap at the bottom), two of them where the gold rings are, and two other ones. What are these seams for -- that is, do any of them open for servicing or repair?

 

4. Since the nib is barely writing and in a very dry manner, what techniques are safe to use to try to adjust the nib? Anything different from a later pen? Is it possible to remove the nib and/or feed to soak them clean from old ink?

 

5. Is the pen made of black hard rubber, as I assumed? The cap has been in water in the past and has faded a little, but the rest of the pen appears quite black and smooth (not chased). I just want to be clear that we probably shouldn't try to soak it or clean it with water in any way.

 

6. Is it typical for the top of the barrel, where it meets the inside seal in the cap, to be a little inky? We seemed to get that result no matter how much we cleaned the inside of the cap and how careful we were with the ink.

 

Thanks in advance, this has been a great learning opportunity for me and my friend.

[Left FPN]

Nice pen.

 

I would think it is hard rubber. Theres much info online for the WSP and the importance of good seals. Either by DIY or via a pen smith have the seals/corks replaced.