Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from The Laurel Tree, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. Recently another long-awaited OMAS Princess fountain pen joined my collection - a 1997 Arco Green Princess with gold-filled trim! This is the fifth Princess in my collection, and the sixth OMAS celluloid I have had the pleasure of owning. The diminutive Princess and Dama models were released along with the Paragon as the Classic Celluloid Collection in 1991. The Princess is as beautifully made as the 1930s ring top models which preceded it, and there is nothing like it amongst modern OMAS offerings. A 5-Piece Scarlet Red Classic Celluloid Set: Dama Ballpoint #C2811, Princess Ring Top Fountain Pen with Tassel #8141, The Paragon Fountain Pen #8711, Dama (Lady) Fountain Pen #8811, and The Paragon Rollerball #5711… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Edison Pen Company, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. Hi Pen Fans. Next week, I will be attending the Chicago Pen Show. I’ll have my full inventory there, along with at least a prototype, if not a complete version for the new piston fIller. Speaking of, the piston filler is scheduled to be in full production after May 11th. And lastly, I’m taking a much needed vacation the week of May 4th… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from What’s going on at Richard Binder • Fountain Pens, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. A few days ago, a big bag o’ pens came to the head of the queue. Jim, to whom the lot fell, dug through the bag and abstracted three, count ’em THREE, straight-cap Onotos. One was a virtual duplicate of the one in my collection, with an over-under feed. Now this, you may or may not know, was the first pattern De La Rue produced, beginning in about 1906. But the primitive feed really doesn’t control flow very well, and in fairly short order Onoto the Pen began sporting a more ordinary underfeed, and the other two pens in that lot were of this variety… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Fountain Pen Restoration, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source.

Just a brief entry here on cleaning a Parker 61 Capillary-Filler. The Parker 61 was produced by Parker beginning in 1956. It began as a capillary filler and continued to be produced as one until the late 1960s. At that time, Parker switched the pen to a cartridge/converter fill due to the clogging issues that 61s experienced. The capillary filler was a simple filling system, accomplished by unscrewing the barrel and placing the end of the filler into a bottle of ink and allowing the filler to wick up the desired ink. This worked well. The problem arose when the filler sat with ink for a period of time and became difficult to clean. This Grey 61 with a Lustraloy cap came to me to see if I could get it to write. I acquired a 61 Jet Flighter three years ago with the same problem and had fashioned a tool to do the cleaning, so this was a snap… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from The Laurel Tree, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. So this morning I woke up to a fantastic post by SJM1123 in a recent thread on the FPN about Japanese lacquerware decoration. The post links to a wonderful database of techniques, including Chinkin, which is what I chose for my third Piccolo. I was so inspired by the videos that I got the camera out and started snapping away. Here is a teaser from the shoot… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Richard’s Pens, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source.

Finally available in the U.S.A., the Amber Custom 823 holds court as one of the most exciting pens in anybody’s catalogue. It’s transparent like a demonstrator, with just enough color to give it “class” in a more dignified setting… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Fountain Pen Restoration, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source.

This week I restored a 1943 (1st Quarter) Single Jewel Silver Pear Vacumatic Major.  As you can see below, nothing particularly out of the ordinary, except for the cap band. The pen, after being taken apart, is below.  As you can see, this is a wartime (1943) pen with the plastic filler.  The only part that needed repair was the debutante diaphragm. The repair went as with several other vacumatic restorations that I have covered over past year or so.  As usual, care needs to be taken in inverting the diaphragm and attaching it to the filler.  Then it needs to be carefully placed back in the barrel using a vac tool, making sure it seats properly and does not twist or bunch up in the barrel.  All of this tested out well… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from What’s going on at Richard Binder • Fountain Pens, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. I never started out to do pencils. I keep saying that, but hardly a week goes by without one or two on the bench. They’re fun, actually, because there’s no decent repair guide out there — so it’s often a real challenge. Today’s pencil was an India Black ’40s Parker “51” pencil with a gold filled cap. It was “frozen,” i.e., the cap wouldn’t turn — and it wouldn’t come off either. I did get it off, but it brought part of the mechanism with it. The necked-down open end of the chrome tube is supposed to be pressed onto a knurled collar that advances or retracts the lead; the chrome tube connects the cap to the mechanism by friction so that you can turn the cap to operate the pencil. You can see a brass collar around the chrome tube, right at the open end of the cap. That collar is supposed to be fixed into the open end of the barrel to provide a bearing surface, not “welded” to the tube by green crystalline copper corrosion. Okay, so the first step was to separate the chrome tube from the cap. An appropriate application of thermal energy and force did the trick. Then I inserted the tube into the appropriately sized hole in one of my knockout blocks (three blocks, one hole the right size) and drove the tube out of the brass collar. The nose cone almost always screws off the front of the mechanism with no problem, and that’s what happened this time. Here are the bits and pieces, as far as I had to take them apart… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from The Laurel Tree, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. Today a wonderful Sailor Professional Gear arrived! Behold the full-size Sailor & Bunzo Stationery 2009 “Smoke Green” LE - only twenty-five pens were produced. This limited edition pen was accompanied by a bottle of Sailor green ink, specifically blended to match the colour of the pen. It’s a beautiful deep green ink that looks perfect coming out of the EF nib… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from The Laurel Tree, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. Today one of my stunning OMAS Princess fountain pens returned to me after spending some time with Deb Kinney. The nib is now a very nice 0.3mm Cursive Italic, and much more usable than the original (shudders in horror) B nib. This 1997 Princess is all inked up with Iroshizuku Yu-Yake. The soft shade of orange goes beautifully with the Senape / Saffron Blue / Autumn Blue celluloid. (I have no idea why this celluloid has so many different names… but I like them all.) I’m planning to photograph some pens this weekend… hopefully I might have a few more photos to update this with. This is definitely one of the less common OMAS celluloids… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Fountain Pen Restoration, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source.

Once in a while a fountain pen collector runs across other writing instruments out in antique stores, on-line auctions, and garage sales.  Occasionally we use them, though we will never admit it. I rarely purchase any vintage writing instruments other than fountain pens and am usually not interested in completing a pen/pencil set, or in purchasing one already complete.  But, once in a great while I will run across a pencil that strikes my fancy, and usually it is one that matches a restored pen.  Here are two examples. The first photo is of a 1936 Parker Vacumatic Pencil, that matches the Burgundy Marble Vacumatic Junior that I restored in my post titled Parker Vacumatic Lockdown Filler, dated June 20, 2008… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Richard’s Pens, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source.

You open the drawer, and your eye falls on that box. You know the one, it’s the rich-looking presentation box for the pen you got for Christmas. The pen that’s still resting, dipped but never inked, inside that very box. The pen you want to love but can’t, because it doesn’t write the way you wish it did. The problem may not be the pen… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from PenPassion.com - A Passion for Pens - A Passion for Pens, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. First let me say that if you were at the show and came to my seminar, “Thanks!”. Things to set in your camera 1. Set your camera to a manual mode if available. 2. Turn off the flash. 2. Use manual focus. 3. Set your camera for aperture priority and to F8 (or the highest setting you have). This will increase your depth of field… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Richard’s Pens, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source.

Back in the day, Sheaffer and Parker included sheets of rubber for this purpose in their repairmen’s kits. Plain old rubber worked, but it wasn’t the ideal material. (Thick enough, it wasn’t flexible enough; flexible enough, it was too thin.) It was just the best they had. But now there‘s better… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from The Pear Tree Pen Company, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. The Pear Tree Pen Company is pleased to announce that it has lifted its restrictions on the number of ink samplers one can buy with a single order. If you want to buy 2 samplers, go for it. 4 samplers? knock yourself out. Ten Samplers? You bet! The sky’s the limit - No more 30-day waiting period, and no need to buy a bottle of ink before you can get a second, third or ??? dose, er, set of ink samples!… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Fountain Pen Restoration, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source.

OK, I know what you are probably thinking….not another Wahl Oxford post…..and you are probably right in thinking this.  But, I could not resist sharing this new variation (to me) with you.  In my last Oxford post, dated November 19, 2008, I discussed the restoration of a red marble Wahl Oxford (link below). Wahl Oxford Fountain Pen I didn’t think I would stumble upon another pattern so quickly, but I did… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from What’s going on at Richard Binder • Fountain Pens, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. This week has been sort of a “nibs” week. Well, every week sees its fair share of nibs, but yesterday I pulled a repair order for two, count ’em TWO, ultrafine italics. One pen (nib section, actually) was a Sailor, the other (just the nib unit) was from a Levenger. I had to find a section to screw the Levenger piece into, which is why the following photo shows what looks like the front end of a slightly strange Bexley BX701. The Sailor, as you see it in the photo, is a 0.34 mm cursive italic, and the Levenger is 0.40. The client’s accompanying note indicates that these nibs will get excellent use by someone whose handwriting justifies their size and shape. Which is why this sort of thing is so much fun to do… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from What’s going on at Richard Binder • Fountain Pens, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source. If you’re a fan of the Aurora 88, by which I mean the original version with a semi-hooded nib, you might have encountered one or two 88s that would have been gorgeous pens if their pistons hadn’t died. It’s a sad fact that the material Aurora used doesn’t hold up against the ravages of ordinary moderately acidic inks; it becomes brittle and eventually cracks apart under stress. The point at which this happens is the end of the piston, and the failure results in the disintegration of the threads onto which the hard rubber cap nut screws. Soon the hard rubber nut can no longer get a purchase. The piston head comes apart, and the pen won’t fill. Absent a replacement part, what do you do? Here’s what I did today for a client’s 88P. First, the pen with its piston in pieces… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Richard’s Pens, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source.

You’ve bought a BelOMO loupe. How are you going to carry it? What better than the BelOMO lanyard? Custom made of tough woven Nylon strapping, the BelOMO lanyard is especially made to be a perfect match to your loupe. It comes with a split ring, but that’s really just a bonus key ring because the lanyard’s end is exactly the right size and thickness to fit on the post between the lanyard’s two side plates… Finish reading this post »

Please read this disclaimer I did not write this post, and take no credit for the content. The following post comes from Fountain Pen Restoration, so be sure to thank the author there if you like the information. Go to original source.

Most vintage fountain pen collections should include a Waterman Fountain pen.  The L.E. Waterman Fountain Pen Company started in New York in the 1880s and was a stalwart in the Fountain Pen business during the production dates of the 52.   Lewis Edson Waterman was the founder of the company in the late 1800s and credited with its successful start. The Waterman 52 was produced during the 1915 to 1930 time period.  This period marked a high water mark for Waterman as they produced a large number of varieties of hard rubber pens.  The 52 was one of the most common and survives in large numbers today.  Relatively simple to restore (provided all of the parts are in good condition), it often has large flexy nibs which several collectors enjoy using. Finish reading this post »