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Jeph
July 9th, 2013, 01:30 PM
This is a pair from my sack-o-crap pens to practice pen repair on.
The black one has Stratford in script on the cap.
The blue one has Platignum on the cap and the nib.
Neither one appears to have been high quality when new.
These two are scratched, scuffed, deformed, dirty and defective. Perfect for practice!
I thought that both were simple school cartridge pens since there was no external filling mechanism.
But when I removed the sections, both had sacs installed.
After scratching my head for a while, it looks like both of these pens were squeeze fillers but the filler mechanism is stuck in the barrels.
You really can't tell from the picture, but each pen has a metal cylinder in the barrel with what looks to be a J bar of some sort.

I can't find anything specific about stuck squeeze fillers on the interwebs. I suspect that this is so common and the types of pens that used this type filling system were so cheap that nobody cares.

So question #1 is: Do these pens simply have squeeze fillers stuck in the barrels?

I tried rapping the barrels on my hand and lightly tried pulling with a scribe but did not get anywhere.
Then I remembered to pretend that these were my grail pens and slow down, make a plan and ask for help.

My plan is to soak both barrels in water overnight and then try to knock them out by tapping on my palm again.
If that does not work, I plan to put them in the refrigerator (not the freezer) for 2-4 hours, and then take one out and allow the barrel to warm in my hands for a few minutes and then try to knock them free again using only minimal differential temperature.

Question #2 is: Would this plan be bad for a pen barrel (overnight water soak and small temperature differential (~50 deg F)?

Question #3 is: If/when that plan does not work, what will?

Here is a picture, although without professional lighting or high levels of detail.

3876
Thanks for any help.

Jeph

cedargirl
July 9th, 2013, 07:17 PM
I don't know these pens, but looking down the barrel in the picture, it certainly looks like it could be the outer sheath of an aerometric style filler. Hopefully they are only stuck in there with dried ink, so soaking them should free them up.

Jeph
July 10th, 2013, 11:43 AM
After the soak, the Platignum cylinder and J bar came right out. There was some corrosion on the metal seams and interfaces but that should clean up.

The Stratford would not budge after the soak, and after 3 hours in the refrigerator it did shift down slightly (< 1/8 inch) but refused to move any farther.
I tried the scribe again and it moved a little more and then came out. The filler had Stratford written on it and had no discoloration or debris on it at all. So it appears that the barrel has shrunk somewhat.

A side note, both sacs are still functional and do not leak. I plan to replace them anyway but I was surprised.