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View Full Version : Parker #20 Lucky Curve Jack-Knife Safety Button Filler Cleaning and Disassembly



Jeph
September 19th, 2013, 03:36 PM
Note: While getting the pictures together for this post I noticed that the nib is cracked. The crack runs from the breather hole back to the top of the K in PARKER. This not only makes me sad, but also means that I am seriously considering not working on this pen. However, thinking about working on it posed some questions that I am still interested in finding out the answer to. So, I am going to continue the post as if everything was fine. You never know when I will get motivated enough to try getting the nib repaired.

Last weekend I decided to get out of my comfort zone of cheap German piston fillers and pick up something old and interesting. As a result, today a box arrived today containing an old (prewar) black hard rubber Parker #20 Lucky Curve Jack-Knife Safety button filler. It has no clip and I see no evidence that there ever was one. The button is seized as expected. The color of the pen is actually surprisingly good, with the only significant discoloration under the blind cap. Most of the imprints are still very good. I filled them with talc because I am too lazy to set up a good picture.

The problem is that my standard procedure when I receive a pen is to perform an initial inspection, perform an initial cleaning, disassemble anything that comes apart readily, and then plunk everything into cool water to soak overnight. They keep soaking until everything is apart and clean. I did that with an old German piston filler but it turned out the black plastic was not all black plastic like I thought. The top of the cap and the piston knob were both made from hard rubber. So the next day when I came home from work and took everything out of the water and wiped them down, they were both a sick brown. I wiped the piston knob down with olive oil and the results were very encouraging. So I soaked the piston knob submerged in olive oil overnight, then took it out, wiped it off with a dry cloth, wrapped it in a paper towel and let it dry in the dark. The end result is better than it was originally, but not as good as it looked after the initial wipe with the olive oil. Now the piston knob is a dark olive green tinted brown instead of the dark tan. Pictures of those 3 stages follow.

After water soak -> freshly wiped with olive oil -> 24 hour soak in olive oil plus 24 hour dry in the dark
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So my first question is, how do I clean this pen without destroying it? I could manage to dress the outside dry, but that does not help me get it apart. The information in Da Book was less than inspiring. I assume that the nib and feed are friction fit, but I suspect that there is quite a bit of very old dried ink in there. Then we come to removing the section. I have not found any pictures or discussions of this or a similar pen disassembled. So I have a potentially very nice pen with no reasonable guidance and many, many ways of doing horrible things to it. How should I go about disassembling it? Pictures follow if for nothing else to show what it looked like before I screwed it up.

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Jeph
September 19th, 2013, 03:37 PM
Left out the feed
5498

ac12
September 20th, 2013, 12:04 AM
While I do not have that pen, I have a similar pen.
The section SCREWS into the barrel. The joint is just below the threads for the cap.
I had to soak my pen for several days to slowly disolve the dried ink from the feed and to get water into the barrel and threads to disolve the ink that was "cementing" the section into the barrel. I also use an ultrasonic cleaner to speed up cleaning the dried ink out. You also need enough of the dried ink inside the barrel disolved so it won't block/break the tail of the feed that projects back into the sac.

In the attached pix from Jake's Pens you can see the threads on the back of the section and the protrusion out of the back of the section, which I think is the "lucky curve."

kirchh
September 20th, 2013, 08:23 AM
First, I suggest you read David Nishimura's excellent article (http://www.vintagepens.com/pen_repair_donts.htm) on what not to do when restoring a pen. It discusses the perils of allowing hard rubber parts to come into contact with water.

Dubiel's book discusses how to access the pressure bar in a Parker button filler, and it also explains that the section is threaded. Though his advice to use open flame is not necessarily endorsed by expert restorers today, the principle of using heat to loosen things up and make them less brittle is sound, as Nishimura's piece explains.

I suggest not following impulses to try whatever's handy (e.g. food, like olive oil) when attempting the restoration of a pen. Patience, research, and a conservative approach yield the best results.

--Daniel

Jeph
September 20th, 2013, 10:28 AM
Daniel,
Thank you for your post. That is exactly the type of information that I am asking for.


First, I suggest you read David Nishimura's excellent article (http://www.vintagepens.com/pen_repair_donts.htm) on what not to do when restoring a pen. It discusses the perils of allowing hard rubber parts to come into contact with water.

I have read that article many times. It, and many others that say the same thing about hard rubber in water, plus my accidental personal experience, is why I stopped and asked the question. It is the most complete, consise and accurate package of pen restoration information that I have seen.




I suggest not following impulses to try whatever's handy (e.g. food, like olive oil) when attempting the restoration of a pen. Patience, research, and a conservative approach yield the best results.


That was not actually an impulse. That was a result of a lot of searching and was tried on a cheap pen on purpose. The reason for the pictures was to show that I experimented with that information and did not find it to be worthwhile.