Swan 1500 Eye-Dropper

[Cob]

Hullo.

I'm hoping that someone here is familiar with the curious feed arrangement on this ancient pen. It's an over/under feed. When I first got the pen I quickly filled it to try and it worked, quite well. Obviously it was dirty, so I dismantled it and cleaned everything thoroughly. This was a mistake though it was pretty dirty. The pen is stored upright; now, on preparing to write, two or three large blobs of ink hit the paper, after which it works perfectly - it's a lovely writer, super flexible smooth nib.

I have a nasty feeling that the problem relates to that curious bit of twisted wire which is jammed into the feed. When I took it apart it fell out. I have refitted it of course, but I daresay incorrectly.

Does anyone have any pointers about assembly of this feed?

Thanks in advance,

Cob

[00Photo]

Did you remove the nib and feed completely from the section for cleaning? Even though the section hole looks perfectly round, most of the time if I insert the nib and feed slightly and rotate it this way and that, I will find a sweet spot where the nib and feed seem to slide back in easier making a better seal. Also, most of the eyedroppers I own will puke various amounts of ink upon startup. They puke less if I hold it in my hand like a fat kid holds a fork while he's waiting for cake. The longer I hold it, the less it pukes. Better to heat the barrel up with your hand with the nib upright and let the hot air escape before the ink gets in front of it, or you wind up with an ink squirt gun. The wire inside is just to break the surface tension of the ink so it flows down into the feed, not necessarily to help it squirt out.

[Cob]

Did you remove the nib and feed completely from the section for cleaning? Even though the section hole looks perfectly round, most of the time if I insert the nib and feed slightly and rotate it this way and that, I will find a sweet spot where the nib and feed seem to slide back in easier making a better seal. Also, most of the eyedroppers I own will puke various amounts of ink upon startup. They puke less if I hold it in my hand like a fat kid holds a fork while he's waiting for cake. The longer I hold it, the less it pukes. Better to heat the barrel up with your hand with the nib upright and let the hot air escape before the ink gets in front of it, or you wind up with an ink squirt gun. The wire inside is just to break the surface tension of the ink so it flows down into the feed, not necessarily to help it squirt out.

Thanks very much.

I have noticed sweet spots when re-assembling other pens, but (blush) I cannot remember with this one. I'll have it apart again anyway, the point being that when I first used it it didn't have this problem! Also there's a lovely Swan for sale on ebay at the moment and I have hi-jacked two of the excellent photos (credit to "longhandwriter"), since I am not sure I have the twisty thing in the right place. Please have a look at this:

Swan twist wire.JPGSwan Twist 2.JPG

Do you think that this is correct?

Thanks so much

Rgds
COb

[tandaina]

The dirt and accumulated stuff may have actually hold it behave better, reduced the flow. The irony of old pens!

[Deb]

I think tandaina is right. The upside of that is that as ink residue builds up ink flow may again be reduced. The intention behind the twisted silver wire is to even out ink flow. One would have thought that for that to work the wire would have to be in the feed channel but that doesn't seem to be the case. I've dealt with many of these pens and there seems to be no particular place where the wire is fitted. So you're fine wherever you've put it.

[ardgedee]

When you have this pen working again, I'd love to see photos of the assembled pen, with nib and feed. It sounds intriguing.

[Cob]

When you have this pen working again, I'd love to see photos of the assembled pen, with nib and feed. It sounds intriguing.

Hullo.

Of course I'd be delighted - I should say though that a) I need the photographic practice and b) the one that's for sale on ebay is a very nice example and much more beautiful than my plain old one! And the photos are superb.

Rgds

Cob

[Cob]

Well here it is in bits - there's not a lot to an eye-dropper which is the good side; I'll let you know if it works this time!

My 1500 bits.jpg

Rgds

Cob

[Cob]

Well not really a success.

I re-assembled it and followed what I saw in the nice ebay photos. Filled it up with Pelikan 4100 black, screwed it up tight, inverted it and then in fountain pen terms, a torrent of ink came out - luckily the ink bottle was close to hand! And then it stopped, and wrote beautifully. I left it on its side for half an hour or so, and again it wrote nicely.

The problem seems to be after it has been stored in the correct position for a fountain pen i.e. bottom down, but I have just tried it again after storing correctly for ten minutes - no problems!!

I am mystified; does anyone have any more ideas?

Edit: I have a baby eye-dropper about 95mm (~3 3/4") capped, a Japanese "Little 75" - ancient - which works perfectly, but this one has a conventional feed... Sadly the Swan feed is too tiny to modify - I have to use a pipe-cleaner on it - a cotton bud won't go! Curiously I have another Swan 1500 eye-dropper, totally reliable that someone has fitted with a very nice, big Swan 3 nib. Although called a 1500, this one is slightly larger diameter and has a gold band on its cap. I have NOT fiddled with this one!:

Correction: the second eye-dropper is not a 1500: it is a 300. I have no idea what a 300 looked like originally - my nib is obviously a later addition


Rgds

Cob

[Cob]

Fixed!

1500 Works s.jpg

After having to do a lot of other repairs etc., I got around to the 1500 eye-dropper once again. I thought it out in bed last night (The English have fountain pens...).

All I had to do to stop the outrageous floods of ink that poured out of the pen on first use, was to move the feed back about 2.5mm. Now one can see the ink collect underneath the nib - but only up to the lower feed; it writes a lovely wet line with great consistency. I am following Deb's advice and using Pelikan 4001 Black ink.

The nib is very flexible, but needs the attention of a nibmeister as it does catch on anything but the smoothest paper - and sometimes even there. I have already had to straighten out the nib; still it is now eminently usable.

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread.

Rgds

Cob

[Cob]

One more update:

Impatient, I got out the Micro Mesh myself and after checking alignment, managed to effect a great improvement; so good that it's going out with me tomorrow (I said that the English have pens...)

Best wishes,

Cob