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View Full Version : Wahl Eversharp Skyline



Laurie
June 16th, 2015, 11:27 PM
I have just received a vintage Wahl Eversharpe Skyline. I googled about how to clean it and couldnt find anything. Is it just a matter of drawing up water with the level and squirting it out until it runs clean. How does the feed come out. Does it screw or just pulls out. Any help would be appreciated.

Jon Szanto
June 17th, 2015, 12:25 AM
ARRGGHH!!

Do NOT attempt to take the nib and feed out of this pen unless you've done that sort of thing before! While there are occasional vintage pens that have nib units that screw in and out (primarily Pelikan and Esterbrook), most are press-fit. And feeds are fragile, and can be broken easily.

You didn't mention if the pen had been restored or not. If it hasn't, you can't be certain of the sac - it might fill or not, and it might fill and then leak. Do this with water only, for now!

If you find that it *will* fill with water and then expel it, repeat this process enough times until you see the water running clear (or nearly so). You could then try just dipping the nib in ink to see how it writes, and if there aren't any problems, try a fill.

I would HIGHLY suggest you go back and read some of the relevant pages on the "Reference Pages" section of Richard Binder's site, including how to fill a lever fill pen, and probably general vintage pen hygiene. I really don't want you mucking with the nib/feed at this point. Unless you are lucky, this would entail taking out the section (not easy), taking off the sac (or what is left of it), and probably having to use a knockout block to remove the nib and feed. The rare pen will allow you to pull the nib and/or feed, but you also have to make certain you get them back in with the proper orientation.

Sorry, I've babbled, but I don't want you to have gone this far and mess up the 'new' pen. :)

Laurie
June 17th, 2015, 12:43 AM
Thanks Jon. The guy said it had been recently "serviced" Not sure what that means. It appears in very good condition. I read Richard Bender's reference pages and flushed it a few times with water. The lever and sac seem to be working. Just filled it with some ink and see how it performs.
Thanks again as usual with your sound advice.

Laurie
June 17th, 2015, 03:40 AM
I have just inked up and it writes absolutely beautifully. My first experience with a vintage 14ct nib. I can see how some nibs on this pen are described as flexly. Without overly exerting pressure it produced a good line variation. I would describe it as flexy or maybe semi flexy in my limited experience with these nibs. I will post a picture in the morning of a few 8's.

ac12
June 17th, 2015, 06:48 PM
Remember take it VERY easy on the flexing.
In the excitement of writing, it can be all too easy to overflex and spring the nib.

Laurie
June 17th, 2015, 09:15 PM
Thanks ac12. I have tried to be conservative. Here is a picture of some eights. Does that indicate this is a flex nib?

SteveE
June 18th, 2015, 08:27 AM
I am not an expert on flex, but as the others have said, in this case less is safer. The plastics these old Skylines were made with can often become very brittle and break easily. Excess pressure on the nib can translate back into odd forces on the section, and might lead to premature cracking and failure.

Another thing to know is that if the filler was properly refurbished, the pen has what is known as an aerometric filler. That means that there is a breather tube inside the pen's sac. When you open the lever and close it to draw in ink, the ink actually comes in through the breather tube. If you work the lever a few times, waiting 5 or 10 seconds between lever pulls, the pen should take on even more ink. For their size, properly working Skyline pens can hold a remarkable amount of ink.

KBeezie
June 23rd, 2015, 12:20 PM
The nib/feed is friction fit, but as said if you're not careful it's possible to do something like put a crack in the grip/section (among maybe some other things) or possibly snapping off the breather tube if one has been properly installed.

Far as flex, their flex or semi-flex nib should flex with next to no pressure. Basically far far far far far less than what you'd use for say a Noodler's Flex nib (which by comparison requires an extreme amount of force). When I was getting a few in the wild the nib half the time were quite firm. The ones that did offer some degree of flex did so without any pressure. My favorites are the semi-flex or springy ones where they don't nudge at a light hand making it decent for everyday writing but gives a little with some normal scribbling (where as full flex, I don't quite have the dexterity to keep a very light hand all the time while keeping pace up, so they cause more line variation at even my version of a light hand)

For as cleaning it out, basically like with most lever fillers, take up water, squirt it back out, take up again, shake every so often to get at the back of the sac and just keep repeating until it runs clear.

If you're the adventurous self-restoring type, it's helpful to know that the feeds are ebonite (hard rubber) so there is the possibility of heat-setting the nib/feed with some hot (coffee hot) water, but I would only do that if you can't seem to get the flow regular and already ensured the feed and breather tube were cleaned, and the nib aligned and set appropriately above the breather hole (if it was recently serviced this would in theory already be done, but some sellers do nothing more than replace the sac and it ready).


As mentioned by Steve, if it has a breather tube it's going to get a healthier fill of ink (can also take a little longer to flush since you'll need to take/up shake/out the ink that may be in the tube itself. But that same tube will also help regulate the flow so that you don't get an instance of where the pen goes from normal/dry to wet/overly-wet and vice versa over and over again (if it does that, means they probably didn't replace the breather tube).

The old timer trick I learned from the board here, if you push the nib to your thumbnail, and the tipping spreads before the thumb bed turns white will be a decent indicator of it's potential flexibility, but even if it does take it light.