Waterman Skywriter (1st gen by ALCO) - section removal

[Wade]

Hi folks...

Hoping someone with experience on this pen can help out, just rec'd a lovely 1st Gen Canadian made (Alco) Waterman Skywriter, needs a bit of nib work (re-align tines then a bit of smoothing), a re-sac, and it's also missing the clip. This (along with an Esterbrook J) is my first stab at pen restoration, already cracked a section on the Esterbrook through over-eagerness, won't make that mistake again (knock on wood), first step will be soaking the pen in some warm water.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering if anyone can advise if the section is screw-in or friction fit?

Cheers,
Wade

[grainweevil]

...first step will be soaking the pen in some warm water.

Not familiar with the Skywriter, but my absolute first instinct would be "don't do that". Perhaps I misunderstand your intention, but off-hand I can't think of a single time I'd soak a pen whole, if at all, and cold water would be my first thought rather than warm. I defer to them as knows better, naturally.

[Wade]

...first step will be soaking the pen in some warm water.

Not familiar with the Skywriter, but my absolute first instinct would be "don't do that". Perhaps I misunderstand your intention, but off-hand I can't think of a single time I'd soak a pen whole, if at all, and cold water would be my first thought rather than warm. I defer to them as knows better, naturally.

Just going from my experience with the Esterbrook J, which needed a soak in warm water to soften the shellac or dried ink that was binding the section to the barrel. It's just the nib, section and a few mm of the barrel in the water, not the whole pen.

Cheers,
Wade

[Jon Szanto]

Just going from my experience with the Esterbrook J, which needed a soak in warm water to soften the shellac or dried ink that was binding the section to the barrel. It's just the nib, section and a few mm of the barrel in the water, not the whole pen.

Nonetheless, and even though it requires patience and being veeeeeeeeeery careful, my understanding is that the consensus for loosening shellac-held sections is best with dry heat. As one famous restorer notes "Fountain pens were designed to hold liquid, not to soak in it." You can do a google search for various threads around that talk about the relative temperatures that shellac, plastic/celluloid, and hard rubber soften. Shellac softens at the lowest temp, but not much hotter than that and you can melt a barrel. The problem with water soaking is that it can discolor some materials, always a distinct no-go with hard rubber.

I also am unfamiliar with that model, but be aware that at least some of the Waterman pens have notoriously fragile and problematic material. I started doing some restores on Taperites, and found out that the failure rate is so high that it is absolutely not worth the effort. They may have glued some in with non-shellac materials, and you can be as patient as a rock and still end up cracking or shattering a barrel. If is it a sac fill system, the odds are that it is friction fit and not threaded, but another line of wisdom is to try an unscrewing motion anyway.

Best of luck, much patience to you!

[Wade]

Thanks... I have a heat gun at home, not sure I'd want to try that, may have to pick up a blow dryer (been decades since I've had enough hair to warrant owning one).

Cheers,
Wade

[Wade]

Just following up... I ended up using my heat gun on low, being very careful and keeping the pen moving, it softened up the shellac previously used and the section came out very nicely. I think a hair dryer may be the better tool, as it felt like the heat gun, even on low, was also semi-softening the plastic at times, although that might just be my paranoia.

[penwash]

Just going from my experience with the Esterbrook J, which needed a soak in warm water to soften the shellac or dried ink that was binding the section to the barrel. It's just the nib, section and a few mm of the barrel in the water, not the whole pen.


Two different things:

1. You soak the nib in tap water to loosen up dried ink that prevent you from unscrewing the nib unit. This won't help with a shellac-ed section and barrel.

2. You use dry heat to soften shellac that binds the section to the barrel. As you did below.


Just following up... I ended up using my heat gun on low, being very careful and keeping the pen moving, it softened up the shellac previously used and the section came out very nicely. I think a hair dryer may be the better tool, as it felt like the heat gun, even on low, was also semi-softening the plastic at times, although that might just be my paranoia.

Hair dryer is enough for Esterbrooks and many other vintage pens. Heat gun is required for more stubborn pens, for instance a metal-lined ebonite high-end Wahl-Eversharp.

[Wade]

Just wanted to follow up, this was my first pen restoration for what it's worth. The pen came to me with mis-aligned tines, dried out sac and missing the clip on the cap. With advice from this forum, the hardest part was separating the section from the barrel, from there it was a doddle. With supplies and tools sourced from woodbin.ca and Canadian Tire (yes, many/most specialized pen tools seem to be available under different name in your favourite auto parts store), managed to replace the sac, re-align the tines and the finishing touch was today when the replacement cap I lucked out finding arrived in the post. It writes smoothly, very wet with a lot of flex. Pretty proud of myself, nothing many of you don't already do on a very regular basis, but I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out. Thanks DavidtheGnome for the great deal on the pen and thanks to everyone else here and elsewhere who provided valuable advice.

28450

[Jon Szanto]

Just wanted to follow up, this was my first pen restoration for what it's worth.

Hey, that makes my day! So glad it worked out, and that we could offer help. For the right people, there is nothing quite so satisfying as taking one of these little creatures and bringing them back to life. Your first of many, I hope! Congrats.

[RE McGrath]

Hi Wade, Just wondering if you got your first generation Waterman repaired ? I just bought one and got it all apart and am looking for a part to finish it. It is the green one. I'm sure you have figured out by now looking at you posting date it is a friction fit.

[Wade]

Hi Wade, Just wondering if you got your first generation Waterman repaired ? I just bought one and got it all apart and am looking for a part to finish it. It is the green one. I'm sure you have figured out by now looking at you posting date it is a friction fit.

Oh yeah, been working well since last November (I think I posted somewhere around here with pictures. I've also picked up a green demi model. What part(s) are you needing?

Cheers,
Wade

[Marsilius]

Cool, informative thread. Nice pen, too.

[RE McGrath]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I'm looking for a presser bar. I guess there are "new" ones available. If I get a new one, I'm going to try my hand at silver soldering the old one. If that doesn't work, I think I can manufacture a new brass one from some stock material I have laying around. I'll try and keep you informed about my progress. I have been busy with an Esterbrook I'm repairing and a Parker Doufold Jr desk pen repair as well.