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View Full Version : Vintage flex with a Waterman Laureat



carlos.q
April 28th, 2019, 12:19 PM
A few months ago I read a post by someone (I believe it was by FPG member pajaro) who had fitted a vintage Waterman #2 nib on a Laureat pen. Having one of these little pens I set out to find a suitable vintage nib and finally got a 14k nib described as fine with moderate flex. Removing the Laureat's original nib and feed was simple enough (it just pulls out) and replacing it with the vintage nib was fairly simple. The result is a Waterman Laureat with a vintage flex nib:

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The only drawback is that the simple Laureat plastic feeder cannot keep up with continuous flexing of the nib. However, for normal expressive writing this setup is great!

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amk
April 28th, 2019, 04:59 PM
That's a very interesting customization. I wonder if the plastic feed channels can be opened up with a scalpel to give a little more flow?

carlos.q
September 2nd, 2019, 12:45 PM
I recently got a banged up Wahl-Eversharp Skyline whose only redeeming feature was its nice flex nib. What to do with it? After my first experiment documented above I decided to put that nib in a 1980's Waterman Apostrophe and the results were amazing.

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It's a nice combination: vintage flex with the convenience of a c/c filler.

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The lesson from all this? I need a better photography setup! :haha:

pajaro
September 2nd, 2019, 08:58 PM
Excellent work. I have put Waterman nibs with a bit of flex in a few Laureats to replace corroded steel original nibs. The Waterman 14K nibs came from Waterman pens I ruined during attempted restorations. I have never mastered using flex nibs, though. Perhaps someday soon.

carlos.q
September 3rd, 2019, 03:37 AM
Excellent work. I have put Waterman nibs with a bit of flex in a few Laureats to replace corroded steel original nibs. The Waterman 14K nibs came from Waterman pens I ruined during attempted restorations. I have never mastered using flex nibs, though. Perhaps someday soon.

Thank you! It was one of your posts on this subject that originally led me to try this out.

penwash
September 3rd, 2019, 10:31 AM
Good work, Carlos!

It's fun to tinker with these pens. And when the outcome works well, it's very rewarding.