What's your latest restoration/repair story?

We have "What's your latest buy" thread, so I thought why not share your latest tinkering adventures.

Whether you're a pen restoration addict like me or if you have your pens restored by others, we probably have a story or two.

So let me kick it off:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1903/...fdcfd969_c.jpg

I got this pen's barrel and cap long time ago as part of my bulk buys. I thought that the material looks very cool (hence I name it "Cracked Ice" - very original, I know). But it has not internal parts, no section, let alone nib. So it stayed in that special place on my workbench called "parts box".

Fast forward to this week. I held in my hand a jade green Hiriter barrel that has a crack the size of the Grand Canyon, relative to the size of the barrel, that is. So I ended up rescuing the internal parts, the section and the feed. Now here's the fun part, who knows that the internal parts *and* the section fits perfectly on the Cracked Ice barrel above.

It is this kind of discovery that keeps me in vintage pen restoration. It doesn't happen nearly often enough, but when it did happen, I am a happy camper.

So here it is, a no-brand name, not small (5-1/4 inches capped) pen with a nice, sturdy lever-filler. I mean really, the only branding I can find is a tiny letter "A" engraved at the end of the lever. So I had no choice to brand it "A". I believe it's a pen from the 30's. The "Cracked Ice" celluloid and the trims are very nice and handsome. I put a Waterman IDEAL flex nib on it because the feed happens to work well with it.

Right on, i like it when those things come together and a piece is saved or created. The A stands for Arnold pens. They are fairly easy to spot with the steep points on the cap/barrel end. The ones I usually see are tapered like yours.

Hi,

great idea for a thread!

I like to bring vintage Mabie Todd Swans back to life.
The pen below is a blue marbled 6242, while the celluloid looked good after some polishing, the tipping of the nib was damaged and the Clip is missing.
So I placed a nib out of a damaged 6260 here. The donor pen was sold "for parts" as the cap was cracked / clipless and the nib was totally out of shape. It is a very flexible one that must have been overflexed first, before someone took unprotected pliers and gave it a strange shape (I should have taken a photo...).
Anyway after many hours of carefully restoring the original shape the nib looks ok and writes wunderfully.
The pens seems to flex just when looking down on it!
What remains to be done is to give it a new clip, I'm not sure if I'll do that myself... we will see.

Here the pen and a short writing sample (sorry, in german):

Attachment 43258

Best
Jens

This blue Esterbrook SJ needed a sac and J bar. I did some light polishing on it to remove the haze of scratches. One of the local Pen Posse members was interested in it so it will go to a good home soon.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3c6eb58185.jpg

This red Estie J had a broken cap jewel so I decided to try removing it with the lathe. Well, that didn't quite go as planned but it is out, at least.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e8f60bba1a.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...56bcc666bf.jpg

I haven't yet worked out how to replace the rivet on these. I have a couple ideas to work on. Maybe some day I will post the whole pen after it is done. It needs a sac and I need to clean crusty gunk from the section. The cap and body are pretty dinged up too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elim

Right on, i like it when those things come together and a piece is saved or created. The A stands for Arnold pens. They are fairly easy to spot with the steep points on the cap/barrel end. The ones I usually see are tapered like yours.

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No kidding! Looks like you're right, thank you.

All the Arnold pens that I've encountered have "ARNOLD" on the clip, and the shape don't look like this one, I guess I need to go back to their earlier production.

Some of my favorite before and afters. The nib isn't huge deal but this was one of my first nib jobs. It only looks bowed but it was also bent down and inward.


Attachment 43259Attachment 43260Attachment 43261

The Classic!

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4857/...d95e38f0_c.jpg

(sorry, my phone is charging downstairs so I had to improvise and use my office scanner).

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4844/...dfc13c94_c.jpg

I spent more time smoothing and tuning the nib on this one than actually replacing the diaphragm. :)

But this pen is super nice now. And although the celluloid has ambered, you still can see through the barrel to make out the breather tube (and/or ink).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-ARN...p2047675.l2557

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-3-Vi...5ee:rk:11:pf:0

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Arnold-Foun...p2047675.l2557

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Arnold-Blac...p2047675.l2557

Hi,

in spring a poor Swan 1042 (made around 1947, fine semiflex nib) found it's way here:

Attachment 49688

Attachment 49689

Attachment 49690

Most of the work was nib straitening and bringing all the curvatures back into shape.
Time after time it's flex returned - I leaned a lot doing that...
Finally the Swan looks like this:

Attachment 49691

Attachment 49692

Attachment 49693

Greetings
Jens

I received a new pen from the manufacturer through the post. While it was properly packaged, it arrived with a badly bent nib. Given the packaging,
i can only imagine that a 30 Deg. Downward curl in the nib was hard to achieve and overlook.

While I could probably straighten it myself, it's on it's way back for them to repair or replace.

Last night I nursed a Sheaffer Tuckaway Valiant pen and pencil set in black.
The pencil works beautifully, but the pen needs restoration, also the nib and feed was encrusted with some blue ink that is very difficult to flush.

It took multiple flossing with a brass sheet to clean the tines. But since the feed was completely clogged, I ended up having to remove the nib and feed anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by An old bloke

I received a new pen from the manufacturer through the post. While it was properly packaged, it arrived with a badly bent nib. Given the packaging,
i can only imagine that a 30 Deg. Downward curl in the nib was hard to achieve and overlook.

While I could probably straighten it myself, it's on it's way back for them to repair or replace.

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Hi,

when it is new, this is the best way...

Best
Jens