Vintage Pelikan 100N celluloid barrel separating and rescuing

Hi,
I have the following situation: a nearly mint condition celluloid barrel attached to a broken ebonite grip section. I have an original NOS spare section prepared.
Is it possible to somehow unscrew the broken grip without damaging the original barrel, or such success stories just happen to be urban legends?

I have unscrewed a number of good grips from previously damaged barrels so far, so I didn’t have to take extra care for preserving the celluloid. I also know about some rosin threading sealant they used to put in there 80 years ago, which tends to make celluloid crystalized and brittle.

I know this can be a tedious and tricky work with uncertain outcome, also that some exact temperature has to be attained and kept during the procedure. Can anyone who has gone through this procedure successfuly please give some exact advice?

Thanks in advance!

This is indeed a delicate job. I have done that only twice. One time with success, another time without. If I had to do that a third time, I would rather try to machine the broken section out of the barrel on the late.
C.

Thanks, Christof.
Following a bit of research in chemistry and using some special solvents, controlled heating and few non-standard tools I have just managed doing it once. I have to do it at least once again repeating the procedure in order to even dare call it “a method”.
Still the nastiest part is having to deal with the mineralized mixture of ink and sealant which is has partly fused with celluloid.
As for machining, I’d hardly dare doing it because of the delicate undercut at the grip interface and a vulnerable barrel inner threading...
Here’s the pen repaired with new grip and restored to original condition. Still few things to be done, the “underbinde”, performance fine tuning, but so far good, I dare say...
:)

Attachment 57699

Thanks again & thanks everybody for having read this post.

congrats to the successful repair. Well done!

Thanks, Christof,
Isn’t it fun how an old and broken pen can be made spring back to life and write reliably as if having been made nowadays, yet with elegance and versatility that a modern pen would hardly give.
BTW. I’ve just successfully repeated the separation procedure. One day, after having had few more such “success stories”, I’ll dare write something about it to the forum.

congratulations indeed! It is a nerve-wrecking procedure I guess.

Could you share some light on how you proceeded with this (sacrificing the section & preserving the barrel).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jos

congratulations indeed! It is a nerve-wrecking procedure I guess.

Could you share some light on how you proceeded with this (sacrificing the section & preserving the barrel).

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Thanks for your interest. The way I did it isn’t that simple. In my previous post I’ve said I’d share it. However, please let me have at least a third successful attempt in a line to make sure I’m not writing irrelevant things. Twice may still be a coincidence...
Thanks for your understanding.
:)
Just one thing worth extra mentioning. You don’t sacrifice anything. Under no circumstances would I attempt separating a good section from a good barrel. I only do it if either one of the two is already broken beyond repair, with the aim of rescuing the other.

Nice work! May the next repair go as well.

Great job, stoen. Nice work. Pen looks excellent.

Fingers crossed for the third.
Nice to know this can be done.
Thanks for sharing.

Good luck