Results 1 to 14 of 14

Thread: paperwantsapen

  1. #1
    Senior Member stub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Daegu, Korea
    Posts
    1,066
    Thanks
    224
    Thanked 791 Times in 401 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Thumbs up paperwantsapen

    At the risk of putting myself at a further disadvantage, I feel compelled (truly) to publicly sing the praises of one Stacy Hills and his extraordinary work. His specialty is lovingly, expertly restoring Sheaffers. Sheaffers, particularly but not exclusively, so you see some other restorations pop up in his feed as well.

    Look, Sheaffers are my bag. They dominate my collection and I have, use, and adore Sheaffers of many eras. Lots of folks can re-cac a pen nice and neat and many can also beautifully restore a pneumatic pen, and I am grateful we have so many smart and knowledgeable Sheaffer-centric craftspeople in the mix but we clearly can add one more name to the list. His specialty is a that he can do a vac-fil restore that will absolutely knock your socks off.

    Some folks will put in crummy plugs that just fall apart after a couple fills (not saying who heh heh), some will put in plugs more carefully and those will hold and work reasonably well, okay fine, but then there are those who rebuild the whole kit and caboodle. Stacy does not plug, he redoes all the seals, the rod, the packing unit, etc. When he is done, the plunger glides smooth and pops at the end of the travel when the vacuum seal is broken and the pens fill full and write wonderfully.

    My sample size is not small and my experience with restorers is pretty wide ranging.

    Stacy did a rebuild of an Oversized Crest Vac-fil, an OS Balance Vac-fil (what a pen), a Statesman II vac-fil, an amazing Vac-fil desk pen with a factory stub nib, a Triumph Wideband, as well as redoing my factory S4 Statesman Snorkel and probably others I am forgetting. The man knows what he is doing.

    He is active on Instagram as paperwantsapen and his google photo stream (linked in his Instagram profile) is sick. Inventory heavy now (hubba hubba) but if you scroll back you see his documentation of the restorations he has done. Absolutely beautiful work. Vac-fil restoration is not an easy job. Harder still to get it to work well. But a well working lovingly restored Sheaffer is a joy. I just want to say that as someone who has a half dozen or so pens that have passed through his hands that I have been nothing but pleased, he’s a square dealer and a good guy to boot. His turnaround is good and he backs his work.

    There, I have just made it harder for me to get my next pen from him, but he deserves his props.

  2. The Following 8 Users Say Thank You to stub For This Useful Post:

    catbert (April 20th, 2018), EHV (December 2nd, 2016), fpnut (April 26th, 2018), FredRydr (April 22nd, 2018), Jon Szanto (April 21st, 2018), KKay (September 16th, 2016), Lady Onogaro (September 16th, 2016), sgtstretch (September 15th, 2016)

  3. #2
    Senior Member sgtstretch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Waterville, NY
    Posts
    520
    Thanks
    272
    Thanked 318 Times in 180 Posts
    Rep Power
    10

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    I met him at the DC Pen Show this year, and proceeded to pick out one of the pens he had just bought to restore for myself. I got it about a week after the show. A beautiful 1941 Sheaffer Balance Viligant vac-fil in Marine Green Striations. He did a beautiful job with the restoration, and even sent me a message later asking how I liked the pen, and if it was working as desired. Highly recommend him.

  4. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to sgtstretch For This Useful Post:

    EHV (December 2nd, 2016), fpnut (May 10th, 2018), KKay (September 16th, 2016), Lady Onogaro (September 16th, 2016), stub (September 15th, 2016)

  5. #3
    Senior Member stub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Daegu, Korea
    Posts
    1,066
    Thanks
    224
    Thanked 791 Times in 401 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    This Carmine Admiral has been sitting unused and unrestored in my desk. A flea market find. Really rough.
    & this is the magic he's done with it. LOOK AT THAT!!!

    15048029_1248498001890267_4824208907268259840_n.jpg

  6. The Following 9 Users Say Thank You to stub For This Useful Post:

    Ahriman4891 (April 20th, 2018), EHV (December 2nd, 2016), fpnut (May 10th, 2018), Jon Szanto (April 21st, 2018), Lady Onogaro (April 20th, 2018), NibsForScript (April 20th, 2018), Sailor Kenshin (April 20th, 2018), VertOlive (April 21st, 2018), Yazeh (March 9th, 2021)

  7. #4
    Senior Member stub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Daegu, Korea
    Posts
    1,066
    Thanks
    224
    Thanked 791 Times in 401 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    I just got another 2 pens from him, one a lovely Persian Blue plunger filler & another odd vacuum-filler pen with an open nib that I frankly have NO IDEA what it is. I might post about it in the Sheaffer forum but it is about the size of a Statesman II pen but is all black, non-white dot but is an open nib with (maybe) pretty large 2-tone nib.

    So Sheaffers are my bag. They make up the lion's share of my collection and always have. I don't even want to guess how many Sheaffers I own but I would say 15-20 pens of mine have either been bought outright from Stacy or repaired by him, including many of my most treasured pens (factory stubs and the like).

    MY sample size from paperwantsapen is now non-trivial and I want to say I have nothing but great experiences with his work. I really cannot recommend him more highly. He does high quality work, ships fast, works from a position of great know-how and passion and is a very nice bloke to boot. Plus his pens come with the greatest hand made sleeves.

    Again, I would like to selfishly keep this all to myself and I know blabbing about it here only makes it harder for me to get work in the que and to buy first class restored Sheaffers but I really have to say if you are looking for a Sheaffer or you need a vacuum-filler expertly restored so that it fills full and works like it did when it rolled off the assembly lines of Ft. Madison, you can't do better than Stacy Hills.

  8. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to stub For This Useful Post:

    countrydirt (April 20th, 2018), fpnut (May 10th, 2018), Lady Onogaro (April 20th, 2018)

  9. #5
    FPG Donor ♕ KrazyIvan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Texas-USA
    Posts
    5,068
    Thanks
    1,476
    Thanked 1,798 Times in 943 Posts
    Rep Power
    20

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    I follow him on Instagram and absolutely enjoy his posts. A local pen friend has all his Sheaffer pens restored by Stacy, so I have seen his work up close. It is as awesome as the pictures.
    Fountain Pen Sith Lord | Daakusaido | Everything in one spot

  10. #6
    Senior Member stub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Daegu, Korea
    Posts
    1,066
    Thanks
    224
    Thanked 791 Times in 401 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    His specialty is Vac-fill/plunger pens but he also does lever fillers and will make a pneumatic pen (TD/snorkel) as good as new.

    Here are the last 4 restorations he did of pens I already owned.

    He did an especially good job on the PFM III, which was dry, didn't fill properly and leaked around the inlaid nib, despite still having chalkmarks and being "recently restored". Now it is epic.


    MVIMG_20180126_110443.jpg
    MVIMG_20180126_110200.jpg

  11. #7
    Senior Member stub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Daegu, Korea
    Posts
    1,066
    Thanks
    224
    Thanked 791 Times in 401 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    The top 3 pens were all victims of Iroshizuku Asa-gao's wonderful latex melting properties. I can't prove it but believe it. I love asa-gao but it only goes in cartridge pens now.

  12. #8
    Senior Member stub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Daegu, Korea
    Posts
    1,066
    Thanks
    224
    Thanked 791 Times in 401 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    IMG_20180401_183822_149.jpgIMG_20180401_152514_176.jpgOne of the fun things is he will post copious pictures of the restoration in process on his Google photo's stream.

    These are just 2 (randomly) of the last pen (Persian Blue vac) he did for me but he post 46 pictures of the process.

  13. #9
    Senior Member stub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Daegu, Korea
    Posts
    1,066
    Thanks
    224
    Thanked 791 Times in 401 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: paperwantsapen


  14. #10
    Senior Member stub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Daegu, Korea
    Posts
    1,066
    Thanks
    224
    Thanked 791 Times in 401 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    Some things remain up on his blog:

    https://paperwantsapen.blogspot.kr

  15. #11
    Senior Member VertOlive's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Gulf of Mexico
    Posts
    3,886
    Thanks
    4,128
    Thanked 3,788 Times in 1,642 Posts
    Rep Power
    14

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    Whoa. That Oldwin Classic in Extra Lucent is a stunner! Sent him an email to see if he has anything for sale...
    Last edited by VertOlive; April 21st, 2018 at 09:43 PM.
    "Nolo esse salus sine vobis ...” —St. Augustine

  16. #12
    FPG Donor ♕ KrazyIvan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Texas-USA
    Posts
    5,068
    Thanks
    1,476
    Thanked 1,798 Times in 943 Posts
    Rep Power
    20

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    Quote Originally Posted by stub View Post
    IMG_20180401_183822_149.jpgIMG_20180401_152514_176.jpgOne of the fun things is he will post copious pictures of the restoration in process on his Google photo's stream.

    These are just 2 (randomly) of the last pen (Persian Blue vac) he did for me but he post 46 pictures of the process.
    He posts the same restoration pictures in his story on Instagram. I just find it a little easier to see his stories than go to his Google stream.
    Fountain Pen Sith Lord | Daakusaido | Everything in one spot

  17. #13
    Senior Member stub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Daegu, Korea
    Posts
    1,066
    Thanks
    224
    Thanked 791 Times in 401 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    Quote Originally Posted by VertOlive View Post
    Whoa. Does he have a website? I don't do instagram but sent him an email to see if he has anything up for sale. Those Grey's and carmines are fetching!
    The carmine red was one I owned a long time that was all messed up. But it had one of those lovely Feather Touch nibs on it. When he sent it back it was like an entirely different pen. I love that pen and it is currently inked.

  18. #14
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    LT/UK, Europe
    Posts
    1,059
    Thanks
    65
    Thanked 65 Times in 55 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: paperwantsapen

    Yep, my kudos to Stacy Hills as well! One word - a true wizard... pens look like new after his restoration.

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •