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Thread: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

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    Default Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Hi all

    Looking for a little advice, don't know if this is possible

    I have a Sheaffer Balance Vac filler in black, that's in excellent condition with one little distraction, the barrel has someone's name on it, it's not the usual engraving but looks like the letters were pressed in when hot, then the letters were filled with what might be yellow paint.

    Are there any safe option the remove or minimise this so that it's not so obvious.

    Thanks for any tips if it's even possible.

    Thanks

    Paul

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    I believe naphtha is safe for use on celluloid and would probably remove the paint. That might help a lot all by itself.

    As for the pressed in lettering, I'm not the guy. I'd probably try heating it up a fair bit with my heat gun set to 170 or 180 degrees (I don't think 175 is an option on my heat gun) to see whether the celluloid would tend to relax back to its pre-lettered shape if softened. But that's just me saying to myself "Let's try this."
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    Mike

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    It depends on how deep it is, and if you can get the colour out by possibly using naphtha.

    If you can get the colour out then you can fill with clear epoxy adhesive and sand it down.

    If it isn't deep then you could just try micromesh. If you can get the colour out you might decide it's not so bad.
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Thanks for the replies, will give Naphtha a go the get the colour out and see what it looks like.

    Re the clear epoxy, what brand do you recommend as all the ones I have tried all tend to be a bit milky or clouded once mixed, which ones are clear.

    Thanks

    Paul

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Araldite Regular or Rapid are clear. In their Pen Repair book, Jim Marshall & Laurence Oldfield mention Superglue gel and show pictures of the procedure. They also show Devcon 2 part epoxy in their picture. If you don't have the book then I would recommend it. My 2nd edition is old now and it's been updated, but all of the techniques are in there.

    Araldite 2020 is like water and is perfectly clear, but really expensive. It glues barrel and cap cracks back together though. (I have no affiliation to Araldite. I've just always used these products from when I restored ceramics)
    Last edited by Chrissy; April 17th, 2019 at 03:22 AM.
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Thanks Chrissy

    I do actually have the book, rev4, Note to self, Read the damned book

    Should be able to get some Devcon will look into that.

    Paul

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    I don't like the idea of filling engravings with epoxy or another glue then sanding and blending. I've had the opportunity to handle pens with 'old' repairs of this type where the epoxy is has not aged well and is yellowing or flaking off.

    You can make a slurry of appropriate material and slowly fill in the imprint and then blend in the surrounding area to hide the name.

    Most common is someone sands off the name resulting in a flat spot...which then needs to be addressed.

    For heat pressed imprints you can often raise the impression by using heat. You need to get it hot and things can go very wrong very quickly. If you have an old hard rubber barrel, sand off the barrel imprint and then heat the barrel up and watch the imprint invert. Do it well enough and you can sell the result on eBay stating it is a very rare 'inverted imprint'...

    Sometimes a mixed approach may give the best result--heat raising then filling, etc.

    Most often the best you can do is hide the imprint and often there is minimal improvement for the effort involved.

    Would be interested in before and after and how you decide to approach the problem.

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    I agree with Farmboy's approach. If you're lucky, heat will do most of the work for you. I would prefer a slurry over epoxy alone. Many epoxies lose their transparency and clarity over time.
    Regards,
    Deb
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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    A thought. There may be people who like the name imprint. Sell the pen then buy one without the imprint. That saves the risk of damaging or destroying the pen while giving you the opportunity to find one with no imprint.

    Just a thought.

    Rick

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    A good idea, except the ones without imprint are 4 times what I paid for this one.

    I have some options to ponder and may just settle for lessening it that than total removal.

    I also have got to replace the packing so will have a few things on the go with it.

    Will update once I have given it a couple of chapters of looking at (as they say)

    Paul

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    I've seen too many telltale scars left from efforts to remove or hide embossed or engraved names. If you find someone who does a perfect job with such deeply embossed letters as you described, please share the info. Meanwhile I thoroughly enjoy several pens whose former owners left their mark almost a century ago. It's history!

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    There was a machine specifically made to hot press the names into the barrels and also applied a gold-colored foil to the personalizations. People sometimes just assume it was a fill-in with gold paint by someone later, but the personalization could be done pressed in with the gold done through the same process with the electric letter pressing machine. It was actually an interesting device and pretty good at producing crisp, block letter imprints of names.

    Years ago, I had a green Eversharp celluloid stripe pen that had a personalization on it. I debated having it removed, and finally sent it off to a professional restorer to have the personalization removed. I won't say who it was, not worth the trouble. I did the clean-up and sac replacement of the pen myself. I do all my own basic repairs. But removing a personalization, the only way I could see myself doing it would be to polish down the barrel until the name was gone. I figured that was no way to do it - had to leave a big flat spot on the pen. So I sent it off.

    When the pen came back, guess what - the restorer just polished down the barrel until the name was gone. Hell, I could have done that. I do basic repairs, but the advertised removal of personalization on the site led me to believe he would use some kind of matching filler to fill and then buff the pen so the name was gone, but the barrel was normal. Nope - the restorer I sent it off to just polished it down and charged me. The barrel had a telltale flat spot on it.

    Today, I'd just leave the name and offer the pen for sale with the new sac. I guess I learned a lesson. And then some people don't mind the name on the pen - quirky kind of history. What most people don't want is a flat spot on the barrel from polishing down a name.
    Last edited by Ray-VIgo; April 17th, 2019 at 09:31 PM.

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Just wondering, with all the mention of "Flat Spots" why are they filing flat spots, can no one follow the round profile when filing. Seems odd that someone would just file flat on a round item. Don't they teach filing round objects in workshop classes these days.

    Paul

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    I never remove professional personalisations. I think they add to the history of the pen - or at least the illusion of its history. On several occasions I've been able to find the person named on the pen.
    Regards,
    Deb
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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Quote Originally Posted by Deb View Post
    I never remove professional personalisations. I think they add to the history of the pen - or at least the illusion of its history. On several occasions I've been able to find the person named on the pen.
    Wow that is amazing. Good job!
    Please let me know if you get any personalisations that match me.
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul-H View Post
    Just wondering, with all the mention of "Flat Spots" why are they filing flat spots, can no one follow the round profile when filing. Seems odd that someone would just file flat on a round item. Don't they teach filing round objects in workshop classes these days.

    Paul
    The problem is that there is almost always a spot on the barrel that you can’t sand round with the rest of it. For instance, the manufacturer imprint needs to stay intact. And if there is a lever, you can’t sand that down. So any attempt at sanding off a name always results in a flat spot somewhere.

    Your best bet is to leave the name on it. There’s no perfect way to remove one, especially if it is deeply imprinted. I pay LESS for pens that had names removed than I do for ones that still have the name. Sometimes I don’t even consider the pen if it has had a name removed from it.

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Quote Originally Posted by Chrissy View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Deb View Post
    I never remove professional personalisations. I think they add to the history of the pen - or at least the illusion of its history. On several occasions I've been able to find the person named on the pen.
    Wow that is amazing. Good job!
    Please let me know if you get any personalisations that match me.
    I'll keep an eye out, Chrissie! In the meantime, here's an example:

    https://goodwriterspens.com/2013/03/...ropper-filler/
    Regards,
    Deb
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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Quote Originally Posted by Deb View Post
    ...In the meantime, here's an example....
    And another: https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread...lor-coded-nibs

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    Quote Originally Posted by Deb View Post
    ...In the meantime, here's an example....
    And another: https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread...lor-coded-nibs
    And one more: https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread...F-flex-(2-nibs!)

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    Default Re: Removing a barrel personalisation help and advice needed

    These are very good, especially with the Maas photographs.
    Regards,
    Deb
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