welch (May 26th, 2020)
Eager to see the reviews.
I for one would find any excuse not to disassemble a 51... Now that I've had the "pleasure" of doing it to a few 21s (because masochism + foolishness).
Eventually I realized I could use a non-contact thermometer along with the hot air reflow station to precisely increase temps to soften the shellac without softening the plastic. The temp difference between those two points is rather narrow.
So anyway I can do it, now, reliably without distorting the hood in the slightest but if it ain't broke...
welch (May 26th, 2020)
I also use hot water. I bring it to a boil, then let it cool a bit. Once I tried a heat gun on an Esterbrook J, after watching Pendleton Brown casually wave a P-51 across the gun's hot air, and, sloosh, the shellac melted and he unscrewed the hood. I scorched my Estie. Never again, although I did lose my temper at a Wearever that seemed to have had it's section glued to the barrel. There was a sudden puff of smoke and...
Anyway, I've had a P-51 Vac on which the seller cleverly disguised a chunk taken out of the hood -- he or someone had sand-papered and polished the DING (that's a large "ding") so it didn't show from the angle he photographed. Has, also, a weird looking shortened nib. I also have a beautiful 51 Vac with a nice medium-fine nib and a barrel that isn't right. Blind cap pulled half the threads out the last time I tried to fill it. Figure I can get one good pen from the two, and might "investigate" the insides of the junker.
Yeah I found one has to keep the hot air reaching the pen low enough not to melt or scorch. And it's important to rotate the pen and distribute the hot air evenly. What seems to work for me is pausing periodically to let the heat soak into the inside of the pen.
The distance to the source of the hot air makes a difference in temp. And you have to keep in mind that the time required to bring the shellac inside the pen to desired temp depends on heat conduction of the plastic, the difference in temp between the material and the hot air source.
So the trick is to use air temp not too hot to melt or scorch the plastic, but hot enough that it doesn't take forever. The non-contact thermometer helps me ensure I'm not overheating the plastic.
welch (May 30th, 2020)
sounds like you could make one GOOD pen, and one BEATER pen
Just unscrew the two hoods, swap over the collectors and nibs, screw on the hoods, on different pens and poof done. One good one, one beater you can abuse and try stuff on, but still know its a 51
Also, IIRC hot water = VERY bad for ebonite, actually, water in general bad for ebonite, turns it brown i think...
and for some reason i want to say its not particularly good for celluloid either...
lucite? lucite is bomb proof all pens should be made of lucite... wonder if i can get a lucite snorkel made...
welch (May 30th, 2020)
I intend to swap the nib and hood from one pen and junk, or play with, what's left. It would need a new barrel and would take some work to get the filler box and plunger out of the broken barrel part. And then more work to get everything into a new barrel, once I found a matching cedar-blue 51 Vac barrel. Not worth it. Feed and collector seems good on the pen with the nip taken out of the hood, so that will be the keeper.
**
EBay says I just received my bottle of Superchrome Blue. Experiment time soon!
azkid (May 30th, 2020)
Filler mechs aren’t free. May be worth it to try and save it from the junk barrel
Very sad that a cedar blue is dead. It is by far my fav colour
“51” barrels can be found on “the bay” often for decent prices, especially if you live in the states.
Good luck
My Superchome has arrived. Rather than "Blue", it is marked "Turquoise Blue". Best guess, then: "Tunis Blue" might have been the regular blue, probably a royal blue something like Quink's Royal Blue. Turquoise Blue would have been a lighter shade.
Superchrome turquoise is on my "to buy" list.
spoiler: Tunis Blue is NOT what you think it is. At least my bottle isn't. Review coming shortly.
Pictures of Superchrome Turquiose Blue as soon as I can figure out how to get a good photo. Unfortunately, we gave away both our scanners...
Notes:
- This ink does not have a Solv-X smell. No mention on the label, and bottle arrived without a box that might have had more advertising.
- First tried using an old Chinese junker as a dip pen: the collector in the pen must not be much good. Ink forms globs on nib and collector. Writes a dark gray with tinges of blue
- Watered down the ink a bit, up to 1/2 the bottle. Switched to a Skrxx, a Turkish pen. It filled, expelled ink, filled and wrote with 1950's vintage Skrip blue. Cleaned that out and filled with Superchrome. Barely wrote. Had to press down hard on nib -- might be pen problem, rather than ink. A ink shows dark gray with some blue.
- Put more water in ink. This time used a Parker 45, medium nib. Filled and wrote smoothly with a dark gray, slightly blue. Ink dries instantly, faster than any ink I have ever seen (and I've used "ink pens" since 1958). Superchrome seems to retained it waterproof-ness. It does not wash off the paper towel I wrapped around it. Let the paper towel sit until it fall apart. So on those two counts, Superchrome works as advertised.
- In rinsing Superchrome in the sink, water turns a light gray with a hint of blue.
- Conclusion of all these: the blue dye must have died. No idea what the color would have been in 1950. Will add water until the bottle is completely filled. Had though of adding in some vintage Quink Royal Blue from the art-deco bottle era, but that would be a mistake. The old Quink blue still has some blue to it. A mix with Superchrome would probably show some blue from the Quink, but not from whatever Turquoise-ness was in the Superchrome.
- (I'm trying to be step-careful, which is why this is a tedious read. My first sense was that this ink was dead. Just giving it a chance to come alive, at least a little.)
Last edited by welch; June 5th, 2020 at 08:12 PM.
There is a user
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo.../8893-johnboz/
https://fountainpenlove.com
who has an instagram @fountainpenlove
who on 12 April 2019 with #30days30inks put up a picture of what his bottle of superchrome turqoise looks like
now instagram being what instagram is, unless you log in (and i won't) you can't find the photo anymore. I have a copy of it, but will not post it as it is not my content. In his picture, it looked a lot like skrip turquiose (new)
If/When i get a bottle, i'll post pictures here so that the internet can actually FIND the photos. (thanks instagram...) I'm sorry your bottle didn't work out
you can view the above Instagram post here:
https://www.stalkhub.com/user/founta...20_5801257509/
Last edited by INeedAFinancialAdvisor; June 4th, 2020 at 12:53 PM.
Wow! That's much brighter. Looks nothing like what I saw.
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