The Bone Pile

[Chip]

Over the years, I've ended up with pens and parts that I've not restored or used, but can't bring myself to toss out.

These are pens with parts that I have some intention (however vague) of restoring.



As you might discern, there are some 1930s Sheaffer vac-fillers with the rods and plunger setup, and some Snorkels.

Here's the box of obscure and dimestore pens and pedimentia that I've not thought worth working on, or worthy as gifts.



Here's the antique (I'm guessing Great War era) souvenir pen that I'd like to restore. It's a button/pressure bar fill, like the early Parkers. Note the three flags and the image of the Eiffel Tower.



No maker label. The nib is imprinted: Warranted, Iridium, #2. That is, generic.

[Blue Note]

Some great looking pens. You have your work cut out for you. I se 2 flags on the antique (the French Tricolour and the British Union Jack) what is the third flag?

[Chip]

Some great looking pens. You have your work cut out for you. I see 2 flags on the antique (the French Tricolour and the British Union Jack) what is the third flag?

US. Might have been a souvenir for Armistice Day celebrations. I've done several searches online but haven't found the like. There are quite a few Great War adverts.

[Chip]

The antique Paris souvenir pen lacked a section (it was shattered and came out in bits). So I fossicked in my parts box and found a threaded section with a sac nipple that fits. The section, of course was cracked. I glued it together and it's resting on the shelf above the fireplace. I'll scrape and sand it smooth tomorrow. Then I'll choose a new sac and reassemble the old dear.

No rush. It's been sitting for years.

[BoBo Olson]

Snorkels have such great balance; but from my reading a bit complicated re-sacking and or making sure the snorkel works. Mine was re-sacked so I'm good to go.

When I was a child back in B&W TV days, I vowed to get a Snorkel as soon as I grew up and got an adult job.....................in the mean while I turned into a ball point barbarian and it only took me 50 years to get one.

If one is lucky they did make snorkels with semi-flex nibs in the early '50's. I had my eye out on a high classed Snorkel that might have that nib. A passed English pal, found me an Australian made Snorkel with a factory BB stub in maxi-semi-flex.

[Chip]

I like the Sheaffer Snorkel, but wonder about the reason for making it. The idea was to allow refilling the pen without having to dip the entire nib in the bottle and then wipe it off, to which fastidious types might object. But the complex mechanism required to achieve that end is a serious pain in the arse.

Still, there is a strange fascination to twisting the tip and watching the metal tube snork out, like the mating apparatus of a wasp.

[Chip]

Gazing on the antique souvenir pen, I decided to give it a go. Poked through my parts box and found a threaded section that fit the barrel. The section, naturally, was cracked, so I glued it and then sanded and polished it to remove the marks. The fill and nib (original) seemed like a decent fit.



The cleaning and polishing brightened the decoration: the flags of the Great War allies and the Eiffel Tower.



Found a sac that fit and trimmed the length a bit, then installed it with shellac. The aluminum parts weren't bad, but the clip was dirty and tarnished, so I cleaned it up and then gave the cap and barrel a rubdown with a mild abrasive pad and pen polish. After it dried, I dusted the sac with talc and put it back together.



The flller button goes down and springs back. Since I don't intend to use it as a daily writer, I didn't fill it, but instead dipped the nib to see how it writes.

To confirm the origin and my pre-1920 dating, a few points. Prior to the Great War, the US, Great Britain, and France were not formal allies. Aluminum was not yet produced in huge quantities, nor common in industrial or everyday uses, being a non-tarnishing stand-in for silver. Obviously a memento of Paris, I'd say it was made for either the first celebration of Armistice Day (the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918) or one soon thereafter.

[Yazeh]

That's a beautiful job Chip.
Love the quote.
Does the nib have any flex? I don't see any line variation.

[Chip]

It's quite stiff. If I decide to use it as a daily writer, I might try another nib from my parts box.

It just occurred to me that being historic, rare, and perhaps unique, it might have some value as a collection or museum piece.

[Seattleite]

Not unique. I have one and have seen others. I would also offer that the general shape, clip style, button filler and anodized aluminum finish seem closer to 1940 than to Versailles. Probably aimed at folks either across the Channel or across the Pond as a plea for "getting the band back together" The use of a black celluloid? skin for the graphics seems ominous.

Bob

[Chip]

Aluminum, but definitely not anodized. You do know what anodizing is?

Have you tracked down a source and/or probable date for your pen?

[Chip]

Sent some photos of the Paris pen to David Nishimura, whose exacting work and vast knowledge I admire.

Interesting pen, but no earlier than the 1930s -- and I would very much suspect it might have
been made immediately after the liberation of Paris, as it has features that are typical of pens
made right at the end of WW2

best
David

[Seattleite]

Aluminum, but definitely not anodized. You do know what anodizing is?

Have you tracked down a source and/or probable date for your pen?

Chip, I do have some working knowledge of what anodizing is. Why the salty comment?

I can't speak to your pen, but mine is anodized. It shows the untreated substrate peaking through where the oxide layer has been worn in a couple of spots. The difference in corrosion, color and luster is characteristic of a compromised anodized layer. FWIW, the Parker Duotone pens of 1938-1939 featured caps with both gold and silver annodized finishes, so I know that the process was in use by the pen industry at this time, but still pretty obscure.

I explained why I doubted that your pen was from the Great War era, and offered some speculation on a possible early WW2 origin, but Post War also works.

I certainly agree with Mr Nisimura.... No earlier than the 1930s.

Bob

[scrivelry]

[QUOTE=Chip;343358]Over the years, I've ended up with pens and parts that I've not restored or used, but can't bring myself to toss out.

Here's the box of obscure and dimestore pens and pedimentia that I've not thought worth working on, or worthy as gifts.



I have to smile at this - this box of "less-worthy" pens are exactly the kind I go actively looking for. So long as it more or less works when it is done and I have not ruined a rare example of a specific pen, I feel I've accomplished something, and I love colorful celluloid.

Lovely job on returning that souvenir pen to usefulness!

[Chip]

I have to smile at this - this box of "less-worthy" pens are exactly the kind I go actively looking for. So long as it more or less works when it is done and I have not ruined a rare example of a specific pen, I feel I've accomplished something, and I love colorful celluloid.

Lovely job on returning that souvenir pen to usefulness!

Ta! I you'd like a batch of working class pens, give me your postal address via PM and I'll send some of the more-or-less complete ones your way.

[welch]

I like the Sheaffer Snorkel, but wonder about the reason for making it. The idea was to allow refilling the pen without having to dip the entire nib in the bottle and then wipe it off, to which fastidious types might object. But the complex mechanism required to achieve that end is a serious pain in the arse.

Still, there is a strange fascination to twisting the tip and watching the metal tube snork out, like the mating apparatus of a wasp.

Sheaffer and Parker competed for the cleanest way to fill a fountain pen. Both companies knew that the ballpoint was on the way. After Parker perfected a way for a ballpoint to scrape ink paste into the crevices of its T-Ball, they knew that a ballpoint would appeal because it avoided the mess of liquid ink.

"Takes the dunk out of filling", says a few Skrip boxes I've found, along with "Chemopure", which, I'd guess, makes them early 1950s. I remember watching TV advertisements for the Snorkel that made it seem just like a mosquito. Now, I was in the 4th grade or so, using a Sheaffer School Pen, a cartridge-filler from Kresge's or People's Drug Store, and none of used used anything as expensive as a Snorkel.

Parker introduced the aeromatic about the same time as the Snorkel. Around 1956, Parker offered the capillary-filling P-61, the pen with no moving parts. I think the 61 was a simpler design for the user, and the Snorkel is a bit fiddley-diddley...first you twist the blind cap to extend the snorkel part, then you pull the blind cap to draw and expel ink, and then you put it into the Skrip bottle's "topwell" to draw just the right amount of ink, and then you reverse the twist to get the snorkel back into the pen...

After 1960, Sheaffer had given up on the snorkel-filling PfM, and both companies were soon pushing cartridges as the way that a fountain pen could "fill like a ballpoint".

[Sailor Kenshin]

I have to smile at this - this box of "less-worthy" pens are exactly the kind I go actively looking for. So long as it more or less works when it is done and I have not ruined a rare example of a specific pen, I feel I've accomplished something, and I love colorful celluloid.

Lovely job on returning that souvenir pen to usefulness!

Ta! I you'd like a batch of working class pens, give me your postal address via PM and I'll send some of the more-or-less complete ones your way.

Superb offer and quite a gesture! Old beaters are my specialty; I don't want to restore them, just get them writing. A little wear never bothers me.

It must have taken a lonnnng time to amass such a collection. The hunt itself must have been fun.

[scrivelry]

I have to smile at this - this box of "less-worthy" pens are exactly the kind I go actively looking for. So long as it more or less works when it is done and I have not ruined a rare example of a specific pen, I feel I've accomplished something, and I love colorful celluloid.

Lovely job on returning that souvenir pen to usefulness!

Ta! I you'd like a batch of working class pens, give me your postal address via PM and I'll send some of the more-or-less complete ones your way.

That is so incredibly nice of you! I have sent you a pm.

[scrivelry]

n't want to restore them, just get them writing. A little wear never bothers me.

I have to smile at this - this box of "less-worthy" pens are exactly the kind I go actively looking for. So long as it more or less works when it is done and I have not ruined a rare example of a specific pen, I feel I've accomplished something, and I love colorful celluloid.

Lovely job on returning that souvenir pen to usefulness!

Ta! I you'd like a batch of working class pens, give me your postal address via PM and I'll send some of the more-or-less complete ones your way.

Superb offer and quite a gesture! Old beaters are my specialty; I don't want to restore them, just get them writing. A little wear never bothers me.

It must have taken a lonnnng time to amass such a collection. The hunt itself must have been fun.

Yeah, me too! I am not talking about some Silver Repousse over ebonite here, I am talking the Wearever with the slightly warped body and the end of the cap open to the air, or the one that looks like it has been through three wars but only needs a new sac, or... I have found that a black shank button of the appropriate size will, for example, substitute ok to fill in the open end of that cap, but I would never mistake what I do for a correct historical restoration...

Just this morning I convinced a huge Sheaffer nib which must have come along in some mixed bag of something, because I don't think I have ever had a Sheaffer it would fit into, to fit on the section of a no-name but very nice looking woodgrain pen which is missing its clip. I like the pen enough that I might even try to replace the clip, but otherwise I will just put a little Elmer's clue in there to seal the holes if it seems to need that, and order a sac for it... Dipped it is working fine: the proof of the pudding will, of course, be in the way it writes once it is sacked...

A person could have bought a a Woodgrain pen with a name and possibly even a sac for ten times the price, but this is ten times the fun for me...

[Chip]

For those open ends, I often use clothes buttons, which come in zillions of colors and patterns. Mounted in a split shank or the like, they can be put in a drill chuck and turned with chisels, files, etc. to the proper size. Here's a Wahl Eversharp, that was given to me without a clip or endcap. Made one from a coat button.