Franken-pen takes a bride

[Roe D Hym]

A few weeks ago I presented Franken-pen, a pen made up from a celluloid Parker Parkette body/cap and a Sheaffer No-nonsense section with a Medium nib. Frank is red in color. Today I finished his bride, Elsa (named after the actress who played the Bride of Frankenstein). She is made up of the same configuration although her body appears to not from the same year as Frank and her nib is Fine. Long story short, the pens write really well (I had to do some adjusting/tuning) and the barrel/cap is beyone word with respect to the color/pattern and the feel. What were once lever pens are now cartridge pens.

Modern plastics, in my opinion, pale in comparison to celluloid with respect to feel. Anyways, I now present the bride and groom.

[usk15]

Well done!

[forester]

Very nice!

[Roe D Hym]

Thank you usk15 and forester.

[Jon Szanto]

I like the concept but have two questions:

1. How are these sections held in place? Are they just friction fit and you pull them out every time to refill?
2. How did you secure the levers to keep them from flapping loosely without a sac inside?

[Roe D Hym]

Jon, the sections are held in by friction. I have about 20 years of experience fitting violin pegs so my touch has been well developed with respect to friction fitting. One does not need violin peg fitting experience to do this. When I got Frank I took out the old section--very short one at that--and experimented with pens I had. I found the Sheaffer section fit but was a tad loose. I roughed up he inside of the barrel where the section fits into and then I put in a very thin coat of epoxy and then sanded to fit. I used a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a thin dowl rod. The grit was 220. One could use a thin coat of CA glue. Once fitted I pretty much have to "screw" in the section. The section fits securely without having to force them in or out. As to the lever I dropped a little epoxy on the underside of the level. Again, CA glue could be used. I repeated the process for Elsa. The pens accept Sheaffer cartridges but a converter is too long. However, I cut down the twisting rod and plugged it up so I theoretically could use it. I find filling an empty cartridge with a syringe to be the best way to go.

[k5MOW]

Looks great


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[Jon Szanto]

Thanks to RDH for the detailed explanation. I actually have a bunch of the Sheaffer nib/feed/sections and I'll have to think about some of the old celluloid pens I have. You might keep an eye out on eBay for those NoNonsense pens (and/or parts) where the nib was done in gold tone (I don't think it was gold plating), as it would match the trim on the pens quite well. Nice project!

[FredRydr]

Thanks to RDH for the detailed explanation. I actually have a bunch of the Sheaffer nib/feed/sections and I'll have to think about some of the old celluloid pens I have. You might keep an eye out on eBay for those NoNonsense pens (and/or parts) where the nib was done in gold tone (I don't think it was gold plating), as it would match the trim on the pens quite well. Nice project!

Not to mention harvesting the now unobtainium converters or any ebonite feeds.

[penwash]

Jon, the sections are held in by friction. I have about 20 years of experience fitting violin pegs so my touch has been well developed with respect to friction fitting. One does not need violin peg fitting experience to do this. When I got Frank I took out the old section--very short one at that--and experimented with pens I had. I found the Sheaffer section fit but was a tad loose. I roughed up he inside of the barrel where the section fits into and then I put in a very thin coat of epoxy and then sanded to fit. I used a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a thin dowl rod. The grit was 220. One could use a thin coat of CA glue. Once fitted I pretty much have to "screw" in the section. The section fits securely without having to force them in or out. As to the lever I dropped a little epoxy on the underside of the level. Again, CA glue could be used. I repeated the process for Elsa. The pens accept Sheaffer cartridges but a converter is too long. However, I cut down the twisting rod and plugged it up so I theoretically could use it. I find filling an empty cartridge with a syringe to be the best way to go.

How dare you make an irreversible change to a vintage pen!

Hahaha.. I'm joking. I like this kind of tinkering, especially on non-rare pens in user condition.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, I don't have the fingers of a violin peg fitter, but I do appreciate the point that some level of experience is needed to produce a section to barrel fit that is ... satisfying to use in the long run.

[Roe D Hym]

penwash, and others, thank you for the feedback. now that i have this re-purposing out of my system my next project will involve re-purposing a set of piano ivory keys. down the street from me is a piano repairman who also picks up old pianos and breaks them up and has them hauled away. last summer he let me remove the ivory from a piano which was about 130 years old. back in the day an archetier (a person who makes and repairs bows of the violin family) would salivate over the amount of ivory i have but since it is not legal to use, at least commerically, i will come up with something for myself. interestingly, the "ebony" keys were not ebony but a light wood dyed black. i think it is fitting that i have toggled between celluloid and ivory in that celluloid was invented, back in the mid 19th century, in part, due to the projected shortage of ivory for billiard balls.

[Jon Szanto]

Roe, one thought that crossed my mind involved inlays on the body of a pen. I have no idea if the difficulty lies within your range, but I always found the John Holland pens that had mother-of-pearl inlays to be a very striking look. The photo below is linked from an article (with lots more photos) by Jim Mamoulides at PenHero.com. Maybe something like this could be a use for the key ivory.

[Roe D Hym]

Jon, those are nice pens. I think I may have another purpose for the ivory I have. Several years ago I had access to a lathe and turned a few pens and will try again. I have to say the fountain pen kits sold by Rockler and Woodcraft are crap so I will not go down that road. My plan is to grind up the ivory and mix it with epoxy and turn a couple of ball point pens and give them to my two nieces for Christmas. The ball point kits work well and I am sure the girls will do some form of writing. They are teenagers so their thumbs are more developed (texting) than their index and middle fingers (holding a pen) but they do some writing. I hope they do not use them to put me away in a nursing home some years down the road. Anyway, I may try my hand at trying to put threads into the cap and onto the barrel and make pen where I can use a good section and nib. I will not use ivory with the initial set so as not to waste it. I will post as the project begins to take shape.

[FredRydr]

If you grind up the ivory, you lose the grain. Is there any advantage to ground-up ivory?

You might consider rods of American Art Plastic's ivory-pattern celluloid if they have any left (from Mark Hoover and David Nishimura). Edison Pen Co. (Brian Gray) made some lovely pens from it.

[wingwiper]

Roe, one thought that crossed my mind involved inlays on the body of a pen. I have no idea if the difficulty lies within your range, but I always found the John Holland pens that had mother-of-pearl inlays to be a very striking look. The photo below is linked from an article (with lots more photos) by Jim Mamoulides at PenHero.com. Maybe something like this could be a use for the key ivory.

[jencli]

These pens can be a craze for small kids. fantastic! Rufus can be especially beneficial for the scenarios where you: 1) Want to run a low-level utility. 2) Need to flash firmware from Disk Operating System(DOS) or a Basic Input/Output system(BIOS). 3) Need to work on a system that doesn't have an OS installed. Though rufus mole rat small in size but it runs fast. still have a doubt? have a look on given site.

[Roe D Hym]

jencli thank you for the spam but I ate too much of it as a kid and loathe it.

FredRydr, the ivory from the piano keys is pretty much discolored and very thin and I cannot see any grain pattern. I would have to laminate several keys together and then laminate them onto a piece of turned wood or laminate them onto a brass barrel. I think I might be over my head on that method, hence, pulverized the ivory and mix it with epoxy--the epoxy basically holding the ivory "dust" together. I will hold off on this project until my knowledge and skills get more developed.