Whoa. 10 years of dried ink

[KrazyIvan]

I arrived at work this morning and a coworker who knows I am interested in fountain pens came to me with a small wooden box. She told me a story about how her dad loved fountain pens and how I brought back memories of her dad who had passed some 10 years ago. She had asked her mom what happened to her Dad's fountain pens and she had told her that she had thrown them out. This past weekend while at her mother's house, her mom handed her this same small wooden box that was now in my hands.

The hinges to the box had come undone, and the thing was being held closed by a rubber band. I must admit that my heart jumped a little. I removed the band and carefully pulled the lid off the box. Imagine my surprise when I see a familiar bird logo gold clip looking back at me from a black barrel background. Then wait, what is this gold cross hatched patterned pen with a white dot on the clip? Huh? what king of pen... whoa. I pulled the Pelikan out first. All black with gold furniture in a much bigger size than my 140. I unscrew the cap and see a beautiful 14 K two toned nib with a B right at the base of the nib. Wow. It's an M600 Sovereign from the 80's or 90's.


Untitled by IvanRomero, on Flickr

I look at the next one and it is a Sheaffer. I have never seen one with this diamond cross hatch design. I pull the cap and it is an inlaid nib. Very Cool. A few google searches later I have a name. Sheaffer Imperial Diamond Sovereign probably from the late 70's or early 80's.


Untitled by IvanRomero, on Flickr

The next one I recognize as a Cross pen. I look closer and I see the made in Ireland engraved at the top of the cap. Hmmm, Aha! Cross Century II?? Maybe?


Untitled by IvanRomero, on Flickr

Going through the box, a silver and gold pen with a really odd looking clip. I pick it up and see the cap band. Waterman. I had a harder time identifying this one but someone on FPN identified it as a LE Signature Gentleman's pen made for the Franklin Mint. The cap finial has a mini 1922 replica of a US gold $20 coin. The clip has the opposite side as a medallion. The pen is from the late 80's. The cap finial piece was missing but I found it in the wooden box. The nib is 18K gold and the barrel/cap is sterling silver with 18K gold plated furniture.


Untitled by IvanRomero, on Flickr

There was also a gold plated Parker click Jotter pen that I fixed right away by cutting a spring to size from one of my bait pens on my desk pen cup. Another Cross felt tip pen? Did not know about those. The felt tip refill is dry and the inner cap broken.

All the cool fountain pens were inked at the time of my coworkers fathers passing. I am in the middle of removing all that ink out. It just keeps coming. All of them had what looks to me like some Sheaffer black and they were full. The piston on the Pelikan was barely moving until I was able to get it to suck up a little bit of water and now it is moving freely. The converter on the Cross pen is clean now. The sections are soaking but the Cross seems to have the worst amount of dried ink. The Waterman converter still has ink stuck to the inside walls so I am letting it soak. I cannot remove the nib on the Pelikan because of the dried ink so it is getting a good soak too. Oh, and I fixed the hinges on the wooden box.


Untitled by IvanRomero, on Flickr


Untitled by IvanRomero, on Flickr

[goldiesdad]

You be the luckiest guy this week one find after another ... Congrats on your pen haul ...

[KrazyIvan]

You be the luckiest guy this week one find after another ... Congrats on your pen haul ...

Oh, sorry if I gave the impression that she gave them to me! No, I am cleaning them up for her and getting them back into working condition. I couldn't take them from her, especially since they remind her of her dad.

*EDIT* The Pelikan nib unit just unscrewed very easily. I have tooth brushed it clean and some dried clumps of ink came out. It is drawing water and expelling it the way it should. I am going to leave it soaking over night just to be sure.

[Jon Szanto]

You're a good guy, Ivan.

[peterpen53]

These are some wonderful pens, Ivan. Would have been a real waste if they had indeed been thrown away. Does that M600 have a 14 or 18 ct nib? From what I hear 14 ct nibs from that period were really good. And it being a B, if your co-worker is lucky it might have a bit of a stubbish grind.

But this shows that a good soak can get you a long way. When my own father passed, I turned the house upside-down to find his Parker 51, which I was sure he'd had. When I found it, it had of course dried ink (from probably way more than 10 years ago). I soaked it for a couple of days and then I carefully tested the sack with plain water and everything went well, so then I tried some of its native Parker Quink. Now it's one of my best writers.

Wish the same to your co-worker.

Cheers,
Peter

[Maja]

Nice work, Ivan! The pens are all beautiful---your co-worker's late father had great taste
I hope that if any pens were actually thrown out by your co-worker's mother, they were not nearly as nice as these....*shudder*....

Oh, and the Cross is a Century Classic (or Century I, which is the name some people use now, since there was a Century II that came out later) if the cap is flush with the barrel when the pen is capped. The Century II has a cap 'lip' that does not allow it to be flush with the barrel when the pen is capped.

[writingrav]

Oh, sorry if I gave the impression that she gave them to me! No, I am cleaning them up for her and getting them back into working condition. I couldn't take them from her, especially since they remind her of her dad.

*EDIT* The Pelikan nib unit just unscrewed very easily. I have tooth brushed it clean and some dried clumps of ink came out. It is drawing water and expelling it the way it should. I am going to leave it soaking over night just to be sure.

That's really nice of you Ivan. And if she had given them to you it would have been too much for me to take given your incredible finds earlier in the week, so all's well that end well.

[manoeuver]

What a treat. Those pens are really cool.

If you're anything like me, handling, identifying and fixing those pens to return them is every bit as satisfying as owning them.

[rbadger332]

That's great that those pens were not thrown out. Such a great re- discovery. It is very nice of you, Ivan to restore these pens for her in honor of her father's memory. Keep it up.

Asus TF300T / Tapatalk 2

EDITED for abhorrent spelling.

[gumwater]

Wow, that is a nice find indeed. Excellent job of helping the lady out with getting them cleaned up as well.

[KrazyIvan]

Speaking to my coworker this morning, she spoke to her mom last night. She thinks there are more pens somewhere. My coworker is going to contact her dad's secretary who is now her brother's secretary. They seem to think there are more pens somewhere.

I really have enjoyed working on these pens. One thing with the Pelikan, the piston is sticking again even though the ink is clear. It is getting to the point that I am worried I am going to damage something. It may have to go back to the service center as I am not versed in Pelikan. I am still soaking the nib. After an all night soak, the water was black again. I dumped the dirty water and and leaving the nib unit to soak some more today. Yes, the nib is a 14K and it looks stub-ish.

The Sheaffer section is clean as is the squeeze converter. That was a difficult one. It looks like the ink leaked inside the barrel and stuck the converter inside it. Some water and wiggling with the flat end of a zip tie finally loosened it. It was covered in dry ink but cleaned up nicely. I polished the body of the pen with a sunshine cloth to remove the tarnish. Looks really good now.

The Waterman still has ink in the section. I tried pulling the nib but it would not budge. It is soaking again. The converter is not cleaning up very well. I noticed this with my own Waterman converters. Ink seems to stick to the converter walls and the piston seal does not seem to "squeegie" it away making me think the seal is worn. I may recommend replacing it.

The Cross Century Classic (Thank you Maja) cleaned up nicely. That one seemed to have the worst buildup of ink with a converter that was totally black instead of the green tint I have seen before. After soaking for a few hours and some shots with the bulb syringe, no more black ink is coming out of it and the converter has that green transparent tint. I still want to pull the nib and feed to make sure no ink is crusted on the feed. I will have to look that one up.

[Maja]

Wow....Possibly even more pens!!:

Please keep us up-to-date with the pen cleaning progress; I have to live vicariously with regard to new pens for a bit, as we have property taxes due in a month

[Freddy]

Ivan, what a find! Thanks for the virtual tour of these pens; they are amazing and that lady is fortunate to have them (and you to help her ).

[fountainpenkid]

Nice! The woman who is having these flushed is very lucky! Keep us updated!


Will

[etoyoc]

Do you have access to an ultrasonic cleaner? I know it helped with an old dried up Parker 61 I ran into last year.

BTW: Bravo for doing this for your coworker!

[jor412]

What great pens to work on. I just finished working on 12 vintage pens for a friend. Most of them were third tier brands and all of them except one was a lever filler. The most interesting one to fix was a Waltham button filler.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Please keep us posted. This is very very cool.

[KrazyIvan]

Thanks again. Unfortunately, I don't have access to an ultrasonic cleaner anymore. I have been meaning to get one. It has been slow going as the fresh water gets replaced by black-ish purple water. The Pelikan nib and the Sheaffer section/nib seem to finally be fully clear. I did a final flush this morning and set them to dry. The Waterman and Cross are still soaking. The water still turns purple with those two. I might be able to do a test inking of the Pelikan and Sheaffer tonight.

[Chi Town]

Wow, Ivan, I can't tell you how good this story made my heart feel! It's good pen people like you that keep our pen activities alive and well. I only wish that someday I could be the recipient of helping someone out the way you are helping this young lady. Your a Good Man, "JohnBoy" (ivan).

[OcalaFlGuy]

For worst scenario cases like this, IF I'm not dealing with vintage celluloid or other questionable material (and you aren't here)
I often bump the Ammonia up to 20%.

Ivan, DO NOT attempt to disassemble the nib section on the Cross. There is a congenital problem with the CCI nib sections where
the nib will loosen in the section and not be repairable. Cross has no more CCI sections. I would do nothing more than ultrasonically
clean this nib. (When you can again, search FPN for Cross Century nib wobble.)

For the sonicator, find yourself a small thin plastic disposable cup (NOT styrofoam!) fill that about 2/3 up with 20% Ammonia water
and your nib sections and go hunt out a local jewelry (repair) store or pawnshop and take the cup in there. Ask them to put the whole
cup in their cleaner. (Might want to be sure the level his fairly high on the cup so it stays submerged.) The sonicator waves will pass
right through the plastic cup to the nibs but the cup keeps the Ammonia water out of their solution. I'd sit there and chat with them
for the 6-10 minutes it took. If they charge you at all, it shouldn't be much.

[EDIT] If you'd rather, use the Google search for FPN, that still works if the site is down.

http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=01...95:1rsitsemrpo

Bruce in Ocala, FL