I have a few pens at home for repair - not mine - three are done, the last is a pig. It is an attractive-looking German piston-filler called a Big Ben:
Big Ben s.jpg
The chap who sent it to me said "don't spend too much time on it" but this is my own time and a sort of grittiness has overcome me. After 36 hours of soaking, I managed some dismantling at which point I discovered that the designer was obviously a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic, since he had specified aluminium for the piston filler mechanism, so what we have now is a lot of corroded stuff and white powder and nasty things to look at:
Big Ben Pieces s.jpgBig Ben detail.jpg
The state of the screw thread can be imagined - overnight soaking and heat have had no effect so it's a write-off.
Amazingly the cork was still a nice fit in the barrel! And the pen was not a cheap item with a steel nib: it has a 14ct gold nib.
Does anyone recognise these bits - and better still, does anyone have any parts likely to fit? Dimensions: Cork 8.8mm dia, threaded section that screws into the barrel 10mm. Thanks in advance.
Cob
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