Unknown Helix Striped Barrel Piston Filler

[Jeph]

This one was another of my long shots. I have included a picture of what it looked like originally. It was listed as a non-functioning black piston filler. I told myself that I could clearly see the barber pole stripes in the picture so I took a stab at it. When it arrived the pen was packaged with a note asking me to please not leave any feedback on the purchase. That is pretty shady and did not bode well for the pen. In person the helix striped barrel was plain to see although the entire pen was filthy. The cap bands were loose and the non-descript clip had the thin plating almost completely worn off the visible surfaces.

I started cleaning it up and the barrel really looked interesting. It is a very similar pattern to the Matador Express ink window I just posted about except that it was the entire barrel. The piston knob had a small crack but it still functioned. The piston was a total wash. It came apart reasonably easily and I found the cork loose in the barrel and whatever was on the end of the piston to hold the cork in place was broken off and missing. This is probably a direct result of the fact that the piston stop is the end of the section and the piston is capable of travelling a full 5 mm past the end of the section. The steel Degussa nib had the tipping removed and someone had made a reasonable attempt to turn it into a stub. The inside and outside of the pen was covered in grime, which is usually not a problem. But other than the barrel, steel nib and clip and brass (probably) cap rings everything else was hard rubber. That is surprising, because most the of the pens that I play with when the barrel is not hard rubber the cap body is also some form of plastic. That was not the case with this pen. That slowed down the cleaning but it worked out pretty well. I cannot explain why the barrel shows so much discoloration while the hard rubber does not. There was also a great deal of rubber transfer onto the nib from both the section and the feed.

The only marking on the pen is a “55” over an “M” stamp on the piston housing end of the barrel. There is also a script “Colima” on the cap but I can’t be sure if that is a personalization or a brand/model.

Another strange thing about the piston that could travel too far was that it looks like the OD of the piston housing where it goes into the barrel was roughly trimmed down to fit with a file. The portion of the piston housing that protrudes from the barrel had longitudinal ridges to hold the cap but there was a great deal of wear. The piston knob was pinned to the hard rubber internal screw and I did not attempt to take that apart. The upper end of the piston had some heavy wear areas, the piston housing had a chunk broken out where the piston tabs slide in and the initial thread of the hard rubber screw has a chunk taken out of it but all of them functioned without issue.

I decided to try to size a plastic washer to fit with an interference fit over the knob protruding from the end of the piston and use it to hold o-rings. I thought about Piscov’s previous comment about the stripes being painted on and I consider that confirmed since the stripes do not exist where the internal threads are cut. So this time I used 2 smaller o-rings sized to the nominal ID of the barrel to serve as spacers and scrapers and one sealing o-ring in the middle. The plastic washer is adhered with the interference fit and some shellac as insurance. I am very careful about my o-ring sizing and the load on the washer is very low and either method should hold it in place indefinitely. Time will tell.

If anyone can identify this pen I would appreciate it. What it looks like to me is this is another example of some third party putting together parts from other manufacturers to produce their own pen. It really does not matter because I am very happy with it and I am glad that I took the chance on it. Since the plating was gone from the clip and the nib is unplated stainless steel I decided to remove the cap rings completely. That gives me a purer (in my mind) uniform black and silver look with the nice striped barrel.

Pictures:

Before
Colima Striped B4.jpg

After/During
Colima Capped.jpgColima Posted.jpgColima Parts.jpgColima Barrel 55M.jpgColima Cap.jpgColima Piston Original.jpgColima Piston O-rings.jpg

[tandaina]

Very pretty. No clue who made it, there were tons and tons of no name piston fillers in Germany in the 40s and 50s. They tend to be really fun solid users.