Michael Quitt

Neat sign!!

 

Any interest in a Vacumatic printers block?

I just use the tip of a very small screwdriver to push the "o" ring into place.

A problem can arise when the "c-ring" and the surrounding area corrodes and "sticks" to the side of the barrel ... which requires "digging it out of the slot" in any pen that uses a "c-ring" support the lever  :^ )

 

Glad that wasn't the case with your repair, Rick! 

 

See you in Philly this weekend!!

I saw that listing, also...and, at first, thought that they may have put the decimal point in the wrong place...lol  It's missing the ring at the top of the cap...perhaps it's "prototype"??? :^ )

Michael Quitt

www.charmcitypens.com

Some of the best-known pen professionals have famously long turnaround times that are incontrovertibly "worth the wait," while other folks can seemingly have your pen back to you within a couple weeks...

Aside from name recognition, what separates the "big dogs" from the others?

Hi,

There are not perfect answers. Certainly some of the big names do grand work. Heck, I go back to the beginning with some of them. But, certainly some smaller names do (perhaps just as) grand work too. McD's does more business than Johnny's Burgers but Johnny's might taste at least as good. Fountain Pen Network has more posts than Fountain Pen Board and... cough... cough...

Growing big in business usually requires doing some decent business but it does not mark, per se, the best artisans.

Some guys put less effort into marketing. Some are not full time in the business. Some names I know you might not even know (but maybe you would). Some have not caught fire lacking certain associations. Some are just starting out but do fine work.

BTW, are you in Janesville? We have a pen club there now. Too I will be posting shortly about a major pen hoard I scored there last week.

best regards

david

I think that David spells it out very well. Most of the repair people doing work at the shows do very good work, market themselves in that way and through word of mouth. I include Ron Zorn, Richard Binder, Joel Hamilton, the two Snorkel guys (my synapses aren't firing now...please fill in the blanks) amongst those whose work I really trust. There are one or two, as John Danza mentioned , that may be less "trustworthy" IMHO.

In addition to those mentioned above, there are several other repairers, off the top of my head, that don't promote themselves heavily for a number of reasons, i.e., they have plenty of work to do that they don't need to hustle for any more, they don't want the hassle of being far behind, they may specialize in certain types of repairs...and, it's very easy to burn out in the repair business. That being said, some of these repairers don't frequent the different boards...yes, there is a lot more pen stuff going on outside of the boards..... and, I'd trust these folks with my own pens, in the event that I knew that they could do a better job on a complicated repair or one that I didn't want to take on, myself.
Just my take on this thread....
Michael Quitt
www.charmcitypens.com