chrism

Hello

As I know nothing about pens this will be the first of many question, so please be gentle with me.

I`ve got a Burnam No 47. I`ve soaked and flushed (repeatedly in cold water) to get all the old ink out, dismantled it (using gentle heat from a hairdryer and hand pressure only), removed the old sac, and removed the tarnish as much as possible with diluted lemon juice.

The next bit is were I`m stuck. The barrel has some odd bulges between the lever and the end. They are almost opposite each other (no camera so cant take photo), managed to get a photo (see below)

Am I right to think they could have be caused by the J-bar (hope that's the right word) being jammed in and putting the plastic (celluloid?) under pressure?

If so, whats they best way to proceed?

Hello

I`m Chris from the UK.

I`ve been collecting fountain pens for...oh, must be about 20 days now.

Following a terrible misjudgement whilst on ebay I have ended up with 10 pens, and at least another 3 on the way ( I only wanted one).

I have there decided that I am now " a collector" and have started researching how to clean and restore old pens. - which is how I found this site.

I have already assembled a comprehensive tool kit for the job (see below) so please brace yourselves for a flurry of stupid questions over the next few weeks, to be followed shortly after by a "Broken Pens for sale" posting in the pens for sale forum.