....my friend and PCA Prez Ron Zorn....

 

I've been considering doing a run (nothing to do with Paul or the new mag) of "i QUIT the pca" pins.  Just need an artist or graphics person. Or maybe I can sketch a rough in Photoshop since it will be all letters.

 

Interesting.

I do find it unfortunate that people feel the need to explain what my friend and PCA Prez Ron Zorn really means, as if his words don't stand on their own. Are those people his friends?

 

The person in the thread you are referring to is David Nishimura.  He is indeed my friend, a man soft spoken and tactful, something that I often am not.  I appreciate his wisdom, and consider it a privilege to have him working alongside me as Vice President.  As a matter of fact, I asked him to consider running for the board of the PCA because I knew what he could bring to the organization.

 

I like the board that we have, and respect them all.    I'm honored to work with them.   Welcome to Roger as our new Librarian.  That is a big job, and he volunteered to take it on, eyes wide open!   I look forward to getting to know him better.   Thanks to John Jenkens for all of the hard work that he put into the library, even building a framework that allows scanning documents without risk of damage to the often delicate paper.   It was a labor of love for many years, worthy of honor and respect.

Although the filling system of an aerometric P51 with a metal sac guard and a pvc sac may make it look radically different from this duofold with a button filler and a rubber sac, both pens have sacs and pressure bars that work in essentially the same way.  The sac is compressed which creates a vacuum that pulls ink into the pen.  So why wouldn't a breather tube enable the sac of the Duofold to fill more fully with ink with multiple compressions of the sac?

 

John

 

Because while the breather tube is there, and it's stuck into a hole in the end of the feed, there isn't a hole through the top of the feed under the nib.  No way for the ink to get through.  It really is non-functional, and I suspect just for looks.  Pen companies were not above deception.

 

re. silicone sacs.  i.e. the ones sold by David Nishimura.  There are issues with gas permeability.  Not all gasses get through the wall of the sac, but helium is pretty darn small.  I've had to re-do a number of pens in which the true silicone sacs were used because they ooze ink.  

 

Take a look at this article for more discussion.

We have our first update for 2015 up.  A burst of sales just before the Philly show almost cleaned us out on the website (not that I'm complaining).  Several new pens listed this evening with more in the pipeline, including a Pelikan 400 with a custom ground 1mm cursive italic nib.  We've also added a few new pens to Cheapskate Alleythat are quite nice.  We've also picked up a limited number of NOS Sheaffer TRZ pens, all with medium nibs.  They're slim pens, and use the same converters that were used in the slim Targas.  If you're looking for a slim converter or two, grab one!
 

All of the pens can be seen starting at the main sales page at Main Street Pens.
 

Goddard's Silver dip; magic.

 

And Goddard's blue polishing cloth - excellent too.

 

Use either or both depending on the extent of the tarnishing.

 

Cob

 

Dig a little farther before you use this.  I can't name the source, but there was some information that I read saying that using any of the "magic" solutions to remove tarnish can leave find pits in the silver.  Simicrome works, but I don't use it except in extreme cases.  A Sunshine cloth has a micro crystaline abrasive to gently remove tarnish, and "luster enhancers."  Even something like my pen polish works  very well, and it's better because there are no solvents or chemicals to harm the pen.  I've seen pens corrode in areas where the Simicrome was left behind.

You might want to wander over to take a look at the new offerings at Main Street Pens. A Parker 61 flighter that is the cleanest I've ever seen, and a glorious Sheaffer Crest. I think that the only one that I've seen with better transparency was in the Sheaffer Service Center a number of years ago. A nice smooth fine nib too. There's also a Bexley Corona with a custom ground 0.7 mm cursive italic nib. Nice pen. In the box too!
 

You can see the pens on the main sales page at Main Street Pens.

Now through 11 AM eastern time, Saturday Dec. 20th, free shipping in the US on any pen or order total over $100. Pen cases excluded.

What is most likely the last update of the year is up at Main Street Pens. I try to make the updates interesting, and there are several rather interesting, freshly restored pen in the update. Plenty of time to mail the pens and get them to a US address in time for Christmas! We've also lowered the price on all of the Sheaffer Compact Imperial pens on Cheapskate Alley - a ridiculous price for NOS pens. You can check out all of the pens on the main sales page, and follow the link on the left to get to the alley.
 

You can find the Main Street Pens pen sales page here.

Think of it as a hypodermic syringe attached to the back of a section.  To fill, you pull the plunger back, and it stays back until you go to fill it again.  The shaft of the plunger sticks out, so the blind cap has to be quite long to cover it.  The ink capacity is half the barrel length, at best, and usually less.  Some Morrison pens used this system, and it's often found on lower end pens.

 

The point of the telescoping plunger is that you can push the filler all of the way down, but it can be collapsed so that you don't have as much to hide under the blind cap.  You get more than half the length of the barrel to hold ink.

 

Most likely the plunger seal will need to be replaced.  How easy it is to repair depends in part on how they attached the reservoir to the section, and how they attached the seal to the plunger.

20% off any pen on the site. Sale starts Friday, and ends at 6 PM Eastern time.

Main Street Pens

One client noted that we often come back from a pen show with some interesting pens. This show is no exception, except that I'm a little behind in getting the pens restored and up on the website.

We've had a bunch of Sheaffers, but some new Parkers are up this time around along with an early Crest. Lots of nice pens, all restored and warranted.
 

Get a jump on Christmas shopping and take a gander at the offerings on our main sales page at Main Street Pens.

We'll be in Columbus in less than a week for the Ohio show.  It's always a great show, with a strong emphasis on vintage pens.  There are some folks do this show and this one ONLY.
 
So of course, I'm working on pens to take to the show.  Some really, and I do mean really, nice pens in this update.  You really need to go over to the main sales page and take a look at the new offerings.  New pens added just today....
 

All of the offerings can be seen at Main Street Pens. 
 
 

oops

A number of new Sheaffer Triumph plunger fillers on the site this week. One is part of a rather cool 3 piece set - FP, Stylewriter BP and Pencil, in the box. Now through noon on Saturday you can take 20% off of the listed price on any Sheaffer on the pen sales page. Some very nice pens there, and all are restored and ready to write.
 

You can see the pens on the main pen sales page at Main Street Pens.

Lisa hasn't been able to post a message here - so she asked me to.

For the record - the source(s) for Davids rumors are wrong. The PCA boards members do not get paid, do not receive stipends, do not get money to go to pen shows. They/we have not for over a decade. The editor (who is not a board member) did receive a stipend to attend pen shows on behalf of the PCA, but it was deleted from the current editors contract.

David, you get my point.

Oh come ON guys. He apologized. Kissing feed or anything else is not required.

Caps and barrels wear together, which is why you can often swap caps and barrels, and have the parts work when they jump as originally found.

 

The inner cap of a Vac is machined into the cap, not pushed in is it is on other pen, that is unless it's a "opps" cap where a seperate inner cap was made to compensate for a botched one.  It is JUST long enough for the nib to clear, and there is rarely enough room to shorten it without having to set the nib into the section quite a bit.  Shortening the section makes it look funny, and is noticeable. 

 

The best way to repair the pen is to  have the barrel threads stretched.  The process expands the first couple or few threads so that they engage with the threads in the cap.  Many times the repair is invisible, completely unoticeable, yet the cap screws on securely on the barrel as it should.  The advantage wiht a Vac is that even though the barrel is stretched, because the section threads reach down far enough that it screws in and is snug, and when sealed with thread sealant doesn't leak.  I've done this on many pens including many of my own, and none have come back with the same problem since I started doing the procedure. 

My mother always contended that the real year started in September when school started up again. Classes at the college a few blocks from here are in their second week, public schools are up again, with buses clogging the roads twice a day... Life has returned to normal for most of us.

To celebrate (?) we have an update on the pen sales page of our website. Some very nice, and a couple significant pens as well. Certainly eye candy if you're a collector of any stripe.
 

You can see the pens for sale on our the main pen sales page of our website at Main Street Pens. Treat yourself to a little eye candy....

You can make them yourself, though it's a bit of a pain to do. I don't know if the originals were hard rubber or not because they could have started out softer and hardened with time, though they most likely were HR.

You can turn one out of a piece of hard rubber, drill a small hole in the back end so that the thumb tack doesn't crack the HR. Or you can buy a black rubber stopper at a hardware store, sharpen one edge of a piece of brass tubing and use it to cut a plug from the stopper. Clean, cut to length and shellac the sac on.

In either case you'll fit the plug and section to the sac, and insert the assembly into the barrel with the nib and feed out. Use a chop stick or dowel to hold the plug in place while you push the thumbtack into the plug. Then insert nib and feed.

We've accumulated quite a few Sheaffers over time and need to move them out. Now through the end of the week - Aug. 23rd, you can take 20% off any Sheaffer on our main pen sales page. Some nice sets there....
 

You can see the pen at Main Street Pens.

It's not a pen plating solution, but it might work. Get bright nickel - you might want to plate a Waterman lever or clip some day.

No seal, the snorkel has on in there called a "point gasket". Generally it's better not to knock out the feed on these open nib TDs because the "tail" on the nib is fairly short and sometimes hard to get a tight fit when refitting. I believe these where heat set in place by Sheaffer and not really designed to be removed ( sure to be corrected if that is wrong).
 
Regards
Hugh

They can be knocked out of the collar like a regular nib and feed, but there is risk that they will be loose when reinserted. Because the collar is so short, there isn't much of an area to grip so it has to be really tight to hold. I have a stock of the collars that I'm hanging onto because I run into cases where the nib drifts around on top of the feed, and replacing the collar is the only real way to secure it. It is a tight fit, and like most NOS sections, you need to heat the section a bit to get the nib and feed to fit in properly

For pen plating, you do not need to heat the solution. Note that pen plating is not as heavy as tank plating, but it is better than the plating on pens like the Parker Sonnet. You'll find plating solutions on eBay and at jewelers supply sites like Rio Grande.

I have apparently, accumulated quite a few Sheaffers over time. Time to move some out. Reasonably priced, all restored, and all come with our warranty... Buy any Sheaffer from our main pen sales page and receive free shipping. Some new items listed on Cheapskate Alley as well.

Check out the Sheaffers, shipping details and other pens at Main Street Pens.....