How did my vintage pen get clogged?? A pen’s feed can get clogged either by using the wrong type of ink (such as India ink, where the particles clog the channels) or by not cleaning your fountain pen and letting the (fountain pen) ink dry out. A good cleaning is the best next step!
This 1920 Parker 25 Jack Knife Safety BF in Black Smooth Hard Rubber. Before the button-fill, the 25 was sold as both as a “click-fill” pen and an eyedropper-fill “Trench Pen” with a compartment on the bottom for ink tablets. A larger, hard to find size. Fine, flexible nib (rare to find a flexible nib). Some imprint wear (almost all readable), otherwise near mint. Item #162 in Catalog #82
Is there any way to fix a watered down vintage black rubber pen? It’s an old one from a garage sale. Fountain pen restorers can fix the pen up for you but if the black hard rubber is faded and whitened by light and/or water exposure, but there are treatments that can darken the material. Whether you truly want to alter your fountain pen this way is up to you.
This 1928 Parker is a True Blue BF set. Designed as a lower cost market entry than the Duofold, initially named “Three Fifty” and the color called “Modernistic Blue and White,” production lasted only two years. GFT. Almost always found with heavy ambering, mint sets, such as this one, are extremely hard to find and highly desirable. Extra-fine/fine nib. A hint of ambering where the barrel is protected by the cap, otherwise near mint+ (could …
Filed only several months after the eye dropper patent (No. 293.545), L. E. Waterman filed a patent for the Waterman fountain pen. Our gratitude again to James Hart for providing this patent image for sharing.
From the US National Archives, a copy of the L. E. Waterman patent from 1884 for the eye dropper pen. How interesting to see the early start of Waterman on record! Thank you to James Hart for providing this patent for sharing.
Waterman produced some beautiful rippled ebonite (hard rubber) vintage fountain pens around 1920 to 1930. Red ripple is not particularly uncommon, but the red ripple with nickel trim is much more rare. The blue-green ripple is very attractive, and both the olive and rose ripple are particularly beautiful. Although Waterman invested a lot financially to perfect their colored rubber, it could not compete with the celluloid pens that other pen manufacturers were producing. Waterman soon discontinued …
Actually, they only changed the names. I know quite a few people who were disappointed in Waterman changing the names of their classic inks. My favorite names were Florida Blue, Havana Brown, and South Sea Blue. I wish they had kept those and renamed the others! Inspired Blue just doesn’t feel as descriptive as South Sea Blue. Nevertheless, Waterman inks are reliable and dependable inks which are a good choice for vintage pens.
The Waterman eyedropper-fill safety pens were produced around 1905 to 1935. Safety pens have nibs that can be extended and retracted by turning a knob at the bottom of the pen’s barrel. These vintage safety pens are all eyedropper-fill – there are no sacs or any other system aside from the barrel that you fill with ink directly past the retracted nib. Ink is dropped into the open end to about one-half inch from the top. Waterman …
Azizah, one of our customers, sent us these two pictures of her Waterman 42 Safety filler. She picked this 1930 vintage eyedropper in red ripple hard rubber out from our Catalog #74. Azizah loves music nibs and she told us she just couldn’t miss this opportunity. She shared these two pictures with us; one of the pen itself, the other a writing sample – the nib is no big deal, she joked. Watch for a post on …
