osodecanela | A pen date....

A patient of mine, & a fellow pen geek had invited me to set up a time when he would teach me how to do basic pen restorations. We did that this afternoon. This is the same gent who bestowed the pen display case upon me a few week back.

Dick & his wife live in a lovely rambling house just north of Santa Rosa. While a handful of pens needing to be opened to repair soaked in hot water, we browsed thru his extensive collection. I worked diligently not to drool. From modern day pens, to others that dated to the turn of the last century, we passed through trays, drawers and folios of Sheafers, Parkers, Lamys, Omas, Eversharps, Esterbrooks, Watermans, Pelikans, Montblancs, Auroras, Crosses, Conklins, Visconties and more than are coming to my mind right now. To be honest, I felt like a kid in a candyshop.

While we were looking through them all, he lifted one rather lovely pen from it's tray and spoke rather fondly of how wonderful it felt in the hand while writing. Raising one brow, I asked if he found writing to be a sensuous act. He smiled & nodded. "I thought so," I responded, "so do I."

Then we got to work. At the end of the afternoon, about 18 of my pens that needed work, were now once again usable. Every one of my Esterbrooks are now working again. I now know how to re-sack a fountain pen, so a lever or crescent fill is no longer a problem for me to take on. I can do that now easily.

With his help I was able to date several pens we fixed - a Wahl from 1924, a Sheafer from '28, a couple of Watermans one from the mid-30's, the other the late 40's. We also ID'ed several we couldn't repair. Those worth investing some money in, to make usable were identified, while those not worth bothering with were separated out. There were a couple of minor disappointments, 3 to be exact. There's a small woman's gold filled Wahl whose nib & feed are toast. Replacing them will run $40 which practically is what the pen is worth more or less. There's a Parker Duofold Jr also not worth further investment. Last, there's as unmarked men's gold fill pen likely from the 20's we couldn't disassemble. That one most assuredly is worth fixing.

And more, I now know where to send them, & what'll cost to do.

Dick also gave me another pen for my collection, an Eversharp from the early 50's. It's a rather futuristic looking thing. I need to figure out something nice to say thank you.

Perhaps some ink......