Fountain Pens

[SunnyMoni]

Today I stopped at this tiny little antique shop in town and found two fountain pens. One being a Windsor pen and pencil set. The entire pen itself is bent and the lid doesn't stay on. There's also a couple dents and one hole but the lever worked. For $10 I decided I'd go ahead and get it to see if it functioned especially because it has a (semi?) flex nib on it. When I got home, to my surprise, it worked! It actually writes very smoothly. So I have my first flex nib fountain pen.

I also found a Wahl/Eversharp fountain pen. It appears to be beautiful but the lever was jammed or something. I got it anyways because I intend to get it repaired. It too came at a great price.

I just wanted to share because I'm excited but also to say, if you take a look at antique shops you just might find a surprise, even if hidden within a bent, dented, cracked, or damaged pen.

[AAAndrew]

The Whal's lever is "jammed" because the rubber sac inside has hardened. Very common. These can be quite nice pens. It's a relatively inexpensive repair and I can send you names of repair people if you're interested. Have you tried to soak the nib in water and then see if it writes nicely? (using just dissolved ink you can often tell if the nib needs adjustment as well).

Some of these old Wahl Eversharps can have flexible nibs, but definitely not all, and most likely not an Oxford, Wahl's second-tier line. That one looks like from the 30's.

Interesting about the Windsor. I'm not familiar with those. Truly flexible? Highly unusual for a pen from what looks like the 1950's. I wouldn't leave it filled with ink just because the rubber sac in it is over 50 years old and may fail at any moment. Did it seem to have any ink in the nib when you went to use it? In other words, were the first words a different color from the later words? If not, it may not have been used before.

Congrats on a couple of vintage pens!

[SunnyMoni]

The Whal's lever is "jammed" because the rubber sac inside has hardened. Very common. These can be quite nice pens. It's a relatively inexpensive repair and I can send you names of repair people if you're interested. Have you tried to soak the nib in water and then see if it writes nicely? (using just dissolved ink you can often tell if the nib needs adjustment as well).

Some of these old Wahl Eversharps can have flexible nibs, but definitely not all, and most likely not an Oxford, Wahl's second-tier line. That one looks like from the 30's.

Interesting about the Windsor. I'm not familiar with those. Truly flexible? Highly unusual for a pen from what looks like the 1950's. I wouldn't leave it filled with ink just because the rubber sac in it is over 50 years old and may fail at any moment. Did it seem to have any ink in the nib when you went to use it? In other words, were the first words a different color from the later words? If not, it may not have been used before.

Congrats on a couple of vintage pens!

Thank you for all of the information. I have not tried soaking the nib but certainly will give it a try. I will say from my own research that the nib doesn't appear to be what commonly came on these pens. It has different markings than any text or images I can find referring to it. It says "Wahl" directly on the nib but what I've found says the nibs say "Warranted" on them usually. If I try to "write" with it lightly the nib flexes some. That's what led me to think it is at least semi-flex.

The other pen didn't have ink in it from what I could tell. I put a small amount in it to test and it worked. Thanks for the advice on not leaving ink in it. I will make sure to be careful with it.

[SunnyMoni]

Oh, I forgot, I didn't ignore your comment on suggestions of who to have repair it. I found someone that was mentioned on here but feel free to send me a message with names.

[AndyT]

The Wahl is beautiful.  Offhand I can't recall seeing another pen with that swirl - congratulations. 

[SunnyMoni]

The Wahl is beautiful.  Offhand I can't recall seeing another pen with that swirl - congratulations. 

Thank you!

[garyn]

One problem with antique shops is some/many overprice their stuff.
I had one shop quote me $80 each for a bunch of old but common and cheap Chinese pens.  Geez what did they think those pens were?
And add to their price, the cost of getting the sac replaced.

So just be careful.

[SunnyMoni]

One problem with antique shops is some/many overprice their stuff.
I had one shop quote me $80 each for a bunch of old but common and cheap Chinese pens.  Geez what did they think those pens were?
And add to their price, the cost of getting the sac replaced.

So just be careful.

I totally understand that! Between the two I spent $30. Actually the Wahl pen was at $30 but when I was talking to the owner who was asking about how it worked, she dropped the price another $10 because she knew nothing about it and realized then that if have to pay for repairs. I would definitely do research before spending a larger amount of money.