Very occasionally, when acquiring vintage fountain pens for restoration, we come across something a little special. This was the case with a late 1940's rare Pelikan 100N piston filling fountain pen with grooved clip and ribbed centre band.
On initial inspection, even before unscrewing the cap, it was obvious that pen had seen little use in the past sixty years. The impressed Pelikan logo to top of cap was deep with no loss of infill paint, gold filled clip and centre band showed no sign of rubbing or plating loss.
The delicate procedure of removing piston filling mechanism revealed that barrel internal bore was heavily soiled with dried ink, also elastomer resin piston seal had hardened and shrunk. The usual process of soaking and rubbing seal in warm oil did not rejuvenate seal sufficiently to provide an adequate suction for piston to draw ink when filling.
Early Pelikan 100's had cork seals on piston, a reversion to this type of seal was going to be the best option to ensure good filling and sealing characteristics on our pen. Dried ink was removed from barrel bore, this was then internally polished to remove all scratches which had been caused by hardened old seal. A new piston head was turned from acrylic resin, along with left handed threaded locking/adjusting cap.
Using two separate layers of natural cork bonded together, a larger than required disc was cut with a hole drilled through the centre to fit snugly over piston spindle. Using a lathe, the cork seal was sanded to size whilst mounted on rotating piston spindle. Cork seal then sealed and lubricated by boiling in sterin wax. Restored spiral piston and knob assembly refitted into rear of barrel, allowing final adjustment of piston seal against internal barrel, expanding cork by means of threaded seal cap through nib section end of barrel. Pen now draws full volume of ink when filling.
Setting original 14 carat gold nib, adjusting feeder and delicate hand polishing of barrel/cap external surfaces completed this pen restoration project.
This fully restored Pelikan 100N fountain pen is currently available to purchase from the Hepworth Dixon website, here you will find full description, many more images and price information.
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