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Friday, August 5, 2011

Here are some really cool pens...

This is one of the many parts of my job that I really love! I get to work with, and test out so many different types of pens. Vintage, modern, cheap, and expensive - I get to handle them all. It's a lot of fun, and I'm always excited about getting to work on a new type of pen.

This last week, I got to work on some amazing vintage specimens. These were sent to me by a repeat customer of mine. I've worked on quite a few pens for him and have immensely enjoyed having him as a client.

I shot some pictures of these for you all too see. These pens are pretty rare, so most of us will not get to see them in person ever.



Here they are, from left to right: Conklin Endura - Waterman Ideal Sterling Overlay - Eversharp Skyline in solid 14k gold. Wow! What a set of pens! Each one is radically unique and different from each other.

This client asked me to leave the silver unpolished. We both agreed that the natural aged look was far to beautiful to remove!

I had a good little chuckle about this. - The nib sizes on these pens are very different. Compare the Conklin to the Waterman! For reference, the Conklin nib is the same size (if not bigger than) a Pelikan M1000 nib.

If I had to say which pen was my favorite out of this bunch, I'd be hard pressed to pick just one. I love the size of the Conklin, it's thick and meaty to hold. The Eversharp had the smoothest "factory" nib I've ever used! And the Waterman Ideal was equipped with a wet-noodle flex nib! It goes from a fine/medium to a BBB with hardly any pressure. I had a lot of fun testing that one out. :)

All in all, these pens were a great deal of fun to restore, and the client is having a great time using them too!

Here's what he had to say about the pens:

"Tyler:

Sorry I didn't get back to you last week.  The pens arrived on Thursday and I've had a chance to dip test them all.   They're great.

Thanks for doing such wonderful work. You've worked on three batches of vintage pens for me including  parker 51 vacs, parker vacs, Sheaffer, Conklin, Waterman, Swan and Wahl Eversharp.  You've done it all in about a month: impressive considering that includes three shipments from me, three back to me from you with no overlap (I didn't send a new shipment until I got the previous one).  In all, I think the pens spent less time in your shop than they did in the mail.  You kept me informed about progress and did exactly the work needed and you did it beautifully. 

I've had a numberof pens restored by more than a few people over the last 30+ years.   I've never seen quicker turn around and great communication combined with high quality work in general vintage pen restoration.  (Your customer service is in the same class as Greg Minuskin)

I'll be sending my pens to you in the future.  I'm happy to recommend you to the fountain pen community."
 
- Ross G.

Emails like this one make my day. I was overjoyed to hear that this client is happy with these pens. It's my favorite thing to hear that my job has been done well, and that I've left my client wanting to come back again. This particular client has been a pleasure to deal with, and I hope to do some more work for him in the future!

Let me know if there is anything I can do for you in the way of pen restoration. My prices are competitive, my turn-around time is quick, and my communication is top-notch. Send me an email anytime, and ask as many questions as you like!

Also, feel free to drop me a comment below and tell me what you think of these cool pens! And don't forget to subscribe too. I've got lots of cool stuff coming up soon. My Pelikan M805 review will be appearing sometime in the next week or two. :)

Regards,
777 - Tyler Dahl

8 comments:

  1. Those are some gorgeous pens!  

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  2. Every one of those pens is striking in its own right (or should I say write?).

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  3. That Skyline has me drooling. Is it a full-size? Here's an interesting drawing (not mine) from an Eversharp service manual showing the exploded/cross-section view of the Skyline with reassembly instructions.

    http://media.photobucket.com/image/Eversharp%20Skyline/wahlnut/SkylineExplodedView.gif

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  4. They sure are. :)

    To bad you can feel/touch things through the computer... They're even better in real life!

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  5. Write... I like that. :)

    They're very striking as soon as the nib strikes the paper too!

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  6. Wow, thanks fro that diagram! That's really cool!

    Yea, the skyline, in solid gold - the weight was so perfect on that one... The nib simply amazing... I knew that one was destined to be an everyday writer!

    I'm not sure if it's a full size or not. It looks plenty big to me. Certainly not a "demi" compared to other brands...

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  7. Waterman and Conklin look amazing. A Waterman 52 with a very flexible nib is my dream vintage pen.

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  8. Nice choice of vintage dream pens. :) Those can be really expensive though... Especially once you get into red-ripple coloration, mint condition, and other stuff like that.

    But I've seen em' go for cheaper too!

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