New Years sale, twitter, and a poll...

Kicking off the new year, I've got some special things coming this month. For starts, here's two of them.

Firstly, I've got to once again clear out my stock/inventory of pens! If you know me, then you'll know that means a big sale for you all! :) It's time to save big this January on all those pens you didn't get for Christmas. Each pen has a nice discount on the price for this month only. I say grab them while you can, because you won't find them cheaper, and because I seriously need to clear out!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Today is the day that I finally "officially" merged my two blogs back together. From here on, you'll start seeing repair posts and updates on this blog again!

It'll take me a week or two to finally archive all the old posts here, but eventually I'll get them moved.

Of course - Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you'll all have a wonderful day filled with family, friends, and lots of love!

I'll get back with some update as soon as I've got some time again. Should be real soon - I just need to decide on a special post to start things of again. :)

Regards,

Tyler Dahl

Been out of the loop for a few days now...

I've been totally busy the last few days, and haven't had more than a few minutes total to be on the computer. I do apologize for not updating the blog, and to anyone who is awaiting an email response from me. I will make my best attempt to get to all your emails today.


Blogging will be a little less scheduled for the next week or two, being the holiday season. I don't want to get to busy with this, and miss other important things (not the the blog is unimportant).


I'm going to make a few changes to some things around here. First one is this:

Sorry folks, a little busy today... :)

Well guys, I wasn't able to post to the blog today. I was working all day long installing the wood-stove on my house. Took a long time, and I honestly don't enjoy working up on top of my metal roof. :| A bit stressing, but it sure is great to have it done!

I'm also going to delay the weekend reads till Sunday. I just need a day to prepare for it, and the next week of blogging.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Regards,
Tyler Dahl

Monthly Update!

Well guys, today marks the first day of December! I've got snow on the ground at my house, and it's pretty chilly here too. Anyone else think it's beginning to look a  lot like Christmas? ;)


I'd like to just give you all an update on what's going on this month, and what you can expect from the website, and both blogs.


Firstly: I will be open for business all December long. I do not take a break for Christmas, so you may feel free to send me pens anytime during the holiday season. Don't be concerned about me being busy, because Christmas-time is not a busy time for me. :)






Let's start with the Website. I've got quite a few improvements that I think you'll enjoy!


1) First off, I've got a whole new tray of pens up for sale this month! Lots of really great ones too. These are for sale, but only for this month. Tis' the perfect season for buying a new FP, for yourself, or a friend. :) Some of my top picks of the month are:

Beautiful Blue EverSharp Skyline!

A lovely vintage Pelikan M400 with a semi-flex nib!

Conklin Crescent filler with a fabulous #2 flexible Toledo nib!

2) Next up, we've got a great new feature for those "visual minded" people. I decided that just listing a photo of all 12 pens at once just didn't cut it. You can't see enough of the pen. So, to remedy this, I've come to a good in-between place. The "tray picture" will remain the same, as it's good to see what's for sale at a glance.

The new feature is the "click the title to a large picture of the pen". Any pen that you're interested in - just click the title, or the magnifying glass icon. You will be taken to a new window (or tab), so you won't lose you place, and then you can see a full image of just the pen you want. I've made these images to show as much detail as possible. Try it out here and see for yourself!


3) The Mobile Website is almost ready to launch! I'll need another week or so to finish up the last details, but it's very close now!

A public thank-you to everyone who volunteered to help out with the mobile website! I couldn't have done it without you. You've been a huge help, and I really appreciate it!






4) This is very important, so please do read it. 
I have had to make a rather difficult decision this month, and I want you all to be aware of this, and have a good understanding of "what" and "why". I try to be honest, and keep stuff like this out in the open.

I have recently had a rise in my costs for repairing pens. Namely, new tools, to expand the possibilities of what I can accomplish. Many of these tools cost quite a "fortune", and thus I feel the need to make some small price change in accordance with this. As of today (12/1/2011) I have made some small price changes to my some of my services. I realize that this is not the kind of news that we always want to hear. I do dislike having to do this, but I feel it's the only way to keep my business running, and thus I decided to go for it. However, even with these small price changes, I can still safely say that my prices far undercut many others in the pen-repair field. I hope you all understand this, and please, let me know if you have questions. I am still determined to maintain low prices, and excellent customer service, forever.


Now for some blog updates:


Just a few quick ones, to keep you current.

1) I will be continuing to blog every other day on both blogs! I don't intend on stopping this anytime soon, as I don't see a reason to. :)

2) Hopefully you all read about my new review system here. That will continue to be used for all my future reviews. Seems very handy to me.

3) If you haven't checked it out yet, I'd love to have you participate in my Weekend Reads Q&A! I need folks to ask questions, or else I can't do it. Go ahead, don't be shy! Ask away about anything pen-related.


That's about it for the monthly updates. Have a great holiday season everyone, and enjoy the blog!


Regards,
Tyler Dahl

Welcome the new blog schedule!

Hello to any and all who read, or frequent my blog! I finally have a good consistent blogging schedule now. This will remain the same, with the exception of holidays, vacations, and emergencies. Here's what I'd like to do:

I will be updated the blog regularly every other day now, starting today. Here are the exact days, since we don't have an even number of them in a week. :)

Monday: Blog Update
Tuesday: ____
Wednesday: Blog Update
Thursday: ____
Friday: Blog Update
Saturday: ____
Sunday:Blog Update


So Sunday and Monday will  be back-to-back blogging, but I'd rather do 4 per week instead of 3. :)

That's it. My schedule for blogging. I really enjoy blogging, but I definitely need the days off to work on pens, and prepare for the next days blog post. I think this is a good balance of blogging being a priority, but not getting in the way of my work.

Enjoy the blog, subscribe if you already haven't, and leave me a comment to share your thoughts. I'd appreciate hearing those.

Regards,
Tyler Dahl

Weekend Reads Q&A

Time to introduce an idea that I am really excited about, but that I need your help and participation with!

Yesterday we introduced the new "Weekend Reads" feature. Part of that is the new Q&A addition!

Here's how it will work:


All week long, anyone who reads my blog will be free to submit any and all questions that they might have, about pen related things. I'd like to keep it fairly short, so questions like "explain how a fountain pen works" will be saved for an entire article, if that makes sense. :)

Then, after collecting questions throughout the week, I will publish answers to them every Saturday, to be included in the Weekend Reads post.

Here's what I need help with:


I need you folks to simply ask questions! If you have a question about anything: "what's my favorite ink?" - "where can I buy pens from?" - "how do I get a good deal on eBay?" - Anything at all! Just ask away. I can't do this without your help. :)


If I don't get enough participation, I'll have to discontinue this, which would be sad.

I know that out of my many subscribers and readers, there has to be at least 3-4 of you a week who can ask a question, right? I know you all can do it!

Please direct your questions here. I will let you know if you're question will be included in the Weekend Reads. If I feel it's important enough to warrant it's own article, I'll let you know that too. :)

Again, I really need your help with this, so if you have a question, don't be shy about asking. I really want to hear from you.

Regards,
Tyler Dahl

New feature! Introducing "Weekend Reads"

Another new improvement to the blog. I'd like to introduce you to my new concept: Weekend Reads!

I've been considering doing this for a while now, but it was just until now that I've decided to do it.

So, "what are Weekend Reads?". Let me explain:

Each weekend, on Saturday, I will publish a list of my favorite articles of the recent week, from my favorite blogs. These articles will be hand picked, and not just "pumped out". That means that I won't just go searching for links to add - I will only add my favorite articles that I think you'll find interesting. Occasionally, I will refer you to a previous post from this blog, or another blog, if it goes with the content of the week's articles.

This will give you something to read about, while I get a break from blogging. I will publish it Saturday morning, and will resume normal blogging again on Monday. This will keep me rested, and let you catch up on some good articles you may have missed.

Here's the quick features list:

• An overview of the last week on this blog - popular posts, and an update on what's going on "behind the scenes".
• My favorite posts and articles from fellow blogs, that I hope you'll enjoy.
• A new Q&A time, which I will introduce tomorrow, for the next week's Weekend Reads. :)

I hope that you will enjoy this new "feature" of the blog. I do need the rest, but I also would like it to become an good asset to your reading list.

Please, let me know if you've got suggestions or thoughts on this. I really want to hear from you. Your suggestions can, and will help influence the way this blog works, in a good way!

Thanks folks, and have a great weekend!

Regards,

Tyler Dahl

How to: a guide to my new review system!

Well guys, I've finally deiced to re-invent my review system. As always, change can be a bit rough at first, but I think you will enjoy these new changes. I'll keep this post short, as most of the changes are self explanatory, and you'll catch on to them by simply reading the reviews.

These new changes will be implemented immediately, and you'll get to see them at work tomorrow morning (Lamy 2000 review!).

Let's jump right in with all the changes:

• All pens will now be rated in 4 different areas: Design, size/weight, functionality, and the nib.
• Each area of the pen's performance can be given a maximum rating of 25%.
• At the end of the review, all rating will be added together for the final pen's rating, maximum of 100%. Simple enough, right? :)
• There will be a new overview section at the very beginning of each review. This will help get the point and conclusion of the review across to those individuals who may not have time, or may not wish to read the entire article. It's exactly what it says - a quick overview of the bad and strong points of the pen!
• You will see the new "rating bar" for each review now. A convenient graphical bar to let you know, at a glance, how good the pen ranks on my scale. Here's how it will look:

This is the full bar, just showing the different coloring for each rating. Percentage rating goes like this:

• Horrible: 0-20%
• Bad: 21-40%
• Not bad, but not good: 41-60%
• Good: 61-80%
• Great: 81-90%
• Amazing: 91-100%

The higher ranks have a more "narrow" allowance than the lower ones do. The percents are just a bit "goofy", but being that I had 6 rankings, to divide into 100... :)

I did the best I could! I'm sure you'll catch on to them, and get used to it in a few reviews.

Here's how it will look in the reviews. Whichever rank the pen scores will be "lit-up", and the rest will remain greyed out.

The overview:
I felt the need to add this into my reviews. The overview will give the high and low points of the pen, as well as it's rating, right in the first visible portion of the review. It's basically a quick summary of the review in just a paragraph. This is made for a specific reason. I want to make it easy on people who may not have the time to read the entire review, but they still want to know what the pen is like. If you've got 60 seconds to spare at work, you can quickly determine if the pen is good enough to be worth reading the full review later. I hope you will enjoy this new feature!


That's about it for my changes! The rest are small things, that you may not even notice. They will just make everything a little bit better.

As always, don't forget to subscribe to the blog! Tomorrow morning I will put out my first review using this new system. The Lamy 2000 is up on the plate, and I've got some good things to say about it. :)

Regards,
Tyler Dahl

The new website is up!

Well, after a long wait, and much anticipation, the new "official" website is up and running! It's been a huge process, and I have devoted much time to making this website function well. If you see any errors, or any mistakes, do me a huge favor and let me know.

And yes, to celebrate, a little photoshop-fun was in order. :)

This entire website was designed by me, from the ground up. I also did all of the photography and design illustrations for it. This website has been long in the making! It has taken me forever to find the time for it, but now that it's up, it's going to be a huge asset to me, and hopefully to you as well.

Let's do a quick run down of all the new features on the website:


- Services. I have updated my pen services, and organized them in a way that I think will be very useful. Each service has it's own respective page, that describes the cost, and what all is involved in the repair.

- Home page. The main page of the website will offer easy access to the 4 most-used pages. This will make it easy for new users to find what they're looking for. The 4 pages are:

1) Services
2) For sale - My monthly tray of vintage restored pens (see below for more details)
3) Sell your pens!
4) FAQ's

Let's go over the last three of these main-page categories real quick:

- Monthly tray of vintage restored pens! This is one that I have personally been looking forward to. I am opening up a web-based mini pen show, so to speak. You can read all the details on the page, so I won't go into them here, but I will say this - Make sure to check that page the first of every month! There will be a lot of AWESOME pens on there. This month (including November, since October is almost over) we've got some great ones including:

- Parker 51 Half Demonstrator - vacumatic - factory B nib!
- Parker 51 Aero - 1.3mm Minuskin re-tipped nib!
- Esterbrook Dollar pen - 2314F fine stub nib
- sheaffer Touchdown Valiant in Burnt Umber brown - very smooth XF nib

Overall there are 12 pens + 1 extra this month, and all of them are fabulous!

- Sell your pens! Now you can get rid of your space-stealing old junkers! I will buy almost any vintage (and/or modern) pen you can think of, and for a fair price too. Make me an offer. :)

- FAQ's. This is a very important new feature. This extensive list of FAQ's will always be growing, as I add to it over the next few years and decades. If you want to see something on there, I am fully open to suggestions!




As for now, those are all the "new" and "fancy" features that I've integrated into the website. I hope you will have pleasant time browsing around and getting used to the new layout.

Again, please let me know if something goes wrong - dead link, glitchy layout, etc. Reporting problems like this helps me to quickly identify the problem, and fix it!

I look forward to future updates, and working with the new website in general. It's definitely a huge improvement over the last blog-site that I was using. :)

Regards,
Tyler Dahl

I'm back!

Well, I just got back home a few hours ago after a much needed vacation. I spent a week in Big Sandy TX, and another week at a state park in TN, around 2 hours away from my house. I had a great time, got to see some friends, catch up on sleep, and get prepared mentally for all the big changes coming up soon in my business. I really enjoyed myself, but it's great to be back home again.

Work will resume as normal on Monday (10/24/11), but I'll begin working through my emails tomorrow morning. I'll do my best to pick everything up where it was left off, and keep things speeding along at a good pace. I appreciate your patience! It's not easy for me to leave behind my business for two weeks like that.

As soon as all your emails are answered, and I begin getting your pens processed as usual, the new website is going on top of my priority list. I intend on finishing it sometime between the end of October, and the first week-or-two of November. The sooner the better!

I'm looking forward to getting back to work, and I'm sure you folks are eager to get your pens back soon! Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions.

Until tomorrow,
-Tyler Dahl

News update!

Hey guys! Time for a little update on what's going on over at Tyler Dahl Fountain Pens. :)

First off, for short, we're calling it "Tyler's Pens". That's not official or anything, but it's more convenient than saying "Tyler Dahl Fountain Pens" all the time.  ;)

I am leaving an vacation from the 7th, to the 22nd of October! It's a much needed break, and I am very grateful for it.

While I am gone I encourage you to go and read up on old information lurking around on both my blogs. 

For those who love pen repair there's: The Repairer's Bench

For those who love pens, inks, and paper reviews: My original blog (name soon to change, undecided for now. :)

If you missed my last update, I'll re-cap briefly:

I am moving my original website/blog (777penrepair) and splitting it up. There will be three websites:

tylerdahlpens.com - This is going to move all business stuff to a permanent, and "stationary" website. 

The Repairer's Bench! - This is a new blog for those who love home-repairs, and are just interested in what I do. Please, do check this one out. It's just started up, and it's already a lot of fun!

777penrepair.blogspot.com - Soon to change names to a new blog website. This will be home to all my ink, pen, and paper reviews.

Now for the new updates:

The launch date for the official website (tylerdahlpens.com) is uncertain, but is expected to be around the end of October to the first week of November!

 I am going to have some great stuff on there like:

- A monthly tray of vintage restored pens!

- A huge FAQ section, with detailed information on all sorts of stuff.

- A large database of pen information and articles!

Lot's more too! I just can't name it all right now.

Life has been busy for me, so that's why I am taking the vacation. I will have no email communication during the two weeks that I am gone. I greatly appreciate your understanding on this. I just need some time to relax, chill, and forget about my business temporarily. 

Once I'm back, things will go into full swing! With the new website up, and two blogs running, I'll be a very busy guy. Not to mention all the pens I am fixing for you folks. :)

But it's great to be busy, doing what I love most!

Overall it's going to be fun, difficult, and a great learning experience. I am looking forward to coming home, and setting things up on the new website. I hope you will enjoy the new blog, and all the cool changes!

That's all for now, and you won't hear from me again until I return form my trip. Take care!

Regards,

Tyler Dahl 

News update!

Hey guys! Time for a little update on what's going on over at Tyler Dahl Fountain Pens. :)

First off, for short, we're calling it "Tyler's Pens". That's not official or anything, but it's more convenient than saying Tyler Dahl Fountain Pens all the time.  ;)

I am leaving an vacation from the 7th, to the 22nd of October! It's a much needed break, and I am very grateful for it.

While I am gone I encourage you to go and read up on old information lurking around on both my blogs. 

For those who love pen repair there's: The Repairer's Bench

For those who love pens, inks, and paper reviews: My original blog (name soon to change, undecided for now. :)

If you missed my last update, I'll re-cap briefly:

I am moving my original website/blog (777penrepair) and splitting it up. There will be three websites:

tylerdahlpens.com - This is going to move all business stuff to a permanent, and "stationary" website. 

The Repairer's Bench! - This is a new blog for those who love home-repairs, and are just interested in what I do. Please, do check this one out. It's just started up, and it's already a lot of fun!

777penrepair.blogspot.com - Soon to change names to a new blog website. This will be home to all my ink, pen, and paper reviews.

Now for the new updates:

The launch date for the official website (tylerdahlpens.com) is uncertain, but is expected to be around the end of October to the first week of November!

 I am going to have some great stuff on there like:

- A monthly tray of vintage restored pens!

- A huge FAQ section, with detailed information on all sorts of stuff.

- A large database of pen information and articles!

Lot's more too! I just can't name it all right now.

Life has been busy for me, so that's why I am taking the vacation. I will have no email communication during the two weeks that I am gone. I greatly appreciate your understanding on this. I just need some time to relax, chill, and forget about my business temporarily. 

Once I'm back, things will go into full swing! With the new website up, and two blogs running, I'll be a very busy guy. Not to mention all the pens I am fixing for you folks. :)

But it's great to be busy, doing what I love most!

Overall it's going to be fun, difficult, and a great learning experience. I am looking forward to coming home, and setting things up on the new website. I hope you will enjoy the new blog, and all the cool changes!

That's all for now, and you won't hear from me again until I return form my trip. Take care!

Regards,

Tyler Dahl 

Some big changes coming up!

Hello to all of you out there - my loyal readers, subscribers, and those of you who just found my blog. I've got an important message today, for anyone who either reads my blog, or uses my repair services:

I've got some really big changes coming up fairly soon, in the next 2-3 months. As my business has been so blessed, and has grown so rapidly, it's time for some expansion! :)

I wanted to let you all know what to expect from these changes. So here it is!

Firstly - I am going to open up a website. This website will be committed to my business. This means that all business type stuff (Sales, repair posts, etc.) will be moved off of this blog. This new website will be a non-blog website. It will remain the same, and house all my information on my business, services, pricing, etc. I will also be putting up my pens-for-sale there.

The reason for this new website is to keep separate my business side, and my fun side. I still want them connected at the heart of it all, but I want to make it easier for my readers to find what they're looking for.

Secondly - I'm going to create a second blog! This one is going to be devoted to repair stuff. For anyone out there who likes to do "home-repairs", you'll want to subscribe to that when it comes out! You'll get some great repair tips, as well as a first-hand look at my repair bench, and what goes on there.

Thirdly - The name of my business is going to change. This is a very important one. I will make this change very slow, so you all don't have to worry about it. From now on, I am going to drop the 777 part of my business name. I never thought my business would be so big, but now that it is, I feel the need to go by my real name. I believe that my real name shows more honesty, personality, and integrity than going by a false "username". I hope that's understandable to you all. :)

The new business name is very simple. Tyler Dahl Fountain Pens. For short, Tyler Dahl Pens. The new website will be launched late October, to early November. I happen to be a web-designer myself, so I'm building it in my spare time. Here's a little sneak peek for you:

Well, what do you think? I'm pretty happy with how it turned out myself. :)

Fourthly - This blog name will change. But fear not! Thanks to google and blogger, I can transfer everything over cleanly and easily. Your subscriptions will be moved over automatically to the new blog.

Here's how the names will go:

tylerdahlpens.com - Main website. The place for using my services. This will have a wealth of information about me, what repairs I do, and FAQ's on sending in your pens for repair. There will also be a place on there to buy the restored pens I sell.

tylerdahlpens.blogspot.com - This will be the new name of this blog. The place for all my ink reviews, pen reviews, tutorials, and other fun stuff! It's going to be a while before I transfer things, as I want everyone to get ready before I make the "big jump".

repairersbench.blogspot.com - The pen repair blog. This is where I'll talk about pen repair, how-to's, and post updates from my workshop. This is going to be a fun one!

My new email address is: tyler@tylerdahlpens.com Please try to change over to this one sooner than later. :) It's going to be hectic for me trying to manage and sync both accounts. Eventually the old email (777penrepair@gmail.com) will be discontinued, but for now it does still work.

There is however, something very important that I want to let you all know. Through all these changes, I want to make sure that you understand this.

Though these changes may "shake" things up a bit, they will not affect how I run my blog and business. I am, and always will strive to maintain my personal touch. I will maintain the same quality in my repair services, as well as in my reviews on this blog. I will still always be open to answering your questions personally, and in a timely manner. If you've got any questions about these changes coming up, please shoot me an email. I'll discuss it with you personally.

That's all for now! Enjoy the new repair blog! And please, let me know if you've got any feedback/advice for me. It's much appreciated!

Regards,
Tyler Dahl

The new and improved 777 Pen Repair service form!

Here it is! The all new, easier to fill-out, simple to understand, 777 Pen Repair service form! The last version had some issues, making it hard for my clients to fill out when they were going to send me a pen. The last thing I want is for you all, as my clients, to have trouble sending me pens/nibs to work on. So, I've made a new form that I think you all will like. :)

For those who are new to the use of a repair-form - Here's what it is:
This form is for you to fill out when you send me pens for repair. You might be wondering "Why the trouble of having to do this? - It's rather simply actually. What happened a few months ago is what drove me to make this form. I was wasting time, time that could be spent repairing your pens, on getting contact information, calculating shipping-insurance prices, and getting information via email. I decided that I needed to cut this wasted time out, to be both efficient and economical. This form provides me with your name, email, shipping info, pens/nibs that you're sending, and what repairs you want done to them. It saves me the trouble of asking for this information via email. Overall, it makes me process your pens quicker, thus allowing you to enjoy them sooner!

This new form, which can be found here, is super-easy to fill out. You can use the computer keyboard to fill it out! Just open it up in your web-browser, fill it out with the keyboard, and then hit the print button on the little pop-up toolbar (in the bottom right corner). It's as simple as that! This eliminates you having to hand-write everything, and me having trouble reading peoples handwriting. :)

I hope this new improvement will be useful, convenient, and helpful for you. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, and suggestions for this new form. I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a comment and give me your thoughts!

Regards,
777 - Tyler Dahl

Have lots more fun - With Google +1!

What is Google Plus One?


You've probably seen it lurking around... You're probably guessing what it is... You're probably wishing someone would tell you...


Today I'm going to try and help people understand what the new Google Plus One button is. It's been out for just a little while now and it's growing rapidly. Now it's getting bigger and making its way to blogs, and other such personal websites. It's a really handy feature but like anything else, it's only useful if you know how to use it.

New! 777 Pen Repair service form!

This is going to make things a lot easier for all for us! I finally got around to making a printable service form for my customers. This will save you time in trying to figure out what you need to do to send me pens. It will also help me finish your pens faster as I will have the information I need to get started working on them right away.

You can check out and download the form right here!

Please print out one of these for each pen that you send me. Simply include it in the package and I'll take care of the rest. This helps to ensure that I never "mix up an order", and I can get your pens done quicker this way. This means less time sending emails back and forth, and more time for you to actually use your pens!

Let me know if you experience any issues with the form. I'm just an email away if you're ever in need of assistance. :)

Regards,
777 - Tyler Dahl

A new "service" - 777 Pen Repair "tune-ups"

Hello again to all of you who read my blog. :)

Today I'd like to introduce you to a new service I'm going to start running. It's going to be called "Tune-Ups". Obviously, you'll want to know what it's about, so I'll tell you. I'm going to use an analogy to make things really easy to understand.

A fountain pen is like a car in many ways. You need to keep it filled with gasoline (ink) to run properly. And occasionally, you even need to change oil (flush and clean). Sometimes however, there is routine maintenance that you just don't want to do yourself. Things like replacing spark plugs, changing the oil filter, changing tires, etc. A fountain pen has routine maintenance jobs just like this. This is why I'm going to create this new "service". Sometimes your pen doesn't need a "full-restore", it just needs to be tuned back into a factory fresh state.

I've used, as an example for this post, an amazing Pelikan M1000 which was sent to me for nib adjustment. After examining it carefully, I asked if the owner would like a tune-up as it was in need of one. He said yes, and things proceeded as follows:

Here is the amazing Pelikan M1000. This is a pretty big pen. :)

Uncapping this pen reveals it's monster nib!

What we have here is what appears to be a fairly nice Pelikan nib. You'll notice the slight bit of grime right at the base of the nib by the metal section.

Also, the feed and nib are out of alignment.

The large gap between the nib and feed at the front were making this pen flow to freely.

Once taken apart, you can see how dirty the nib really is.

Take look at the nib stains. Also notice the dried ink clogging the fins of the feed.

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Now here's after cleaning! Much better!

The nib is shiny and stain free. - The feed is free of clogs and dried ink.

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Here's again what would appear to be a nice, functioning, clean piston. Let me tell you - it's not.

After removing the piston you can see what it really looks like. Rust stains, dirty grease, and the piston head is bone dry.

Take a loo at the mold on right above the threads of the piston fitting.

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Now, take a look at this properly cleaned piston. You'll also notice the generous blob of 100% pure silicone grease on the piston head.

This is how a Pelikan piston should look. This pen will now be ready to function for many more years to come.

Basically, this what the whole pen tune-ups program is about. Pens often look clean, but when taken apart they are extremely dirty. I've seen good lever-fillers with horribly rusty j-bars. I've seen some lovely pens that just need a good polish to bring them back to their original glory. All of these problems are hidden from the average pen user who doesn't wish to start taking his/her pen apart. Luckily, that's what I'm here for.

Preventative maintenance is much better than waiting until the pen stops working completely, and then sending it in for a full restore. These tune-ups will also be considerably less expensive than a full restore. At $15.00 plus shipping I think this is a fair price for getting your pen back into optimal condition again. Here's what a full "tune-up" includes:

• A full check up - basically looking over the pen in detail for any potential problems (the beginnings of a crack, stiff piston, rust, worn diaphragm).
• Complete disassembly and deep cleaning.
• Re-greasing for any parts that need it.
• Basic tine alignment for nibs.
• De-rusting of any metal components (for example - a j-bar).
• A good polish to give the pen the original shine back to the pen.

That what you get for your $15.00. After a good "tune-up" your pen will be functioning as good as when you go it!

If you're pen is need of this service, just send me an email and we'll get things going. I'd love to get your pen back in good functioning order again. :)

Regards,

777 - Tyler Dahl

What is RSS? Let me attempt to explain...

RSS - What on earth is it?

Do you want to keep up to date on all of the latest posts on my blog? There are many different ways to do this but by far the most popular and useful way is via my RSS feed. Still, the question remains - what is RSS?

Changing email addresses... Please take note

Hello to all of my readers, subscribers, followers, etc. I wanted to inform you all that I'm changing my email address for this website. The new address is 777penrepair@gmail.com. The reason for this change is that my old email was a personal email account. Due to the large number of emails that I now get I felt a need to change to another email account to keep them separated on my computer...

If you have just sent an email to my old address please follow these instructions:
- Wait for 24 hours for my reply.
- If in 24 hours you still do not see a reply back from me then:
- Send the email again to my new address.

This will ensure that no ones emails get overlooked.

Thank you for your understanding!

Regards,
777 - Tyler Dahl