Pen Repairs 4 - Heat-setting a Feed; Svanström's First Impression

[@marybreland3688]

Thank you for the work you do for us, your invisible audience. I appreciate you.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

My pleasure! I enjoy sharing my passion with all of you!

[@barbarawhipple6979]

Oh, you had fun tonight-glad we viewers could be your happy distraction-and I still love it with that side camera! Thanks.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Glad you enjoyed it! I was having fun with this pen, and decided to invite viewers along partway through the ride.

[@davidmcguigan5497]

Appreciate the heat setting demonstration, really helpful. Stay healthy!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Glad you enjoyed! Just a slightly different technique for when the nib and feed need to be removed. I should have spoken more about the second technique I used. I'm trying to stay healthy! Cases of the virus in this state are down since the mask mandate, so I'm hoping for the best.

[@stephanfeinen3923]

I've done this several times but normally I leave the feed and the nib assembled. Then I dip the pen tip (just the nib and the feed but not the section) into hot water for about 30 seconds. Then I remove the pen tip from the hot water and apply some pressure to the nib and the feed to bring them together and hold it there for about a minute. Be very careful if the pen has an ebonite section as it will turn from black to brown within seconds (BTDT) so never dip an ebonite section into hot water! With modern plastics this heat setting normally won't work as hot water is usually not hot enough to make the plastic soft. Repairing and adjusting a vintage pen to make it useful again is great fun. I recently got a Wahl Eversharp Skyline which just needed a new ink sac and some cleaning to restore it to its old glory. Gives you some feeling of accomplishment.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Agreed: leaving the pen intact is usually better. There were some issues I saw with the nib prior to filming this video which were why I took them both out. Yes, it's better to leave them both in. Good point about the ebonite sections. I remembered celluloid, but forgot about ebonite! And, yes, I love restoring vintage pens. I'm going to film a bunch of those repair videos over the holiday break.

[@ddk5431]

A cheerful video Is a welcome break in those dark early winter days Thanks for it

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Glad you enjoyed it! I needed the same break during the week.

[@johnblackburn3331]

Thanks for showing the way you heat set the feed. That's new to me.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Glad to help! Ideally I leave them in the pen, but there were some issues I discovered prior to filming.

[@gertahnstrom784]

One of them Swedish fans here. I think you did a good job pronouncing the name (First syllable might need some work, but the ö in the second syllable was excellent! Very nice schwa!) Pronunciation apart, this was the first heat setting of a feed I've watched. Very interesting. I only own pens new enough to have plastic feeds, so I haven't been looking into that actively. Cool to see one of these in action.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Good to know! The "Sv" is not a typical combination in my language! Yes, it is nice to see how an ebonite feed can be tailored to the specific pen.

[@davecharvella4854]

Another winner! Although your "tweaking" made all the difference, I'm sure! Still, a great find!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Unlike most of my repair videos, you didn't get to see the beginning! I don't like to remove nib and feed, but it was clearly needed in this case. And then I saw the need for some heat setting.

[@Johan-vk5yd]

Great hybrid video!Thanks for sharing your method of heating only the feed! Seems more safe than any method I ever used. Your spelling of ”Svanströms” was perfect, dots n’all!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Glad it was helpful! Yes, I was able to get the dots, except on the title screen: the program I use for that apparently do dots.

[@roderickfemm8799]

The design at the top of the clip looks a lot like Waterman's from the 40's and 50's, but those didn't flare out at the bottom. The bottom of the clip and the rest of the pen does look a lot like Conway Stewart, although I don't have a Conway Stewart (or a Waterman's) that was a piston filler. Nice find.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Thank you for the detail. I never notice those kinds of things.

[@alanpareis734]

Great video. Lots O good info. So far I haven’t had to face the reset need, but I’m sure that day will come. When it does I will start with reviewing this video. My gut feeling is that I would want to try the dip only nib and feed in the hot water method first. Hopefully that would work and I would not have to take nib and feed out of section, something I am really reluctant to do for more than one reason and some less than good experiences.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Fingers crossed! Yes, dipping the pen is better: I only remove nibs and feeds when necessary. And I keep the section out of the water. But in this case, the pen had some issues that required removal of the nib and feed.

[@rinaeperron7746]

I just need to bite the bullet and get over my fear of melting the feed while trying to adjust it... thanks for the demo!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Boiling water keeps them from melting! But one thing to consider is putting just the nib and feed into the hot water, being careful not to submerge the section.

[@edwardwiper1323]

Just seen the exact same conway Stewart Svanstrom on ebay.uk for £325 or $432.19 so i would say you have bagged yourself a bargain.Apperently very rare.Love the video by the way

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Yipe! I probably would not have paid that price for this pen. So I'm really fortunate! Glad you enjoyed.

[@cesarchavarria6644]

Thank you, enjoyable!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ovebjornson7846]

Interesting pen. Being a Norwegian myself, I feel my colletion is incomplete without a Swedish pen. I have, however never had the opportunity to buy, steal or borrow one. I beleive there was also some domestic pen production in Sweden. Details are faint.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Absolutely those Swedish pens need to be in a pen collection! I was lucky with this one, especially with the low price.

[@larsdragl670]

Are you able to unscrew the endpiece of the pen? I mean the threaded part at the piston turning nob? To disassemble the whole piston assembly? I have a similar pen (brause iserlohn 3030) and cant get out the nib by pulling. I can twist it which doesnt do much exept misalining the nib :/ i would like to push out the nib from the back of the pen. Would be great if you can help me with this one 👍

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Truthfully, I never needed to. My first principle on pen restoration is "first, do no harm." So I haven't tried.

[@barbarajloriordan2697]

This may be a very obvious question, but I thought I would put it out there. I don’t know if the nib/feed is set in the way that I want it unless I have filled the pen and tried to write with it. But, then, even if flush the pen, there may still be some ink in the nib or feed, and I would not want to heat set if there is still some residual ink. I won’t know if the pen is thoroughly clean unless I pull the nib and feed, inspect them, and wash them. But, then, I won’t know if the nib is set in the way that I want unless I ink it up again. So I am guessing that it is ok to flush the pen as completely as I can and then heat set. Would you be willing to verify that it’s OK to heat set the nib after flushing carefully, without removing the nib and feed again? Have you found another way out of this rather circular problem?

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I see your point. But, unless you're using a really "interesting" ink, if the pen is running clear when you clean it, you probably don't have enough ink left in it to matter. Maybe enough to contaminate colors, but not enough to disrupt flow. With some pens, I do remove the feed to heat set it: I heat it in water and then fit it to the nib while reinserting it. Some fingers may get warmed doing it this way! My general philosophy is "First do no harm". Heat setting is a technique I only approach after other approaches have failed.

[@barbarajloriordan2697]

Thank you for your speedy reply. I’ve had good luck heat setting the nib for my Noodler’s Ahab pens. After I remove all parts, scrub them, and heat set the nib, the pen works just fine. This time, though, I have inserted a FPR #6 flex nib into my Ahab body. It took several tries to get the right fit, and now that I have found it, I don’t want to remove the nib again. I may not need to heat set at all. But, if I decide to, I don’t want to risk removing the nib and feed and not having them work as nicely as they do now. Thanks again for your prompt attention.

[@MrAndrew1953]

I haven't had a feed that out of alignment. Will that work with a feed that gushes too much?

[@WaskiSquirrel]

It might. The pens I have that "gush" usually have an issue somewhere else. For example, I have some that are gushing because of an inadequate piston seal. I'm not good at adjusting ink flow!

[@LuvsSno]

It's too bad that about half of this video is off screen... where we can actually see what you're doing with the feed and the nib to adjust them..

[@WaskiSquirrel]

For this one, I should have set up a side-view camera. I think it would have been better for this.