Repair & Restoration

(Revised October 1, 2011)

Introduction Services and Pricing Restoration Services Nib Adjustment and Repair Nib Customization General Information About Plunger-Filling Pens Mechanical Pencil Repair Shipping Your Pens to Us (Important Information!) Paying for Repair Services How We Will Ship Your Pens Home

We specialize in nib repair, adjustment, and customization and specialty repair and restoration such as celluloid restoration and plunger filler repair. In all the work we do, we take great care to treat pens respectfully and make them work up to — or beyond — the potential designed into them by their creators. Shown to the right above is a comparison image, illustrating a broken Conklin Endura cap before restoration and after. Click the magnifying glass to view a zoomed image of this restoration.

Our reference page Restoration: What and Why? shows and explains in more detail what we can do for your pens; it also illustrates examples of some of our specialized work.

This week, we expect to be working mostly on pens that arrived during the week of . Pens arriving this week should return in about weeks. We can offer expedited turnaround on a case-by-case basis, at our discretion; please contact us for more information. Please note: our repair queue applies only to pens sent to us. Purchases of new pens usually happen in a matter of days.

Clients’ Comments and Art Gallery

Among the nicest things we receive from our clients are notes of thanks. On our Clients’ Comments page you will find some of the email messages we’ve received about our work. Sometimes these notes are accompanied by, or are themselves, lovely works of art. You will find some of our clients’ artwork on our Art Gallery page.

The following table lists many of our services. If the repair you require isn’t listed, please send email to inquire. Prices do not include shipping or insurance.

Except for warranty repairs, pens to be worked on are put into a queue several weeks in length to await their turn. We will let you know the estimated waiting time when we notify you that we have received your pens. (The current waiting time is about weeks, but this is only an estimate.) There is a minimum charge of $20.00 for any single repair or restoration order. We encourage you to send multiple pens at the same time in order to reach the minimum and to save shipping costs as well as your time and effort.

We guarantee our restoration and repair work for one year. We guarantee our installation labor and all parts that we provide. (We cannot guarantee parts that you have supplied.) Wherever possible, we use original parts; that is, parts made by the original manufacturer for the pen model in question. This does not includee matching the manufacture dates on pens bearing date codes.

If you are ordering custom nib modification, please fill out our questionnaire to help us customize your nib. Please do not submit the questionnaire if you are just exploring options; we connect questionnaires with repair orders and purchases, and if neither exists it is probable that your questionnaire will be discarded.

To learn more about nib shapes and styles, read Nibs I: The Basics, Nibs II: Beyond the Basics with Specialty Nibs, and Nibs III: Flex vs. Italic. For nib retipping, we have made arrangements with a reliable metalsmith who applies the new tipping material and returns the nib to us for grinding and finishing.

		Note To determine the width of an italic, oblique italic, or stub nib, we measure the line width produced by the nib, not the physical nib itself. Many manufacturers measure the nib instead, and their nibs are wider than the lines they make; for example, a 0.9-mm cursive italic nib is actually about 1.1 mm in width. A “commercial” 0.9-mm stub, for example, may produce a line only 0.7 mm in width.   Right-click the image at the left (Macintosh users control-click) to download a stroke width chart in PDF format (for Adobe Reader). The chart is designed to print on U.S. letter-size paper (81/2"×11"), and it should also print well on A4 paper.
			Click this button to download a free copy of Adobe Reader.

About Plunger-Filling Pens

There are several variations on the basic plunger filler, as used by Sheaffer (Vacuum-Fil), Wahl-Eversharp (“One-Shot” vacuum filler), Conklin (Nozac Q.F.), De la Rue (Onoto the Pen), and Pilot of Japan. We are set up to restore these pens, which have a thin plunger shaft as shown by the restored Onoto pen illustrated here:

We do not repair these pens by shoving a thick rubber washer into the barrel to substitute for the shaft packing, as do many repairers. That method works after a fashion; but it is often a short-lived and unreliable “fix,” and it reduces the pen’s ink capacity and makes the plunger operate stiffly.

Instead, we restore the pens to their original smooth, easy working order by replacing the original cork or felt shaft packing with a Viton^® O-ring and fitting a new plunger washer made of a specially selected synthetic rubber. (We are Onoto specialists, and for Onoto pens we use new-made exact replacement cupped washers for the plunger head.) We reassemble the pen using a thread sealant that is made to Sheaffer’s exact specifications.

Note If additional parts are required, the cost will be higher. Note that almost all Conklin Q.F. pens and some others have celluloid-sheathed mild steel plunger shafts that often rust and need replacement. If your pen needs a new shaft, we will “cannibalize” or fabricate one and charge accordingly.

To determine whether your pen’s filler needs repair:

Do not attempt this procedure if the blind cap will not unscrew or if the plunger refuses to move! The plunger might be damaged or the gasket might be ossified, and force can damage things much more severely.

Try filling the pen. With the pen over a sink or a wastebasket, unscrew the blind cap (plunger knob) and pull the plunger all the way up. Immerse the entire nib and part of the gripping section in water and then push down briskly one time. Wait 5 seconds, then remove the pen from the water. Hold the pen over the sink or wastebasket, and draw the plunger up again and push it down. If the filler is working, it will eject a small amount of water on the upstroke and a great deal more on the downstroke. Check also to see whether there is ink or water on the plunger shaft when it is extended; if so, the packing is compromised, and repair is needed.

Mechanical Pencil Repair

If you have a mechanical pencil with a problem, please contact us to see about resurrecting it. We have a small supply of parts for vintage pencils (but none for modern pencils, although we can sometimes adapt or adjust worn parts). We can frequently cannibalize other pencils, adapt parts, or repair existing parts to get your pencil working again. Our success rate is very good.

Shipping Your Pens to Us

	PLEASE DO NOT SHIP PENS WITH INK IN THEM!
	When you ship a pen with ink in it, the pen frequently arrives at its destination with the ink all over the outside. This can damage the pen permanently! Also, please include appropriate cartridges or converters for pens that require them.

On the advice of our insurance company, our mailing address is not here on our site because we work in our home. Please contact us to arrange in advance for repairs.

You should feel free to ship your pens by the method that gives you the greatest confidence. We can accept shipments by post, FedEx, UPS, Airborne, and other carriers — but we recommend that you avoid DHL because packages shipped via DHL arrive almost invariably in the condition illustrated to the right. We recommend that you ship pens with insurance for full replacement value.

IMPORTANT: in case the outside address should become obscured, please include inside the package a slip of paper with your name and mailing address along with our name and mailing address. Also, please include your email address.

If we have sent pens or other items to you in the past but you have moved since that time, it is especially important to let us know that you have a new address, either on the inside address slip or on other paperwork inside the package. The return address outside the package, even if it is present and legible, is not a reliable indicator of where we should send things!

Inadequately packed pens can, and sometimes do, suffer irreparable damage in transit, as shown here:

Pack your pens in a box, not merely a padded envelope. Use plenty of bubble wrap, plastic “peanuts,” or other protective materials. Sections of PVC plumbing pipe protect pens well, but the pens should be padded within the pipes so that they cannot bounce around. Note, however, that because pipes can apparently be mistaken for bombs when scanned in an X-ray machine, we recommend specifically that you not use pipes in international shipments. Do not create “mummies” by wrapping lots of tape around your pens! The additional tape does not increase the protection of the pens, and it is very difficult to remove such packaging without damaging the pens.

Presentation boxes are not usually a good way to pack pens because many of them do not hold the pens securely for shipment. Also, note that pipes and presentation boxes add significant weight. Particularly valuable pens should be sent via Registered Mail. Except for Registered Mail, a Delivery Confirmation receipt (U.S. Postal Service) is advisable to assist in tracking lost packages. If you are not in the U.S.A., please ask your local postal authorities for advice on the best way to ship your pens to the U.S.A.

Note for International Clients If you are sending your pens from outside the U.S.A., it is critical that you mark Customs documents to indicate that you are exporting the pens temporarily. If the U.S. Customs Service thinks that your pens are being imported permanently into the U.S.A., we will be charged import duty on the declared value. If this happens, we will add the Customs charges to the cost of the work we perform for you.

Paying for Repair Services

We accept electronic payment via PayPal, and we're also able to accept a personal cheque, a cashier's cheque, or a money order so long as the instrument is drawn on a U.S. bank and is made out in U.S. dollars. If you want to use a credit card, PayPal is your only choice, as we cannot accept credit cards directly. Anyone can use this service; you do not need to be a PayPal member.

To pay via PayPal, please fill out this quick and easy form. The dollar amount you enter will be the amount described in Richard’s estimate email or the amount listed in a “Your pens are ready to come home” email from Barbara or Richard.

1. Please describe what this payment is for. Make your description clear and complete, but be as brief as possible. Please enter only plain text (no HTML).

2. Enter the payment amount (including shipping costs) in U.S. dollars: $

3. Click to make the payment.

How We Will Ship Your Pens Home

We use the postal system, not private couriers. We package pens in boxes, with bubble wrap and packing “peanuts” as needed to keep package contents stable and secure.

• In the U.S.A., we normally send pens by U.S. Priority Mail, insured by our own insurance carrier.

• To other countries, we ship with insurance, via Express Mail (EMS). For your protection, we must use a shipping method that provides traceability and insurability as well as reliable delivery in a timely manner. Our experience has taught us that EMS is the only reliable option for this; we cannot insure or trace international First Class or Priority Mail; should the package be lost or its contents damaged, you would have no way to recover your loss. You can track EMS at the U.S. Postal Service’s Web site.