Frankenpen! HELP! Wahl Oxford Eversharp Flex Parker Vacumatic Major

[fast14riot]

So I found this Parker frankenpen at the fleamarket today. It had a shoddy Wahl Oxford cap on it, but I noticed the girdled blind cap on the other end, which made me look a little closer. I have a personal rule when pen hunting, open and inspect every pen I find. Read the pen, nib, fit and feel. This is one of the reasons I do that. Under the cap was an Eversharp Gold Seal Flexible nib attached to a Parker vacumatic Major sized body with speed line filler and a date code of .9., second quarter '39. The blind cap is solid black and the body has very dark green stripes.

I am wondering if the nib and section are original, or of a similar vintage as the body. Are these nibs worth having fixed? This one is sprung and tines cross when allowed out of line, but it has the length and a decent softness to flex nicely, which is what I am after. Anyone have a proper cap for this pen? Blind cap? Recommend a repair person who can fix the nib as well?

Here are the pics with my Duo-Vac dated .1. for comparison.

-Xander

 

[nemo]

Your Eversharp nib doesn't look sprung to me, just needs to be reset in a replacement section and tuned a little (thumbnail tweak), right now it's way way too far out. I think your blind cap is supposed to be black, you're OK there. Nice find!

Good luck finding the Parker cap and section, it would probably be a good idea to look for a plain black Vac cap as that Shadow wave isn't gonna be easy to find.

 

[fast14riot]

Thanx for that Doug! I am guessing you are correct about the blind cap, having seen many more shadow wave Vacumatics with solid blind caps. I did some looking around the net and found a lot of maybe a dozen or so parker sections, but I don't want to spend $40 on all those extras! I have a couple emails out to repairers for a cap of any vintage that will fit this pen body. Looks like this may be a Junior Vacumatic, as the shadow wave seems to be only produced in that size. I was comparing it to my Duo-Vac which I think is the ingenue size and smaller than this one. Trying to figure out the sizing without the cap is proving to be difficult, damn you Parker and your Dynamic Obsolescence! Personally I don't care if the cap I get is correct for the color/year/model, I'm really after the flex nib!

The nib has one tine tweaked just a touch, the left one and if I push one up they snap and cross pretty far. I've tried tweaking at the corners to spread them just a touch but they really need the services of a pro. I don't want to risk doing more harm than good, having never worked with a such long nib. I really should start doing it more, I love fixing up these old pens!

Its been through the ultrasonic several times now and is fully cleaned out. Maybe I will try it as a dip pen just to see what this nib can do!

-Xander

 

[nemo]

With Vacs, the Junior is not a size designation, it's more of a trim and quality level sold at a lower price point without the same guarantee. There were Demi-sized pens called Debutantes that came in different price points as well. The Junior is about the same size as a Major in '39 (2nd generation, Speedline filler) and later but had two thin cap bands instead of one with the ///\\\\//// and had a different nib imprint -- same diameter. I could be wrong but that's my take. Any early Vac experts out there?

 

[fast14riot]

Ok, so this parker stuff is as clear as mud to me now! With so much info on these pens relying on the cap, it really becomes difficult when you don't have one!

Yes, experts?!


-Xander

 

[nemo]

Ok, so this parker stuff is as clear as mud to me now! With so much info on these pens relying on the cap, it really becomes difficult when you don't have one!
-Xander

Or the nib!

 

[brianw]

Spot on Doug. In '39 thats exactly the way it was.

 

[fast14riot]

Cool Brian, I guess that's what my pen should look like! Feel like parting it out?


-Xander

 

[brianw]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.....No. I was just about to ask you that . Mine is a 4th quarter 1939 with a Pendleton Italic nib grind.

 

[brianw]

Those brothers in the Dakotas....the Lotts will have what youse want

 

[fast14riot]

Thanx for that! I'll check it out. But what parts do you need?

 

[brianw]

I'm always jonesing for Vac parts.

 

[fast14riot]

I'll keep that in mind, I may still consider parting this out. I'm waiting to hear back from some repairers about this pen.


-Xander

 

[nemo]

I jones for that Wahl nib!

 

[fast14riot]

I jones for that Wahl nib!

Haha, I did a little reading and these nibs are pretty nice! I played around with thumb-nail tuning and it is definetly sprung. It pretty much just fell out of the section but the feed stayed behind, so I got it cleaned up real nice. I don't have a nib block currently to smooth this out, but just because i have no self control I dipped it to test out...I think I'm keeping this nib! Its about a M-BB but being sprung it flexes out to about BBB! Hmm, I have an old Estie laying around that I bet I can squeeze this thing into!

But, Doug, I will remember that if I do part it out to send you an email!


-Xander

 

[fast14riot]

Hey Doug, here's some insight into this nib...me likey!

-Xander