Waterman rarities

We stayed pretty close to home this summer, and we're now back from our one week end-of-summer break. Much to catch up on (as usual!) -- not least, one of our most notable catalog updates, featuring some incredible Waterman rarities. Most have been sitting for years in a private collection; there are some models which we have never seen before, and many which we have not seen examples of in years.

Washington DC pen show

We'll be closing up shop this week to attend the pen show. As usual, we'll be taking only a small selection of our inventory, so if you'd like to see a particular item, let us know right away so we can be sure to bring it along.

Our main focus will be displaying and selling newly-made celluloid and hard rubber stock. You can read more about it at the American Art Plastics website.

Parker Newhaven closure

This has been expected for a good long time, with great fear and trepidation. The property has become very valuable, and Parker's current corporate masters don't care a whit about tradition.

Plans to close the Parker Pen factory in East Sussex, resulting in the loss of up to 180 jobs, have been revealed.

Newell Rubbermaid said it had started a consultation on the closure of the site in Newhaven following a review of its fine writing business.

Local Norman Baker MP said it would be a "bitter blow" for the town and urged the firm to reconsider its decision.

If the proposal goes ahead the factory, which has been open since the 1940s, will shut by the autumn of 2010.

Newell Rubbermaid said work that was carried out in Newhaven would be shifted to its site in Nantes, France.

From the BBC.

Summer plans

In years past, summer has been a slow time.  This year has been different -- partly because of kids getting older, and ever more time devoted to their activities, but also because of our new/old plastics venture, American Art Plastics.  We aren't fully up and running yet; we have managed to get some fantastic celluloid rod and slab stock made to our specs, however, and are looking forward to being able to make it available to penmakers and other artisans very soon indeed.  It's been a long, hard road with more delays, pitfalls, and setbacks than you can imagine.  Yet what a thrill it is, to see such wonderful materials re-created at last, after so much time, money, and work!

Happy holiday weekend!

It's Memorial Day Weekend here in the USA , so we'll be off until Tuesday. Summer is just about here, and we still have a big backlog of items to list -- so expect to see some catalog additions once we get back.

Chicago pen show this week

Alas, we won't be at the Chicago pen show this year, for the first time in nearly 20 years (can it really be that long?!) thanks to a family scheduling conflict. Luckily we have no shortage of pens awaiting repair, photography, and cataloguing, so we shall do our best to put our extra time at home to good use.

Seals for Waterman safeties and Conklin Nozacs

We've been experimenting with substitutes for traditional seal materials for some time. In many cases, cork seals can be replaced with O-rings -- though finding the correct and almost always special-order sizes can take some doing.

After considerable trial-and-error, we've found what we believe to be the perfect seals for Waterman safety repair. The pen itself requires no modification, and the seals can be installed with minimal effort (cork seals in this case have to be cut very thin, with a high discard rate in both cutting and installation). The seals are listed here (scroll down), with a link to illustrated installation instructions.

Coming up very shortly are sets of seals for Conklin Nozacs. The Nozac is not like most piston-fillers, in that the Nozac piston does not come apart to allow a new washer-type seal to be slid into place. Replacement seals either have to be stretched over the piston head, or -- if made of cork -- sliced and glued around it. We will shortly be listing kits of O-rings that can be installed in pairs to provide a better-than-original seal with minimal effort and cost. Since Nozacs come in different sizes and with some variation in internal dimensions, our kits include four sizes of O-rings that should fit all Nozacs from 5000 to 7000-word size.