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Waterman 412 restoration
Article
from the fountain pen of Michael McNeil

A Waterman 412 (Before and After pictures)

 

 

Last week I bought five old fountain pens from a lady who had contacted me the week before. She also pulled out a nice Hamilton "950" pocket watch in a #11 case, which I had been wanting and recently thinking about trying to find one in that particular case.



One of the pens I bought from her is a Waterman's #412 (sterling filigree) slip cap, eyedropper fill. I took a set of photos of the pens in as-is, as found, un-restored condition. I knew I would be working on the 412, and decided that I should take some before and after photos of it. As you can see in the photos, the before shots show that the silver is very tarnished and the black hard rubber is quite corroded and olive in color.

 

McN1



I took the pen down to the workshop and there didn't seem to be much ink on the nib. I soaked the nib, feed and section and still got barely any ink out of it. I took an eyedropper and dropped a bit of water in the barrel, put my finger over the open end and shook it. I dumped the water out and still no ink, so someone had previously cleaned the old ink out of it.

I sat down at the workbench with the pen, polished the nib and smoothed the tip. I thought I might try and lessen the discoloration of the hard rubber with some Novus 2 plastic polish. I put some on a cotton swab and worked on it for a bit, but was not working as well as I had hoped, but it did help some. It would just take a lot more time and work. Also, the discoloration of the BHR, does not bother me that much. The alternative is to recolor the hard rubber, but I do not like the outcome, so I stopped recoloring pens soon after some initial experimentation, a dozen or so years ago.

 

McN3



I knew that Novus 2 would also remove tarnish from silver, without really polishing the silver. I put some on a cloth and it worked very well. It did a good job of removing the black tarnish, but didn't remove the years and years of accumulated scratches, which is exactly the look I wanted. I wanted the character, but not the tarnish and did not want the surface of the silver to be highly polished, as it would look very odd with the discoloration on the pen.

 

McN2



Heavy tarnish on silver can leave behind microscopic pitting in the surface of the metal, so it is good to remove it. My motto is "Do no harm". I think, whatever work one can do as a steward to at least help protect, preserve and keep old writing instruments intact and functioning as intended is a good thing. Old paintings, art, architecture and artifacts are restored and preserved. So are the writing artifacts that we collect!

 

McN4



**A cautionary note about Novus plastic polishes**
Novus grades #1 and #3 should never be used on hard rubber aka "ebonite", as it will discolor objects made of hard rubber. Novus 2 is just fine on hard rubber products. Also, numbers 1, 2 and 3 work well on plastics.


Anyway, back to the Waterman's 412. You can find sterling overlay pens and mechanical pencils that are in better and more nicely preserved condition than my humble example here. The hard rubber in them is nice and shiny black, the engraving sometimes as crisp as when it left the factory. But, what about the rest of these old pens? The ones that the hard rubber has corroded and become discolored from exposure to sunlight and minerals absorbed from hands, when being used. They are worthy of efforts to save them. I tend to keep pens with flaws and restore them so that they can be used. I have to keep my hard rubber pens in a chest, so they will not become further damaged by UV rays. This 412 I do not have to worry so much about, it is already discolored, has been dropped on its head and has three dents on the top of the cap. The clip is tight, so I can pack it around in my shirt pocket. It has a nice smooth somewhat flexy nib and writes like a champ! Not forgetting to mention, the pen is a classic.

 

McN5



I would like to own a 1940 Ford coupe or sedan, but had to settle for an 2007 Chrysler P.T. Cruiser. Your mileage may vary. http://cdn.boardhost.com/emoticons/happy.gif

 

 

 

 

  2014 Michael McNeil - all rights reserved

 

 
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