31.0 Can an old fountain pen be restored?

Oh, yes, it certainly can. John Mottishaw can repair your nib for you, and Nathan Tardif can repair your Sheaffer Snorkel. Hal Arnold can also repair and restore almost any pen. See the links for more information.

"Da Book" also describes many more things that can be done to restore an older "found this in my Aunt's attic" fountain pen into a usable "vintage" pen. There are many sites on the net that will take your pen in for repair, send you the parts, or do both.

As Frank Dubiel would say, start with a cheap pen and do it yourself. Part of the fun of fountain pen collecting is performing the actual surgery on a fountain pen to restore the pen to good health. Sometimes, a well restored vintage pen will become more dependable than a new pen... and, sometimes not.

At any rate, the simplicity of fountain pen construction makes them easy to repair.

And, isn't the point of any hobby to enjoy what the hobby has to offer?