Tuesday, September 11, 2012

A very early Waterman lever-filler

This pen is one of the earliest Waterman lever-fillers I have yet seen. Early PSF-series lever-fillers have the narrow raised barrel threads, but much less common is the form of the lever, shown below, stamped of thinner metal than later examples, with a small end with a narrow margin around the globe logo imprint, and plated rather than gold filled.
The recess for the lever end is also distinctive, and also rather crude compared to later examples. It is flat-bottomed and appears to have been made by milling a simple oblong depression -- basically just two overlapping circular recesses.
Early Waterman lever-fillers with the raised threads normally also have a sprung two-piece pressure bar, as shown below. The J-shaped spring has a T-shaped end, which toggles into a slot in the rigid pressure bar. Unlike later pressure bars, this bar is not toggled to the end of the lever, and the matching lever lacks the necessary tabs or "ears" to engage a later pressure bar.
This pen, however, has an even more unusual pressure bar. It too is two-piece and sprung, but here the spring has a C-shaped base to hold it in the barrel, and its other end is permanently attached to the rigid pressure bar by a single rivet.



UPDATE:
Here is a better close-up of the lever box area, which also shows another very early feature: the bent-over tab that serves as a lever stop, rather than the solid crossbar that is seen on all later Waterman lever boxes. At the bottom is a comparison shot of another early PSF with raised threads and sprung two-piece pressure bar, but with the more familiar lever box construction and fingernail groove in the lever end recess.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I believe I may have picked up one of these pens. Actually, just the barrel, feed section with nib & feed in a "grab bag" lot of vintage pens.
It is identical and fits the description of the lever with the IDEAL logo and oval fingernail cut out as in the images you have here. There is some writing on the side of the lever bar but I will need to take a little time to clean off the area just a bit to see it clearly.
I don't know who owned it or where it was stored, but it seems to have kept it in pretty good shape. The rubber is not dry or cracked. It still actually has the "feel" of rubber.There isn't any fading or color changes to the rubber, you can see the chased pattern. Although the pattern is not as deep/prominent as on the black pens I have seen. This pen looks "mottled" in brown tones, if that is possibly for a Waterman. I guess it reminds me of a cigar colors.
There are markings on the bottom, it appears to have a large faint diamond on the bottom and a number that I am not sure of.
It is a pretty clean pen overall, but I want to clean the lever to read the markings in the sides.
Before I do anything, what is the best and safest way to give it a gentle cleaning and remove the lite gunk on the lever? Someone may have cleaned it already, because it is really in good shape and the sac has been removed. I suspect they were in the process of putting new sacs in several of the vintage pens in the bag. ( Conklin, Townsend, Wearever Founain/pencil combos, Packard, Parker 21, Avon, Parker-Eversharp Fifth Avenue gold and others) Any information or advice is welcomed. Thanks !