Sorting through a parts box a few weeks ago, I came across an old friend -- a large black European button-filler that I found sometime in my very first few years of pen collecting. Unfortunately, I can no longer recall where I got it, though I am quite certain it was before I attended my first pen show. It's marked only "MONREAL", but whether it is German, Italian, or Spanish, I cannot say.
It may be a little big for carrying around, yet it sits very happily on my desk at work. It's got a fine nib, lively and responsive, which makes jotting down notes a pleasure.
Why did it end up in that parts box? Probably because its cap bands were very loose, and at the time I did not know how to tighten them. In fact, I tried to keep them in place using some sort of cement, but the results were unattractive and unsatisfactory. Have you ever bungled a repair, and then stuck it away so as not to have to think about it? I think this was what happened here -- though luckily, the bungle wasn't so bad as all that.
After all those years, it brought a smile to my face to see a botched job that I could now easily make good. The bands were eased off and the cement carefully chipped away. The bands were then swaged in place, nice and tight, and polished bright. I also tightened up the clip, which is held in Duofold-style, but whose combined hard rubber cap top and inner cap was jammed tight by the shrinkage of the celluloid cap. Getting it loose was another thing my younger self was incapable of -- though kudos to him for prudently leaving the job to someone more experienced!
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