How to Restore a Vintage Fountain Pen

Douglas J. Rathbun
May 17
15 min read

1950s Conway Stewart 58 SOLD ($200 US)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GI9_W18V48

THIS PEN HAS BEEN SOLD!

Hello there. Welcome to Inkquiring Minds. My name is Doug, and I'm back with a very special fountain pen video.

My friend Joost Appleboom is generously flying my wife, Winn and me to Amsterdam and putting us up in the Dutch Pen Show Hotel so I can deliver a workshop on vintage pen resurrection.

You Inkquiring Minds have been asking me for a video on fountain pen resurrection basics, tools, and supplies for a while now. I’ve been organizing and filming this video to help me create the presentation and hands-on workshop I’ll deliver in Utrecht in a couple of weeks. So, you’re essentially my guinea pigs! Sit back, pretend you’re at the Vanderval Hotel in Utrecht, get a good grip on your pen, and let’s get started.

Just remember, I’m an amateur at this. If you break your pen following my advice, well, it sucks to be you! I stumbled into this rabbit hole seven years ago while trying to buy a new fountain pen for a friend who’s inexplicably a fountain pen fanatic. You know the type. I quickly reviewed a $5 Chinese pen I bought, the Jinhao X750, and was amazed by the hundreds of views. Who knew there were fountain pen enthusiasts out there after reviewing cheap fountain pens for a while and gaining a few idiots… umm, subscribers.

A friend suggested I resurrect a dead fountain pen. He pointed out that people love watching broken things come back to life in videos, and thus, Pen Resurrection Sunday was born. While I’m a retired professor of theatre technology and design, and a self-taught amateur fountain pen restorer, I find this project fulfilling. I’ve successfully restored over 100 vintage fountain pens and regularly sell them to fund my collection of broken pens. I’m eager to share the techniques, materials, and tools I use to bring these old pens back to life and into the world of writing.

This video will focus on restoring vintage pens that use either lever or button fillers and latex sacks. We’ll demonstrate this by restoring a 1950s Conway Stewart 58 celluloid lever filler.

So, let's get started. So, here's a quick list of tools and supplies I use, and I'll include resources in the description below. One can never have too many tools, but here are some tools that you require to handle a basic fountain pen restoration. And you may well ask, "But professor, what's the difference between supplies and a tool?" Well, supplies are items that are consumables, whereas a tool is someone who forgets to pick up the supplies when he's at the store.

Here's a lot of the junk that I use.

Part 1: Tools

Paper Clip / Sac Spreader
A Magnifying Loupe
USB Inspection Camera (ear wax camera)
Scissors
Xacto Knife and Blades
Knock-Out Block
Small Hammer
Nib Smoothing Block
Nib Pliers
Tweezers
Dental tools/picks
Rubber matting or wide elastic bands
Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaner
Digital Calipers
MM Pad
Silicone Work Mat
Jeweller’s Clamp
Blunt-end syringes
Bulb Syringe
Variable Heat Gun - or Hair Dryer
Dremel Rotary Tool with cotton buffing buds
Plastic Test-tube cleaning brushes
Spark-plug gapping tool or Brass Shims

Part 2: Supplies

Silicone Grease
Silicone Oil
Shellac
Pure Talc
Latex Ink Sacs
Full set of Micromesh Polishing Pads, 1500 to 12000 grit
Polishing Compound - Meguiar’s and Cardinal
Jewelers Polishing Cloth
Naptha - Ronsonol
Methyl Hydrate
IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol)
Acetone
CA Glue
Compressed Air

Part 3: Materials

Now, let’s discuss materials. Vintage pens have been crafted from various materials, but we’ll focus on celluloid, ebonite, and gold. These can be solid gold, such as 18 or 14 karat, or gold-filled or gold-plated.

Celluloid

Since a large majority of vintage fountain pens, particularly lever and button fillers, were made with celluloid caps and barrels, and ebonite sections and feeds, understanding how these materials interact is crucial. Let’s delve into celluloid.

Consider this Conway Stewart 58 from the 1950s, crafted from a celluloid cap and barrel. Celluloid is produced by treating cellulose from plant fibres like cotton with nitric acid, creating nitrocellulose. This is then plasticized with camphor alcohol and pigments. The mixture is kneaded, pressed into blocks, aged, and can be moulded into various shapes while still hot. Historically, celluloid has been used for items like film combs and imitation ivory.

Pen caps and barrels can be turned on lathes from blocks or blanks, or celluloid and flat sheets can be heated and turned on mandrels to create the tube for caps and barrels. Celluloid is highly flammable and must be kept away from open flames. It melts at relatively low temperatures between 60 and 97°C (140 to 206°F). It also melts in contact with several solvents, particularly acetone, lacquer thinner, and MEK.

While CA glue or cyanoacrylate glue (commonly known as crazy glue) won’t melt celluloid, it will cause it to blush, turning milky white and swelling. However, it can be used discreetly and sparingly.

Shellac is the best and safest bonding agent for celluloid, especially since it melts at a lower temperature than celluloid.

Ebonite

Now, let’s discuss ebonite, also known as vulcanite. This is a trade name for black hard rubber, or BHR. It’s a highly vulcanized natural rubber mixed with 25 to 50% sulphur. Developed in the 19th century, ebonite is a rigid, durable material with excellent chemical resistance. This makes it ideal for high-end items like pens, pipe stems, bowling balls, and electrical installations. Its polished, deep black finish can fade to brown over time when exposed to light. Before the 1920s, most fountain pens were made entirely of ebonite. While it’s resistant to most solvents and glues, it’s particularly vulnerable to water and sunlight. It sounds like a vampire, doesn’t it? Ebonite can be polished to an amazing shine, but it dulls quickly in the open air, especially in moist conditions and under direct sunlight.

Gold

Now, let’s discuss gold. Renowned for its resilience, gold holds inherent value. Its durability, pliability, and moldability allow it to shine brilliantly after centuries of burial and oxidation. However, as the bard wisely noted in The Merchant of Venice, “All that glitters is not gold.”

True gold is distinguished by its purity, measured in carats. Pure gold is 24 karats (24K), while gold is often alloyed with varying amounts to enhance strength and reduce purity. For example, 18 karat gold (18/24 * 100) is 75% gold, and 14 karat gold (14/25 * 100) is 58.5% gold. This is why nibs are often stamped with 18K750 or 14K585.

Pen hardware is typically not solid gold but either gold-filled or gold-plated.

Gold-filled

Gold-filled consists of a thick layer of 10K or 14 karat gold bonded to a substrate metal under intense heat and pressure, making it highly durable and long-lasting. Many vintage pens, like Parker Schaefer and Conway Stewart, feature gold-filled hardware.

Gold-plated

Gold-plated metal, on the other hand, is a thin layer of gold electrically bonded to a base metal, offering limited durability and quickly wearing off, exposing the base metal. Therefore, the hardware on this PenBBS pen, made in China, is a thin gold coating. In summary, you can polish gold and gold-filled items with a jeweller’s cloth or buffer, but avoid doing so with gold-plated items, as they will quickly lose their shine.

Part 4: Triage the Pen

When I receive a vintage fountain pen, my first step is triage. This involves thoroughly examining the pen to determine what it needs to return to working condition. I start by doing some research. For example, if it’s a lever or button filler, I’ll ask Google what size sack it uses. I might type something like, “Hey Google, what size sack does a 1950s Conway Stewart 58 pen take?” Google might not understand immediately, but I can type it in myself, and it usually provides the information I need. For instance, it might say a size 18 or 17, and what kind of pressure bar it requires. I’ve included a list of research resources below.

So, we examine the pen closely. The clip needs polishing, and I notice some brassing. This suggests the gold might be fading in certain areas. The top section appears to have been painted aluminum, but the paint is gone. The gold cap bands look good, while the celluloid appears lovely but worn. I check for scratches, gouges, or cracks. The lever seems fine, but when I try it, it’s very crunchy. This indicates the latex sack inside is old and hardened.

We remove the cap and examine the nib. We use our loop to inspect the tip for alignment or any needed repairs. Is it bent, out of shape, or cracked? We also check the feed for breaks or cracks. Finally, we look at the section for cracks or breakage. We try out the section to see if it’s removable.

Part 5: Dip Test the Nib

I’ll grab some paper and Waterman’s Serenity Blue ink. We’ll perform a dip test on the nib to see how it works. It seems to be quite rough, but it has some flexibility and appears to have a stub-like nib. While it writes okay, it’s very rough.

We’ll examine it closely, and you might notice that the tines are misaligned. We need to realign them, so I’ll add that to our to-do list.

After examining the entire pen for potential repairs, I’ll soak the nibs in pen flush in my ultrasonic machine for 2-3 minutes to loosen any old ink, especially dried ink inside the cap. However, no more than 2-3 minutes is needed for these pieces.

If you’re soaking something for a longer period, use distilled water overnight, perhaps with a drop of dish soap. While the cap is still in the bath, this nib has been soaking for a few minutes.

Part 6: Disassemble the Pen

I’ll try to remove this section. It’s likely sealed, so we need to heat it until the shellac melts. Then, we can pull it out. Just heat a bit, and use my gripper to see if it turns. It should turn, and we’ll see it’s detached from the inside sack. Now, I can rinse it out. I’ll inspect the barrel with my camera to see the old desiccated latex sack inside. I can soak some out and scrape some with my dental probes. It’s pretty solid right now, so I’ll put it back in the bath. I’ll use my X-Acto blade to scrape off the old latex sack remnants. You can see bits of shellac. We’ll clean it up so there’s a nice surface for the new sack.

Knocking Out the Nib and Feed

Now, we get out our block and our rod. And we find a slot in the knockout block that accommodates the nib that holds up the section, and give the feed a tap. That came out very, very easily. And it's a nice long feed on these Conway Stewarts.

Part 7: Polishing the Nib, Feed, and Section

There's our ebonite feed. We'll polish that up. And there is our ebonite section. And we'll clean that up and polish it as well. And there's our nib. And we'll polish that up. But all three of these pieces will go back in the pen flush agitator for a couple of minutes again. And then we'll polish them on my Ryobi Dremel tool, and finish up with the nib on my jeweller's polishing cloth.

I’m just giving it a light buff. That’s not dirt; it’s gold. Gold turns black, and to get the concave side, I simply fold it over and rub it with a cotton swab. There it is, our nib all polished up. It’s marked 58, so this nib is from a 58 Conway Stewart 14CT gold nib.

Part 8: Align / Repair the Nib

Now, let’s examine the nib and see if I can adjust it while it’s outside the section and feed. I’ll make a small adjustment this time. This is my magnifying headset, which has variable lenses. It fits around my head and has a built-in light, making it very useful for close-up work. While this isn’t necessary, it’s very helpful.

That’s much better. Now, those tines seem fairly well aligned. A little more adjustment, and we’ll check it again once it’s back inside the section with the feed. The feed can sometimes misalign a nib, but it doesn’t look too bad. A little adjustment might be needed.

Part 9: Reinstalling the Nib and Feed

Now, let’s grip the feed with our gripper material, both top and bottom. I’ll align it on the feed where the edges touch the nib. Grip it securely with the gripper material and return it to the section. I’ll use a technique with my 400-grit flexible sandpaper. I’ll lightly rough up the ebonite on the tail shank of the feed. This creates a dry lubricant of powdered ebonite, which is brownish in colour. We’ll repeat this process. We’ll align the feed, place it in the section, and find that sweet spot. Then, we’ll give it a push and a slight twist to ensure it’s properly aligned.

Part 10: Removing the Pressure Bar and the Old Sac

Now, we need to clean out all that old gunk from the barrel. I’ll use my dental tools to carefully pick at the old latex sac, and my test tube cleaning brush to scrub it clean. There was so much desiccated latex inside that I had to remove the pressure bar.

The pressure bar is attached to a lever, which I pulled out using tweezers. The lever connects to those flanges, and you can see there’s still a lot of old latex attached. However, it’s solid and in good shape. Now, I can reach the rest of the gunk inside the barrel.

Part 11: Installing a New Latex Sac

When I first asked Google about the size of a Conway Stewart 58 sack, after asking if I wanted to hear Conway Twitty’s greatest hits, it informed me that it required a size 18 sac. So, thank you, Mr. Google!

I’ll refrain from the Conway Twitty and use this sack for my pen. First, we need to determine the length. If we insert the section into the very bottom of the sack, the sack should reach the top of the nipple. However, I’ll retract the sack slightly to prevent the bottom from touching the pen’s interior.

Now, the sack is bottomed out. I’ll pull it back just a bit and align it. It fits perfectly. I’ll measure the length, which is almost 20 mm, and mark it. Then, I’ll snip the sack at that point.

I’ll place the sac on the paper clip and fit it underneath the section. I’ll do a test fit to ensure the length is correct. I’ll pull the paper clip out. At this point, there’s no shellac. It looks like the perfect length.

Now, I’ll use my 400-grit sandpaper to rough up the nipple section of the section. I’ll use my sac spreader paperclip again. I’ll apply a bead of shellac all around the nipple using my shellac pen. Alternatively, you can use a paintbrush with a bit of shellac.

I'll paint a bead of shellac all the way around the nipple. Then, I’ll fit the tip of the nipple underneath the sack. I’ll pull the paper clip out and push the sack up, giving it a slight twist.

I’ll apply another bead of shellac around the joint to protect it from leakage. This small amount of shellac will hold the section in place. I’ll let it dry overnight before putting the section back into the barrel.

Part 12: Polishing the Cap, Clip, and Barrel

Next, we polish the cap and barrel. Here’s the barrel before: there’s significant wear around the end where the cap was posted over the years, causing abrasion. Similarly, there’s wear on this end from the cap rubbing against the barrel when capping the pen. I’ll sand through the micro-mesh from 1500 grit to 12,000 grit, avoiding the lever. Before polishing, remove the clip.

Removing the Clip

So, to remove the clip, use a pencil as a mandrel to press against the conical jewel. Now, the clip is turning, but the jewel isn’t. We have the top final jewel and the clip off.

We can put the clip on the buffer and polish it up. Try the underside of the tip first to see if I go through the gold. If I do, I’ll back off.

Polishing the Cap

While polishing the cap, I noticed a significant gouge right there. It looks like someone gouged it with a Dremel tool. I’ll sand it down a bit and then put the clip over it to hide the damage. I’ll mask the cap band with masking tape until I reach 4,000 grit. Then, I’ll polish the gold with the rest of the celluloid from 4,000 to 12,000 grit. Finally, I’ll apply the polishing compound with the Dremel tool.

Clip, Cap, and Barrel Polished

Here’s a very nice clip, indeed. It’s gold-filled, which makes it incredibly resilient and easy to polish. You can see a deep bite mark on the cap, likely from someone using a grinder or similar tool to polish it. The barrel appears shiny and new, from stem to stern, with the imprint still visible. It’s a Conway Stewart 58, made in England. The lever is also shiny, and the cap looks gorgeous. The cap rings are beautifully shined up, and they’re gold-filled, not plated. Those indents are still there, but we’ll hide them with the clip.

Part 13: Reassembling the Pen

Let’s put this pen back together. First, we attach the clip and cover the gouge. We’ll use a pencil as a mandrel and start threading the top jewel.

I managed to tighten the screw down with the clip right over the gouge mark, and it lines up perfectly with the imprint. Great!

Now, we’ll put the nib, feed, and sack back into the barrel. We’ll need some talc for this. Talc prevents the latex from sticking to the inside of the barrel. I’ll coat the latex sack generously with talc to ensure smooth sliding.

Next, we’ll align the imprint with the section, which has a small amount of dry shellac. I might apply a bit of heat to soften the shellac slightly.

Perfect. While the shellac is slightly tacky, I can adjust it as needed. That’s good.

Part 14: Tuning the Nib and Writing Sample

Now, all we need to do is test fill the pen and then write a sample. I retrieved my writing materials and noticed from the sample that the nib needed a slight adjustment due to its strong feedback. I aligned the tines so they were perfectly together. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t do this because it would ruin the nib.

I then dropped a small amount of water onto some 8000-grit micromesh. I go up and down, side to side, in all directions—counterclockwise, clockwise, infinity symbols, and figure-eights—eight times each, holding the pen firmly in my writing grip angle. I don't change my wrist position or move my fingers; I simply hold the pen and move my hand back and forth at this fixed angle. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

And use no pressure at all on that pad. Otherwise, you'll splay the tines of the nib, and you'll be polishing the inside edges. You don't want to do that.

Fill and Measure Ink Capacity

Now, I'm going to measure the weight of this pen without any ink. 9.6. Press tare.

We’ll fill it with Waterman’s Serenity Blue, a safe ink for latex sack vintage pens. We’ll pull the lever, hear bubbles, and let it go, leaving the nib in the ink for about 10 seconds. This will fill the latex sack. We have 1.34 ml of ink, which is quite a bit. We’ll write that down: 1.33 ml of ink.

Now, the ink flows smoothly without pressure. We’ll check the line widths and give it a gentle push. Is this a flexible nib? Let’s see. We can definitely push out a lot of line variation. It’s very bouncy. We’ll use our MM pad to check the line widths.

The horizontal line is very thin, about 0.3 mm. The vertical line goes up to 0.6 mm, and when we push it, it expands to 1 mm. So, the line width ranges from 0.3 mm to 1.0 mm. This makes it a very stubby pen, allowing for line variation without any pressure.

The pen posts beautifully, not too long, and it’s very light. Posted and full of ink, it weighs only 17 grams.

THOUGHTS

So, here are my thoughts on this pen resurrection.

I wanted to use a lever filler for my restoration tutorial, and I’ve always been a fan of the Conway Stewart 58. This particular pen is one of the nicest 58s I’ve ever owned. I’ve never seen this colour of celluloid before—it’s a beautiful lilac purple.

There were a few minor issues during the restoration. First, the nib was misaligned and needed some tuning, which was easy to fix. Second, there were two gouges on the cap from what looked like a grinding tool. You can barely see them under the clip. It seems someone tried to polish the clip with a rotary tool and slipped, getting the chuck of the tool into the cap and then moving the clip over. The gouges were too deep to fix, but they’re mostly hidden under the clip.

Third, the old latex sack in the barrel was stuck pretty well, and the pressure bar was completely seized. I had to remove the pressure bar and carefully remove the solidified latex with a drill bit. Using such tools on a vintage pen requires extreme caution. It’s easy to slip or push too hard, which could tear the lever out or gouge the inside of the celluloid. So, take your time, be careful, and never put a drill bit on a drill.

In the end, I have a fully restored, working 1950s Conway Stewart 58 fountain pen. It has a 14-karat gold bouncy medium nib with a lot of character and is a joy to write with.

If you’re interested in purchasing this pen, I’m selling it for $200 US plus shipping. Just email me at inkquiringminds@gmail.com with your name and address. I’ll send you a shipping quote and instructions on how to pay with PayPal.

I’ll be presenting a simplified version of this overview of Pen Resurrection 101 at the Dutch Pen Show in Utrecht on Saturday, June 6th. I’ll use a different 1950s Conway Stewart lever filler this time—a beautiful ruby red crushed ice colour, a Conway Stewart model 84.

I’m excited to perform this live for an audience. I’ll include links to the tools, supplies, and reference resources in the description below. If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe. Don’t forget to ring the bell for instant notifications of new videos. You can join my channel for just 99 cents a month. I promise to respond to your comments in the comment section. Members get cool emojis, badges, sneak peek unboxing videos, and early access to all my videos. Basic members get 10% off and $5 a month, while Patron members get 20% off resurrected pen purchases. Thanks for watching!

And that's all she wrote.

I made this.