Vintage WATERMAN 52 Fountain Pen - BCHR - FLEX nib Fine to 2.0 mm RESTORED

Description

READY TO WRITE!
Waterman 52
Fountain Pen -- Black Chased Hard Rubber (Ebonite)
Fine FLEX
14 kt gold nib - flexes up to
2.0 mm
wide
circa 1920s
See photos for writing sample.
RESTORED - Cleaned and Installed New Sac
Thoroughly flushed out ink.  Swabbed to clean the inner diameters of cap and barrel.  Removed section and then removed its nib and feed.  Thoroughly cleaned nib and buffed it with a jeweler's cloth.  Thoroughly soaked and ultrasonically cleaned section and feed before reassembling the unit with the nib. Cleaned body with mineral oil.  Filled in missing red wax on the end of the barrel where model number is stamped.  Replaced ink sac.
Confirmed lever moved freely and depressed the new sac and draws water.  Polished metal with jeweler's cloth.  Applied wax on ebonite.  Filled new ink sac with ink for writing sample.  (Some ink may still remain despite being flushed thoroughly.)
Materials and Conditions
-
Body including Cap
Body (barrel and cap) plus section and feed, are all Ebonite, which is Black Hard Rubber. Body is chased (pressure-applied design) and is very dark black, but a tad less than the jet black of the grip section.  Photos make it all look jet black, however.
Lever-filler  [to fill, submerge nib in ink, lift lever 90 degrees and wait a few seconds, then flip lever back to original position].  Filling instructions will be included.
Body surface is shiny, but has a few scattered tiny scratches and faint dings. One scratch is 1 cm long, however.  This thin scratch is directly to the right of the clip's ball end and continues towards the cap groove (where a cap band would be).  This scratch hides well within the chasing design.
Cap clip is double-
riveted
and full ball-ended.  Ball end makes slipping on and off shirt pocket easy.
Waterman imprints on barrel, cap, and lever are sharp and clear (see photos). The imprint on the bottom of the barrel where it reads "52" is crisp and still had some of the red wax filling it; more was added to fill it completely.
Then code "52" on the end of the pen, that is the model and it means it is a lever filler (5) with a #2 nib (2), has a standard full-size diameter and length.
No brassing on the metal trim.
Cap reads:
"CLIP-CAP" on the clip as well as the Waterman globe logo, which reads "IDEAL"
Barrel imprint reads
"WATERMAN'S        REG. US.    Waterman's IDEAL logo      PAT. OFF.          FOUNTAIN PEN"
Lever imprint reads
"IDEAL" and the Waterman IDEAL logo
Underside reads: "OCT. 17-16 CAN" and "MAY 28-17 U.S.A."
The 4 drill-through holes in the cap are standard.  They allow the pen's cap to be removed without causing a vacuum, which would suck the ink out of the nib and make a mess.
NOTE
: To maintain
black
color of this pen, keep it out of the sun (UV light fades ebonite), keep it out of warm/hot water, and do not soak the barrel or cap in water.  When the pen does get wet, wipe it dry the best you can as soon as you can and then let it air dry.  Apply a tiny amount of mineral oil if hazing occurs.  These precautions will keep the ebonite from oxidizing and turning lighter and lighter gray/brown.
Thoroughly examined - no significant scratches, cracks, bends, burns or bulges.
Nib
This nib has an Fine flexible nib (0.45 mm)
14 kt gold nib.  Has smooth iridium tip (the silver-colored material on the very tip).
Clear imprint of:
"WATERMAN'S     REG. U.S.    PAT. OFF.       2     MADE IN U.S.A."
Note, in the close up photo there is a weird blue-gray color.  This is a reflection of the sky light above the pen.  The top face of the nib is all gold, with no discoloration.
Nib size 2.  This matches the "52" imprint on the bottom of the barrel (the second "2" in 52 is the size of the nib for the pen)
The nib is in excellent condition (See close up photos), and writes smoothly
The writing sample was done by filling the sac with ink to assure the feed system could keep up the the flex writing.
Although the nib and sac were flushed with water after the writing test, some of the green Waterman ink may still remain -- in fact some green is shown on the nib in the close-up photos.
This nib writes VERY wet.
Cheap paper will not due with this VERY juicy nib -- quality fountain pen friendly pen is a must.  Otherwise, the ink will likely feather (spread the ink wider, making a fine line into a fuzzy medium or worse) and bleed through the paper.
WARNING
: Flexing this nib beyond the 2.0 millimeter range will likely damage the nib, either by springing it or initiating a crack that will grow with every use.  Consider 2.0 mm the extreme maximum, and not the everyday writing line width.
Waterman - Background (
from Richard Binder's RichardsPens.co
m
)
L. E. Waterman Company
A pen manufacturing company located in New York City. Founded in the early 1880s by Lewis E. Waterman, an insurance salesman, who discovered the channeled feed. Waterman introduced its riveted
clip-cap
in 1905, popularized the screw-action safety pen beginning in 1907, and in 1915 introduced a lever filler using a boxed lever to circumvent Sheaffer’s lever-filler patent. Waterman was one of the “Big Four” but was slow to adopt celluloid in the 1920s and modern styling in the 1930s, thus entering a decline, and the U.S. company survived only until 1957. Waterman sub-brands included Aikin Lambert (after 1915), Penanink, and Remex. Jif-Waterman of France now owns the Waterman name and remains in business, producing a broad variety of pens. Waterman’s Ideal N
o
52 is perhaps the most widely collected vintage Waterman pen.
Waterman’s Ideal Fountain Pen.
Imprinted on every pen L. E. Waterman produced from the 1880s into the middle of the 20th century, these words identify one of the most popular and collectible brands in history. But one model stands out among its siblings as perhaps the most popular Waterman: the
Ideal N
o
52.
The numerous versions in which it appeared make the 52 an ideal pen on which to focus a collection. Also, because Waterman offered a broad selection of nibs, collectors who enjoy writing with their pens find the 52 a good user pen. Many 52s can be found with flexible or super-flexible “wet noodle” nibs, and for this reason the 52 is almost a cult icon among flex-nib fans. All of these ways to enjoy the pen exist side by side, attracting ever-growing numbers of adherents, made possible by the great quantity of these pens that Waterman made.
Measurements --> FULL-SIZED PEN
Length when closed - 5-3/8 inches (137 mm)
Length when posted - 6-5/8 inches (168 mm)
Barrel diameter - 0.46 inches (12 mm)
Weight empty (no ink) - 0.5 ounces (14 g)
See the photos to get a feel for the other dimensions.  The grid pattern is in 1/2 (12.7 mm) increments.
Shipping
Shipped with
USPS First Class
.  If being shipped
outside of USA
, will use Global Shipping Program (
except
Canada
.
.. I will ship directly using USPS).  Please first confirm your country is NOT on the
exclusion list
(see
tab labeled "Shipping and Payments"
behind the "Description" tab).
I will
combine
shipping, happily
I will ship using a
faster
USPS method (Priority, for example), if you pay the difference in price
Note, shipping speeds are much slower than normal