A vintage Conklin restored

Last October, we posted Virtual "Show & Tell" part 514 (link), which was about Christopher's vintage Conklin 'Endura'. Well, earlier today Christopher sent this update about the restoration of the pen. Without further ado, here is his write up and a new photo of the restored pen!

Christopher writes:
"When this quite large Conklin treasure came my way, the cap was sadly in need of professional attention. The original clip was missing and there was quite an unsettling crack extending out of both the top and bottom of the clip mounting hole. To make matters even worse, there was a sizable chip out of the open end of the cap just below the cap ring. Although I am a restorer and servicer of vintage fountain pens, this cap damage admittedly exceeding my capabilities. So I turned to a colleague who had a very good and professional ability to restore plastics of all kinds and match material colours perfectly. Fortunately, I also had just the right replacement spring loaded clip in my spares and, with it, he mended the cracks (matching the surface colour) then replaced the inner cap--which was badly damaged-- with an aluminum one for strength before mounting the spring loaded Endura clip. He also filled the chipped area and matched the colour as well. And just to make the pen perfect, he repainted the barrel and cap coloured banding to the original colour ."

(photos courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on images to enlarge)

But, I am sure you are wondering, what all this fuss was about?! Well, the pen now restored to its original glory is a rare long oversized coral Conklin Endura finished in Pyrroline Celluloid plastic and dated 1927. The Conklin company originally produced this fine pen in hard vulcanized rubber but, in keeping up with the times in 1927, moved to a plastic finish. It is a lever filler and a small lever, to my mind, for the overall size of the pen. But even with a small filling lever bar, the pen inks well and takes a very responsible amount of ink. At the business end of the pen is one huge nib sitting on an equally substantial feed held firmly by a jet black section. The cap posts well and the pen sits very well balanced in the hand. Back to the nib, which offers a reasonable amount of flex. All in all, this is one nice writing instrument from stem to stern and a great addition to my vintage pen collection!"

Our thanks to Christopher for this update--the pen looks fantastic! :)