Always a sucker for pretty plastics or interesting hard rubber this baby came to us a few months ago, sans clip. Nice pen. Pretty hard rubber, I guess. Darn, no nib. Well, it came with the stub of the Z clip secured inside the cap by the cap liner and it needed to be removed.
To remove the small part of the clip inside the cap the cap liner had to be removed. My method.
Thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly soak the cap in water with some dish soap. I’ve used tile cleaning liquid in the past without any harm to the finishes. It is stronger and ink absolutely hates the stuff. The cap was soaked overnight and rinsed in the morning. Residual ink continued out of the cap so soaked it for another twenty-four hours. It should be ready for Step 2.
2I I have a few ballpoint pens with rubber grip
sections that can be easily removed. So I remove one of the rubber grips and
placed it on a tapered piece of metal (could also be wood dowel) that fit the
rubber neatly inside the cap.
3. Using the friction of the rubber the metal was
turned to see if it would grab the inner cap. There was some movement. Still
tight.
4. To help the cap loosen the grip on the inner cap
I heated the cap with a hair dryer. Any hair dryer will do. Just don’t keep it
there for a couple of minutes until the cap melts or turns into a torch.
5. Tried inserted the metal again and tightened the
rubber against the cap liner and turned. Ouila! The cap liner came right out.
No damage.
6. Washed the inside of the cap and cap liner thoroughly
again and it awaits a new Z clip.
The gold on the two cap bands and lever is all there. No, or
if any, brassing. All it needs is a clip. The search is on.
The Union Pen Company was supposedly a lower tier subsidiary of the Morrison Pen Company of New York. Morrison seems to have had their hand in all types, models, and tiers of pen making in the 1920s and 1930s.
The nib is a WARRANTED 14K gold type. Writes very smoothly. With a new gold clip that can be recycled from our favorite online auction service, this pen will be killer.
There is one small flaw that might bother some collectors or
users. On the opposite side of the barrel where the lever is located there is a
small hump where the ring that supports the lever is located. It is probably no
worse than a small scratch. I wonder what would happen if I judiciously heat
it. Will it revert to its original shape? To my amazement there was a small positive change. Am not going to push it. No need to destroy the pen. At this point
micromesh might be the way to go.
Just found another Union Pen on the online auction service. More unusual finishes.
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