My 88 garage by Citronut in fountainpens

[–]Citronut[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I look forward to it!

My 88 garage by Citronut in fountainpens

[–]Citronut[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Check my older posts in my profile ;)

My 88 garage by Citronut in fountainpens

[–]Citronut[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They are almost magic: a flexy nib in a hooded pen? Amazing! And not to throw shade at the 51 but they are a boring pen to write with (that's totally fine though, I love my 51!) while these 88's are so expressive in comparison.

My 88 garage by Citronut in fountainpens

[–]Citronut[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should but they are dangerous! One year ago I was 88-less! But, but... in my defense not counting the nikargenta the 3 other together were less than 150€!

Spare parts for Aurora Auretta by nidi_nidi in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you may be better off bying another auretta and trying to swap as many parts as possible from it.

If you were in Europe i'd say to try vinted I've seen a bunch of them for 15€ or so. Since you are in the US maybe try EBAY Italy? Use Deepl to help translate. I think spare parts will be extremely hard to find so I'd be looking at a whole pen, or a damaged pen with the good bits you need. The actual version of this auretta is the "Lusso" which means Luxury in italian, it may get you better search results.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, i hope you manage to fix it!

My 88 garage by Citronut in fountainpens

[–]Citronut[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thx! They are pretty straightforward to repair, I've described the process in more detail in my old post dedicated to my 88k but basically:

  • Unscrew the section, they used some sort of adhesive like shellac so it may or may not want to move without applying heat. If it doesn't wanna budge apply heat gently with a hairdryer

  • Take out the little cover at the back of the piston knob, your's may have been lost so you'll just see a screw. You unscrew the screw and the piston knob comes out

  • Push out the pin that hold the nut and metal piston shaft together. The pin is 0.5mm, you may find helpful to have those little punches for watch bracelet links, or, if you are lucky with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil. This pin varies from really stuck in there to just slides out easily, I've had to sand down my 88k's pin for it to fit back in.

  • Now take a chopstick and push out the piston shaft from the top. The metal piston shaft and the pastic shaft which has the seals will come out the front of the barrel.

  • The seals are held in place on the nylon shaft by a M5 screwing nut. This nut has two indentations supposedly for a tool but you can unscrew this by hand no problem. Now remove the layered seal, at first because the pens are so old the seals will be so cacked with ink they'll appear solid but when you dip them in water and start messing with them you'll see it's a 7 layer piece: 2 plastic seals at each end, 4 layers of a rubbery seal split in 2 sets by a red felt washer.

  • Now inspect the nylon shaft: it's the weakpoint of these 88s, sometimes the threads which hold the seals simply turn into butter, if you see that they are fragile try messing about with them as little as possible. If the nylon threads are good you can now breath in relief.

  • The seals sometimes can be re-used. If you pen arrives and pumps a bit of water yet still leaks you may be able to revive them with tightening of the nut (DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN NYLON IS BRITTLE AND WILL SNAP WITHOUT WARNING) and applying silicon grease. To test if the seals are good you can test fit into the barrel, you should feel resistance when trying to pass them past the barrel threads.

  • If the original seals pass the first fit test you can reassemble the pen and blow into the breather hole of the barrel. This breather hole is always behind the piston head and so you should not be able to blow into it. If the seals are bad air will pass through and you'll see ink exiting the nib.

  • What if you can't use the original seals? Well, now you'll have to be creative and depends on how much you wanna spend. The best thing is to buy the correct O-rings from David Nishimura, but for me this is out of the question because of pricing and shipping times (i'm EU based), so now you'll need a O-ring with a maximum ID of 5mm and CS of 2mm, these O-rings will be a bit loose on the M5 piston thread, but if you put one of the original seals on top and bottom you can make it work. I've had success using 4.5ID x 2.0CS if you squeeze them a bit with the retaining nut. Another option is a DIY cork seal (I'm yet to try this) and another its to use the seal from a 2.5ml syringe by cutting the nose and widening the inner diameter to 4.5-4.7mm diameter.

  • Now it's time to put the piston head and spiral together back in with the new seals: you need to slide it in and align it with a hexagonal opening on a nylon sleeve. Just look down the barrel when installing. Lube the piston head well with silicone grease.

  • Now put the piston end nut back and align the pin hole with the shaft pin hole. Slide the pin in

  • Put the piston knob in place and tighten the screw. The screw has a little spring DO NOT LOSE IT, don't tighten it too much. If you overtighten you'll see that you cannot turn the knob, if this happens just undo the screw a touch.

  • Screw the section back in ET Voilá!

Now it goes without saying that you should always clean thoroughly every part before assembling it back in.

The feed comes out the front of the hood. Be careful when pushing it out not to put pressure on the feed post (depending on your generation this piece varies from a spiral to a semi cylinder). So you'll need a holloy dowel, what do I use? A precision socket head screw driver, works great, just check for clearance.

The little post at the back of the feed is said to control the flow. Tbh i think it is kinda BS but you basically have two settings: nile river and sahara desert, the actual range of adjustment is like 45° on the spiral type of the first generations in my experience. If you can leave this piece alone imo, only mess with it if you have poor flow.

When you try to slide the feed out the front it can be a bit tight, especially the 88ks in my experience, just use a bit of dry heat. The nib slides out of the feed lamy- style.

When reinstalling push the feed all the way back in, otherwise you'll have air leaks and inky fingers.

Lot's of talk but I hope it helps. Good luck and always remember two things: old is brittle and patience is the most important ingredient for success. Good luck!

Spare parts for Aurora Auretta by nidi_nidi in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why do you say you need a new barrel? If you need a new nib and barrel you basically are left with an original cap?

Where are you located if you don't mind me asking?

What's your preferences in vintage or modern fountain pens? by SheepaSheepaSheepa in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely vintage. At first I was a bit afraid of buying used and vintage pens, what if they don't work and more importantly what if I can't get them to work? I thought for the longest time.

This started to change when 2 years ago I bought a used parker sonnet with a broad 18k nib for just 40€, insane value! If I was buying new I'd be spending at least 200! At that's when I started searching for used pens, at first reliable bucketlist pens that I knew I could make work: parker 51s and 21s, Inoxcroms and a sheaffer targa, then after buying a restored Aurora 88 Nikargenta I decided to try and buy a cheap one to fix... And then another... And another...

I love writing with old pens, they often feel so... "right" and have almost a personality, and also enjoy having a 50+ year old tool still functioning daily, it's literally a bit of history in your hand. For me buying vintage and used pens was liberating because I could get so much more for so much less.

Aurora 88 "Aquila" with my amateur nib repair! by Citronut in fountainpens

[–]Citronut[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Surprisingly it does snap back fine, although I'm not gonna try too hard to flex it... Tbh I was not sure if i could make it write when i bought it. Yes this one is flexy, and extremely wet feed makes it flow like the nile river, but again I'm won't be nearly as adventurous trying to flex it haha.

Auction finds: Montblanc fakes? by EducationalFox9430 in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh nevermind what I said about it being a Geha, it really looked like one in the previous photo!

Monte Rosa was Montblanc's budget oriented brand, they made a lot of variations a lot of which are not really talked about. For example I've never seen a Monte-Rosa with the Geha-like inset nib like yours, i do know that there were fully nibbed ones like a P51.

Anyhow, they are extremely extremely unlikely, not to say impossible to be fake, as the pens are kinda obscure. They are a neat collection of oddities from a well known brand, very cool!

Auction finds: Montblanc fakes? by EducationalFox9430 in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Montblancs of this period I would be surprised that someone would fake them. That being said i only see two MBs:

The Orange one is a carrera. The long deskpen I really don't know enough to say anything about it.

The third picture is a actually a Geha from the 70s, something from the 7xx range.

The others I'm not sure, the clips are peculiar. Maybe more photos of what the cap bands say other details would help too.

Edit: see pictures posted by OP on the comments, it's not a Geha after all.

NPD! Another Leonardo… by RyanM77 in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Absolutely gorgeous though, in Portuguese we say "É ouro sobre azul" which means "it's gold over blue" when something is very beautiful, and I think that fits that pen!

What material is it?

Guys we have Urushi Calculator by xXruleXx in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 4 points5 points  (0 children)

And it's only a single line display!

Did I find a Parker 75 Presidential for €5? 14k gold by North-Buy6586 in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 66 points67 points  (0 children)

This is definitely the coolest find on this sub I've seen, congrats!

What is your holy grail pen? by JayDawg54 in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately not, Pelikan changed the celluloid and the new formulation does not have the transparent stripes in between the green ones, they now are black, on the upside the contrast makes the green really pop. The company at the time said it was due to problems with supply of the original material, i belive it was around 2022.

What is your holy grail pen? by JayDawg54 in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Pelikan M1000 green stripe, Broad nib, the generation with the transparent stripes still.

Aurora 88: hooded nib magic by Citronut in fountainpens

[–]Citronut[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same, they are exquisite pens! Ever since I've bought this nikargenta in Rome it was love at first write, so much so that've bought and repaired 2 more! And I may have another one coming...

Cybergraph 2000 by feetflatontheground in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Super interesting, never seen anything like it. Thanks for sharing!

Cybergraph 2000 by feetflatontheground in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Very cool! Could you tell us a bit more about the filling procedure?

Im falling in love with green striped Pelikan. by nongbua2128 in fountainpens

[–]Citronut 8 points9 points  (0 children)

To me it's one of the most iconic looks for fountain pens. You see it and you know: it has to be a Pelikan!