PFS Rippled (Mottled) Hard Rubber 1920's French Vintage Fountain Pen

1920's-30's rippled hard rubber (mottled) france/england (unsure). The pen is in lovely condition. No chips, scratches, dings, bonks, personalizations, or other deformaties.

The nib is in really, really good shape. This flex feels quite binary. I had a hard time classifying it on the mfs scale. There is almost no middle. It really doesn't take much effort, 2mfs is too high, i almost called it a wet noodle, due to the ease of opening the tines, but it's not that either.

An unusual flex for sure. Please review the pictures carefully, they are a large part of the description. This pen has had blue ink in it. Sometimes a bit of this will ooze out of the latex and a drop of blueish water will come out.

You should clean out your pen with warm water a few times. You should do this if you get a pen with a new sac.

It contains bits of rubber from the manufacturing and needs to be cleaned out as well. All pens on this site are in full working order unless stated otherwise e.

My goal is to restore these pens to the best working order they can. Aspects of a flex nib. 1 line variation: the difference between upstroke and flex, or how far it can flex. 2 easy of flex: how much pressure it takes to open the tines (mfs) "wet noodle" vs "nail".

3 how much the tines bend: to flex, the tines of a nib can either bend, or open up at the breather hole. Tines that bend give the pen a paintbrush like feel. For example: fpr tines do not bend at all but open up. Mark's flex scale (mfs).

This measures how easy it is to flex the tines -all subjective. 0 -wet noodle - takes practice to not flex on the downstroke, can be temperamental. 1-wet noodle - takes a light hand to use correctly. The slightest pressure opens the tines.

Easier to not flex on the downstroke, this nib is still very soft. Good for a daily writer if you have a light hand. You can write a letter with it one second and do some calligraphy the next. 5-same a 4 but with a bit more intent to produce full line variation.

(fpr 5.5 steel ultraflex). 6 the start of semi-flex.

Slightly more difficult to use with continuous flex (every downstroke) and takes some pressure to get it to fully flex. Flex becomes hard around curves. 7- continuous flex becomes hard around curves. Can dig into cheap paper when flexing. 8 - continuous flex becomes very difficult.

Will dig into cheap paper and occasionally good writing paper (ie rhodia). Many pens from the 50's have this lousy flex. Only good for accenting cursive with some minor shading.

I rarely have any of these for sale and they are priced accordingly. Frequently, if i end up with one of these, i will either replace the nib, or give it some flex by thinning the tines and taking in the shoulder (occasionally giving it a falcon cut). I don't sell nails but if i ever do, it will come with a clear warning.

I will however work with you to get the most out of your pen. This item is made of 14k, celluloid and plastic.

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