[ID: three of the same photo. In them, Harley Quinn is smiling as she's in front of a black background and is holding up a large sign with one hand and gesturing to it with the other. The sign has a gray background and is bordered with orange. In the first photo, the sign is blank but the second and third photo has black text on it that reads ‘trans rights’ and ‘gay rights’ respectively. END ID]
Mentioned a little while back that I got some more vintage fountain pens so here's one of them courtesy of my mid-at-best photography skills:
It's a Waterman no. 12 eyedropper. No clip but for some reason both Watermans and BCHR pens with clips hate me so this is the norm for me lol. Cap's patent date reads "MAY 24. 1898" so it's very likely it's from right about the turn of the 19th century. Barrel's patent date reads "FEB. 12. & NOV. 4. 1884" so I believe the later date on the cap is probably closer to when it actually left the factory.
Both patent dates are very clear despite visible aging throughout the pen. Barrel imprint "WATERMAN'S IDEAL FOUNTAIN PEN N.Y." is also very legible. The "12" stamped on the end barrel is much more faded and difficult to make out in poor lighting.
The pen's barrel, section, and cap are all made from ebonite/hardened black rubber. I don't see any markings that would lead me to believe this was ever chased/patterned. However, the pen has clearly been exposed to water throughout its life as it's a very uneven brown, with the section and parts of the barrel having turned black.
The no. 2 nib and its ebonite feed are completely intact thank fuck. The section was very stubborn and did NOT want to unscrew thanks to decades' old dried ink. I went ahead with the decision to partially soak the section to where it meets the barrel as it was already very discolored and seemed unlikely to be further damaged by this.
(Side note: it is not recommended to soak rubber pens or expose them to water unnecessarily, especially if the rubber still retains its original factory look. Even in this situation I took care to not soak the barrel.)
After some careful soaking and a little bit of heat (just low controlled heat!! NOT heated water!!!), the section unscrewed in my hand, so I didn't even need my section pliers, which was nice lol. Flushing the inside of the barrel with a syringe made cleaning go pretty fast, so I was able to fill it with ink in no time.
She's a flexy lol
The tines split very easily with hardly any pressure to the point I think I can safely classify it as a true flexible nib, albeit not a wet noodle. Without any flex, it leaves an almost stubbish EF or even EEF line—however, it lays down ink so wetly that unless you're writing VERY slowly, it doesn't look quite so fine lol. And with just barely any pressure, it easily puts down BBB lines, though (as evidenced by the slight railroading pictures) sometimes the feed struggles to keep up.
This is one of the most user-friendly vintage flex pens I've owned. It makes me wish my handwriting wasn't dogshit so I could do it justice :(
Biggest issue is a moderate crack on the cap. It isn't so severe to the point of drying out the pen, but I have to be careful when capping, and just to be safe posting is a no-go. It's functional but I wouldn't mind replacing it.
Overall, this a pretty good example of a user-grade vintage flex. Since there's no mechanism, it doesn't need to be restored, and it holds plenty of ink for writing/calligraphy purposes. I've enjoyed writing with it more than my other vintage flexies and semi-flexies for the past few weeks, and the inky fingertips are so worth it lol
hi hi kay!! i dont have have the energy to get to ur asks yet still BUT since u play isat every week i wanted to tell u The First Hint For The Secret Thing (and a general advice tip thing) just in case: did u know that u can interact w ur souvenirs? if u didnt, then well!! u can!! some of them can be silly or interesting.. and some can even change!! i recommend trying it every now n then!!
i also . highly recommend keep a save file for each act from here on (dw abt the ones youve gotten past already) if u haven't already been doing that. trust. anywayy lemme know if u find anything particularly interesting, related to this or otherwise :3c