Achilles' Heel
By Geoffrey Berliner

    Many of the repairs and restorations required by our cherished vintage pens are not always the simple recondition and sac replacement, but are of a more extensive nature due to some design flaw of the pen itself.  I call these maladies the Achilles' heel syndrome because they are weknesses that have rendered the pen inoperable in some way, and often require extensive 
repairs to bring the pen back to functional condition. 
    As you might imagine this syndrome falls into many catagories because of the various design aspects of fountain pens, i.e. clips, levers, filling mechanisms, materials, bands, etc.. It is impossible to mention all the weakness in this article because there were hundreds if not thousands of different fountain pen models manufactured during the first half of this century, and therefore, thousands of maladies that effect them because of their inherent design flaws.  Because of this I've decided to focus on the more common and recognizable nuisances of the Achilles' Heel syndrome.

Clips:

    Most fountain pens produced after 1915 had clips affixed to the caps for carefree transportation in a shirt pocket .  With the exception of a few well design pens most clips would fail for a variety of reasons.  The most common of these was corrossion from cantact with ink from the inside of the cap. 
    Any clip that was held in place with an innercap suffered.  The best example of this is the Conklin clothespin clip.  Other examples include the Waterman Patrician, Eversharp Deco Bands, Doric, etc..., and many others. 
    Waterman rivited Clip Caps were also suseptable to internal corrission: 
especially the early eyedropper slipcap models that had no inner caps.  Clip caps in general were problematic because in the event of breakage it was necessary to rivit a clip in place, which was and still is a delicate procedure that if not done correctly will leave you with a broken cap.
    Some clips were attatched in a manner that made it impossible to replace them altogether, and the only recourse was to repalce the cap entirely. 
During the time of production this was not a problem because the manufacturer provided parts to its autorizes service stations in the form of entire caps, barrels, etc... An example of this is the later Sheaffer Ballance pens of the mid to late thirties which had their clips attached to the caps by clamping the tangs of the clip directly to the plastic.  On many an occassion the clip, when broken, would rip away a segment of the cap with it. 
    The washer clips of the Parker Duofold was perhaps the best and most copied of clip designs.  In the event of breakage, repair was as simple as inscrewing the top of the cap and replacing the clip.

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Levers and Pressure Bars
    The most common occurence of lever breakage is due to trying to engage the lever when an ossified sac is stll present in the barrel.  Some pen companys used heavier metal stock which protected the lever itself from breaking but left othe areas vulnerable.  A good example of this are pens that had the lever afixed to the barrel with a retaining pin that pierced the barrel and the lever.  Conklin, Sheaffer and others fall into this catagory. 
Instead of the lever bending the plastic around the pivoting pin would give way and crack, then break.  Lever boxes like ones found in Watermans and Eclipses are prone to breakage as are their levers.
    Lever retaining rings, which fit into a groove machined internally into the barrel, often become corroded and then fail.  Pivot pins like the ones mentioned above, and in Watermans and in general also suffer from corrossion.
    Some levers have tangs designed for pressure bar attachment.  When they become corroded the pressure bar has no means of remaining afixed to the lever.
    Some levers are so complicated and consist of many components rendering them dificult to repair or to find replacement parts.  The Carter lever system is a good example of this. 
    Pressure bars are prone to corrossin as well.  The swan pressure bar is affixed to the lever by a small retaining pin which often becoms corroded.  J shaped pressure bars usually corrode at the base near the end of the barrel, and can aslo wart the end of the barrel over time if the predssure created by the J segment is too great
    Conklin Endura pressure bars are held in place by a pressure fit design which makes them tricky to remove and repalace; and often become frozen in place by corrossion.
    Sheaffer Pressure bars are quite fragile and tend to corrode.  They are also difficult to remove and replace.  Their desicgn enabled the sac to be pressed from both the from and the rear.  The pressure bars were anchored in the rearof the barel in such a manner that, at times, made them impossible to remove without destroying them.