This will be a shorter-than-usual post, but the title seemed too good to waste.
Last week, my wife Ling casually mentioned that she had been clearing out some drawers at her parents’ house. She handed me a fountain pen which had lain there for over 10 years. Her dad, Chan Chiu Fa, died in 2015. I took it eagerly, as I take pleasure in rescuing old pens and nursing them back to life.
The pen was a Sheaffer No Nonsense, in black with gold coloured trim. It was a particularly nice example with a herringbone textured cap and barrel, instead of the usual plain gloss finish. Not surprisingly, the black Skrip ink cartridge inside was empty and the pen needed a good clean.
At home I removed the cartridge and flushed water through the section and nib. The gold coloured nib came up shining like new which made me wonder whether it might be a gold PVD coating. There was no corrosion. Examined with a loupe, the tipping showed little or no sign of wear and so still had plenty of mileage left in it. I used these pens all through law college and wore the nibs down to a chisel within a couple of terms from writing copious lecture notes, in the late 70’s. I wrote a post about those pens in April 2020 here.
I gave the empty cartridge its own jet wash with a syringe of warm water until there was no trace of black. I then shook the nib and section dry, into some kitchen roll paper, before syringe-filling the cartridge with Waterman Serenity Blue and popping it back on the pen. After standing the pen for a few minutes on its head (the cap and barrel are flat ended), the pen was ready to write.
In my haste, I had not removed all the traces of black ink from the nib and feed: the pen wrote but in black, not blue. However, it was a smooth writer, producing a line somewhere between fine and medium. It was marked as a medium nib. After playing with it for a little while, I removed the cartridge again and re-flushed the nib, but this time left it to soak in a jar of water overnight.
The following morning, the water around the nib had turned black. Evidently, there had been a lot of blackness to dispel. Once again I ran some warm water through the nib, shook it dry and then re-attached the cartridge. Success! This time my fresh blue ink emerged.
Having used these pens through college, the pen felt extremely comfortable to me – a near perfect size, shape and weight. It is a basic pen (literally no nonsense) with no unnecessary luxuries, apart perhaps in this case, from the herringbone etched body which I liked very much.
I do not know how my father-in-law came to have this pen. The most likely answer is that I gave it to him but if so I have no recollection of it now. I do recall that he liked fountain pens: he told me once how he had spent his very first earnings on a Parker 51, although sadly it was lost or stolen not long after, when he worked as a merchant seaman.
Receiving this pen, after all this time, reminded me of Chiu Fa, – a wonderful man, husband, father and former mariner and lecturer in navigation. He had lived through the horrors, madness and injustices of the cultural revolution in China and then lived in London for some 20 years, remaining fit and active until his final illness at the age of 90. He had enjoyed gardening, making things, travel and studying, and always retained a curiosity for places and new things. His house still retains pieces of furniture which he had made from off-cuts of wood in his garage workshop in the garden. It was not until last year that my wife and I cleared out the garage and converted it to a comfortable day room.
The Sheaffer No Nonsense was a good pen, for anyone wanting a simple and reliable work-horse writing tool that was not fancy or expensive. I am glad to add it to my collection, to be used again – both for its own merits and as a reminder of a good man.
Fountain pen blog 