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I may have missed it in the video...did you do anything to seal that crack in the barrel? I'm concerned that it will continue to grow due to pressure exerted as you depress the Touchdown tube. It seems likely that you won't always press the Touchdown tube straight in, and sideways pressure will try to open the end of the barrel, which will stretch that crack and cause it to advance a tiny bit. I think that acetone would be the right solvent for the plastic. You could "wick" a tiny amount into the crack from just inside the barrel opening, above the o-ring.

I wanna grow old like this man ❤

Great review! For the Tobi style 1.4-2.0 nib. Will the line thickness vary if you press harder or lighter at the same angle? Thanks!

Arghhh😱😱Feel so sad that the Sheafer has proved so challenging to repair

I bought my L2K with a "medium" after reading too many stories from various peeps about curious things in the various other nib widths. I'm a medium kind of pen person and it has worked well. Perhaps a different ink may help with your nib - very strange effect. Perhaps a relationship with a nibmeister may be coming into your life.. I enjoyed the video - thanks.

Thanks for the great review! I was hoping the vertical line would be broader when you press down harder. Is there any cheaper version of the Naginata Togi pen?

Many thanks for the description of the differences between the blade types! A thumbs-up for you, sir!!

FWP is an ecomm-only low effort ink brand formed to save the company's failing cardstock / paper business. most of their inks seem to be super watery and more akin to writing with watercolor..

Transparent Window. That is, an ink window.

I believe the Hongdian brand makes 2 long blade nib sizes: medium and fine. Only N9 and N23 are long blade medium, all the others are fine and perhaps that's what the "F" letter on the nib means.

Hello Doug! I was wondering if you have tried the moonman/majohn inks. I saw then on Aliexpress and decided to buy some but I haven't seen any reviews for them. I would love to see your opinion on them! :)

Thank you, Doug, for this very important post. We truly need to see the pitfalls of pen repairing to have a full understanding of the pitfalls, and the solutions thereof. FWIW, I have a Touchdown TD (not a Snorkel) that draws ink on the upstroke and expels it on the downstroke---go figure! Hope you're enjoying your summer as much as I detest our winter. Cheers from Beryl of Bermagui.

Beautiful job. I've been lucky enough to find a gummed up, black (not sure which black), 1958 51 Aeromatic Classic 'made in England' for very little!... that once de-inked (it was amazingly gummed with not just red thick dried up ink but also dried up blue ink!!). , lightly sanded with micro-mesh, disassembled and further cleaning of the sack, works very very well. It was a little scratchy on re-assembly and was a touch dry. I ran a thin bit of plastic in between the tines then smoothed the tip with 12k micromesh.... it's now nicely wet and extremely smooth. I'd never guess it had 10 years on me!! I also bought the same model that had been "disassembled and cleaned" in Burgundy from the early 60s and again, an English pen ... and sadly, the nib had suffered a bent tine in the past that has not been straightened well enough. I got it writing reasonably well, but I bought a NOS '57 English medium to fine nib and it now writes exactly like the black one I restored. After watching this excellent video, I feel the urge to try a vacumatic .... which are nearer to my parent's vintage. Thank you for going to the effort to show your work. M

it is nice of you to share a failure , it may not be glorious but it is a bit more knowlege for every one of us , thank you.

Random aside (cause I know this video is 4yo) but the peeling on the tips of your fingers can be from Vit D deficiency (I get the same thing). Hope this random observation helps :)

You never stop learning, provided one is willing to learn. So glad to read that a simple bigger/larger O ring from the PenBBS replacement kit made the old geezer (no disrespect) working again. But, as I already commented in another Sheaffer Snorkel restoration: You can make something simple and easy or do it like Sheaffer did with their Snorkel fillers. Now I'm waiting for part II when everything comes back to the old glory.. BTW, what material is the barrel made of? Is there any information about it?

Excellent and very instructive. Doug, watching a “failure “ can enhance learning, especially when followed by the correction. I can hardly wait to see part two. 👍

Gorgeous pen and ink. Is it Kon Peki?

UPDATE: Based on some of the excellent comments here and in my Facebook fountain pen groups, I have been able to get the Sheaffer Clipper working. A commenter on a Facebook group called Vintage Fountain Pen Collectors, Users And Restorers In Pakistan suggested that the previous restorer had deepened the o-ring groove in the barrel. Hence, the o-ring doesn’t make a proper seal. A commenter here said that old plastic tends to shrink and thus the seal isn’t as strong. I think they are both right and it caused me to think I might replace the correct o-ring with one of my many o-rings from my Penbbs Parts Bag. I tried a thicker o-ring and the barrel not only hissed at me and when I put it back together again, it sucked up 0.45ml of ink and is writing beautifully now for more and a half hour. I will film polishing up the rest of the cap and barrel, tune the nib, and restore the pencil in “SNORKEL Part II” coming soon! Thanks everyone for your great input and suggestions!

13:20 and 13:43 Thank you, Doug!! Tough luck on the snorkel not working. I’m sure you’ll figure it out; you’re a smart cookie.

Using your idea, I swapped a standard nib, and put a Heartbeat nib into my 9019.

Another great video Doug, sorry the end result wasn't positive. I have found after troubleshooting technical systems (I don't see pens being any different) for over 45+ yrs. the best approach is to tackle one issue at a time especially when there are a number of issues. I think the first thing would be to get the vacuum working, and from one commenter, it sounds like there is a plan to tackle that one issue. I'm looking forward to seeing part 2, and better luck!!

Thanks for the pen ressurection for the Sheaffer. It will be interesting to see part 2. I have a red Stipula Speed which was one of the early pens I bought. It looks great hangining in my pen display on the wall. It writes OK, but its not comfortable for a long write. But like many Italian products, it does look sexy. Thanks again.

I'm pretty sure you'll get the pen back in working order in part 2. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get the right tips from the community. So far, you've made the best of it and given the fans lots of fun moments. Thank you!

since someone might have had dipped it in india ink, i would go ahead and take off the nib and clean the feed too

Looking forward for part two. Im sure you wont let go that easy. That Stipula pen is beautiful.

Thank you for the great video Doug, I also have a Clipper Snorkel (a Burgundy colored one) waiting to be "resurrected", because it is in a very bad shape. It'll recieve a new nib, cap, sac, gaskets and o rings, and it'll be as good as new! 😄 I'm glad that my other Valiant Snorkel is in good shape, altough I had to work on the nib to get it aligned better. It is a joy to use now.

Hi, same pen, same case scenario happened to me. Problem is this plastic barrel gets brittle and shrinks with time, oversizing the I.D. where the o ring seats, which creates a gap between o ring and metal tube slider, hense: no vacuum.

I love this pen,.....and its EF nib is so smooth,.....it is the best writer of the 20 pens I own . Highly recommend the N11.

The Touchdown has to be the most complicated mechanism. Sorry to see it did not work. Either the O ring is the wrong size or that crack is still open somewhere. Valiant try, Doug. I had the Stipula Speed ballpoint. I almost bought the fountain of pen but the representative actually dissuaded me from getting it. I am glad he did.

Your music is from my hometown university. Thank you.

Very complicated, must watch it again. Did most snorkel pens stop working over years of use?

Would you say this pen is good value? Or should we save up more and get a higher brand gold nib pen? Because this one is 55euros if i wanna get it right now. And i have seen some 100-150 dollar gold nib good brand pens. Thanks in advance!

Frustrating! So far....

Very interesting and weird that the cap and barrel don’t match. That’s hard to tell from the pictures.

Don't forget to pronounce it like doodlebugs......mon.....blon.....even thhough it's a german company. Poor little man. Got a story about how long he took french bla bla bla. Little Hom@ Fa@

Hi Doug, great video, I see your imperial Grand Poobah from the Loyal Order of the Water Buffalos is lending you more of his special collection. The nib on this one looks delightful.

As it has been said, you can't always get what you want. It is a shame that it doesn't perform well. You stated you were not fond of the Parker 51. Since you have resurrected a number of them, has your opinion changed?

You can get a seat at the Stanley Cup finals in Sunrise, Florida, for the same price as Murray's pen. 🥅⛸ On the other hand, you (and I) can watch the game from afar basically for free, but we can't write "Go Oilers" with the MB for less than @ US$1000.00. Not incidentally: Inquiring Minds said in 2023 that the Wing Sung 630 is "physically identical" to the Montblanc 149. And that the nib writes beautifully. And that the price gap between the two pens is "ridiculous."

Doug. Are there any pens, that, oops, somehow get, *cough*, lost, on the way back to Murray? 😊

I am not a fan of turquoise. So I wouldn't be able to suggest any ink. I like blue ink. I have Iroshizuku asa-gao and Diamine Regency Blue. I am thinking about Visconti Blue, next.. While I thought the 670 was very interesting, it is not for me. I just ordered the 2024 Kaigelu 316. Beautiful resin and the description says it has been improved. We shall see..

Gracias por la revisión. La tengo en punta fina😊

Hmmm, the ‘stub’ doesn’t look very ‘stubby’ IMO, certainly compared to the Pilot stub, though the architect looks interesting and I have ordered one.