Flash or Trash?

Sharon and I regularly discuss our numerous passions and interests over morning coffee: spokes on the hub of our shared ethics. We love people, relationships, our shared world and landscapes and try to reconcile these themes with our values, actions and our effects. I suspect we are not alone in this quest; it is motion that echoes in many philosophies and relationships. But lest I frighten the reader to think this is about philosophical postulation or rhetorical remonstrations, I shall get to my main point.

We are regularly approached with requests by pen owners to save or repair a modern pen that often fall into one of three categories:

1. Post 1980’s pens made by once respected brands that are owned by conglomerates as original ownership has retreated,
2. Brand names bought by independent owners or partners, reviving storied names and styles with modern materials and jobber parts,
3. Pens largely of modern Chinese manufacture, once imitators of major brands, now more frequently producing original design, yet largely inexpensive, simple pens made of inferior materials.

Now, to be fair: this topic came about after a recent query involving a Waterman’s Phileas. Apparently, the unfortunate owner had replaced the original nib unit after having destroyed the first one. Now this replacement nib had a misunderstanding with a shoe: The shoe, intent on minding its own business was surprised by an assault of a ballistic Phileas. The shoe responded as a shoe would be expected: it remained stoically impervious to the annoyance. Phileas, however, did not fare so well in this encounter and is now scratchy and unreliable, as the owner related.

In my defense, I do try to not be overtly sarcastic as this can lead to “mixed” results. In this case I delicately shared with the owner that his pen was an insult to the very brand that had been making fine instruments since 1884, and was not worth the miniscule portion of the shoe that it had assaulted. It would also be a waste of my time and his money to straighten the gold-coloured nib. I couched this in less vitriolic prose, though I think he may have noted my disdain. I suggested that the Vancouver Pen Club was meeting that following evening at a library near his home and I was certain he would find someone there who would be willing to muck with his pen.
And so it goes…

Modern pens often share features such as an extruded plastic feed, moulded plastic or acrylic body, and usually a converter/cartridge. In the case of the moderately fancy ones, such as a Waterman’s Man100, the gold-plated parts, especially the collar on the grip section, are made of a cheap alloy that can deteriorate and cause the gold to flake off, leaving an unsightly mess of corroded metal. (We incidentally experienced this same effect on a later model of Pelikan! In defence of Pelikan, they eventually sent the owner a new cap). Sadly, even high-end pens now being produced with these cheap plastic feeds and sections cannot be adjusted to vary the ink flow.

While any decent repair person can adjust nibs and feeds, even to straightening damaged nibs, with these parts, there is no adjustment possible. Many of them have the nib bonded with the feed and cannot be separated. When the nib is damaged, the entire section and feed must be replaced. We call this “part swapping”.

It comes with much modern manufacturing and any car owner who has had an ECM or LED head or tail light fail, knows that the whole part must be replaced at outrageous cost by a “technician”. We don’t even call them mechanics any more, lest they be mistaken for someone who has apprenticed and actually repairs things: “parts swappers”. Same goes for freight trucks, refrigerators, etc. Whether planned obsolescence or just cheap manufacture, warrantees no longer matter.

Parker Pens, Waterman’s, Sheaffer’s all had their lifetime guarantees. Waterman’s even offered a One Hundred Year Pen! Those were pens made to be repaired and used. Not so the newer bunch. Even Montblanc doesn’t provide repair parts or have service depots. Their pens get sent to Germany to have parts swapped, sometimes to the detriment of the vintage or sentimental status of the pen. Think about the costs and time involved to ship a writing instrument halfway around the world – twice! Turnaround time for servicing – 3 months or more.

Most modern pens seem to be produced for the flash or the trash and that troubles both of us. It seems to defeat so much of the value provided by the use of fine writing instruments. The average fountain pen owner in the 20th century had 2-3 pens in their lifetime. The first was their school pen. Once they entered the work force they purchased or were gifted a quality reliable writer that was a faithful companion through decades of use. Those are the pens we are most familiar with as pen enthusiasts – the Waterman’s, the Vacumatics, etc. We are still fixing them and enjoying them as some of the best writing instruments money can buy. The 3rd pen was often the retirement pen and a bonus. Many of our customers who ask for restoration work desire to continue using an instrument that has written a lifetime worth of family letters, or has served as a trusted companion in their father’s business ventures. Provenance! Permanence! Connections. Modern pens are simply not going to survive that long. They may have more cache than a BIC but they still end up in the same place far too frequently. And that brings us to our ethical angst and the real intent of this post.

What about the environmental considerations for these pens that are not designed to be fixed? We are watching our environment fill with “micro-plastics”. We are neglecting to consider the inevitable demise of these ‘not fixable’ pens. The environmental benefits of a carefully crafted instrument that is designed to be fixed and last a lifetime is something to hold in high regard. The European Union’s Right to Repair Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/1799) was written with this very topic in mind. Fountain pens may not be on their list, but that does not change the intent. Disposable products are killing our planet. We need to do better.

And in our meagre and seeming inconsequential way, we Restorers are doing just that. Everywhere we see bicycles, small appliances, even farm equipment being rebuilt and restored to continue functioning as intended, not decomposing in a landfill or ocean. Even our clothing is experiencing a global rethink.

So don’t despair that grandma’s pen is rattling in a shoebox in the garage! That old weapon that made love, war, and romance around the globe is just waiting for another opportunity, another hand to grasp it and lay down a line, a poem, or a memory for the future to discover.

Choose your words wisely…or don’t. All is fair…
And so it goes…