After we closed the sales site I did little with pens for several months. I wrote with them, of course, corresponding with friends. I have many good writers that I have accumulated over the years. A couple of months ago I began going through various drawers and boxes and found pens that I had set aside in the busy times, as either too time-consuming to repair, or even beyond repair.

My time is my own now so I don’t mind – or even enjoy – the more complicated repairs. And of course nothing is beyond repair. The main reason I gave up commercial restoration and repair was arthritis in my hands. I could no longer do a dozen pens a week but one or two is well within my capability and at that slow rate I enjoy it so much.

Some of those pens have the type of finicky problem that means they have to be taken apart a couple of times – skipping or hard starting for no apparent reason. A little tinkering with feeds and nibs and they’re writing beautifully again. That gives me such a feeling of satisfaction!

Then there’s cleaning and gentle polishing. Few pens will return to new condition without an electric polisher and I see no reason to do that. I want my pens to look as good as they can while still acknowledging their age. An 80 or 100 year old pen can still look lovely while retaining some of the evidence of the accumulated knocks and bumps of all those years. My husband says he believes he still looks presentable but he’s never going to be mistaken for a teenager! I aim for my pens to fall in that area between restoration and conservation.

How many ordinary everyday instruments are still useful and beautiful when they are 115 years old? I didn’t keep any of the more expensive pens; those with silver overlays or the most beautifully-patterned 1920s and 30s Swans. My pens are the workaday ordinary pens that weren’t bought to impress, they are the medium priced reliable Parkers, Swans and Onotos that people bought to use at work or for correspondence with family and friends. Those are the types of pens I especially love.