I picked four pens at random to be my first restoration projects now that I’ve begun to recover. Normally I would aim to restore around twenty pens a week, but I’m starting small, as I still tire easily.

These are a black hard rubber Swan 3261 from the nineteen-forties, with a medium oblique stub nib, a blue marbled Conway Stewart 475, a No-Name Lapis Lazuli pen, and another Swan, a rather special SF2 with a broad gold cap band and cap end. So far, I’ve re-sacced them and given them a good clean-up. Next will come extensive write-testing, then photographing, followed by writing descriptions and listing. I hope to put them up for sale on Sunday.

It’s good to have a challenge again, to be using tools and returning pens to as close to their original condition as possible, both as writers and cosmetically.