This beautiful Mottled Hard Rubber Bulb Filler sat in my repair line for quite a while. Restoring this kind of pen is straightforward, but the breather tube had snapped off and it was made from a thinner diameter of tube than any I had. I finally got a length of the right size last week and here the pen is, restored to its former glory.

Excuse the flash photography. I had a long day despatching sold pens and restoring a few more, so I hadn’t the energy to set up lights tonight. The flash exaggerates the difference between the hard rubber in the blind cap and the cap, but the difference is really there. This pen was made from three different pieces of hard rubber, if you count the section too. The mottled rubber in the cap is especially beautiful:

Whoever made the National Security Vis-A-Tank that I wrote about back here: http://wp.me/p17T6K-f0 probably made this pen too. There are many resemblances, particularly the amber ink-view barrel. It may well be that the company made up these no-name pens to use up excess materials. While clearly not expensive pens, quality control has been maintained: these are as well made as pens that doubtless cost several times as much. And, in my opinion at least, the result is an outstandingly attractive pen.