Decent Pens Are Wearever You Find Them!

As my custom title suggests, I do enjoy finding, restoring, and using inexpensive fountain pens, particularly those vintage pens made from attractive plastics and celluloids. Wearever fountain pens from the '30s and '40s, although inexpensive and not the highest quality, certainly qualify.

Here's my most recent Wearever acquisition, along with a couple photos of its rich cousin. The red pen has a steel nib; the silver and black pinstriped pen has a bi-metal nib (gold with a steel "frame" around it).

The red pen set me back a whopping $10, shipping included, and didn't even need a new ink sac. I will probably replace the sac soon, since I don't know how old this one is and how long it might last. I gave it a good flushing (as usual, there was a lot of old ink that needed to be cleaned out), loaded it up with ink and started writing. Initially, the nib was very dry and a little scratchy, but a good flossing of the slit with a brass sheet improved the flow and the performance quite a bit.

Bottom line: Don't ignore the cheapies...you may be missing out a fine pen!

Nice post. I like Wearever, but don't think anyone else will, so just feel free to ignore any cheap ones you see. ; )

Great post, there are some decent finds among the third tier pens.

coyotewhisper said:

Great post, there are some decent finds among the third tier pens.

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Some people don't even rank Wearever that highly...

I picked up an old crusty Wearever awhile ago that i've been meaning to send out to get restored.

Wearevers were crusty when they were brand new though, weren't they?

rearviewmirror said:

I picked up an old crusty Wearever awhile ago that i've been meaning to send out to get restored.

Wearevers were crusty when they were brand new though, weren't they?

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I don't think I'd ever pay to have a Wearever restored. They're generally simple lever fillers and are good pens to learn basic restoration/re-saccing skills. If you make a mistake, you're only out 50 cents or so!

hmmm...looks like 'shellac' and 'sac' are on my list for this weekends purchases!
Honestly, I like the nib on it.

Don't forget the pure talc powder!

The bi-metal nib is particularly interesting. How does it write?

I have a few Wearevers. Most were restorable into quite decent writers, not as nice as Esterbrooks, perhaps, but for what they usually cost, quite a bargain for a do-it-yourself restorer. Also some Wearever mechanical pencils, which take the old 1.2 mm leads that I like.

Slivovitz said:

The bi-metal nib is particularly interesting. How does it write?

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To be honest, it's nothing special. If you blindfolded me and had me write with it, I doubt if I could tell it from any other steel-nibbed Wearever in my collection.

The one thing where Wearevers really fall short is the quality of the metal trim items. They're usually extremely thinly plated and corrode and wear quite easily.