Lucky Curve Feeds

This pen restoration looks very similar to this one Janesville Wisconsin Button Fill that I published on December 27, 2007. But it’s what is under the hood that counts with this pen. You can see the familiar button filler parts after I took this one apart.

The major difference is the feed, shown here prior to cleaning and inserted in the section. The Lucky Curve feed has a curve to it on the end as you can see on the right hand side. This prevents it from being knocked out using a block as we do with most feeds. With Lucky Curve feeds you need to first, slowly and carefully, rock the nib back and forth to pull it out of the front of the section. Gentle heat can be applied to help with this and I use a piece of rubber to grip the nib. Just be careful not to put too much stress on the nib which might cause it to crack or disfigure. After the nib comes out you will need to push the lucky curve feed back through the section to remove it for cleaning. The reverse holds true for reinserting the feed into the nib and section.

The picture below is of the feed after it has been pushed back through the section and is ready for cleaning.

When you find these feeds in these earlier Duofolds is often up to chance. I have run across some that have been broken off, probably by a repair person with little patience, and no concern for preserving the original feed.

A nice thing about this repair was that the original pressure bar was still in quite good shape and I was able to reuse it.

A little about this pen – It is a Parker Duofold Junior in Black. The imprint and nib place it under production in Janesville, Wisconsin sometime near 1927. The nib is a 14K Medium Parker Duofold.

The repair was a straightforward button filler job. I used a size 16 sac and made sure to cover it with pure talc prior to insertion in the barrel. The old pressure bar was used and it had already been smoothed so it will not pinch the sac at the section, leading to a broken sac. Another reminder, as I have stated in previous posts, is that these are threaded sections and care should be taken when removing the section to turn the section and not to pull or rock.

Two photos of this Duofold Junior are below. You can see that the imprint is well preserved it did not need to be highlighted by a crayon.

The Lucky Curve Feed was patented by George Parker in the late 1800s and you can see it was still in use into the late 1920s. It was a successful patent and designed to help ink to go back into the barrel of the pen when the pen was not in use and in the pocket.

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