Longitudinal Striations / Third Generation Vacumatic

This week’s pen restoration is an oddity, from what little information I can gather. The date imprint on the barrel is worn off. It is a Vacumatic / Made in the U.S., but the one digit date is worn.

I am going to guess that it is a 1942 production as the nib has a 1942 date code, and the information that I have found on these is that they were produced after 1941 and are fairly rare.

In the first photo, you can see the eleven (11) parts of a dissembled Vacumatic (not counting the diaphragm that is mostly stuck to the inside of the barrel). The barrel of this one is quite scratched and I have already mentioned the worn imprint.

I first attacked the barrel and attempted, somewhat successfully, to remove some of the scratches. The indentation where the cap sits on the barrel is quite pronounced, as you can see in the first and second photo. Little can be done with this.

The monotone nib, cap bands and clip all polished up well with gold polish, a jewelers cloth, and a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner. The diaphragm was completely stuck to the inside of the barrel and took quite some time to remove. I wanted to be extra careful with this as the vertical stripes are more rare and I did not want to compromise the transparency of the barrel.

All of the parts were in good shape, so the only addition is the debutante diaphragm. I won’t go in to Vacumatic Diaphragm replacement here. For more detailed directions. refer to one of many Vacumatic post to the right from the past two years.

Here is the completed pen, both posted and capped. You can see that this Third Generation Vac comes without the Blue Diamond Clip and in a single jewel. The pen measures 5″ capped and 5 3/4″ posted.

Any information I have been able to uncover on this pen has come from Vacumatic Expert, David Isaacson. He discusses this variant in both his Website, Vacumania.com and a thread at Fountain Pen Network.

In essence, what Mr. Isaacson states is that these are somewhat uncommon variants from the early 1940s and should not be confused with the more documented First Generation Longitudinal Striped Vacumatics.

I must admit that when I purchased this pen, I was just looking for a Third Generation Black and did not realize what I had uncovered until I took it home and inspected it further.

I am not well schooled in Vacumatic classification at all. What I do know is that there appear to be unending variants and combinations. Add to this, various nib, clip, and cap changes over the years and it is quite confusing. One thing remains constant ~ they are fun to restore, hold lots of ink, are fun to write with, and handsome to gaze at.

Happy searching……

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