Waterman Crusader

This week I was fortunate to work on a pen that came to me in a trade.  I have never ventured into the Waterman Taperite world of fountain pens and I selected this pen, as I have always admired its styling.  I had never written with one, repaired one, or really researched their history, so this was a good learning experience.

Below is a photo of the pen after I took it apart.  You can see the remains of the semi-hard sac that I was able to pull out in pieces.  The silver ring is the clutch that sits between the section and the barrel – allowing the inner cap to firmly grasp the pen.  Finally, the section is a friction fit to the barrel.

I opted to leave the section / feed / nib together and not attempt to knock out the feed and nib.  The opening at the front of the section looks too small and the section is fairly thin – both lead me to think that attempting to knock out the feed would damage the section.  In lieu of this, I cleaned the section, scraping off the old sac.  I then subjected it to many baths in the ultrasonic cleaner, removing an traces of the old purple ink that had been used.  I also tested the channel to make sure it was clear and no ink was left.  Below are two photos of the cleaned section / feed /nib after a thorough cleaning – the lower photo showing the smooth feed.

Here is the completed section with the size 16 sac (trimmed to fit into the barrel).

I also polished the barrel and section to clean up a few surface scratches and to shine it up a bit.  I read that the caps are prone to scratching and wear, so I did not touch the cap with any polish or cleaner for fear of damaging the gold color.

The pen measures 5 1/4″ closed and 6 1/16″ posted.

Here is a close up of the imprint which is nice and crisp.  This was made in the US, sometime in 1948, or after.

The nib is a Waterman Ideal 14K “Rigid”.  Writing with it confirms it is quite firm and a medium.

A little background I have accumulated on Waterman Taperites ~

The Taperite Line of pens commenced in 1945 with two models – the Stateleigh and the Citation. In part, it was Waterman’s answer to the extremely popular Parker 51 and its hooded nib.  My pen is an open nib, but many Taperites were hooded nibs that also came in an open nib version.  After that, changes occurred as they added models and sizes to the line as the 40s progressed.  The particular pen in this post is a Crusader that appeared around 1948 and thereafter.  There was a previous version of the Crusader that did not have the gold striped cap.  It also appeared in a smaller version and as a set, with pencil, and/or ballpoint (ugh).  In the advertisement from November of 1953 (below) you can see the Crusader set(s) available and their prices.  Note that they came in gold and silver caps for some color combinations.

(note that a comment below from a Waterman expert points out my mistake – “Waterman’s seems to have reserved “Taperite” for the semi-hooded pens (see, e.g., the 1953 ad copy: “Points in Taperite or Standard model”). So your pen here is a Crusader, but not a Taperite.” )  Thank you to the reader for pointing out my error.  I am glad I continue to learn about these pens….

Some other models were the Medalist, Dauntless, and Corinth – all introduced in the late 1940s.  The three advertisements in this post are from my collection and show some of these models which were produced in both the United States and in Canada.

Saturday Evening Post – December 16 1949 (showing several different models and the open nibbed Crusader in Red)

And from a year later ~ the Crusader with matching pencil.

Colors were Black, Blue, Green, Red, Tan, and Gray.  I have not followed these pens very closely, but it seems to me that I have seen many more Black, Blue and Gray pens.

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