Webster Skyrocket Set

On January 6th of this year, I wrote about the restoration of a burgundy Webster Skyrocket Fountain Pen. A week or so ago, I came upon a similar pen, but a ballpoint. As it was the same burgundy color, I snatched it up and worked to produce a nice set.

Below, you can see the pen after I took it apart.  Ballpoints are fairly simple, just the cap, barrel, section, and ornamental ring, and the refill.  However, as with all vintage ballpoints, the refill is long from being functional.  If you have looked at enough of these old ballpoints, you can start to note which current refills will work and this one looked similar to a Cross refill.

I have used these Cross / Penatia refills before in the restoration of my collection of Eversharp Kimberly Pens, and have a supply on hand.  I measured one next to the original refill and crimped the end of the Penatia by about one quarter inch, after removing the black plastic end piece.  The only remaining problem was that the original refill was a tad bit thicker as it sat in the section.  I solved this by gluing a small piece of sac to the end of the new refill and it sits perfectly in the section now.

Below are photos of newly restored Skyrocket set, both closed and posted.  You can see that the design of the ballpoint makes it’s cap longer, though the barrels are the same size.

The ballpoint is an interesting addition, and is actually very comfortable to write with if you like a larger pen.