Reviving the Green Introduction This pen needs no introduction to those who like vintage pens, but for those are not yet familiar, it is a 1930s Conklin Endura in Verde celluloid color. The "verde" or green, came in many different shades. I've seen some that has very light, pistachio green, to this one, which is darker. This pen also came to my workbench with two major problems: The tines are on the verge of divorce. I don't have the photo showing that unfortunately, so you just have to take my word for it. If you look at the nib from the top (where you can read the engraving and the tines pointing up), the tip of the right tine was about 1mm above the left one. That's how messed up the nib was. The lever slides up and down its place in the barrel. Fortunately, the Conklin lever fillers were top notch and does not rely on a C ring sitting in a groove inside the barrel, instead, it hinges on a tiny pin that can be replaced. Unfortunately, replacing it is tricky. R
At First Glance Here's a good-looking fountain pen. The name is Garant Alkor. Garant was a pen manufacturer in the former East Germany (DDR) in the 1950s. Some of their pens were identified as late as the 1960s. Beyond that, sadly, very few pen factories survived globally, and among those who did, there are even fewer who still manufacture fountain pens. This "Alkor" is considered the top-of-the-line model. There are the Nilor and Silor models (and maybe others that I'm not aware of) which are smaller. It's quite a big vintage pen, clocking at 5-3/8 inches (or 136 mm) capped. The "girth" (barrel diameter) is about 13 mm, and the cap diameter is 14.6 mm at the widest part. Far from being small and skinny. Here it is with fellow German piston fillers from around the same era, the Montblanc 254 and the Pelikan 400: As you can see, it is quite big compared to the Pelikan, and the Montblanc. The material is plastic, but I can't say that it feels like cel