THANK YOU so very much for this great pictorial tear-down of one of my favorite vintage pens. I’ve often searched for just this information and I’ve always come up empty-handed. You’ve done a great service to all vintage A88 owners.

The only problem I see is that having read your article, I’m now itching to take my pen apart!

=) Eric

I like this design since the end cap or filler knob does not change position during the refilling cycle. The only issue I have is this, what keeps the nib in place in the X direction. I understand that it does not rotate but if it is slid into position and held fixed, this must mean that it is held into position by means of an interference fit, also known as pressure fit.

If indeed it is a pressure fit, this requires the manufacturing tolerances to be more exact then necessary for the equipment and materials of that era. Remember this is a tricky or challenging process because of the shrinkage of those synthetic materials, i.e.; hard rubber feed and plastic hood or section. Of course, this method is more cost effective.

However, they did something right for these pens to last decades with superior performance. Also, the nib-feed-hood design allowed them to have a relatively, very small nib minimizing the expensive gold content.

Nice pictures and explanation.

Cheers,

Frank