Restoring Pilot Super series pens

Pilot Super 200 fitted with a switch filler system (the steel tube with red switch)

Background

Back in the late 1950s & early 1960s Pilot made a series of pens called the “Super” which eventually morphed into the single-letter E and V series of pens. They’re usually fairly slim designs with 14k gold nibs and a gold coloured cap. They are usually found in black but they also have other body colours like burgundy, brown & coral.

A lovely, large, soft, extra fine, 14k gold nib on a Pilot Super 200

They look a little old-fashioned now but you have to see them in context, that they were the post-lever-filler age when manufacturers were looking to depart from the old, black-bodied, cigar-shaped pens which had been around since the 1930s and were producing slimer-bodied pens with new and more modern filling systems. 

While the later pens can be fitted out ready for cartridges, one of the distinctive features of “Super” pens is that they usually come with a switch filler system. This looks like a steel tube with a little plastic switch at the end, which you press to one side and then release to fill the internal sac. They look quite sleek and modern but actually they were using technology that had been around for decades.

The switch that gives the switch filler it’s name

You may already be asking why you’d want to buy an old pen with an odd filling system that will need restoration. But they are actually a hidden gem of the Pilot series pens because they can usually be picked up for ridiculously cheap prices (about £20) and they write very well indeed. They seem to be fairly solid and long lasting too as I can’t recall finding one with a cracked body – just a few hairlines on the section threads on the smaller pens. 

They come in a range of nib types from POSTING, EF, F, SCRIPT, M, MANIFOLD, COARSE, SIGNATURE & even MUSIC & FALCON. Most are fingernail shaped nibs with fully enclosed feeds and they come in 2 sizes – the smaller ones are unremarkable but the large ones are something special. By this I mean that the larger nibs are often very soft, which makes them more fun to write with. I have a few that will easily flex from EF/F to a 1.6mm line width but you can write normally with them easily too. Some are marked with SOFT but I’ve found that many of the unmarked nibs or even COARSE & SIGNATURE nibs will also flex just as easily. You do have to take it easy because the feeds can’t keep up with a lot of fast flex writing but they are fun if you don’t push them too far. I’ve found they are far easier to use as full-flex pens than many of the modern nibs like the Kanwrite Ultraflex, which I find a bit stiff. 

So, for £20 you can get yourself a 14k gold nibbed flex fountain pen that might have a few scuffs and wear but it’ll perform really well and put a smile on your face every time you use it. 

Restoring the pens

Pilot Super 200 disassembled with a dark green switch-filler

As I’ve said, inside the sleek metal tube is just a latex sac and a pressure bar, just as in the lever filler pens that preceeded them. The sac is glued onto a plastic sleeve that fits around the feed and doubles as a feed retainer, holding everything in place. The feed is a single-piece that has a tip that fits into the tip of the section and the gold nib is just held in position by friction. It’s a very neat and simple design.

Anatomy of a switch filler system showing pressure bar (not usually removed), plastic feed sleeeve/retainer; metal tube with switch; and a latex sac (not cut to size)

When you buy the pens at auction the sac is nearly always perished – I’ve only ever seen one pen with a working sac and that had never been used and was utterly spotless!

So, the first job is to unscrew the body from the section and pull off the steel tube – it’s just friction fit so should come off easily. Pick off the bits of old sac and try to break up the pieces in the metal tube with something like a pointed wooden kebab stick – but be careful not to dislodge the pressure bar. Take your time – as with all pen restoration you should just soak the parts if anything isn’t moving. 

You don’t have to remove the feed to fit a new sac (you can just remove the bits of sac from the plastic sleeve and apply a new one) but it’s always worth doing if you have the time. Then you can make sure that it is clean of any dried up ink and check the nib’s (MM.YY) date code. The plastic sleeve actually provides a good place to grip the back of the feed but be very careful not to damage it with your tools – I tend to use some needle-nose pliers held at 90-degrees to the feed and always stop and rotate the section before the pliers slip off. If it’s jammed then just go back to basics and soak/ultrasonic some more. I’ve soaked parts for weeks before the feed is ready to pull out and ultrasonic cleaners are good for speeding up the process a bit but they’re not a magic wand.

When the feed finally pulls out you’ll be able to remove the plastic sleeve and pull out the gold nib and soak the lot in an ultrasonic bath to get rid of the last of the ink. They are not usually very dirty and the feeds clean up easily.

If you don’t want to remove the feed but you’re interested to see the date on the nib you can pull it out the front (it’s just friction fit) using some flat-close pliers. But remember to wrap the nib with a few layers of soft fabric or kitchen roll so the pliers don’t mark the gold or squash the tipping. Before slotting it back in just polish off any ink and you should find that it slides back in fairly easily.

Pilot Super 100 small fingernail nib, dated 8.58 (0.15g, 17x4mm)
Pilot Super 150 small-medium fingernail nib with a heart breather hole,dated 1.62 (0.29g, 22x5mm)
Pilot Super 200 medium fingernail nib with a heart breather hole, dated 2.61 (0.36g, 23x6mm). These are often soft-flex.
Pilot Super 200 E large fingernail nib with an oval breather hole, dated 6.63 (0.45g, 23x6mm). It’s these nibs that give you the softest, flex feel. 
Pilot Super 150L “arrow” nib, dated 6.63 (0.28g, 16x6mm)

When all the parts are clean and dry you’re ready to reassemble everything.

Fit the nib & feed back into the section – line up the deep groove in the feed with the sponge groove at the end of the section – the sponge is designed to fit into this groove. Adjust the nib to the correct position, with the little crescent completely visible, and then push the feed home to lock it all in.

Measure a new latex sac to fit on the sleeve and extend far enough back inside the metal tube so that the switch and pressure bar still work cleanly. On my original green switch filler the sac was exactly 57mm long which should mean it is the same for red switches and maybe 5mm shorter for pink switches. It doesn’t have to be perfectly accurate but you want the sac to be as long as possible (for good ink capacity) but short enough to allow the switch and pressure bar to work correctly. Just remember the old saying, measure twice, cut once! 

Now apply a thin layer of shellac to the outside of the sleeve; pull the latex sac over it (I use some tweezers) and gently work it down the sleeve with your fingers. If you’re worried you might have smeared the glue all over the place you can add a thin layer around the end of the sac, just to seal it all in. Leave it 24 hours to dry.

I usually dust the latex sac at this stage with some chalk powder to help it slide into the tube without snagging or twisting. Slide the sleeve onto the back of the feed; push it right down and then slide the metal switch-tube over the latex sac and push it into the section until it feels firm. Finally screw the body to the section and you’re done!

But which sac should I use?

I’ve always used simple black latex sacs – the type used in lever fillers and other vintage pens. Sometimes you might need to go to a size smaller than you’d guess initially so that the sac has a thin enough wall to get the metal tube back over the sleeve.  

It might not always be obvious which sac size to use but Pilot thought of that for you and provided an easy system that tells you which sac to use – it’s the colour of the switch! Red switches are the fattest, dark-green and turquoise-grey are the middle sized ones and coral pink is the thinnest. In my experience they seem to map to the following sac sizes, but your experience might differ if you want a slightly looser or tighter fit. 

Sac size Pen model Notes
14 Pilot Super 60, 80, 150 6.5mm diameter tube with pink switch – this tube is about 5mm shorter than the others
14/15 Pilot Super 100, 200 & 250 7mm diameter tube with dark or light green switch
16 Pilot Super 100, 200 & 300 7.5mm diameter tube with red switch

There also seems to be a correlation with the colour of the plastic feed sleeve but I haven’t double-checked enough to be sure. 

The 4 types of switch filler (pink, light green, dark green & red)
Switch colours compared (red, dark green, light green & pink)

Notes

One of the curiosities that I haven’t got to grips with yet is that the sections usually have what looks like a sponge substance in the channel that runs under the nib, extending inside to fit into the deep channel on the feed. This makes sense because it would draw ink out of the feed and up to the nib itself but the sponge is always very old and crumbly so I’m not sure whether to replace it with something modern or just leave it. 

My gut feeling is that in the 1950s they would have used a firm, natural sponge but it has to be fairly dense and easy to cut and shape. In my only uninked “new old stock” Super 200 E the sponge is black in colour so we can assume this is the original state and that it wasn’t black from ink.

If any readers have any clue what this sponge is then do get in touch! 

Also, there’s a nice video here by Dayne Nix showing how to fix the pens.

A selection of pens

The Sporty 12 was possibly one of the first pocket pens but it also marks the end of the Super series pens, with an enclosed feed that has a sponge wick. These had a new innovation though – a squeeze filler like the Parker 51 Aerometrics. Pilot made a few compromises in the design by using a Super feed and plastic sleeve/retainer onto which they stuck a new plastic component that the small sac glues to and a metal squeeze bar. 

Pilot Sporty12-150 body dated DS26 (1963-Jul-26, Tokyo)

See Jerry Yu’s article

This pen has an unusual feed design with a grey piece of plastic running the length and no sponge under the nib. It looks like a fairly early experiment that didn’t take off.

Pilot Super 60 body dated AX13 (1960-Dec-13, Tokyo) 
Pilot Super 100 nib dated 5.58 (May 1958)
Pilot Super 100S nib dated 2.61 (Feb 1961) 
Pilot Super 100S nib dated 6.60 (Jun 1960) 
Pilot Super 100 body dated CK16 (1962-Nov-16, Hiratsuka)
Pilot Super 150 nib dated 1.60 (Jan 1960) 
Pilot Super 150L DR21 (1963-Jun-21, Tokyo)
Pilot Super 200 with Extra Fine nib dated 2.61 (Feb 1961)
Pilot Super 200 with POSTING nib; body marked CJ09 (1962-Oct-09, Hirstsuka)
Pilot Super (unmarked but possibly a 200 or 250) with COARSE nib; marked 3.58 (March 1958) 

This is a “new old stock” pen that was never inked and has an original, unused ink sac, which gives us a rare chance to actually extract the sac and measure it. 

Pilot Super 200 E body marked DF15 (1963-Jun-15, Hiratsuka) 

2 Replies to “Restoring Pilot Super series pens”

  1. Hi Chris,
    This article helped me! I bought a lovely vintage Pilot Super 100, and the switch converter is working. But from looking at the above, it seems I did not receive the ‘plastic sleeve’ for the feed, onto which I would attach a new sac! A few questions:
    1. Do you know if these are available anywhere?
    2. Do you think it might be possible to work around the issue by making the pen an eyedropper (and do away with the plastic sleeve, sac, and converter altogether)?
    Thank you for your thoughts!

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