Wahl Eversharp Skyline

Much has been written about the history of the Skyline, so I won’t repeat it here. Please see Richard Binder’s page if you’d like a history lesson.

This pen is the original variant with the pain-in-the-arse-to-dismantle cap. It’s the Jet Black Solid Color Skyline, Model D-77, made in the early 1940s.

This pen had a chip in the top of the section, so I decided to replace it with a new one made of ebonite. The first step is to cut a slightly-too-long piece off a rod.

Here you can see the original section with the chip at the top.

The next step is to start turning on the machine lathe. This photo was taken just after the end was faced.

Pilot hole is drilled all the way through. I don’t want to bring the hole up to full-size immediately to keep some strength in the part.

Then the diameter is brought down to match the internal diameter of the barrel. In this case, it was 8.62 mm.

The diameter of the nipple for the ink sac is a little more forgiving, but I made it to match the original at 7.6 mm.

Half-way there.

The next step is to reverse the piece in the collet and cut to the correct diameter at the correct location for the grip.

The rest of the shaping of the grip was done on a wood lathe. When this was finished, the result looked like the photo below. Notice that I left a little for sanding.

The part is wet-sanded, starting at 400 grit and working up to 12,000 grit. The part is first sanded by rotating and moving the sandpaper to prevent heat build-up. However, this makes radial scratches. To remove these, you stop the lathe, and sand by hand along the length of the part, perpendicular to the scratches. Then you move up a grit and repeat the process.

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