Penol Ambassador Special

This Ambassador Special piston filler in “green paintbrush” celluloid was made in November, 1942 and serviced at the Christian Olsen factory in October, 1943, as can been seen in the imprint on the barrel (where it says 1142 / * 1043).

As can be seen in the photos above and below, the pen has an translucent ink window to allow the user to gauge the amount of ink left in the barrel. IT is also obvious that the blind cap at the end of the barrel has shrunk over the past 80 or so years, so it cannot be completely screwed down – coming short by about 0.8 mm. There are at least three possible solutions to this problem. I could:

• Drill out the bottom of the recess in the blind cap. This is the worse idea, since it will also require shaving down the bottom of the jewel, and therefore it will likely fall out.
• File the top of the piston knob down. This would not just be a simple case of removing some height, since the top of the knob has a dimple in the middle to allow for clearance of the jewel.
• Do nothing. This is my current choice – although it means that I have to be a bit careful when screwing on the blind cap, since it bottoms out on the piston knob and can do some damage…

I may, in the future, choose to go with option #2 – or a combination of the first two options… but not yet…

The nib is flexible, with enough spring to return to a fine line when pushing it.

Total weight: 20.9 g
Body weight: 14.2 g
Total length (not posted): 123.1 mm
Total length(with cap): 137.1 mm
Barrel max diameter: 11.9 mm
Cap max diameter: 13.9 mm

V2019022