Waterman's 12 1/2 PSF, BHR NPT, #2 14k M-7B Flex

The 12 1/2 PSF sits between Waterman's eyedropper era and Self-Filling era. It is the slim variant of the standard 12 eyedropper: same length, smaller barrel diameter. The PSF designation stands for "Pocket Self-Filler" and marks Waterman's evolution of the POC pocket series into a lever-fill chassis with the thinner threaded cap geometry that supports a side-mounted lever box. Production sits in the late 1910s into the mid-1920s, bracketed by the PSF chronology Vintage Pen News has reconstructed from period catalogs. The 14k #2 measures 0.60mm baseline opening to 2.56mm at 300g Super Flex pressure for a 4.27× line variation that reaches into 6B territory at full deflection. The width at max is on the rarer side for a #2 of this era; the tipping is wide and smooth, and the feed runs juicy enough to keep up with the curve. A wet, expressive nib that gives a writer real range from medium baseline through bold downstrokes, with the long tine deflection that earns the M-7B framing the title uses. The pen ships with a silicone sac so the buyer can run any ink type, with the caveat that the pen must be kept upright at rest to prevent ink creep onto the nib and into the cap. A latex sac swap is available on request if a more traditional fit is preferred, at the cost of restricting the ink list to non-aggressive fountain pen inks. Grade D, with two material disclosures that drove the grading. First, the lever box is not original. The original disintegrated and was replaced with a 1920s French or Italian third-party part that fits and functions correctly but is not Waterman-stamped. Second, the BHR was extensively recovered, and the pen appears to have been polished down with wenol or simichrome (or bleached) at some earlier point to temporarily restore color before reaching the workshop. As a result, future restorers cannot safely color-restore this ebonite without sanding the surface down further. The current finish holds well, and the nickel-plated trim is otherwise very clean. Two hours of ebonite restoration. Nib heat-set and tuned. Silicone sac installed. Tested on Rhodia 90gsm ivory with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black.