Lalex 1938 Animali Dragon Fountain Pen

My first pre owned fountain pen, purchased on eBay for a really low price. These pens originally sold for around £140. The pen is all original, but the nib was mis aligned which is why it was cheap. I bought it for 2 reasons. Firstly, I liked the look of it. I like dragons, and the cap appealed to me. Secondly, I wanted something to practice renovating techniques on.

When the pen arrived in the post, I was even more pleased than when I initially bought it. The pics on eBay did not do it justice. The cap is solid silver, hallmarked 925, and was slightly tarnished. The nib had one tine higher than the other. What I originally thought were damage marks on the nib turned out to be dry ink. 

I stripped the pen down and soaked the nib and feed in a mild soap and water solution for a couple of hours. Once dried, I cleaned the feed and straightened the nib using my finger nails. The cap was cleaned with a soft cloth and silver polish and came up as good as new!

Once cleaned and put back together, I fitted a cartridge and started writing. The results were great. The pen wrote smoothly with no skipping and good ink flow.

I need to get some brass shims to tweak the nib a little more, but as it stands I'm really happy with this pen.