FOUNTAIN PEN
REPAIR and RESTORATION

Since 1997

“You do what for a living?,” is the most common response followed with a look of bewilderment.

As a high school graduation gift, my mother gave me a simple matte gray Cross ballpoint pen. I used that ballpoint all through college which is where I met Kim, in February 1993. We married October 1995, a few months after graduation.

She knew how much I loved that simple Cross pen and how heartbroken I was when I lost it. So, for our first wedding anniversary, she bought me a Cross Townsend Lapis Lazuli ballpoint pen. The accompanying booklet featured a fountain pen in the same series which intrigued me; right out of college we could barely afford the ballpoint.

However, a flea market find of a cigar box filled with vintage fountain pens for $20 was well within budget. I picked up a Pen World Magazine for reference to see what these strange things were and if they could be restored. To my surprise, there was an ad in the back of the magazine for pen repair so I sent a couple for repair.

At that same time, eBay was in its infancy.  Thanks to this revolutionary site, I was able to identify the other pens in the box; they were worth more than I paid for them but I could not afford to send them all for restoration. So, I tried my hand at revitalizing these vintage writing instruments. Through that Pen World magazine, I discovered the Pen Sac Company and ordered a few bladders. The learning curve was steep – I broke a lot of pens and inadvertently built up a vast future parts inventory. I finally began selling restored fountain pens on eBay in 1996. I bought every book, magazine, repair manual, and pen repair tool I could find, tinkering for endless hours until I mastered every nuance and quirk of each model.

Thus, Pentiques was born. The name was Kim’s idea; a portmanteau of both “pens” and “antiques.” In other words, Pentiques became a new passion coupled with old fashion.

In 1998 I went to the Chicago Pen Show and was overwhelmed. That was back when people would dump overflowing boxes of pens on a table, inciting a feeding frenzy of hungry collectors, and cash would fly. I didn’t have many pens or much cash at the time, so I observed, learned, and got to know the founders of the hobby as well as master- restorers.

For the next ten years, I haunted the flea markets, antique malls, and antique shows with Kim— buying pens, restoring them, and turning a profit on eBay. I placed a recurring ad in that selfsame Pen World Magazine, offering repair and restoration services.

Kim and I began attending pen shows regularly: Columbus, Chicago, Detroit, DC, LA, and so on. It was at these shows we met some of our dearest friends. Also during this time, I apprenticed with a master restorer – further honing my craft.

With Pentiques growing, evenings and weekends were consumed with restoring pens in my basement shop becoming increasingly frustrated with my real job. One day on the way home from work in early 2007, I pulled the car over to the side of the road, called Kim, and told her something had to give. I’ll never forget the words from a stay-at-home mom of two young boys, “Grow a set; I believe in you!”

That’s the day I quit my “real job.” We bet on ourselves, took Pentiques full time (right before the economy crashed), but never looked back.

Eventually, I became Vice President of the Pen Collectors of America (PCA), while Kim worked the administrative side of the PCA and Pennant Magazine. We travelled the pen show circuit where I would do onsite repairs.

One year at the DC show, Kim met a docent for the Smithsonian who led to her brainchild “Pens in the Post” V-Mail event at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. At the time, it was the second highest attended event at the SNPM.

With the boys and Pentiques growing, we backed off the pen show circuit to focus on our family and business. I was so focused it became difficult to get out of the office.

In March 2014, at Kim’s insistence, my buddy drug me out of my repair shop to watch a few Cleveland Indians Spring Training games across the country in Goodyear, Arizona. We moved to Goodyear three months later, but that is another story best told over a glass of bourbon, neat.

“You do what for a living?:” I am Aaron Svabik, founder of Pentiques, Master Restorer of Fountain Pens.

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