Meet Mr. Retrofit - 05.12.2010

Meet Mr. Retrofit
By Howard Edelstein

Every so often, someone comes along with a really brilliant new idea.  Carl Seidl is one of those people, and his story includes innovation, passion, skill and being in the right place at the right time.  A native of Michigan, he learned to write with a cartridge-style fountain pen while a student there in the late 1950s.  In the early 1960s, he enlisted in the Marines, and upon his discharge, he became a police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C.  Working the streets as a policeman was not conducive to fountain pen use, but he never forgot his early fountain pen experience, and he was, in fact, poignantly reminded of it several years later. While directing the security staff at a luxury hotel in Washington after his retirement from the police force, he received a Montblanc Diplomat from a grateful member of royalty from the Persian Gulf who was a guest at the hotel. The king’s royal crest was engraved on the cap.

Seidl actually tried to retire, but the classic concept did not fit his personality. He has always been handy and after a move to Florida, he continued his interest in crafts by turning pens from wood and plastics. About that time he began attending craft shows, where collectors of quality vintage pens were among his customers. They liked the beautiful woods in the kit pens he was building. He continued to travel the show circuit with his companion and business manager, Eva Amir. About that same time, he began to see vintage pens and pencils at antique shops and shows and started educating himself to become a more knowledgeable buyer and, eventually, collector. He discovered eBay and bought some interesting pens, and when one of his purchases came wrapped in a flyer for the 2007 Triangle Pen Show in North Carolina, Carl and Eva made the trip from Florida and set up for the weekend among the vintage pen crowd.

When he returned from that show, having acquired a trove of parts pens, Seidl set out to build functional ballpoint pens and rollerballs from fountain pen parts and from intact but unpopular mechanical pencils. Many pen fanciers will concede that more than a few of the mechanical pencils of the 1930s and 1940s have fallen so far out of favor that they can be acquired very reasonably.  This availability fed Seidl’s creativity, as he developed techniques to retrofit these pencils into twist-action and cap-actuated ballpoint pens using Parker and Cross-style refills. These days, Carl and Eva are fixtures on the pen show circuit, and they have a very bright display to promote their company Pens of Distinktion. They attractively showcase retrofitted vintage pens alongside handmade letter openers, bracelet buddies, perfume pens and detachable key rings, all made from vintage pen barrels and caps. He credits dealers and collectors Roger Cromwell and Stephen Mandel for helping him meet the vintage pen crowd and for providing design ideas and inspiration.

Seidl has perfected the conversion to ballpoints of Parker Duofold pencils, Conklin Nozac fountain pens and pencils, Waterman CF fountain pens and pencils, Parker Vacumatic fountain pens and pencils, Waterman 100 Year pencils, Parker 61 fountain pens (some with stunning rainbow caps) and Parker 51 fountain pens and pencils. His Parker 51s are cap actuated, and he has used many of the cap variations to create a host of color combinations: sterling silver, Lustraloy (stainless steel) and gold-filled caps are paired with many colors of barrels. In my opinion, one of Carl’s most beautiful designs pairs a gold-filled Parker 51 cap with the striped barrel of the Parker Vacumatic.  This retrofit ballpoint can be paired with the Imperial Vacumatic fountain pen, which was the transitional design at the end of the Vacumatic line and before the introduction of the Parker 51.

Seidl’s work allows pen lovers the option to carry a vintage fountain pen along with a matching and functional “vintage” ballpoint. This ingenuity and fine craftsmanship make him part of the green movement as well, since he has taken pencils that have lost their appeal and given them new life as a ballpoint pen or a rollerball. Thus, potential discards have become hot collectables. Not bad for a retired cop with great hands and fresh ideas!