Welcome to- The Fountain Pen Community!

I've been a hard core Wearever collector for more than 12 years now & have a LOT of pens in the collection, so some might call me biasd..lol. Obsession aside, yes they were sold as an 'joe average workin'mans pen'

They were famous for 'borrowing' ideas from other manufacturers, but they did also have several features, colors & patterns that were entirely unique to wearever.

Thje 2 most common issues were the nibs & the trim. The nibs on 90% of the models they made are spoon style, thinky plated junk. The 'Special Alloy" & 'Palladium Alloy' found onthe de luxe 100 models were decent & can be great writers. The 14K steel frame overlay & 14K nibs found in the Pacemaker/Meteor & Zenith lines are wonderful nibs & write very well.

Generally speaking, what i do with the spoon style nibs is replace them with a good 14K nib from a better manufacturer. Sheaffer Feather Touch #5 nibs drop right most models in as an example. What really blows me away are the supreme models from the 60's. Originally sold for .29 cents, cheap plastic barrel & even cheaper aluminum cap, steel nib. These are basically junk. BUT I can't tell you how many times I've found stub & italic nibs in these things & OH MAMA do are they sweet writers.

The trim on some of the earlier models was fairly thin & polishes off with little effort. the 40's models had better trim & dont wear off to the same degree.

They also have a rep for blobbing. That is only a result of having a sac thats too large. Back then there was firece competetion about who's pen held more ink. Sop they stuck a #18 size sac in it when it calls for a #16. The 18 fits, but after you use the pen for a bit, the heat from your hand passes through the barrel & ink sac, slightly warming the ink causing it to expand & blob. Drop in a #16 and problem solved. (#16 for the pacemaker.deluxe 100 models & a #14 for the pioneer/supremes from the 30's)

So in short (not...lol) these can be great pens tolearn repair on and when your done yopu have a great writer for not much $$ at all. Just my 2 bits on the subject.

Best thing to do is grab a good lot of beaters out of ebay & tear into them. Your going to break some, thats just part of the game. If you get stuck. drop me a line I'll be glad to help.