I recently purchased a SJ at a flea market real cheap. Sac seemed to be in order and pliable, nice nib. I cleaned the pen thoroughly but the lever mechanism seems to be loose. It just falls open about 1/3 of the way. Is the pen broken? Can it be fixed?

Thanks,
John Reiss

Could be the J bar is busted, which provides pressure to keep the lever in place. Do you see the J bar when you pull up the lever?

Brian

I pulled the J-bar out and replaced it with another I had from a parts pen and still no luck. Although both could be bad......

What it sounds like is that you don't have the j bar positioned properly. You'll have to play around with the position, which may involve pulling it, bending the spring to change it's position, and then re-inserting a number of times.

There are some cases (as in the modern J bars) where the pressure bar itself is a channel that is so deep that even if it is tight against the barrel, there is enough room for the lever to flop around and fall out away from the barrel. In those cases you need to grind the sides of the pressure bar channel so that it is lower and closer to the spring.

Thank you. I'll see if that works.

Hello All,

Can one make a J bar or must they be purchased?
Any experiences making one?
The shipping charges are killing me when ordering small items...

Melinda

Yes and Yes.

Years ago I replaced the spring on a Duofold pressure bar. Lots of work, but it's still working. The thing is that to make one you need either spring steel, or a piece of phosphor bronze. Which means that you end up ordering some spring material, which means you have the shipping charges...

Really, it's easier to order what you need from Giovanni or Martin Smith. You're going to do more repairs, so order some extra stuff, like Giovanni's polishes, or sac cement, or section sealer or......