If I shine a small flashlight into the barrel of my Townsend Medalist, I see a spring at the closed end. It doesn't appear to do anything, as the end of a converter or back-to-back cartridges just goes up through the center of the spring without the spring exerting any downward pressure on them.

I am asking this because converters and cartridges will not stay on the nipple. I have tried several different cartridges and converters, and the same thing happens. It even does this with a new nib. After using the pen a few times, the converter will pop off the nipple, apperently pushed off by air pressure when sliding on the cap.

I wonder whether there may be a missing part in the spring assembly, something which exerts downward pressure on the converter or cartridge to keep it from sliding off the nipple.

Richard L

I've never hears of such a spring before in a Townsend. I hope others can answer definitively on this. For the short term, I wonder if you might fabricate a dowel-like spacer to fit inside the spring at the closed end of the barrel, creating just a tad of pressure on the cartridge / converter to keep them on the nipple.

?

Good idea. Thanks.

Richard L

Richard L.

I read your post and had to look. I have a spring in mine too. I have a 10K with a M nib. When I went to screw it back together after looking, I found resistance that was not there when I put the cartridges in initially. ( I have only used 3/4 of the first cartridge ) after unscrewing it, I noticed the cartridge was stuck in the top. It had caught on the spring and punctured. After cleaning out the slight amount of ink that escaped, I put a new cartridge in. I "felt" it go between the spring and when I screwed it in this time, no felt resistance. I repeated this a few times. Same results.

I am at a loss as to the spring's purpose as well and will watch this post.

Same thing happened to me with my Laban Mento. I got it from Tdd at isellpens and the converter wouldn't work. When I installed the converter, filled it with ink and screwed the barrel back on, the knob of the converter would also turn, pushing the ink out. I thought it was the converter. Tod sent me 2 more converters, both smaller than the first. The only one I could get to work was the shortest one (about 1 1/2 inches). I gave up and thought it was the barrel. Yesterday, I was looking inside the barrel and then tapped it on the counter and a spring fell out. That was the problem. Now the pen works fine with the longer converter. I have no idea why the spring was there.

The only spring I know of in Cross barrels is one used to hold down the refills in SelecTip models. Maybe they're trying one-size-fits-all barrels? If you can get the spring out, it'll probably be fine for a fountain pen.

-- Brian

I just purchased a Cross Apogee fountain pen which also has a spring in the barrel. I cannot figure out what it is for and it is loose and comes out easily. Is there any purpose for it being in a fountain pen barrel? Or should I just remove it?

THANKS,

minee

I have a Townsend but without the spring. I wonder if it is to be used with a converter which I have not yet tried.

I recently checked the barrels of 17 different Cross Townsend Fountain Pens and they all had a spring in the barrel. The spring is for the selectip configuration to push the roller ball refill out the end of the selectip section. If you could replace the fountain pen section with a selectip section you would be able to use the pen as a roller ball pen. Apparently both the fountain pen barrel and the selectip barrel are identical and both have the spring. The spring does not interfere with the cross converter or cartridges unless the spring is somehow mangled by trying to remove it. My advice would be to leave it alone. Not sure why some of the problems described would arise but if you have $10 (check www.cross.com for cross repair services) you could send the pen to Cross Repair services with a note describing your problem - Cross is the best in resolving problems.

David is correct here. The spring in the back of the barrel is for the Selectip.
The fountain pen versions should not have the spring in them. You should be
able to fit two cartridges in each Townsend fountain pen. One cartridge should
face (down) to be inserted into the writing unit and the other should face (up)
and point towards the back end of the barrel. There should be no interference
from a spring.