I've had a Pelikan M805 sent to me with a stuck nib (well, actually the broken-off section of an M805...). It's clean - not a single whiff of ink came out when soaking but try as I might I cannot get the nib out without risking damage to either nib or feed. The customer would ideally like the nib back to use on his new pen. Any suggestions?

TIA,

Martin

Hi Martin,
Have you tried heating the section with a heat gun? This might expand the section sufficiently to free the nib unit

Or if the section is stuffed anyway a bit of surgery with micro saw would get the nib and feed out, there would be a slight risk to the collar but with care this could be minimised or avoided. as soon as the section was no longer a complete cylinder it would relieve any load on the threads and the unit should come free.

Cheers, John

As John says, I'd go for the saw. You don't have to cut all the way through the section and risk hitting the collar; cut down close, monitoring your progress, and then use a fine flat-bladed screwdriver to pry on the two sides of the cut until it splits.

Personally, I would pull out the nib and feed, as they can be pulled out from the collar.

Next let the section and nib/feed collar, which still resides in the section after pulling out nib and feed, soak for a few days, dry it off, and use a little hammer, to break the section with a sharp, short, careful blow of that little hammer. The section is hard plastic, the collar is somewhat flexible, and should therefore survive. It did when I tried something similar.

HTH, warm regards, Wim

Sorry for asking the obvious, but haev you tried screwing out the nib? If I remmber correctly, Pelikan feeders are screwn into the section, not pushed like other brands.

I am pretty sure Martin knows this, but if it doesn't screw out, you have to resort to other measures.

Warm regards, Wim

OK, I asked just to make sure Hope I haven't offended anyone.

Perheps you can try cool down the hole thing (in the fridge), and then heat up only the section. This way, as the section expands, the nib+feed might get a bit loose in it.

Thanks for all the suggestions. If thermal expansion doesn't do it I'll resort to the blade.

Martin

I thought I would report back as to how I resolved this in the end.

The pen had clearly suffered a fracture between the barrel and the section (not unheard of in M800/M805's and M1000's). The fracture had been repaired with super glue with the result that some glue had seeped down into the nib threads. Therefore, the only way of removing the nib was to carefully saw the section open (I didn't want to risk solvents as I feared these would melt the feed). I was left with a nib that was not only distorted and misaligned following unsuccessful attempts to unscrew it from the section, but had super glue doing a good job of blocking the feed channels! Not a pretty sight! However, it is now fully recovered and writes as well as its marque expects. A happy ending.

Martin

Great to hear of the resuscitation Martin.

Apparently there is life after superglue - in some cases...

Regards,

Gerry