I've got a number of vintage pens around. One of these pens is an older pen with a hard rubber feed. At any rate this particular pen's nib and feed do not seem to be parallel. By this I mean the feed seems slightly crooked when compared to the nib (though I'm not sure which one is actually the crooked one compared to the body- I am not home at the moment). The pen's flow is very generous (perhaps a little too much so) and it does not seem prone to skipping at all. At the same time the nib's tines seem slightly out of alignment. The nib is not scratchy, but I wonder if this alignment issue is caused by the feed and nib not being parallel to one another.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I read somewhere that apply some heat to the nib and feed will soften the rubber up enough to move them. Would the fix to this be to apply heat and tweak them back to being parallel?

The pen is in pretty good shape other than that. The sac and lever work fine.

I frequently find the nib and feed out of alignment with each other. Maybe the pen was dropped and the nib rotated, or someone tried to pull it out, or..... fill in the blank. Whatever the cause, the nib is no longer centered over the feed, and the cure is to knock the nib and feed out of the section, line them up and then reinsert, making sure that the end of the nib will clear the end of the inner cap.

A feed that is off center under a nib can push one tine up, which will defeat most of your efforts to line up the tines until you reset the nib and feed, with the feed properly centered.

Hmm would it be possible to heat the nib and feed while still on the pen and "tweak" them a bit without taking them out? I'm trying to find the least invasive means necessary so far- the pen doesn't fail to write- rather it seems to leave a very wide line. The nib looks to be in prime shape- I'll bet it's just the feed being a bit off center that is causing the misalignment.

If they are out of alignment, heating and tweeking (other than setting the feed against the nib) is not the way to go. It may be that the nib is warped, and needs to be straightened out. Hard if not impossible to say without seeing the pen. Even in cases where the feed is pulled away from the nib, it can be helpful to knock them out and straighten the feed, then reassemble and test again.

Just sticking in an oar as pen-advocate: if the tine issue IS caused by the feed being rotated out of alignment, heat'n'tweak will likely just take a perfectly good feed and make it a funny shape (possily even messing up the flow it's currently providing). Tapping the feed out seems more invasive, but in the end it's likely a good deal less destructive.

Sometimes its possible to reset the nib on the feed merely by sliding it round while in-situ. Could give it a try but, of course, anything more than a little force may cause damage. If straightening in theis way is possible you might like to see if you can push the nib/feed into the section a little further to tighten it up.

Just add a little weigh to the advice of knocking the feed out its the best job and not difficult.

Once out if you find that, once centred, the nib doesn't sit snuggly onto the feed then you will be able to see if its the nib or the feed that needs work.

If the nib looks ok then, by all means, warm up the feed (in hot water) and it will soften enough to be moulded to a nice snug fit.

Replacing back into the section requires care, its easy to twist the nib from its snug position. A little at a time and constant checking is required.

I have carried this out on, I think, every pen in my posession - usually for initial cleaning - successfully. Nicely flowing ink, immediate starting and smooth writing normally follows.


Greg

I have a Wasp Clipper whose feed is out of alignment. How would I remove the nib and feed in order to put it back in straight?

Mike