Like most of you on this forum, I'm a devout Parker fan, although I do have other brands, Parker is my favorite. I bought a Ruby Red Sonnet in December of last year from Fountain Pen Hospital in NYC. I use the pen every day. I take very good care of all my pens, have pen cases, leather holders, polishing rags, etc.,; I say all that to preface this weird occurance. I went to use my pen a few hours ago and when I unscrewed the cap, the gold ring around the nip assembly had disengaged from the grip and the grip itself was loose. I was absolutely stuned and could not figure out how this could happen not only over night but while the pen was at rest on my desk. As I mentioned earlier, I take good care of my collection so I can't figure out or understand what could have happened to my pen overnight.

Now I'm not sure how any of you can help me with this situation but I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar situation.

I'm confused. Sonnets don't unscrew - they are a pull cap.

Are the threads broken on the section, or does the section have a crack in it?

Can you post a picture so we can better visualize what happened?

If you have been unscrewing the cap rather than pulling it cleanly off, I would guess that you have inadvertently loosened the nib ring by means of the twist action. The cap is retained on the pen by a clutch over the nib ring.

I think that the nib rings screw in. If they do, you could try tightening it back up. That should cure the loose grip as well.

The same thing has happened to me, the ring came away inside the cap. I sent mine away to Parker to be fixed

I don't have time to check it right now, but I think all you have done is unscrewed part of the section and it will go back.

If you can get a good picture up here then we should be able to advise you.

Best of luck

Jim

Sadness. Do post a picture when you have time, so we can assess the situation.

It sounds as though the section came apart. One of mine does this every time I remove the nib/feed for cleaning. I thought of putting a drop of Loc-Tite or rubber cement on it, but since I don't know what the long-term effect on the plastic would be, I've left it alone.

I think it is not that bad...

Unless the threads broke. Possible this photo helps...



From left to right:

1) nib/feed,
2) inner section collar (has nipple and threads on top) and lower section ring
3) outer section
4) metal (gold plated) joining thingymajiggy
5) converter

It is possible that the top threads of (4) jam into the barrel and in an effort to unscrew you uncrew it from (2).
If the threads of 2 are still OK, then a touch of shellac below the threads will secure (4) onto it.

Please let me know if this helped.

I'm no expert, but I don't think anything bad has actually happened. Just put them all together as best as you can and try screwing them all together.

Whatever you do, don't work on one of these near a sink, as I found out a couple of nights ago. The little silver ring from the inner section went down the drain. I even unscrewed the plug from the trap, but... it's long gone. Now I cannot cap the pen.

Does anybody have one that they can spare?