What Do You Do With "broken" Fountain Pens?

[Mrpink]

Maybe its a mental sickness but if there is something wrong with my pen I want to scrap it and buy another. I don't want to list the pens and their problems here but I guess we all have them. Thing is it can drain funds pretty quickly if I buy 2 or 3 of each pen because I am not happy with ones performance.

I have tried to fix them but then the pen seems like it has been corrupted and the pen seems imperfect and defective. Does a pen perform the same after I play around with it because it seems like it has been changed into another pen, it does not have that same feel.

 

Do you peeps just find the right angle and write away with it? Do I have to keep flushing or changing ink? Should I just like something with its imperfections and adjust my writing style?

 

Just wondering if people keep their pens after playing around and not getting it to work at 100%.

[Pickwick]

It would be helpful if you could give a better idea of the problems you are experiencing and having to fix.

[Mrpink]

I am wondering if people keep the non perfect working pens and use them. Thanks for the offer of help though.

[Erik Dalton]

Yea, these days I keep them. I didn't always, but I've learned through the years that it's good to just put the pen away for a bit and mess with it at a later date. Through the years my technique, and nib tuning skills have changed and I've picked up new tricks along the way.

I've revisited some of my old pens that I wasn't very happy with, started tuning, and have ended up with a whole new pen. As time goes on you pick up more sources for parts too. I've replaced nibs and sections on a couple and have ended up with some really nice writing pens.

I know how frustrating it can be to not be able to get a pen to write to your tastes. I've ruined a couple with my impatience. I can tell you there is benefit from walking away from it for a while.

Watch some YouTube tutorials, read some relevant repair threads here and take a break.

 

Good luck. Hope this helps some.

[ac12]

That does not make sense.

I had to bring both my cars back to the dealers for warranty work. Scrapping the cars for those warranty issues would be dumb.

So it is with a pen. If it does not work right, it gets sent back for warranty repair, or I do the repair/adjustment myself. I usually do it myself, since I mostly buy used/vintage pens where there is no factory warranty.

[praxim]

Well, my wife is still married to me.

 

 

Now, about those pens; I agree with Old Salt and ac12.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I also agree with Old Salt and AC12.....I find I tend to do that often for some odd reason.

 

We have a great repair section subsection. Go there often.

And how can we 'talk' when you do not explain what exactly is "wrong" with your pen.....if anything???

Nib....is often seen to be a problem....in many newer love a big wide fat wet line....and a butter smooth nib.

That is solved by experience and a year or two.

I do have a couple butter smooth nibs....I prefer good and smooth, the stage under butter smooth. I prefer lively nibs rather than butter smooth boring nails.

 

I'm making assumptions....with the few posts you have. You could be making mountains out of molehills or not. Sending a pen back that is under warrentee is what one should do outside of tine alignment first thing. ..,,,as long as one didn't screw it up one's self.

 

Yes we would like to know what pens you are having problems with....a Parker Sonnet was once a problem child. Then someone who knows more can tell you what you can do....or where to send it...if it's worth saving.

 

 

 

Some General Advice.

I have some pens I need to recork...knew that when I bought them...they are old and deprecated. At least the cork. That is something to look at with a couple of tools. Properly done, formed cork boiled in paraffin&beeswax and dunked in some silicon grease, is the best and smoothest of the piston pens. There are those like Peter Twidel that will cut you a cork to fit your pen.

 

Good plastic gasket and a the pen size's cutter can be ordered. Richard Binder Com.

 

Any time you even start to think of doing something on the cheap....you lose. Like O rings. The pen has to be yanked apart every 5-6 months....so with in a year or two...you have a dead pen....because you saved money and or time.

Before putting O rings in a pen that had had a plastic gasket or cork....give it away while it can still be fixed.

 

We have that subsection....something about Pass it Forward.

 

Lever pens as long as the plastic lever section is not bent, is something that most can repair. I do find a good lever pen...the fastest to load....fast to clean....a bit faster than Piston. And well wroth putting in a new sac and or J-bar.

After All One must have One's Estie.......just Must. And a few others....Waterman 52, in fact many great nibbed, fine balanced pens were and still are lever pens. After 30-40 years rubber sac's die. Might die faster in a Vac....or a Swan.

 

Most C/C pens from my understanding seldom need repair....and if they do...the broken spike, that is a problem for professionals. ...

 

Nib setting hot water...seems to be the trick.......I've been lucky and all my old pens are set.....60 of 70 pens were old....thankfully. I like the nibs on semi-vintage and vintage pens (especially German pens in Vintage).

[amk]

There are those of us who love tinkering. Broken pens for me are an invitation to make Frankenpens. If you really bust up a pen, please feel free to send it to me and I'll see what I can do!

 

That said, sometimes it's not about 'broken', a person and a pen are just not getting on. In that case, it's time to trade, sell, or give away the pen. As you get through more pens you get more of a feeling for what you do and don't like - and there's no point persevering with, say, a rather dry Japanese fine nib if your taste runs to big triple-B wet nibs, or using pens with filling systems you don't like or that don't work for your lifestyle (bottled ink at work is a no-no for some people).

[Chrissy]

If it's a pen I can't fix, and it would probably cost too much for someone else to fix it, compared with it's value, I would give it away.

 

I consider flushing out and changing ink is something that I can easily do in order to try and make a pen work better for me.

 

Changing a pen to a 'different' pen from one that may have been scratchy or didn't write properly, works for me.

[jar]

"Broken" doesn't really tell us much. What I do in such cases really depends on what is broken.

 

I had a Skyline that the body simply shattered into a brazillion pieces while it was stored away. The cap, the section, the nib all came through in good shape. The lever and press bar were okay. But the body was "BROKEN". I gave the pieces parts that survived to a friend that actually like the Skylines so he could toss them into his pieces parts box; swept up all the remaining pieces and threw them away.

 

I had a new pen that dried out over night and the nib tines were misaligned. Since it was new I sent it back to the seller and let the seller fix it.

 

I had an older pen that would work for awhile and then jess quit. I very gently opened it while keeping the orientation the same the next time it quit writing and found a bubble of air at the base of the converter but lots of ink still above it. Surface Tension. So I dipped a wooden tooth pick in some dish detergent and wiped it afterwards, gently removed the converter turned it so that the bubble was at the top, dipped the tooth pick through the bubble and into the ink. When I removed the tooth pick and reinstalled the converter the bubble moved freely instead of sticking at the bottom.

 

I had an older pen that the nib was scratchy. I spent a few minutes trying to determine why and found that it was most scratchy on strokes to the right and also up and down. Strokes to the left were fine.Got out my loupe and sure nuff the right tine was higher than the left tine. A couple minute gently massaging the right tine down and all was right in the world.

 

What I do depends on exactly what is broken. If the repair will take tools of materials I do not have or require expertise I don't have (and I really have a short supply of expertise) I pack the sucker up and send it off to them what do have the expertise.

[TheRealMikeDr]

I dropped a pen once - landed on the nib and bent it - I suppose at that point I would consider it damaged/broken. I sent it off to be repaired by a well respected nib meister and he fixed it and sent it back. It works great.

[Bo Bo Olson]

"""and found that it was most scratchy on strokes to the right and also up and down. Strokes to the left were fine.Got out my loupe and sure nuff the right tine was higher than the left tine.""""

 

Jar that is Good to know...I just grab my 10X loupe, and push down the up nib....from the breather hole.

Most of the time that is it...............once or twice when an old pen came in....the low tine was the problem...so it helps to have a loupe...a good glassed one, is a once in a life time buy....you can buy cheap ones off Ebay...as often as you need.

From my reading, some of the very 'high' marked magnification ones have a lot of built in imagination.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Maybe its a mental sickness but if there is something wrong with my pen I want to scrap it and buy another. I don't want to list the pens and their problems here but I guess we all have them. Thing is it can drain funds pretty quickly if I buy 2 or 3 of each pen because I am not happy with ones performance.

I have tried to fix them but then the pen seems like it has been corrupted and the pen seems imperfect and defective. Does a pen perform the same after I play around with it because it seems like it has been changed into another pen, it does not have that same feel.

 

Do you peeps just find the right angle and write away with it? Do I have to keep flushing or changing ink? Should I just like something with its imperfections and adjust my writing style?

 

Just wondering if people keep their pens after playing around and not getting it to work at 100%.

 

Ab. So. Lute. Ly.

 

Even before I thought of restoring vintage pens, I always kept the iffy pens in a box labeled Spare Parts/Science Experiments. It pains me to think of any fountain pen being thrown out.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

I keep them and repair them. Unless I have a lot of them. Then I sell them to a pen repairer.

 

Then again, I am talking about old pens, not new purchases. New purchases are either sent for warranty or I fix those myself.

[sandy101]

It depends.

 

I got what turned out to be a Waterman Gentleman off e-bay four years ago. It was OK, but then the nib collar disintegrated. I was able to find a replacement nib section and now I have a pretty pen that works.

 

I also lucked out on a Parker 51. The pen cost £8, but the cap was very badly damaged, so I bought a replacement cap for £20. Yes, the cap cost more than the pen, but having tried it put, the nib is wonderful, and I'd much rahter have a P51 that wasn't going to leak ink anywhere except the cap - a replacement shirt would be more expensive.

 

I had an italix that wasn't working properly, so I follwed the instructions on the website and removed the feed & nib - cleaned it up with a toothbrush and presto - it's working fine now. I sent a Cross pen back to Cross under their lifetime warranty service and had that repaired too for the cost of the postage (this was through the Penshop who told me I could send my Cross pen back - I didn't know about this at the time.)

 

With a couple of others, they arrived faulty and were still under warranty so I sent them back to the retailer to sort the problem out. Part of the price of a new pen (or even some e-bay retailers) is the fact that every so often one or two will have ot be adjusted for whatever reason.

 

Some pens have just been abandoned. The cost of repair exceeds the cost of replacement and I don't have the skill or patience to fiddle with burst rubber bladders or bent nibs.

[pajaro]

I have had pens that were broken or not working and expensive to have repaired. They became parts pens.

[sidthecat]

I've bought a few wrecked pens and salvaged the nibs. They'll eventually be transferred to pens with less interesting nibs. The problem is, of course, that I don't have the skill set - or the patience - to do the work myself.

[praxim]

I notice people are talking quite a bit about pens physically broken, wrecked, parts, salvage, whereas my understanding of the OP was that a pen was considered "broken" merely on dissatisfaction with performance, and that any tuning "corrupted" it. That is a different thing from a parts box, and was captured accurately in the first few posts, for example in the car warranty analogy.

[sidthecat]

The pens I'm watching have parts missing, major damage or wear, but serviceable nibs. They sure look broken to me, but perhaps your definition is more optimistic than mine.

[praxim]

Sorry, I was referring to the views expressed in the opening post (OP) of this thread, by Mrpink. They seem to me to be unrelated to parts missing or general pen decrepitude and rather more to questions of personal sensitivity to possibly quite subjective flaws, and responses thereto, which responses Mrpink suggests are costing quite a bit of money at which I am not surprised.