Student/cartridge Pen Missing Metal Ring

[KingRoach]

Here I have my other Sheaffer pen, which is a cartridge or student pen with flat ends. All of the student pen images that I saw online had rounded ends, is this called a different name? Or is it a different year?

 

The pen is a good writer, only the hard nib is not a very big joy to write with, but it will do to jot down ideas if it's inked and any other pens are not ready. In fact, this has been the only pen in this joblot that I got writing from the very beginning, and have therefore used it more than others.

 

One problem is, I believe there is a metal ring in the middle that is missing. If I'm not wrong, this right also plays a role in holding the cap in place. The cap is too loose, and I've put some transparent scotch tape to create a slight thickness to hold the cap, which works but it would be ideal if I can source such a ring somewhere.

 

Maybe if someone has a broken pen for parts or something? I don't think these parts are available anymore, are they?

 

Let me know what you think.

[jar]

Look in the cap, the ring may be in there. But it is missing. That is the third iteration of the cartridge pens, the first was rounded, the second conic and the third flat end. BUT I think the section may also be from an even later version. IIRC the sections were smooth.

[chromantic]

Yes, 3rd gen, my personal favorite - form following function, elegant in its very simplicity. As jar says, check the cap - I had the ring come off in a cap when I capped the barrel without the section in place. If this happened and you've since capped it with the section on, it may have pushed the ring further in up against the plastic inner cap. I have seen the rings for sale on ebay on occasion.

 

^^ jar - I have five of these and the sections all have that very slight pebbled texture.

[jar]

Yes, 3rd gen, my personal favorite - form following function, elegant in its very simplicity. As jar says, check the cap - I had the ring come off in a cap when I capped the barrel without the section in place. If this happened and you've since capped it with the section on, it may have pushed the ring further in up against the plastic inner cap. I have seen the rings for sale on ebay on occasion.

 

^^ jar - I have five of these and the sections all have that very slight pebbled texture.

Neat. I learn stuff here all the time. Looks like they came with both types of section.

 

http://www.fototime.com/D5557618742B8FF/medium800.jpg

[chromantic]

I wonder if it's related to the type of barrel, clear or solid? All mine are clear ones, like King's. Also, the ring on yours looks to be twice as wide as on mine; you can see the narrow ring cut-away in King's photos.

[jar]

I wonder if it's related to the type of barrel, clear or solid? All mine are clear ones, like King's. Also, the ring on yours looks to be twice as wide as on mine; you can see the narrow ring cut-away in King's photos.

I think it's simply different production runs. Them made those suckers for a long time and they evolved over time. The pebbled section continued into the next iteration too and Sheaffer even sold that one as "School Pen".

[PenPaper52]

 

I have one of these as well. Orange with metal cap. Always inked up.

Love how dependable she is!

[tamiya]

Thought I've seen the skinny ring on some pens with nubs in it.

[KingRoach]

I wonder if it's related to the type of barrel, clear or solid? All mine are clear ones, like King's. Also, the ring on yours looks to be twice as wide as on mine; you can see the narrow ring cut-away in King's photos.

 

there is actually some clear adhesive tape to make mine a bit thicker so it can hold the cap a little bit. maybe you are looking at that?

 

 

 

i may have found the ring stuck in the cap where you mentioned, but if that is the ring, then it is shoved up real good. any suggestions on how to take it out? and if i do take it out, does it play a role in holding the cap in place?

[KingRoach]

I have one of these as well. Orange with metal cap. Always inked up.

Love how dependable she is!

dependable/reliable is the word id use for it. i was just playing with it right now and have actually written that down as a description for it. it is dependable, but for some reason, not a real joy to us.

 

it is something you want inked up though. 3 years in a box and it started right up!

[chromantic]

there is actually some clear adhesive tape to make mine a bit thicker so it can hold the cap a little bit. maybe you are looking at that?

 

In the 2nd an 3rd pics (especially the 3rd) you can see a narrow (sort of groove-like) strip on the barrel next to the section, this is where the ring goes, the bottom of the ring abuts that little edge you can see; it appears very narrow on yours, maybe half the width as the ring on jar's.

 

i may have found the ring stuck in the cap where you mentioned, but if that is the ring, then it is shoved up real good. any suggestions on how to take it out? and if i do take it out, does it play a role in holding the cap in place?

 

Second question first. The ring isn't flat, it's L-shaped - the top edge is folded inward. Turn the L upside down and picture it on that little cutaway on the barrel - the top tip of the vertical line (now on the bottom) abuts that little edge on the cutaway and the horizontal line sets on the end of the barrel, between the barrel and the section, so the section holds it in place.

 

As Tamiya said, the narrow ring has little nubs on it, these are the friction points that hold the barrel on. I don't/can't see any nubs or jar's ring - it may be the whole flat surface of that ring serves as friction and when they went with the narrower ring, it was likely also thinner and so they added the nubs. Probably got twice as many rings from the same amount of metal doing it this way.

 

As for getting it out? The folded-over edge is probably narrower than the thickness of the plastic inner cap so finding something to grab that edge to pull it out may prove tricky. A long sewing needle would be fine enough, if you could somehow bend the tip 90 degrees while leaving enough shaft to hold onto. They do make very long stitchwork needles where the end curves maybe 60-75 degrees, those might work. A dental pick might work. A very fine crochet hook, but you might have to 'dig' into the plastic cap a bit to catch the edge of the ring.

 

Hope this helps, good luck.

Edited January 17, 2017 by chromantic

[jar]

 

there is actually some clear adhesive tape to make mine a bit thicker so it can hold the cap a little bit. maybe you are looking at that?

 

 

 

i may have found the ring stuck in the cap where you mentioned, but if that is the ring, then it is shoved up real good. any suggestions on how to take it out? and if i do take it out, does it play a role in holding the cap in place?

I use an old set of dental picks that I begged from my dentist. That and patience. What happens is the cap is placed on the body when the nib and section is out and that ring gets shoved way up in the cap. Patience is your best friend.

[mitto]

Just received a parcel containing three of these pens. Two red and one blue. Both the red ones have the metal barrel rings as well are equipped with Sheaffer slim squeeze converters. The blue one neither has the ring nor the converter. It has an empty Sheaffer cartridge, though.

[PenTieRun]

I have used a bent paper clip to pry the ring from the cap. It should be an easy process.

Edited January 17, 2017 by PenTieRun

[mwpannell]

If you have a Harbor Freight store nearby they have cheap dentist-type picks that I'm pretty sure I've used for this very thing, and are handy for 101+ other things as well.

[KingRoach]

wow! Update! I got it out! It is so thin! Mine was stuck real good it took many attempts and I couldn't get anything in between the cap and plastic thing. Eventually I used a metal dental pick to grip (almost pierce) the ring real hard, and pulled out very carefully (I did scratch the inside of the cap the first attempt), and lo, it came out.

[mwpannell]

That's great. It is a quandary to remove--or even know something is or isn't there--in such a tight, narrow, spot.

[chromantic]

wow! Update! I got it out!

 

Yay! Grats!

 

My experience is that Skrip ink in my school pens doesn't dry out in the nib (though it will still evaporate from the cartridge) so that even if the pen sits for days and days unused, it writes straight away - never had a hard start or skipping with these.

[KingRoach]

It really was, mwpannell, to simply determine something was even there, even with an LED light pointing inside the cap. You could hardly before that is a ring.

 

The pen is extremely reliable, and having the transparent blue, I believe I will be keeping this probably forever now. It is an immensely dependable daily writer: properly designed for schools.

 

I took pictures last time of the pen with the ring, which gives it an entirely new appeal to me (and holds the cap so securely in place making this pen quite usable now), but the files are too big to attach and I can't shrink them while they're on the cloud. I have to make it to my home laptop someday to shrink the files and then upload.

[KingRoach]

sorry for long absence. but initially the forum wouldn't allow me to upload photos, and then when I figured it out, it is causing me a long workflow to get photos on the server and posted.

 

Here is a photo showing what I used to retrieve the stuck ring, and the pen with the ring in it.