Rotring 600 Fountain Pen Cap Popping Open

[mwmosser]

hello -

 

I have a mid-1990s vintage Rotring 600 fountain pen with F nib that I love. The cap on this pen has always required a bit of a twist to get it to "lock" after capping it. Over the years, the cap has become looser, and today I noticed that when I cap it (after the twist), it pops back open again (and shoots the cap across the desk, in fact). It no longer stays capped. It appears the brass in either the cap has loosened, or the nubs on the barrel that lock into the receivers on the cap have worn down. I don't see anything up in the cap.

 

Is there any repair for this?

 

Thanks -

 

MM

 

*EDIT - I just got it closed. But it's a pretty tenuous hold.

[PaulS]

do the two little sprung nubs move back and forth as they should - is it possible the inner ring which captivates them might have moved.

When replacing the cap, certain cap positions, related to barrel position, seem on mine to produce easier replacement - really don't know why this should occur, but it does.

The instruction manual, which I don't have, may well suggest that replacing the cap by twisting it on is fine, but I prefer to line up the flats and gently push into place.

Quite obviously from what you say, it does appear that the two nubs simply aren't producing sufficient lock to keep the cap from coming off - so the problem may well be that they aren't moving outward and locking above the inner ring. Unfortunately, I don't think they can be accessed from inside the section. Sorry this isn't a lot of help.

Edited June 6, 2017 by PaulS

[mwmosser]

Thanks - that's what I suspected/expected. The cap is monogrammed, unfortunately, or I'd order a new one. Maybe I can't a new barrel piece. Either way, it's unfortunate. It's easily my favorite pen.

[kenspens]

I think the 600 fountain pen design goes back to the early '80s or late '70s, because I saw them in stores when I was getting ready to graduate university around 1981. I finally bought one around 1984, a stainless steel Extra Fine point. It was among my first fountain pen purchases as a real engineer with a real job. It was made in West Germany, had a knurled section, and the cap was closed by pressing the cap axially toward the rest of the pen until it clicked. The faces of the hexagonal cross-section always lined up. Sitting in meetings I would play with the pen, so it was clicked open and shut way more than simple use would dictate. I lost it, and the same for the one I bought to replace it. I finally bought another older one on Ebay, but it does not post well.

 

When they vanished from pen shops I found Levenger had a look alike that was made in Japan. Due to its design having been varied in size and in some key dimensions I found that a Japan Rotring cap could not be substituted onto a German Rotring. Not only that, the closure latches were a totally different design (for one thing, it stopped holding the pen body after about a month!). But the Japanese cap on a Japanese pen body also cannot be turned without gorilla-like strength.

 

I am convinced that if one is able to turn that cap when closing, then one is damaging or has damaged the pen body or the cap or both.

 

If there is a version of the great Rotring design that is more recent than the Levenger offering, I have not had one and anything I say above is not applicable.

[mwmosser]

It's funny you mention Levenger; my pen is from there (a PhD graduation present, along with the other pens and pencil they sold), and bought in what I believe was 2002. I misspoke in my first post as to the date of manufacture.

 

Nonetheless, despite having been sold via Levenger, I don't think it's a Japan knockoff. The clip says Rotring, the barrel is knurled like the other 600s, and the nib is exactly the same. The rollerball has the same twist lock closure. But the twist closure on the fountain pen is definitely harder than the rollerball. And I'm sure the nubbins are damaged now; I think they've been slowly becoming damaged over the years.

 

I wonder how it's possible to tell a German Rotring from a Japanese knockoff?

[Moonshae]

I have the Levenger version of this pen in EF as well. It is somewhere in my attic and unaccessible, but I would assume that if the Levenger version were made in Japan, it would be on an authorized basis, not a knock off.

[kenspens]

I didn't mean to say it is a knock off, I certainly don't know that it is. I just think the newer design that I have is not as good as the original, that I also have.

[kenspens]

It's funny you mention Levenger; my pen is from there (a PhD graduation present, along with the other pens and pencil they sold), and bought in what I believe was 2002. I misspoke in my first post as to the date of manufacture.

 

Nonetheless, despite having been sold via Levenger, I don't think it's a Japan knockoff. The clip says Rotring, the barrel is knurled like the other 600s, and the nib is exactly the same. The rollerball has the same twist lock closure. But the twist closure on the fountain pen is definitely harder than the rollerball. And I'm sure the nubbins are damaged now; I think they've been slowly becoming damaged over the years.

 

I wonder how it's possible to tell a German Rotring from a Japanese knockoff?

The cap closure system is visibly different (I'm only talking about the FP), and the cylindrical shape on the end of the barrel is shorter on the Levenger one. With a good rubber O-ring on the end the cap does not stay straight when posted, compared to the older ones. Yes it writes, but so does a Varsity. I find the drooping cap an aesthetic irritant, and have dropped caps while I am writing. NEVER happened to me with the older design.