Reviving My Old Fountain Pen

[Sandy1]

This must be so frustrating. Let's see if someone can come up with a good solution.

 

 

The key to good pen repair is patience.

 

 

Hi,

 

Send all parts to the esteemed Mr Zorn at Main Street Pens.

 

BUT I wonder if the pen itself is worthy of restoration, especially if the nibs will match to a current production Mnnn series Pelikan. Though after viewing the side-by-side comparison link contributed by Member MarcinEck, that doesn't seem likely. (?)

 

From Pelikan's Perch:

Side by side comparison of the nib collars. Left: Merz & Krell 400NN, Right: Pelikan 400NN. Picture courtesy of D. Caspersz; http://goo.gl/qXorQm

 

 

 

Bye,

S1

Edited July 18, 2017 by Sandy1

[ac12]

Try a chopstick.

I use 2 different styles

- What I call picnic chopsticks. When you separate the 2 halves, the single chopstick is square in profile.

- A more upscale chopstick that is round in profile.

 

#1 can be easily adjusted in size by wittling down with a knife.

 

1. Soak the front of the pen in a narrow glass of water. Make sure that the water is IN the section. You may have to do this for several days, to dissolve/soften the dried ink.
2. Change water every day, until you see no more ink coming out from the pen.

1. Make sure that the piston is in the retracted position, so you don't hit it with the chopstick.
2. Stick the chopstick in the pen, and try to get it to grip the collar.
   Do not let the chopstick go in so far that it hits the piston. If it does, cut the chopstick shorter.
3. While looking from the front of the pen, turn the chopstick counter-clockwise, to unscrew the collar.

When you get the collar out, inspect the collar. It MUST NOT be cracked. If it is cracked, it needs to be replaced.

 

When you get the collar out, the next difficult part is to put the collar back on the nib+feed, without damaging the nib or feed.

 

If you are not comfortable doing any of the above, especially putting the collar back on the nib+feed, send it to a pen tech to do for you.

 

gud luk

[makas]

Let it soak longer. Don't rush it because it has been setting dry for many years what is a few days. I think the chop stick idea is a good one just go easy. The nib isn't gold and not that hard to find so if you can't fix that one it isn't that big a deal to find one. Relax and you will get it with time.

 

Take care

Mark

[RebeccaEspinosa]

Oh thank you all so very much...

Great ideas and suggestions. It's not an expensive pen but it's a nice one. I'll let you know how it all works out. Very appreciated..

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

One more itty bitty byte, this time from from richardspens : how to do the nib swap and keep the nib+feed assembly intact and aligned http://www.richardspens.com/?page=info/nibswap.htm

 

Bye,

S1

[RebeccaEspinosa]

Thank you so much Sandy. Great article. I now have a greater appreciation for my pen and taking care of it....

[siamackz]

Why do you need to get the nib collar out. Just stick the feed with nib back into the collar - the same way it came out.

Before you do that, let running water go through the opening and clean up the barrel inside since you have the pen opened up anyway. You might even want to take some soap and a thin bottle brush and scrub the barell inside with soapy water. Let it dry overnight, upside down so the water trickles out of the opening. I would then take some silicon oil and with a toothpick I would apply some to the inner sides of the barell so that the piston becomes super smooth.

Then pop the nib and feed back in. Remember to align the feed and nib properly so that the main channel on the feed goes directly under the nib's breather hole. This way ink flow will be good.

[RebeccaEspinosa]

Hi there Extremely Rare

 

Thanks for your thoughts. I'd like to remove the collar because i have three interchangeable nibs. I'd prefer to use a finer point now. I was doing calligraphy when i stopped using the pen decades ago. So the nib is rather squared off. I'll be using it more for handwriting now..

 

I appreciate your suggestions about how to teplace the nib and feed...

 

 

[siamackz]

Maybe soak the section part in some rapido eze for some time, to loosen any dried ink. Using an ultrasonic cleaner will help even more. Let it dry over night. Then use dry heat and try the chopstick technique suggested earlier in this post (but there is potential to crack the collar doing this). It's a tricky issue, but not really worth a professional restorer anyway, so I'd go for it.

 

Alternately... just remove the nib part from the other nib unit you like, and just push that nib in with the feed into the pen as it is now.

 

All the best!

Edited July 20, 2017 by siamackz

[mitto]

The collar would unscrew after good soak (and prrhaps use of a little dry heat on the section though not necessary in most cases) with the nib and feed stuck back in.

 

It happenend with my Pelikan 400NN brown tortoise and I was able to unscrew the whole nib unit after good prolonged soak.

 

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/307900-what-pelikan-or-a-frankenpen/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3637932

 

Post #25 onward.

Edited July 21, 2017 by mitto