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I picked up my heretofore reliable Gate City Belmont to do some sketching and as soon as I uncapped it I noticed a big splat of Legal Lapis on my sketchpad. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the cap was full of ink and the reservoir was nearly empty. I checked the position of the plunger and that seemed OK, the nib was securely screwed in place but somehow the ink found its way out of the reservoir and into the cap. I am at a loss for an explanation, It wasn't stored in an excessively hot location, I usually carry and store it cap up but have regularly stored it, inked up, in my pen drawer of left it on my desk top in the horizontal position for several days at a time with no problems. Overall the pen has been extremely reliable, I've never had any starting issues, skipping issues or problems with blobbing in the couple of years I've had it, I was carrying it and using it just a couple of days ago and it was fine. Does anyone have any ideas what could cause this to occur? A front moved through here over night and there may have been a pressure drop but anything severe would usually give me an earache and cause some really nasty popping and whistling in my left ear and that dodn't happen, none of my other pens seems to have been affected either.

Hello everybody, my beloved Parker Sonnet seems to be suffering from a severe collar fracture. Symptoms: First symptoms were leaking of ink from the section where the nib/feed screws into the inner section, around the metal ring. The leaking got worse and worse (beautifully Tanzanite colored fingers!) and finally the metal ring fell off! Inspecting the patient: Inspection of the pen and disassembling of it showed fracture lines on the collar. The plastic rim of the plastic collar section that is supposed to hold the metal ring in place looks like it is broken off completely, explaining the ring falling off. Picture: Apologies for the quality, I'm not really good at photography.. The pen is about 3 years old, so there's no warranty on it anymore. Does anyone have any suggestions what I could do except sending it to Parker for repair? Is there someone out there (Germany or USA) from whom I can purchase a new collar for my Sonnet? I did look but couldn't find anyone. Cheers and have a great Sunday! Phoenixfeder (with Sonnet patient) P.Ss: VERY BIG thank you to antoniosz for his "The guts of Sonnets" (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/36094-the-guts-of-sonnets/?hl=%2Bparker+%2Bsonnet) it helped me a lot!!! Great pics and explanations!

Hi guys, Recently, my wife became interested in fountain pens after seeing me use them daily. I bought a large set of Lamy Safari and Al-Star Pens and she commandeered about 5 of them and she's been using them for a couple of months off-and-on. She started an internship with the city recently for her last year of graduate school and has started carrying her pens daily. She has a mix of Medium and Broad nibs on her pens. She was telling me that her pens were leaking and I looked at one of them and noticed some nib creep. I figured it was normal and explained it to her that it was just nib creep. She said it was worse than that, but that she cleaned it off. She sent me an image this morning of her Lime Green Safari inked with Kon Peki and the whole section and inside of the cap was covered in ink and when she uncapped it, the ink went all over her desk and hands. I noticed on another of her pens (a light gray Safari) that the back of the pen is covered in black ink where she posts the pen. Is it the ink or are her pens defective? Should I be looking to replace feeds or send them to Lamy for repair? She's quickly becoming discouraged from using fountain pens and actually said she might like for me just to sell them for parts or as-is just so she doesn't have to mess with them anymore. I hate that she's discouraged and would desperately love to hear your thoughts. I've changed inks multiple times and tried Sailor, Noodlers, Private Reserve, Iroshizuku and Lamy and they still leak. It's not all of the pens, just 3. It's rather annoying, regardless. Any thoughts? For what it's worth, this is what she sent me this morning after carrying her pen from her desk at home to her desk at work. Maybe a total of 10 minutes in her purse. She doesn't ride a horse to work anymore since we got the Gremlin so it couldn't be the jostling of horseback riding. And she doesn't do parkour in a skirt because it isn't ladylike. So I'm not sure how her pen could possibly leak this much in that short amount of time... http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2830/9687648520_3fb4a163cc_z.jpg

Hi all, I've been experience some leaking issues where the section joins the barrel of my Pelikan 100. Is the below steps correct to fix the problem? 1) Untwist the section and barrel with some heat (or is it friction fit) 2) Coat the section threads with sealant Which sealant do you think works better to make it airtight and leak proof? Rosin-based sealant, beeswax or the tar-based sealant on Penboard? Thank you, looking forward to your advice.