The Right Tool For The Job

[howdydave]

I had a nib and feed stuck in a Noodler's Ahab pen and I pushed it out with a chopstick.

 

In the future, if I need to push a feed out that has a shaft in the middle, I was thinking about using my watchmaker's staking set but I don't know whether or not a steel punch would damage the feed.

 

Wa'ja think?

 

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by howdydave

[Inkling13]

Gently? Idk... waiting on experts.

[PAKMAN]

Not all that different from a Knock Out Block used by pen repairers for getting nibs out.

 

 

[praxim]

Having both, I use the knockout block on the rare occasion I want to remove a feed. Mine came with steel drifts so that seems similar, although I appreciate the idea of using a suitable short wooden dowell (or chopstick) as a drift.

 

My reasons are two: firstly, the knockout block typically has more, and more suitable, hole options; secondly, the block is normally wooden, not hardened steel like a staking set table.

 

The forces on the section when you punch the feed are no less than on the feed itself, so cushioning the section fractionally on wood looks safer than against hardened steel. Without the dense core of the feed, the section is quite thin.

 

My view.

[hari317]

... but I don't know whether or not a steel punch would damage the feed.

 

 

No, it won't, provided it's smoothed well. Nice set BTW, Made in India.

[howdydave]

No, it won't, provided it's smoothed well. Nice set BTW, Made in India.

 

Got it for a very reasonable price on eBay.

[Chrissy]

Pentooling makes a metal knock-out block with a hollow metal punch, and that works very well.

[sidthecat]

The chopstick is a surprisingly useful multitasker. My husband, an Oracle database administrator, restarted his home computer so many times that he broke the start button. Not to be daunted, he drilled a hole in the faceplate and started the computer with a chopstick. It got old quickly, but that’s beside the point. I like to keep a few in the kitchen for stirring and poking purposes.

[Honeybadgers]

I've been using steel punches for a long time.

[Jamerelbe]

The chopstick is a surprisingly useful multitasker. My husband, an Oracle database administrator, restarted his home computer so many times that he broke the start button. Not to be daunted, he drilled a hole in the faceplate and started the computer with a chopstick. It got old quickly, but thats beside the point. I like to keep a few in the kitchen for stirring and poking purposes.

We keep a few chopsticks in our cutlery drawer too: we find work really well for eating with!

[Ghost Writer]

I have a bit of the DIY spirit and an eternity of time. For a couple of repairs where the feed had an extended rear center tube I drilled out a "proper sized" hole in a piece of scrap wood to use as the knockout block. Then I did a trial-and-error diameter match up with the feed and some discarded cheap plastic/nylon ballpoint pen barrels. After I found a ballpoint barrel with a slightly smaller diameter to match (closely) the pen feed diameter I pulled the ink tube from the ballpoint barrel. Now I had the perfect plastic "punch" that fit the feed and allowed the extended rear tube to fit inside the hollow barrel during the knockout process. I wasn't pretty -- however, it worked well with no damage to the feed or extended tube.