Section Stuck, How To Get Out?

[MCJordan]

kestrel, ac12 & Ron Z:

Thanks for your responses and suggestions.

After a while, I asked the same thing on the FPN Facebook group and got a number of replies similar to yours and about how the dip nibs rust when in contact with water too long, including water soluble inks.

 

What confused me most was that these deposits felt soapy, not like any rust that Ive expediting my lifetime. It rubbed off easily and the light film on the rest of the nib cane off with a fingernail, so I used a brush on it. The underside of the nib, impossible to reach, was another story.

 

Basically, the cheap nib is toast and the X-450 was I expensive enough for me to experiment with creating a frankenpen. It was nice while it lasted, but I have to wonder: if these types of pens are made commercially for sale, are the nibs treated somehow to prevent corrosion?

[Ron Z]

 

 

are the nibs treated somehow to prevent corrosion?

 

The "treatment" was in the metal used to make the nib. Good nibs were made using a corrosion resistant alloy. Any coating is likely to have a negative impact on the ink flow. This is one reason why dip pen nibs were made in such large quantities. They rusted, or broke, and tips wore and would snag the paper, so had to be replaced fairly often. Even so, they were a big improvement on quill pens.

[ac12]

I suspect that if the nib is rusted, it is rusted up inside the section. Oh Joy. You may need pliers to coax it out. A couple of cycles in an ultrasonic may help.

 

 

 

 

Hit Cntrl-Z. The text that disappeared on you will magically reappear.

 

Thanks Ron,

Will try it the next time it "disappears" on me.

[Ron Z]

That only happens when you have a carefully crafted, especially lucid post you know. A really dumb answer never disappears on you. Ever.

[Dmichael]

I had the same issue with my oversized Sheaffer Balance. The section was stuck really bad. I used the hair dryer, but I placed the pen inside a metal food storage container so the heat reflected back on the section, getting double heat. After about 5 minutes of heating, the section turned right out. The sticky glue inside was super soft from the heating process.