Pen Repairs 2: Disassembling Nibs and Sections

[@PiersStudio]

The first step in my repairs is to soak the section, feed and nib in water. Fill the glass to just over the line where the section meets the barrel. Overnight usually does the trick. It will dissolve old ink which might be “cementing” the parts together. Before applying more brute force on the section, I sometimes wrap a few layers of masking tape around the threaded end of the barrel. That will help it from cracking as you try to extract the section.

[@antoniomandelli2311]

Good suggestion to reinforce the threads with tape when unscrewing. I agree with you: soaking is one of the best way to get rid of a blocked section or a stuck nib/feed. In some, extreme, cases helps also an ultrasonic bath.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

That's a good suggestion about the tape. I had never thought of that!

[@penkino1]

Yo Jason. I wish all my pens were that easy to disassemble. A section can be soaked before removal, however you need to know the material otherwise it can disolour especially on vintage pens. Use dry heat carefully to help with the removal of the section to prevent breakage. It helps to get pieces of rubber to grip the barell and section when removing, i use an old bicycle inner tube cut into handy sizes. Good luck.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I intentionally picked pens at random. I was surprised to find that my first one pulled out that easily! That's why I went back for more. That Escritor will be an interesting challenge. Thank you for the added ideas. My rubber grip is the same idea as a bicycle inner tube, but different source of rubber. But now I have a future source. Thank you for that as well!

[@rubenplant99]

Just thought I’d add, I had a Wyvern 303 which I could just not get the section off until I did some research and found out it was threaded in the reverse direction: righty loosey. Very glad I avoided damaging the pen, and it’s something I’ll look out for now!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

That's a great point on the research! Yes, opening a pen with reverse threads could destroy it if you do it incorrectly.

[@Johan-vk5yd]

Thank you for a nice presentation in tune with the recent introduction video. ”Primum non nocere”is the ”semper fidelis” of medical doctors and I agree it should be it also for vintage pen restorers. The number of pens waiting in ”the green room” for your repairing them, shows that you not only do the talk but also do the walk. In contrast with critically ill people, vintage fountain pens won’t die if you just keep them waiting for treatment. About aligning hooded nibs: When you tightened the hood and find misalignment with the nib, post the cap on the barrel and align the clip with the grip section opening. Unscrew the section, and align the nib with the clip. When you again screw on the hood, it will at once be perfectly aligned with the nib.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Thank you! And you're right: the pen can wait until I have the skill or for the right person to fix it. And thank you for the tip on hooded nibs. I never thought of that!

[@davidanderson3425]

Thank you for another video in your Pen Repair series. Everyone should check out your notes in the video description as well. If a previous owner has used glue to carry out poor repairs or permanently join a section and barrel together the use of force will undoubtedly break the pen. I looked at eBay under "glue removal" to find a number of potentially useful products. You can buy super glue de-bonder (if that was used on the pen) or other types of glue or adhesive removal products. Personally, I have never used anything like this before. Therefore I would strongly advise caution as I don't know how these chemicals would react if used on a precious celluloid or resin pen. All I am saying is this might be a last resort option if all other methods have failed.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I wish I had thought of that point! Yes, some vintage pens suffer from non-standard repair methods such as exotic glues. A glue de-bonder would scare me: who knows what it would do to one of these plastics.

[@Johan-vk5yd]

WaskiSquirrel Super glue would be cyanoacrylate. I wouldn’t be shocked if a superglue de-bonder would dissolve an acrylate pen. I already took my bullet for team with my soaked casein pen, so I won’t try it.

[@x-changex-outx-oner8224]

I really enjoy these videos. You must have one of the most unique collection of pens I have seen. Gotta love the hobby...always something new to be learned.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Glad you like them! I have very eclectic tastes.

[@matthewbeddow3278]

Thank you, Jason. When I saw the thumbnail I thought you were gonna use pipe grips on a section, lol. Simple is where to start really, a little soaking with the caveat that you need to know the material and fingers as you said then escalate to section pliers & if necessary heat but again with the caveat that you need to know the material. Also, you need to know how the thing comes apart as you quite rightly said. Good video, stay safe my friend.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I should have done better explaining about soaking. Enough people brought it up that it's clearly a hole in my video. Yes, the pipe grips were more for humor. I would never try that!

[@matthewbeddow3278]

@@WaskiSquirrel It was entertaining & in these dark times, we need that for our sanity. :-)

[@ChrisSaenz13]

I'm really enjoying this series. I'm a very timid pen tinkerer but have done a few things & like to learn everything I can for future pen projects!!! Thank you!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Great to hear! I hope this series continues to encourage you. My next one will be about the sacs in some vintage pens.

[@cliffordbaker4930]

It seems like a silverware tray would be a useful holder for the various pens and their parts while you are working on them. Some are heavy enough not to move around accidentally and have rubber linings on the bottom of the sections. It would keep things together and not rolling around.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Great idea! I usually only work on one pen at a time, so these videos are a little misleading. But it would be a way to sort parts and such.

[@laszlojasz3006]

you might want to be careful and take note of the pelikan P30 series where section/barrel thread is reverse. if you try to unscrew like you usually do (turn anti clockwise, i.e. from right to left) then you will break the barrel...

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Thank you! Yes, I always believe in opening a pen carefully because some of them have these kinds of surprises. Sadly, I had to learn that lesson the hard way...

[@nikossiotas]

After really hurting my thump trying to take off a damaged nib and feed from a used pen that i got, i found the solution for a better gripping by tightly wrapping a sewing elastic around the nib and feed and then pull out. Now i have a badly damaged nib turned upwards that i don't know how to repair it and it needs a proper nib meister to be fixed. It was that way right when i got it though, it didn't bent by me.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Sorry to year that. Glad you found a solution. Is it your nib possibly a fude nib? If not, that would definitely be one for a nibmeister!

[@nikossiotas]

​​@@WaskiSquirrel It's a cross apogee in F size that previous owner overflexed it. Otherwise pen body is like new, it's just that a replacement nib would cost about 100€

[@WaskiSquirrel]

@@nikossiotas Ouch! Yes, you would be better off finding a nibmeister!

[@PenultimateDave]

Really loving this Pen Repairs series Jason, a great video in repairing pens empowering others to try out some pen repairs!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Thank you! That is exactly my goal with this series.

[@alanpareis734]

Thanks for the reminders for doing research first, Do no harm can never be repeated to many times. Looking forward to future installments as I gingerly move to attempting some repairs. Have had section pliers for about a year now only used once so far, but they sure were worth their price. Now all I need to do is find a source for un-cracked polystyrene hood shells for Parker Super 21 & 61. Bad “non-precious resin” choice Parker! Further details in next two IG posts on my channel.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I've heard bad things about polystyrene. Apparently Pelikan used it too in some of their older pens with the same terrible results. I'll look for it on IG.

[@OdE-ObjectosdeEscrita]

Nice video. Pen repair videos are very useful. I would always soak the section in water to be sure the ink dissolves and makes it easier to disassemble. By the way, the first Parker you showed is a heavily discoloured Parker True Blue.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Great point! I'm going to soak the Escritor. Thank you for identifying the Parker for me. I don't know how I'll fix the color on it, but I'm sure I can get the pen writing.

[@OdE-ObjectosdeEscrita]

@@WaskiSquirrel I don't think you will be able to fix the colour... Soak the section only, for the possibility of the barrel to discolour or get any other kind of damage...

[@MultiEbbot]

I soaked a pen that i couldn´t get apart i had tried to soak it before but tried a little longer. At first i was glad , something moved ! Then i realized the pen was melting. It totally feld apart.Only thing left now is the metal parts.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I wonder if it was one of the casein pens I mentioned in the video. They can't be soaked. Between yesterday and today I soaked the section of the Escritor shown in this video. Suddenly it came apart easily.

[@tjojones]

love your shirt. I never thought about being a felon outside of the lab.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I need something to do when I'm not teaching...

[@Wreckz_Tea]

Use a little bit of heat on the 2nd pen that you said sometimes shrinks or there could be ink acting as a glue

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I'm always nervous about heat, but that is one of the good ideas! I've had good luck with Mr. Gustafson's idea of soaking. From my reading about the Taperite, these are frequently broken in repair. The US model is a struggle for many repairers.

[@ovebjornson7846]

Heat, heat, heat. In cases of celluloids that have scrunk, early glues, the only thing that will soften the joint is applying heat. I use a hairdrier, heatguns are often overkill. Apply heat gradually, test for movement often, and you will reduce the number of cracked barrels to an absolute minimum. Cracking a barrel when appying force to the section, takes less thab a tenth of a second, and all you are left with is the memory of the nasty sound of something breaking, and a funny look on your face in my experience. Not using heat will brake 10 times more pens than the possible damage to some materials. The old guys that won the west and all that, advocatied the use of open flame. That really made pens going up in flames, and warping barrels. It took lots of experience - in other words, lots of damaged pens to master the proper use of open flame. We don't nedd to collect those experiences in our modern days of electrical heat sources.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Yes, I would be terrified to use flame! I agree with you on the heatguns. I use a heatgun a little at school (shrinks tubing around wiring projects). Hair dryer would make more sense. It almost feels like I would need 3 hands! But it would make sense to try it. I want to try soaking on that Escritor first, but I may have to work my way up to heat.

[@antoniomandelli2311]

@@WaskiSquirrel if you are scared about applying heat, i use a trick: always with an hairdryer, and i protect the part i don't want to heat by folding around some aluminium foil.

[@Johan-vk5yd]

I have a heat gun with gradual heat delivery, and variable fan force also. It can stand on its back, blowing the hot air perpendicularly upwards. It is easy to also regulate the heat exposure with the distance between the heat source and the pen. I can use my both naked hands, partly exposing also my hands. It gives immediate ”neuronal feed-back” should I expose the pen a bit too much.

[@ovebjornson7846]

@@Johan-vk5yd That seems like a very good solution. Where I live, the heat guns are far too powerful to use on pens and any other material that can melt or bend.

[@Johan-vk5yd]

Ove Bjornson My heat gun is a swiss Steinel. Heat can be set electronically from zero to 600 C and every temperature in between. Three fan speeds can be chosen. It can behave exactly like a hairdryer too if you wish.

[@vomer1004]

Keep your hands in the frame!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Yes.

[@alfonsomanjarres9727]

Hi,I'm feeling your pain. Happened to me exactly what happened to you with the exact same pen😢😢😢

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I've heard that's pretty common with that particular model.

[@tedmaska6748]

Good video. Keep up the good work.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Thanks, will do!

[@martynsnan]

Thanks Jason. I purposely experimented using a hair dryer on a cheap, broken plastic pen from a charity shop. As I watched it melt gently under a low heat applied for a very brief moment, I promised myself not to try that on anything valuable. It's a good way to learn the limits of repair techniques but never on anything precious and functioning.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Absolutely. For now, I'm not comfortable with heat. It's good to know your limits, and that's one of mine.

[@CatherineC.2123]

... that would be a felony in WHERE?

[@WaskiSquirrel]

In the garage...

[@paul1349]

WD-40 with the straw you can spray it all inside a pen is a machine that they sell does something trouble water you can soak it in there WD-40 does the job

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I have not tried WD-40, but I will put it on my list. But you are right about soaking: I've lost count of how many pens I've repaired due to soaking.

[@nigelnightmare4160]

If you work on a parker 51 "good luck". LOL

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Thanks! I've only partially taken one of them apart. Lots of parts in the section!

[@whatanitemare]

Too bad much of what you did was off camera.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I wasn't real thrilled with this one either.