. . .because. . . bad things will happen.

I suppose I should have taken a 'before' picture but I was so horrified that I couldn't bring myself to do it. The tines were bent upwards, and separated, by Sam's enthusiastic ten seconds of vigorously stabbing the pen into the tabletop- I think the ink splatter must have been very satisfying. The left tine had been bent upwards at an angle of sixty or so degrees and the right to nearly ninety. However. . .



I was able to effect satisfactory repairs. I thought that this picture of the patient at the conclusion of the operation, just before closing, might be of interest. As you can all see, the nib unit of the Pelikan M800, which is an interchangeable screwed in modular unit, is made up of a threaded collar, and a conventional (and very high capacity) feed which appears to be made of laser etched plastic- very well done, however, with a matte sheen very close to ebonite. The nib and feed fit into the collar in the conventional manner, as a friction fit (very tight, by the way) and I was able to remove the damaged nib with a standard knock-out block, by placing the nib into the block and gently but firmly tapping on the back of the feed with a ballpoint pen barrel cut down, and a watchmaker's hammer. After three or for taps the nib came cleanly out, and a leisurely fifteen minutes of careful finger work through a 4x loupe left me with the results you see here. To finish, I gently burnished the nib on the shaft of a sable hair watercolor artist's brush, whose taper was perfect for supporting the rather delicate metal against the pressure of the pegwood rod I used. The bend in the right tine was rather complex and I actually had to use a tweezers to sequentially unbend the distortions- as you can see from this shot of the underside I was succesful in eliminating all but a slight waviness in the metal:



Interestingly one can also see the filemarks left by Mr. Mottishaw's modification of the nib. Not only are the tines narrowed and the shoulders brought closer to the base of the nib in order to increase flexibility, metal is also carefully removed from the underside of the nib to produce a profile similar to that of vintage flexible pen nibs.

I toyed with the idea of re-tempering the nib to make it more springy once the shape was restored but it is writing just fine and I think I'll leave well enough alone .

Jack

nt

nt

Sounds like a knockout block is not such a bad thing to have on your side

Glad that you were able to recover. My recent issue was also well taken care of by a terrific Pen Shop owner here in my town. Isn't community just terrific...be it near or far?! People can just make all the difference. Your pic here is very helpful to understanding those inner Pelikan workings. Thanks again Jack!

Best Regards,

Andrew

. . .is a great thing to have. A tube of aluminum, closed at one end, holes of varying diameter punched in it. I got mine years ago and have (shhhh ) used it for watchmaking too.

Jack

Congratulations on the repair work - the nib looks as good as new.
Nice work Jack!

Amenon

. . .unfinished country pine table from Ikea . We've done all but carve our names into it and it's the only piece of Ikea furniture left in the apartment from when we moved in eight years ago. Maybe I'll get something grander when the boys are older.

Much older .

Jack

Hi Jack,

Owen (now 2.5 years) used to specialize in banging things with blunt instruments until satisfied, but has moved on - now he has successfully brought down a VCR by inserting toy wooden letters, damaged several pieces of furniture with chocolate milk cluster bombs, done more damage to wood floors than you would think a twenty-five-pounder could possibly do, and the list goes on.

My biggest fear? He's training our six month old, shown here.



Don't let the innocent looking smile and big eyes fool you. He means business, and he's in cahoots with his brother. I've seen the two of them out of the corner of my eye on several occasions talking. Talking about mischief. I need to keep them separated, and the Lamys under lock and key.

Oh what the heck, it's just stuff; have at it, boys.



P.S.
Nice job fixing the pen! How does it write?

. . .that is one great face .

I thought for about ten seconds about losing it over the pen and then suddenly it seemed inconsequential in the scheme of things. This may have had something to do with my actually being able to repair the darned thing!

Jack

I did the same thing to me Dad's Parker Vacumatic. It was a disaster that could not be recovered.
I have told this story to my son (now 10 years). So whenever he looks at my Vacumatic, he gives me a cunning smileˇKluckily he is over the age of 'innocent'!

Francis

. . .if you've still got the pen I'd be glad to take a shot .

Jack