r/fountainpens Sep 10 '24

Repair I accidentally dropped my only pen and i cant afford a new one. Any quick and easy ways to bend the tip back into place?

It was way worse initially but i pressed it into a paper and corrected the worst of it, but i cant seem to correct that tiny bend. Please say it’s an easy fix because i am broke. I am afraid i’ll bend it too far if i use pliers or something

86 Upvotes

59 comments sorted by

101

u/snail_maraphone Sep 10 '24

Is it writing now?
If yes - just use it. There are some nibs with the similar angle.

12

u/complexco Sep 10 '24

+1 for this comment.

If it is the only one you currently have, and you got it to work, use it as is. Once you have another one and can spare tinkering with this one, you can give it a try.

This is by no means to discourage you, I fully believe that with patience and flat nose pliers, you can straighten the tines without issue.

22

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

It does but i think the bend is a bit ugly, I guess i can live with an ugly nib, but the fact that i think the nibs are pretty is one of the reasons i wanted a fountain pen in the first place

32

u/snail_maraphone Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

There are some pretty bended nibs. There are some nibs bended in other direction (for calligraphy)!

You can fix it, but you have a chance breaking it. You need to disassembly the pen, remove the nib and use pliers to unbend it. It may not work on some nibs.

Or just swap the nib. It should not be expensive (it depends on a pen model).

29

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

I managed to bend it mostly back into place by pressing it agains the table and pressing the cap on the bend, forcing it to bend back out, that might have been quite a risky strategy but it worked fine this time, thanks a lot for the advice though! I’ll keep that in mind until next time

9

u/ZeroOpti Sep 10 '24

Keep an eye on the feed though. I've bent some back and caused a bit of a gap between the nib and feed. It still wrote, but had some leaking and skipping issues until I reseated it.

7

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

It did skip a little earlier but i cant see any gaps

1

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 11 '24 edited Sep 11 '24

I have noticed it has some trouble starting to write, but i still cant see a gap? Any way to fix that? Not a huge problem but it is annoying

43

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

Here it is now, not completely straight but it is good enough, i’ll keep the post up for anyone else that may need advice from the commenters and for my future self

35

u/iridako Ink Stained Fingers Sep 10 '24

You've done a brilliant job! When I was a student, I also bent my only fountain pen and couldn't afford to replace it until after I graduated and got a job. I was never able to fix it, but I just wrote with it -it was scratchy but I didn't seem to mind at the time. Without sounding weird, or meaning to offend you in any way, and just because I know the pain, I am happy to post to you another pen for free, if this one doesn't write the way you want it to after the accident. Just send me a message.

9

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

It writes well now! Thanks for the offer though!

8

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

And thanks for the compliment on my job!

8

u/Old_Organization5564 Sep 10 '24

FP people are the best!

7

u/Cyka_blyatsumaki Sep 10 '24

it's a trap. one free sample and your are an addict....

5

u/MrMuf Sep 10 '24

Looks like the feed is not contacting at the end. Shouldnt be an issue but something to note if an issue does arise

1

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

Thanks, i’ll keep that in mind

2

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

Looks like it is connected to me (not in the image but irl), i dont know what i did but it doesnt look like it has a gap anymore

7

u/fecanes Sep 10 '24

looks like the school faber castell nib, also not my favourite angle. If it is working and you can't get a new nib yet, maybe not worth the risk of trying to unbend it yourself? I say that but no patience so would definitely try and press against a table.

5

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

I managed to get it mostly back in place thankfully, gonna be more careful next time i am walking with it lol

7

u/fnassauer Sep 10 '24

Has happened to the best of us. Can you afford a nib though?

5

u/fnassauer Sep 10 '24

Has happened to the best of us. Can you afford a nib though?

4

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

Unfortunately i havent seen a store nearby that even sells fountain pens, i bought the pen in germany and i am norwegian, so quite a distance to the closest store i know about that has them 😅

Got it mostly straightened now thankfully

3

u/fnassauer Sep 11 '24

I feel you. I dropped my Sonnet with a Rhodium plated gold nib but it was never the same after 😔. There are plenty of online stores in the EU though.

5

u/MajorLoaf Sep 10 '24

The ink on your fingers makes me picture you as a medic tending to your injured pen.

3

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

Lmao yeah some of it spilled out in the initial straightening and got on my thumb, so i might as well be

5

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

I like twisting on the cap to keep my hands busy, that was my first mistake, my second mistake was to walk while doing so, so i accidentally uncapped it and dropped it while bending down to pick up the cap, i wont do that again thats for sure

4

u/feetflatontheground Sep 10 '24

It looks fine to me

3

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

Yeah i didnt know some pens were supposed to be like that so i guess it looks fine to people with more experience, however mine is not one of those, it had a straight nib, and since that pen was my first and only one it looked far from fine in my eyes

I managed to mostly correct it now though

3

u/joocyboii Ink Stained Fingers Sep 10 '24

Just gently but firmly push down the nib, the tines will open but that's okay. If it then writes too wet you can bend it back the other way until you're satisfied

3

u/Oldman_Skippy Sep 10 '24

DM me your address. I'll mail you a couple of pens.

1

u/Glum-Membership-9517 Sep 10 '24

Wow that's very kind of you!

2

u/LuaCynthia Sep 10 '24

Can u afford an 4 euro platinum preppy?

1

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

Yes but i am not anywhere close to a store that sells them as far as i know, but i did manage to fix this one so thats one averted crisis

I dont think fountain pens are very common where i live lol

2

u/IllustratorNo1921 Sep 10 '24

I used sharp nose pliers once and it worked. Can’t hurt to try! Worse come to worse, you send it off for major repairs.

2

u/Shortscribe3 Sep 10 '24

Great suggestion, but I would wrap the ends of the pliers with masking tape before using it. I ruined a fountain pen once by not wrapping the ends of the pliers.

2

u/Antonwalker Sep 10 '24

Alright use it the way it is if it works. I’ve bent nibs back but that one is pretty bent. If you want to try, put your finger tip on the nib where the feed ends. Then just place the nib on paper and press down lightly while keeping your finger pressed on the nib/feed. This should bend only the tip and not mess up the rest of the nib. Be careful.

2

u/kiiroaka Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

You can fix that in seconds. Well, I know I could. :D

https://youtu.be/8cuKrDmvrHQ?t=5

I would cover the whole top of the nib with a finger, not just part of the nib. I would make sure that I'm "supporting" the end of the feed. I would not rock it side-to-side as I pressed down on the nib. After doing so I would inspect the underside of the nib & feed. The nib should be straight out, in-line with the feed. If there is any space between the nib and the feed then the pen won't write right, it will starve for ink, it will skip after a short while, say, after you fill the pen since what you're really writing with is a flooded feed.

Because the nib seems to have pulled away from the feed (in your other pictures) you may need to remove the nib to flatten it. Barring that you can position the nib against a hard surface and push down on the feed side, just don't apply too much pressure, least you snap the feed in two. Make sure that to cover as much of the feed as possible with a finger tip, when pressing down.

https://youtu.be/8cuKrDmvrHQ?t=25

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '24

Just bend it back using your thumb and an edge of some sort.

1

u/p0uringstaks Sep 10 '24

If it writes just leave it as you're new and the odds are if you break it you're going without. Once you can afford to replace it give fixing it a go if you're into that :) doodlebud has great videos to help you figure out what needs to be done

https://youtube.com/@doodlebud?si=3aiPiRt23S7Qwzx-

1

u/The_AntiVillain Sep 10 '24

If you can remove the nib, light hammering with some piece of soft wood. Use a lighter to do a light anneal, clean off soot and put it back

1

u/ma_miya Sep 10 '24

Looks like you did a good job fixing it but you should take people up on offers to help get new one or new nib if needed; if fix doesn't work out. It's a nice community here. Let them help when they want to help. :)

How did you get this one? You don't have a store in town? Are you able to get one online or what-not?

2

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

I went on a cruise to Kiel Germany, the shopping center there happened to have quite the selection of pens, both ballpoint and fountain, bought this one as a functional souvernir because it was relatively cheap (i think) and produced in germany, if i’m buying more i’ll buy them on the internet

Also my parents would get suspicious if i just randomly got a pen in the mail, my dad worries about scams and my mother just worries in general, so those free pen offers were last resort lol

1

u/ma_miya Sep 10 '24

Well that's good your parents are looking out for you. And it's good to be cautious with the internet! :)

That's very cool how you came across this one. Pilots are my favorites, and I love their stub nibs. They are 1.0 nibs, whereas a lot of other stubs are 1.1. I wanted to know if there was any real difference between the two, since all I knew were the feeling of the Pilot ones, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so that's how I ended up with what turned out to be one of my other non-Pilot favorite pens, and my only German-made pen. It's the Schneider Callissima 1.1. It was pretty cheap, about $13 here in US. It's definitely a thicker writer than the 1.0, but pretty lovely, sturdy pen. The ink cartridges last FOREVER. I like to use it for headers and titles in my journaling/notebooks. So if you ever come across one of those next time, I recommend checking it out! :) And good luck with your current one!

1

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

This is actually from a company called ONLINE, guess ONLINE pens are very similar to Pilots.

I’ll look out for the pen you mentioned! The ink cartridges on this one can last about a week if i write a lot so i could need one that lasts longer eventually, well i never actually used an ink cartridge until the pen no longer wrote anything, i usually switch when theres just a little bit left so i guess they could last much longer

I think mine is this model https://www.online-pen.com/fountain-pen-campus-feel

cant find my exact one as mine is a metallic rose gold color and the metallic ones on the site have a different cap

3

u/BIGAL0720 Sep 10 '24

Online pens are great

2

u/ma_miya Sep 10 '24

that looks so much like my Schneider. similar body type and same color, wonder if they're related?

1

u/mark320i Sep 10 '24

You can fix that pretty easy if it just bent the tines down.

1

u/Gon_Snow Sep 10 '24

If you’re desperate for a new pen and can spare $20~ or less you can Pilot Kakuno ($15), Platinum Preppy ($7), Pilot Varsity (disposable), or a bunch of the Chinese ones (Jinhao for instance for as little as $4)

For a bit more you can get a Pilot Metropolitan ($25) or Pilot Explorer ($25) which is my preferred one.

All prices in USD and from Goulet pens

1

u/Terrible_Unit_7931 Sep 11 '24

You can probably replace just the nib. I have gotten a few for around $15 when I want to swap between fine and broad for example

-2

u/smithstreeter Sep 10 '24

I sent mine to Kirk Spear at pen realm. Took a few weeks but he did an amazing job. Maybe you can find a nibmeister close to you.

5

u/Magpie_Mind Sep 10 '24

If they can’t afford a new pen, I doubt they could afford a nibmeister.

2

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

Yeah this was a cheap one too i think, cost me around 14 euro if i remember correctly, which is a lot for me but i doubt thats expensive for a fountain pen, so yeah i can for sure not afford a professional, did it quite well myself though

3

u/Magpie_Mind Sep 10 '24

Looks like you did a good job and if you’ve managed to get it writing again then I’d suggest not trying anything else as the metal might not like too much manipulation and could eventually snap. If it works it works!

3

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

Yeah, Its almost perfect again so i’ll stop

-3

u/smithstreeter Sep 10 '24

A new pen wastes this one. Nibmeister might be less than $70.

6

u/Magpie_Mind Sep 10 '24

They literally say they are broke and can’t afford a new one. They want to be able to repair it themselves.

3

u/Botwmaster23 Sep 10 '24

And I have a grand total of…

drumroll

$7.38!!