Kaweco V71 Disassembly

[Jeph]

One of my latest acquisitions is this Kaweco V71 with a 14k OM nib. Everything works fine, except for that the nib writes a little dry. Since I do not know how to write with an oblique nib, I have not attempted to smooth the nib. Not that it really needed smoothing. Despite my best efforts, I have been unable to disassemble the pen at all. Granted I am being gentle since I do not know how it goes together, but I am getting nowhere. The feed(?) below the hooded nib looks like it has some kind of hinge. Plus, the piston cylinder has resisted my normally unstoppable leather strap removal tool.

Any advice on how to get this thing apart would be appreciated.

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[whych]

The pen is a V11, not 71.

The piston unscrews with a normal right hand thread and not the lefthand thread used by Pelikan.
For the piston, look at this thread:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...-stiff-piston/
and also this one:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...kan-mksilvexa/

Soak the whole pen in water overnight before trying to unscew the piston to get rid of any dried ink at the back/top of the piston.

You can push the feed out from the top of the barrel once you have the piston out. Once the old ink is cleaned out of the feed, it should write the same as a Pelikan or other German pen with a pretty good ink flow.
There is a thread in the repair section for a later Kaweco cartridge model that mentions how to push the feed out. The principle is the same for the piston filler.

To write with an oblique nib, put the nib onto the paper and then rotate it anti clockwise till the nib is flat with the paper. Now grip the pen as normal and write.

Take care with the nib - the tipping on the Kawcos will pull off if you put too much force on them, so don't try pulling the nib with a ruler like you do with a Lamy, say.

[Jeph]

Thanks for the help. Both of those links are broken for me, but with the information I was able to remove the piston with no problem. Removing the nib and feed is still a problem. The hooded nib on the V71 is not like the new sports, although it is like the vintage sports. The advice for the modern CC sports is to grab and pull. That does not work well with a hooded nib. Also, it looks like the hood/section is bonded to the barrel although I cannot say that for sure. Is there anyone that has specific experience removing one of these nibs?

Also, for the record, this is a V71. My pictures were not clear enough to show that. The only difference I can see (other than the number) is the striped blue oval windows on the V71 as opposed to the solid blue window on the V11.

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[whych]

Try these links:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/234267-mk30-with-stiff-piston/

and
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/238786-dismantling-a-pelikan-mksilvexa/

You want to use about a 2 to 3mm diameter rod long enough to stick out the top of the barrel to push the nib and feed out. (I used a kebab stick) Once it starts to move it will be easier to pull from the front.
The feed should look like this one from a V11:
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The 71 must be a newer version.

[Jeph]

Gotcha, thanks. And I love the idea of the old computer backing plate!

[Jeph]

Special thanks to whych for his help in getting this done. Especially the offline stuff that helped me without embarrassing me in public.

My feed did not have the 2mm (0.079 in.) tail (well I have a VERY small one) so if I would have had a suitable drift I could have knocked it out from the back if I could have gotten it centered. I ended up using a book to hold the nib and feed between the pages and pulling on the barrel. That got the nib loose enough to wiggle it out. I am very glad that I was careful, as the nib is only 0.005 in (0.13 mm) thick and bends easily. I did not bend it taking it out, but I did rubbing it with a cotton cloth afterwards. We will see if that comes back to haunt me later.

The feed took much more effort to get out even after the nib was removed. More soaking and patient pulling with a strap of rubber for grip finally got it out. The center feed slot was very narrow, but did not appear to be gunked up. A .002 copper shim slid easily down the nib feed slot as well. What I did see, however, is that the lateral fins on the right side of the feed were deformed from vertical lines into a “J” shape. This could have been from me taking it out, but it is strange that I did not damage both sides as the feed slowly came out with wiggling also. I remember a recent pen (F-C Basic) that had anemic flow and a feed that refused to be removed. When I did finally get that one out, it had the same type of “J” fin damage on the feed but to a greater degree. I did what I could for them and we will see what happens. The picture is after I have worked on them. They are not pretty but at least there is now a gap between each fin.

Now I just have to put it back together and see if I have made things better or worse.
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[whych]

Looking at the feed, it looks as though the tail has broken off the feed perhaps.
Try pushing the back of a drill bit through the section to make sure it is not broken off and still in there.
You should be able to push any dents out of the nib with the shank of a drill bit before you put it back together.

[Jeph]

Fixed!

You (might be able to) can see in the close-up picture of the nib what my problem was. I actually initially bent the tail of the nib during cleaning, but I bent the nib forward of the breather hole while straightening the tail. Did I mention that this nib is VERY thin and bends easily? So what that meant was that once I returned the tines to alignment, the nib tips were baby bottomed. Specifically, the RH nib tip was rotated about 30 degrees away from vertical on the bottom. This was due to the nib being effectively bent upwards at the wings, and therefore lower along the feed slit than at the shoulders. Once you know what you are looking for, you can see that in the lighting on the nib picture.

This took me 2 days (8+ hands-on hours) of work to get the nib straightened out. The good news is that the thin nib was very easy to bend. The bad news is that the thin nib was very easy to bend. I went in circles for a while but finally sat down and though about where I needed to end up and worked backwards from there. No bend actually occurs in isolation, as each tweak changes other parts of the geometry. So first I made the contour of the tail symmetrical and to match the feed. This was easy; I just used the feed as a forming block. Next I got the profile of the wings symmetrical. That looks easy but was very complex. The next step was to remove the indention along the feed slit. <Lots of frustration here.> What ended up working was laying the nib upside down on a block eraser and using the rounded end of an extendable pointer to roll out the indention. Then I had to re-form the curvature of both tines to follow the feed contour. Lastly I aligned the tines. After installing the nib and feed I had to re-align the tines but I expected that.

Now it writes slightly to the fine side of medium and most importantly it is now nice and wet. I am getting used to writing with the oblique nib and it does not bother me nearly as much as it did the first day. It helps that it is very forgiving with respect to the contact angle and amount of rotation. I have not performed any smoothing to the nib, nor will I as it is very smooth with just a little feedback. You can get line variation out of the nib, but I think there is a high risk of springing the nib since it is so thin.
Overall I am very happy with the pen and all the hard work was now worth it.

And, again, special thanks to whych for his assistance in returning a great pen to operation.
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[RuiFromUK]

Another job well done. Gz Jeph.

[whych]

Just had another look at the pictures of the feed and realised the pic I posted is of a cartridge model, and the tail is the piercing piece for the cartrigde.
A 2mm rod is what you want to push the feed out. An old bicycle spoke will do, but ideally I suppose you want a tube with a 2mm hole to feed the poke through centred on the feed.

All those old nibs are pretty thin plate, whether steel or gold. The gold is softer and more easily pliable than the steel though.

If the nib feels like it is catching when you write, try rotating it slightly till it feels smooth to write with. When it feels smooth, you then have the correct rotation.
The line variation on an oblique nib comes fron the angle of the nib and not how hard you press.
Attached is a sample using various nibs. Page size is A5.
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