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Thread: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

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    Senior Member pajaro's Avatar
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    Default Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    Well, the title sums it up: the threads for the conical nib seemed to disintegrate and the nib fell off. This is a Touchdown filler, 14K conical nib. I filled the pen, and the nib looked wobbly. coming away from the feed. Then it fell off. I suppose a new section might have rectified this, but I am tired of this pen and its scratchiness, so I threw the pen away. The question is this: does this sort of thing happen commonly with these pens, nib falling off because of the threads falling apart?

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    Senior Member FredRydr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    Bummer. The gold nib and other parts are worth saving. I had my '40s Sheaffer desk pen serviced, and thank goodness the penmeister had the uncommon desk pen parts that connect the filler to the rat-tail taper!

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    Senior Member pajaro's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    I had restored the pen recently, I like to restore my own when I can, new sac and o-ring, and I was tempted to throw the section away and keep the rest, but I already have several Touchdown Imperial desk pens, inlaid and Dolphin gold nibs, and the conical nibs usually are scratchy writers for me, and I usually am trmpted to throw them away anyway. The attachment for the nib falling off, though, that was special. More inky hands.

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    Senior Member Ron Z's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    A picture would have helped. Some of the Stylist pens had a plastic mount that then screwed into the barrel. Yes, the plastic fails and the nib falls off. I have oodles of the mounts in everything but black.

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    Default Re: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    I have a stylist on which the nib has fallen off... I would love to find a replacement part!

    I went ahead and sent you an email
    Last edited by although; January 9th, 2021 at 06:12 PM.

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    Default Re: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    Pajaro, you say conical-nibbed touchdown, as in pre snorkel? I have seen the sections on these craze and fail. That transparent area of the section, and back at the sac nipple. This particular plastic may have been unstable, or sensitive to certain inks/cleaners.

    Sometimes the release of throwing some frustrating piece of crap away is worth much more than being a "good steward". The act of letting go... with a satisfying "Ba ding!" as it bounces into the trashcan. Two Points!

    Bob

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    Senior Member pajaro's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    Thanks. I enjoyed that. I have had several conical nib Touchdown pens, and the nibs were scratchy and very hard to align or smooth. I looked for inlaid nib sections without success. I found one green Dolphin Touchdown section for one pen, not green. With a couple of the capped pens, I threw the conical nib sections away and kept the barrel and cap. Barrels sometimes crack and these will be spares. When the barrels crack, you can lose pressure to compress the sack. You can buy good Touchdown barrels from Peyton Street Pens, but they are $24.95 (last one I bought).

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    Default Re: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    These early Touchdowns seem to have more than their share of condition issues. When intact (or made "one" through marriage), they can be wonderful, functional pens. But, yes... rotting sections, splitting barrels, shrunken/splitting plastic caps, corroded sack guards, and the difficult to service conical nib/feed/section assemblies... come up pretty frequently. The irony of there being so many affected parts, is that there are, as you state, a lot of good parts pens out there that have what you need.

    Bob

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    Default Re: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    It seems like the 14k nib conical units really did have problems staying together, but less so the steel nibs. We used to have a lot of the 727 model with the conical nibs and we observed problems with the fading of the hard rubber (?) collar and sometimes the nib came came off entirely. Sometimes they could be glued back. On the other hand, we handled literally thousands of the Imperial II and III touchdown pens and rarely saw the issue of detached steel nibs.
    Teri Morris
    Owner, PEYTON STREET PENS
    www.peytonstreetpens.com

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    Senior Member pajaro's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sheaffer Imperial Desk Pen With Conical Nib: Nib Threads Seemed To Rot Off

    At an estate sale I found a TD desk pen, big conical nib that wouldn't stay on and a burgundy TD Imperial with conical nib that was good. Desk pen has bad threads, but it's a good collector's item.

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