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When I clean and flush my pens, I usually leave them in an upper shelf above my desk. It just so happened that as I reached upwards to grab the cup I use to soak them in, my hand slipped and knocked it over. The pen fell on to the hard floor nib first, causing the tip to bend, and the inky water caused a mess. Is there any way to fix this? It still writes, but not as optimally as before. I don't live nearby any pen shows, so unfortunately I can not bring it in person to a nibmeister if it is repairable. Is there any way to unbend the nib myself (I know that fixes for these are rarely self repairable but I would really prefer this as an option if so due to the cost of a nibmeister)? If not, could a nibmeister fix it to the way it was before or would it have to be ground into something else like a stub nib? Thanks from a newbie.

I just bought a 400NN tortoise with an OF nib from a well-known European dealer/member. He supplied several top and bottom-view photos which looked perfect, but when the pen arrived the side view turned out to be this: Surely the nib should not be bent down so far! Should I send it to a nibmeister to straighten? If so, whom would you Pelikaners recommend (I am in the US.) The pen writes semi-decently but is quite dry and a bit scratchy (perhaps due just to the dryness.) Apart from the bent nib it is quite a nice pen and I would rather not send it back for a refund. I may ask the seller for a partial refund to cover the repairs. I prefer not to name the seller until he has a chance to respond to my concerns. Any opinions or advice on this forum would be welcome. Thanks, BlueJ

A couple months ago I purchased a Pelikan M1005 demonstrator with a Medium nib, which has been a "grail" pen for me for quite a while. While it flowed like Niagara Falls at first, liberally spilling the stunning Akkerman Shocking Blue all over my Rhodia notebook's pages, somehow after removing the nib several times I must have pinched too hard or something because I completely lost ink flow. After fiddling for a while I could get it to flow while writing with the pen at a 90 degree angle. But nothing while writing normally. I've been frustrated with myself about this, but after scouring the forums here and elsewhere, in trying several different approaches with growing frustration I somehow accidentally bent the nib pretty badly (close to the point, where the nib touches the paper). I (finally!) decided I didn't want to do any more damage (not that much more could be done) so I tried briefly to straighten it, which worked a little bit, and then just left it alone. All that to get to my question: I know there are lots of great pen repair people, but I'm wondered if anyone can make a recommendation on someone who specializes in straightening bent nibs? I also need to get the ink flowing again, but I'm first concerned about not doing more damage to the nib and getting it straightened. I'm just wondering who I should send this to for the best results as I really want to use this pen for many years to come and would like to find the best person possible to fix it. Thank you in advance for any input! -Dan

So I recently acquired this pen, the hope is to have the perfect 'every day' pen. It was a mess when I got it. Old dried out ink had effectively glued the cap on, but after much patients and lots of water I now have a nice clean pen. I currently carry a Lamy Al-Star in a bag for my larger notebook and a basic UniBall Roller in the pocket with my Feild Notes. Both write well but I carry the Roller because it's small, always at hand. The Al-Star just never feels like it disappears in the front pants pocket, thus relegated to the bag. I'll include this one mostly for the size comparison. The new pen is slightly thinner and shorter than the Roller but the size difference is only noticeable when they are right next to each other. So back to the new pen, at first I though was a cp1 though in doing research (ie Lamy: CP50 vs CP1 Black ) it seems to look more like a cp50. Though on closer inspection it seems to have markers from both? Obviously the silver rather than black color is more cp50. Though not obvious is that there is nothing marked on the barrel, just like the cp1. Also the clip is stamped 'LAMY' like the cp1. Curious? It also has the old style nibs, no breather hole, no obvious size indication, just like the cp50. I got lucky and this one had a 585 gold nib, though it seems to be loosing some of it's coating. I like the patina, it shows age and use, I am assuming that this is not going to be an issue but it's something to watch out for. Also I am guessing that I have a fine sized nib, but with out markings I am not really sure. I also was fortunate that it came with the correct converter. At this point, while I am confused to what I really have here, all is looking good. The pen has all the right parts, and is cleaning up nicely. The converter is holding fluid, seems we have a working pen. Next step is to do a quick little 'how does it feel' dry nib test: scratch... really scratchy on the up stroke, not bad but not great every where else. Things were going so well. As we look closer things look a little off. This pen has likely been dropped as the nib is a bit out of shape. I got out my macro lenses and was able to get a bit closer: Full size images can be found on Flickr. From the looks of things the tines are bent in two directions and touching. I am guessing that this is fixable, but how? Is this something that I can fix? I am a bit worried due to the rare-ish nature of the nib, but gold is a fairly forgiving metal. Would I be better off sending out to some one? If so who? Does LamyUSA even deal with these pens any more? I'm in Portland OR in the US, is there any one local or regional that I should reach out to? Or is there an expert that I should just contact? I would really like to have a working pen that writes as well as the Al-Star but with the size of the Roller, but currently with that nib it's not going to write as well as either of them. Lastly, just out of curiosity, what pen do I have? Not like it really matters but is this a late cp50? an early cp1? neither? both?

As I mentioned on another thread, I dropped two Waterman Phileas pens onto the sidewalk. As RMN wryly observed: "Murphy's first law for fountain pen owners. The chance a pen drops nib down on concrete is proportional to it's value..." That was painfully true for me. I have checked with several of the best nibmeisters. None that I found would repair a steel nib (which the Phileas has, despite some gold plating). Nor do they do repair/replacements on the Phileas because the pen—and therefore the nibs—are no longer made. I know that the Kultur and Harley use similar barrels and tips, but I would like to repair what I've got if possible. So....I am taking the advice of Sailor Kenshin and asking if anyone can suggest a fix. There are three pens in the photo, but one is a perfectly new nib just for comparison purposes. I made amateur attempts to straighten the other two nibs, which did not result in either being useable. HELP! www.TwelveDrawings.com

Hi fellow pen appreciators, I have recently dozed off during a most educational and fascinating training session. It was a waste of time, and most sadly it took the life of one of my favourite everyday-use fountain pens. (My advice: if sth is that boring and useless, don't fight the boredom, save (pack up) your pen and assume sleeping position. ) It was a Pilot MR and I loved it. So smooth, trustable. Anyway this happened to it: :( A new one costs ~18€ or 25$ in a local chain and being primarily a student, for both sentimental and financial reasons I was wondering if I could get (and manually exchange) a new nib cheaper than that. And if yes where . I prefer European sources, for the simple reason that I live in Easter Europe (shipping) Honestly my hopes aren't too high, and it's not too expensive, but I really should keep my expenses down this month so I thought I should ask Thank you very much for your kind help and advice