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Hi, I have got two old Cross classic century gold fountain pens from my father. I'm not sure about the age. They are marked: 1/20 10KT GOLD FILLED with 14KT M nibs. They have problems with ink flow, dryness and scraping. The pens have now been cleaned in water for over 24 hours. No more ink is coming out. But, I have problems removing the nibs for further cleaning and adjustments. Is it possible to remove them at all or are they fixed? They are not moving at all when pulled. I'm trying with a rubber band between my fingers for better grip, but no :-( Hope you have som good solutions for me :-)

Hi everyone, I thought I would post here about my very first FP adventure. I own a few Parker 21's (not sure if Mark I or II, but definitely non-Supers and Supers) and try to use only the ones in worse condition, (admittedly my one and only 61 is on my desk at home). I used to carry my 51 until I found out how valuable it was and it is now in my drawer. I decided to fix a particular 21 Super with a broken nib using another 21 Super as a donor, the latter having a good F nib but a cracked hood in three places. It was leaking so much ink it was impossible to use (grey hood in the photo attached). I should have really come here first, alas I just went my own way and after reading up a bit I started looking for stuff like shellac, section pliers, nibs etc and came across Pendemonium. I wrote to them and they very kindly gave me excellent advice on what to do - and not to do. In particular, after using a hot water bath to remove the hood on both units, replacing the nib and screwing the hood back on it would consistently leak around the clutch ring. I then watched a few more pen repair videos and realised hoods are usually shellacked back on. I thought I would need to do that, but Pendemonium suggested I use pure silicone grease as 21 hoods are notoriously fragile. I was about to buy grease but realised I have a small tub with watch grade grease I have been using to seal watch back covers for years and decided to use it. I had already placed the nib in the right angle before screwing the hood back on. However after applying some grease with a brush the hood would screw back on further than before when no grease was used, so I readjusted the nib. All seemed to be well until I realised the pen was leaking because the hood had developed a crack after screwing it back on! Turns out the grease lubricated the thread so the hood screwing further up, more pressure was actually applied to it so it cracked. When I was younger I used to fix 21 hood cracks with glue and was mostly successful, of course results used to be aesthetically unpleasant. I already had another 21 Super with a cracked hood in two places which I had 'fixed' by carefully cellotaping the crack and the 'fix' had lasted for over a year so went and cellotaped the newly fixed 21 Super. So far so good, no leaks at all, so much so I will take it on a two hour flight next week. I wonder if I can buy NOS Parker 21 Super and non-super hoods from anyone? Those are the only bits that need replacing on my dodgy 21's (I did buy a few sacs a few months ago thinking I would need to replace those but I have not needed to). Many thanks for any ideas and for going through my long post.

Few months ago I was ecstatic to discover this vintage Pelikan (btw, thanks to everybody who helped me identify the model of pelikan in this topic: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/299779-unknown-vintage-pelikan/?do=findComment&comment=3496046). However, my hype was short-lived. It turned out that there was a rather large cut in the section, and there was ink coming out of it. While I was writing, there was some ink coming out, but it was not that big a deal, but after capping it and then uncapping it, the section was full of ink drops (there will be a picture provided how the pen looks right after uncapping it). I guess some kind of pressure (or maybe vacuum) is formed when the pen is capped, resulting in the ink coming out. So, I have few ideas in my head, how to fix this issue. 1. If I could disassemble this pen, and then cover the crack (the section) with silicon grease from the inside. With this "solution" there are few problems. First I have no idea how to disassemble the pen (and whether it is possible to disassemble, because by the looks of it, it is not possible to take the nib out or any other as in in the M800 or M100), and second, I don't know if the silicon grease will mess up the feed in some way. 2. I was thinking of just covering the outer part of the section with silicon grease, hoping that silicon grease would enter the crack and therefore stop the leaking. 3. Simply change the section part. However I do not know from where to find any spares, and as I said earlier, I am not sure if this pen could disassembled at all. Anyway, I'm using it as a dip pen, which is kind of a shame since this pen was not designed to be used that way. I would really like to find a problem to this solution. Any and every suggestion is more than welcomed. Now I will attach some pictures of the leaking and the crack, but if you would like to see more pictures of the pen just visit the link provided. P.S. I am really hoping for solving this problem so that I can make my first pen review. If I am not wrong, there isn't any review about the M21, so I think it might be an interesting review

Hi. I got this National Controllor button filler pen of an auction, but the filler leaks a little around the button. Does anyone know how to fix this? It is a really nice pen with a nice flexy degussa 14k nib. /Pether

Hi, Some time ago I bought a nice green Sheaffer Balance lever fill in green - now the section has separated somewhat from the barrel. I understand I need shellac to fix this but I can't find a resource in the UK (checked the fora here and looked on the usual sites but nothing.) Any advice re sources of shellac and just fixing things most welcome. I guess this is a FAQ hence apologies for asking. Thanks. R