Asa Athlete: The Pen With A Character...

[mrmohitmishra]

Dear mrmohitmishra,

 

Aftre 9 days Athlete arrived. From Chennai to Zagreb.

I need your advice; Anand sent me additional nib and I wonder is it easy to take out recent nib and replace it with other?

Do I need to use force or tool?

Best regards

Zoran

I have removed nib quite some times. You search you tube upon removing nibs. You will get the answer

If the pen is working fine there is no need to disturb alignment

[mrmohitmishra]

I hope we will have the good fortune of a review ?

 

I hope ASA restocks it soon.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/280174-with-a-spear-thou-shall-wineth-spear-a-practical-fountain-pen/

 

A review and a comparison

[a_m]

.. sent me additional nib and I wonder is it easy to take out recent nib and replace it with other?

 

 

Its more like just wiggle & wiggle. If its very tight then wiggling doesn't help and it may break the feed.

 

If its very tight, you may keep the section in fridge for 5- 10 minutes or dip it in touchable hot water for 5-10 minutes or soak it in normal water overnight.

 

Else, you can use some sort of nail with blunt surface and hit on the feed from back of section.

 

The best obviously is knock out block - which I dont have - but I have successfully used these techniques even on tightest of friction fit feeds.

Edited December 12, 2014 by a_m

[mrmohitmishra]

 

 

Its more like just wiggle & wiggle. If its very tight then wiggling doesn't help and it may break the feed.

 

If its very tight, you may keep the section in fridge for 5- 10 minutes or dip it in touchable hot water for 5-10 minutes or soak it in normal water overnight.

 

Else, you can use some sort of nail with blunt surface and hit on the feed from back of section.

 

The best obviously is knock out block - which I dont have - but I have successfully used these techniques even on tightest of friction fit feeds.

Or ...

if you don't have a knock out block you can use barrel of any fountain pen which is large enough( I use barrel of my Parker Beta)

 

Put the section of Athlete nib side down in the barrel. The outer edge of section of Athlete will rest on barrel

 

Take a converter of Montex Handy or any cheap China made converter.

 

Put the converter on the back side of the feed, adjust and balance with your hand and then strike the converter with a remote or anything else you may find

 

This is your improvised version of knock out block

[Sudhir]

Lovely review.

 

I was amazed with the balance in the hand and the (somewhat) springy nib - very smooth for a stock Indian nib.

 

The only issue I had was the lack of a converter... and now I have the ASA Spear.

 

Cheers

Sudhir

[a_m]

Or ...

if you don't have a knock out block you can use barrel of any fountain pen which is large enough( I use barrel of my Parker Beta)

 

Put the section of Athlete nib side down in the barrel. The outer edge of section of Athlete will rest on barrel

 

Take a converter of Montex Handy or any cheap China made converter.

 

Put the converter on the back side of the feed, adjust and balance with your hand and then strike the converter with a remote or anything else you may find

 

This is your improvised version of knock out block

I do a more simpler procedure - i wrap a towel around the nib & feed (twice over) & pull that out with a pliers !!! But this method is not recommended for new users.

[mrmohitmishra]

I do a more simpler procedure - i wrap a towel around the nib & feed (twice over) & pull that out with a pliers !!! But this method is not recommended for new users.

I used the same procedure to pull out the nib and feed of My Crystal. But instead of pliers, which were not available, I used the natural pliers god has endowed me with,i.e. my teeth. :D

 

I managed to pull the nib and the feed out but at cost of breaking many fins of the feed. :)

 

So +1 on the warning given by Anup Sir with the caveat that never try this with your teeth.. You may break either the teeth or worse the nib or the feed.

Edited December 12, 2014 by mrmohitmishra

[Sudhir]

I have found that ebonite feeds tend to be brittle, so my suggestion would be a knock-out block or one of the many hacks mentioned in this thread and within the forum. Pliers and teeth also tend to leave ugly, permanent marks on the nib and/or feed. A rubber-tipped set of pliers (section pliers or spark-plug pliers) work better, but only marginally.

 

I found - to my detriment - that brute force (the pliers or teeth kind) might just work on plastic feeds, but it is an iffy solution when it comes to ebonite feeds. I managed to completely destroy the feed on my custom Ratnamson Supreme (my precioussss!!) using a pair of section pliers, but was lucky because Mr. Ramanamurthy had enclosed 2 additional feeds with the pen (did he foresee this?). Also, in my opinion, a bit of heat using a hair-dryer works well for anything to do with ebonite feeds.

 

Purchasing a ready-made knock-out block takes a bit of money (around $20) and making your own DIY knock-out block takes a bit of effort, but it is a real boon when dealing (especially) with Indian pens that have ebonite feeds.

 

So my suggestion would be a bit of heat followed by a knock-out block (or equivalent). My experience, of course, and YMMV.

 

Cheers

Sudhir

[mrmohitmishra]

I have found that ebonite feeds tend to be brittle, so my suggestion would be a knock-out block or one of the many hacks mentioned in this thread and within the forum. Pliers and teeth also tend to leave ugly, permanent marks on the nib and/or feed. A rubber-tipped set of pliers (section pliers or spark-plug pliers) work better, but only marginally.

 

I found - to my detriment - that brute force (the pliers or teeth kind) might just work on plastic feeds, but it is an iffy solution when it comes to ebonite feeds. I managed to completely destroy the feed on my custom Ratnamson Supreme (my precioussss!!) using a pair of section pliers, but was lucky because Mr. Ramanamurthy had enclosed 2 additional feeds with the pen (did he foresee this?). Also, in my opinion, a bit of heat using a hair-dryer works well for anything to do with ebonite feeds.

 

Purchasing a ready-made knock-out block takes a bit of money (around $20) and making your own DIY knock-out block takes a bit of effort, but it is a real boon when dealing (especially) with Indian pens that have ebonite feeds.

 

So my suggestion would be a bit of heat followed by a knock-out block (or equivalent). My experience, of course, and YMMV.

 

Cheers

Sudhir

Thank you Sudhir ji.

[zdeveric]

Thank you, guys. I think I will pass my idea of swiching nibs for now. Athlete is excellent in any way.