Unscrewing A Frozen Parker Challenger

[ScienTESOL]

I have tried to unscrew the forepart of my late father's Parker Challenger without success. I put it in to The Pen Shoppe in Brisbane, Australia, but their techie was also unable to separate the forepart from the barrel. Can anyone advise a solvent or other method that will unfreeze the two parts and allow them to be separated without doing damage to the plastic? I have thought about using a very fine, narrow-blade saw (if I can find one) but I cannot bring myself to risk wreaking such havoc on a lovely bit of kit; I would prefer to continue using it in dip-pen mode if I cannot get it open.

 

My father kept the pen as a sentimental keepsake but did not use it for the seventy years he owned it; I have attempted to have it repaired and to bring it up to refillable condition [the nib is superb] only since my father died.

 

Big ask, I suspect, but hope someone in the FPN community has met and solved this problem before.

[Chrissy]

Please don't use a saw!

[Chrissy]

Now that panic mode is over, I can post something that might take a little longer to type. Welcome to FPN.

 

I think you might need to find an expert who can repair this pen. However, you could try doing a Google search on "Repair a Parker Challenger" and read all of the previous posts that come up from FPN to see if any of those might help you.

 

I don't know the pen, although I know there are 2 versions. Someone else will come along who an help you further. But please dismiss the saw idea completely.

[tamiya]

Photos please.

 

Rare to find pen parts that won't unscrew IF THEYRE MEANT TO BE ABLE TO BE USER-UNSCREWABLE

[mitto]

Greetings and welcome to FPN.

 

For Parker Challenger restoration read this thread.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/183163-parker-challenger-repair-question/

[jar]

Welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell.

[ThomasB]

Hello and welcome from Baton Rouge, Louisiana...Enjoy your time here

[Ron Z]

The Parker Challenger has a slip fit section. It may very well have been secured with shellac which can make it a bit difficult to take apart especially if there is a petrified sac inside keeping it from moving. No solvent should be needed, but careful application of heat - by an experienced pen mechanic, not an amateur please! (especially on your Dad's pen!) Developing the "hands" to disassemble a stubborn pen like this takes some experience - and a few broken pens along the way.

 

Any solvent that would soften an adhesive (including shellac) would likely damage the pen, and in the worst case would dissolve it. Really.

 

If you can't find someone in Australia, you may need to send it to someone out of the country. Most of us repair pens that come in from all over the world including Australia.

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!!

[Wahl]

[Bisquitlips]

Welcome! Glad you are with us!

[Sasha Royale]

Welcome !

 

You are wise, in that you do not force anything. Likely, the Challenger was stored with ink. The ink dried into a cement, which holds everything in place. I advise sending it to a pro for restoration. It is a special, heirloom Parker. I hope you will be using it for generations.

Edited January 2, 2018 by Sasha Royale

[ScienTESOL]

Thank you to everyone who took the trouble to reply to my anguish bleat about my Dad's Parker Challenger. I promise I shall not use a saw or any other sharp or pointed implement to attack this precious heirloom.

 

I did as suggested and searched for items on repairing a Parker Challenger; they reinforced a decision I had already come to after reading the early posts: that this was a job better left to the experts.

 

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had put this pen in to The Pen Shoppe in Brisbane, Australia, for repair and was told that the technician could not 'unscrew' it, which is where I got the idea that the fore-section 'unscrewed'. While I now know better, I now also know that I ought to send the pen overseas to the home of Parker pens for repair.

 

As a person of very limited means, I shall have to save up my pennies before I can do this, but I hope I shall be able to, and in time I shall have a working Parker Challenger to pass on (not too soon, I hope) to my son/daughter/grandson/granddaughter/greatgrandson/GGdaughter.

 

In closing (I think this post has reached its logical end now) may I beg that someone get an editor to review this FPN website. It is very difficult for a newcomer to this website to find where to position the cursor and start typing. I swear I clicked all over the screen before I inadvertently stumbled on the start point for typing. Surely a well set-up website like this could have a few "Start typing here" labels, and some instructions for newcomers.

 

Thank you again to everyone who welcomed me to the community.

 

Warm regards and best wishes to all for 2018.

 

Michael (ScienTESOL)

[Cormite]

Welcome from Heidelberg!

 

I hope with the information provided you can get it repaired.

 

Good luck,

Carlos.

[Ron Z]

Don't send the pen to Parker. They're less equipped to repair a vintage pen than your pen mechanic in Australia.

[ScienTESOL]

Thank you, Ron.

Hope I shall soon be in a position to send you the pen for repair.

It is, as I said, an heirloom. I cannot expect anyone who is seventy years younger than me to embrace and use a fountain pen, but that is their decision, not mine.

I believe my daughter in England will at least keep it somewhere safe when I pass it on to her after passing on myself.

Cheers and thanks

Michael (ScienTESOL)

[hari317]

Have you enquired already with the pen smith based in Australia reg the repair?

 

http://www.pensmith.com.au/Repair_Restn.html

[Henricum_Tropen]

Hello and welcome to FPN, from Cape Town, South Africa.

[ScienTESOL]

Please don't use a saw!

Fear not, I shall not. I was not being provocative, merely demonstrating my ignorance of the subject. I was partly serious, partly not really prepared to risk the damage that was almost certain to follow.

Thanks for you post and your concern for my precious heirloom, a memorial of my much-loved Dad.

Cheers

Michael (ScienTESOL)

[ScienTESOL]

Hello and welcome from Baton Rouge, Louisiana...Enjoy your time here

Thank you. I do feel that I shall enjoy 'mixing it' with like-minded calamophiles.

Cheers

Michael (ScienTESOL)