Sheaffer Sagaris Fine Nib Unit Substition

[JR-McPen]

I recently acquired two Sheaffer Sagaris fountain pens, one with a fine nib, the other with a medium. I decided that I preferred the fine nib so I went looking for a fine nib unit to purchase to replace the medium. Since it's the entire unit, it should just screw into the barrel, right?

 

I found a replacement fine nib unit from a seller in England, purchased it, and it has arrived. It won't screw all the way into the barrel that came with the medium nib unit. Hmm... So let's try the fine nib unit from the other pen from the original purchase. It won't screw all the way in either!

 

Oh, futz...

 

It's not due to the length of the converter (or shortness of the barrel.) I tried screwing in just the nib unit; no joy.

 

The gap left between the barrel and the unit flange that nestles up against it is about 1mm. If I can find a flat washer with the proper i.d., o.d., and thickness I can fill the space, but that's a big if (and a big, ugly kludge.) I might have a better result with an o-ring (see ugly kludge.) Time to get out the vernier calipers and take some precise measurements. I suspect that the medium barrel was not threaded to the same depth as the fine barrel, hence the fine nib unit coming up short.

 

It strikes me as very odd that Cross/Sheaffer would manufacture different barrels for different nib units because a more complicated manufacturing process is a more expensive and error-prone process.

 

Can anyone shed some light on why the nib units are not interchangeable or suggest any alternatives for dealing with my situation?

 

thanks,

richard

--

- You can’t get enough minimalism.

 

 

 

[JR-McPen]

Follow-on: It looks like the threading of the fine versus medium nib units is extremely close but not quite the same. So the fine nib units get almost all the way into the medium barrel before the threads bind.

 

I also observed that the fine units screw into the fine barrel with virtually no resistance, but require more force even when they are screwing into the medium barrel, a symptom of slightly mismatched threading. When the medium nib unit is screwed into the fine barrel, there is play in the interface until the nib unit is snugged down onto the barrel, again a symptom of slightly mismatched thread pitches.

 

BTW, both fine nib units screw into the barrel of the original fine nibbed pen. Neither will screw all the way into the barrel of the original medium nibbed pen.

 

Time to look into moving the nib and feed between sections.

 

richard

--

A pun at maturity is fully groan.

[BaronWulfraed]

The Sagaris has been on the market for some years now, hasn't it? Perhaps you've just encountered a change in production between when the M was made and when the F was made. Especially if the model started at Sheaffer US, and was moved by Cross to someplace in China.

[Batman]

The Sagaris has been on the market for some years now, hasn't it? Perhaps you've just encountered a change in production between when the M was made and when the F was made. Especially if the model started at Sheaffer US, and was moved by Cross to someplace in China.

 

The Sagaris is a relatively new model so it was never made in the USA. They've all been made in China since inception and they have all been reliable work horses. Maybe a design change perhaps?

[JR-McPen]

Follow-up and quasi-resolution: I've decided that this is a thread pitch issue. For unknown reasons, the fine nib units and barrels were machined to a very slightly different thread pitch than the medium nib units and barrels. So, pursuing the plan of buying replacement nib units to swap out nibs may be (and in my case is) a failure.

 

However, I do have the fine nib and feed so I swapped the nibs and feeds between the two nib units. The fine nib and feed came out without undue force but the medium nib and feed required some effort to remove. I inserted the fine nib and feed into the medium-fit nib unit, being careful to align the feed with the split in the nib. I now have the fine nib in the pen that originally came as a medium. I realize this is a mundane operation for you old hands, but it's a giant leap for me.

 

Now to polish the nib tip with some micro-mesh and away I go.

 

richard

--

A handy Latin phrase:

"Fac me cocleario vomere!" (Gag me with a spoon!)

[JR-McPen]

What I learned on this adventure: Finding replacement Sagaris nib units in any size other than medium is a chore. Apparently these are available only as new old stock. The only sellers I found were in England and India. And they are bloody expensive. It might be just as cheap to purchase an entire new pen with the nib you want since these pens can be found at deeply discounted prices.

 

richard

--

Television is called a medium because it is neither rare nor well done.

- attributed to Ernie Kovacs

[bone215]

I have no problem changing my medium nib section and screwing it into another Sagaris. I moved the medium from a metallic brown bought from another provider into a chrome one and the chrome's fine into the brown one.  Absolute perfect match.

Perhaps I got lucky?  I have four of them purchased over the years.  They are inexpensive on internet if (IF) you can find them. \

My last two were 20 and 25 dollars.