Fountain Pens- Replacing a Lever Ring

Disclaimer: Proceed at your own risk, I will not be held responsible to any damage you do to your pens.  Use common sense, if you don't feel competent enough to do these repairs don't do them.  Please send your pen off to a repair person.  Please keep in mind that sixty year old materials may be brittle due to age and sometimes a pen will just break even if you follow all the directions carefully.  Everyone who has repaired many of pens can vouch for me.

This is one I've been toying with from almost the beginning, but first I wanted to do some posts about the basics before jumping right into some of the more complicated repairs, which most beginners will not face right away.  Anyway, I received this little pen for Christmas and I knew it would have a few problems but not this many.  Most obvious is the missing ring top tassie (the majority of Salz Peter Pan pens are fitted with them), also prior to taking the pen apart I noticed that the nib and feed were seated incorrectly (the feed was pushed to far into the section).  Upon opening the pen and cleaning it out first thing I noticed is the ring that holds the lever it place was corroded and broken.  Lifting the lever caused it to crumble and break.

Salz Bros Peter Pan fountain pen or Mister Stripy.  Lever and broken ring seen at bottom left of photo.

In order to keep this post short and to the point, I'm just going to say I acquired some replacement C-rings or split rings from an acquaintance.  None of them were the right size, they were made for Conway Stewart Dinky pens, which happen to be larger than Salz Peter Pan pens.  So, after much grumbling and wrecking several rings I was able to reshape one to fit inside this pen.

Rings, pen, lever and J-bar (what depresses the sac when you lift the lever)

After forming a ring to the right size and shape the next challenge was to get it inside the pen with the lever attached to it.  There are two methods of doing this, the first involves sliding the whole assemblage into the pen barrel and pushing the lever outside from inside the pen, but this only works with pens that have straight levers without a 'spooned' end.  For the second method the lever and ring are pushed into the pen from the outside, by positioning both inside the lever slot standing straight up and twisting (shown below).  This method is used for pens that have a lever with a spooned end that will not fit through the lever slot from the inside (which this pen has).  If you haven't already you'll have to remove the J-bar, I use a tweezers or hemostats depending on the size of the pen.  Grasp the end of the J-bar and pull straight out, do not rock it from side to side or you'll risk cracking your pen barrel.

Ring slipped through lever

Position lever and ring in lever slot like this, stand upward with bottom of lever inside the pen.  Press down gently and twist until seated correctly.

Inside nearly all, if not all pens that use a C-ring to hold the lever there will be a grove on the inside of the barrel that the ring fits in.  This groove keeps the lever and ring in place, so once the lever is seated, peek inside the pen to make sure the ring is completely in the groove and no parts are sticking out.  If it is sticking out the lever could shift and it could also cause wear to the sac.  If you need to manipulate the ring a small dental tool or something else similarly sized will work, I used a large straight pin since this pen is so small.

A large straight pin works well for positioning the ring and pushing in the J-bar

Once you are certain the ring is position as it should be you can put the pen back together.  J-bars can be pushed back inside with hemostats, small paint brush handles, or in my case the straight pin again.

J-bar and pen barrel

Start pushing in the J-bar with your fingers and finish with the tool of your choice

Even though I fixed this problem there are still several others that need taking care of until this pen is back in order.  The section cracked when I was trying to reseat the nib and feed correctly, so I'm having a new one turned and I should have it in a few weeks, along with the section for my Wahl Eversharp Doric.  And I still need to find the right tassie, but that one is going to take awhile.  If you happen to have an extra Peter Pan tassie please message me.

One warning:

While replacing a C-ring you are putting extra pressure on the weakest point in the pen's barrel, which happens to be the groove where the ring fits.  Please be careful, use only the amount of force needed and don't rush or else you could break your pen.

Feel free to ask questions.