What a shame, I really liked this pen, was working on the nib because it seemed crooked and misaligned…
Can I fix the feed or find a replacement one or is this thing dead?
Those are probably commodity components. A surprising number of pens are made out of them. If you figure out what kind of cartridge that takes and what the diameter and length are you can probably buy a replacement feed from any of the myriad pen places on the internet. You should be able to push the busted remainder of the feed to the rear out of the grip section. These are usually just a friction fit along with the nib.
Just to throw an example out there, assuming that is a #6 (i.e. 6mm) nib, which is probably the most common size, here are some random Jinhao replacement #6 feeds.
Edit to add: Gluing it back together is unlikely to work very well. It’d be difficult to keep the ink channel straight, unblocked, and not leaky. The passages in these for ink are quite small and rely on capillary action to work properly, and that’s easy to disrupt.
Do they make new feeds for vintage pens 😅
For the really big name popular ones, probably if you look hard enough. Even so, you may be able to bodge something in that’s close enough to work.
Despite outward appearances, fountain pens are pretty mechanically crude. If you can get the feed to go in the hole and press against the underside of the nib, plus have its length maintain the ability to fit your cartridge in the body, and not fall out in the process you’re good to go. It might not look like original anymore, but at least it ought to work.
What kind of fountain pen is it?
Vintage shaeffer made in canada 😢
I would be very surprised if there weren’t at least 50 nerds lurking somewhere on the internet with piles of vintage shaeffer feeds for this very reason.
The thing is, the feed was either mass produced and used for a wide variety of pens/nibs or it was hand crafted/adjusted. In the former case that means you can get it and in the latter case it means you could probably make one or modify similar ones.
I mean this is the kind of thing a 3D printer was made for assuming you can get a plastic whose surface plays nice with the surface tension of the ink (which is where the magic of a fountain pen is).
It would be hard to get a direct substitute that would work the same way when 3d printed. Even very small layer lines would interfere with the flow of the ink. For this type of application injection moulding is far superior.
Fluid dynamics is difficult, but someone may be able to design a pen that relies on the layer lines. But it won’t be easy.
very good point
Vintage shaeffer made in canada 😢
Maybe you can reach out to the company if they still exist?
Sometimes they love fixing/replacing this stuff for that sweet sweet social media clout u noe.Sad! Cool pen indeed
A friend told me about these guys: https://www.pentooling.com/partssheaffer.html
Maybe they can help locate the part?
It’s going to depend a lot on the design of the pen. If it has interchangable nibs then yeah, should be able to just get a new feed.
If that isn’t an option you might be able to get some milage out of super glue just make sure to not over-apply and to use tweezers or pliers so as to not get finger grease up in there. If you do that you will probably want to stick to water-based inks.
If you can’t fix it, the Pilot Prera is a phenomenal replacement for not much $.
