Keeping things lined up

If you have a Shinobi, Prospector, or Breaker, and you find the nib isn’t lining up with the proper side of the barrel anymore, it could be caused by a couple of things:

1. Over tightening the section into the barrel, or over tightening the cap to the barrel.
2. Taking the nib unit out every time you clean it and eventually wearing out the threads on the nib unit.

On older pens, I tried to compensate for thread wear by working the nib unit into the section several times, and I did the same with the section into the barrel, before finishing the pen.  Doing this helped to eliminate misalignment later on, but I never know how much torque people may apply to their pens when putting them back together.

To avoid misalignment be sure not to over tighten the section into the barrel, and do not unscrew your nib unit for cleaning.  It really isn’t necessary, and with pens where alignment is important to the look of the pen, could eventually cause misalignment.

If you do have misalignment issues, what I can do is send you an ebonite nib unit.

Ebonite nib units

I’m providing ebonite nib units with all Shinobi, Prospector, and Breaker pens from now on (April 2020), or as long as I’m able to keep buying them.

This allows the nib and feed to be oriented in any position so that the top of the nib lines up with the pen barrel in just the right way.  I do not recommend pulling nib and feed for regular cleaning as this might result in a loose fit, and a drippy or poor writing pen.  I don’t recommend pulling the converter unless it breaks b/c the fit between nib unit nipple and converter is extremely tight.  In fact I have to sand the nipple down a little so a converter will even fit on it.  This is a very thin area and might possibly maybe break if you’re not extremely careful.

The more I’ve used these housings the less likely I think it will be that you could break the nipple off unless you’re very heavy handed or have an accident.

Again – I don’t recommend you take these apart unless it’s completely necessary, or the converter fails.