Cleaned the last of the pens today that were empty (or nearly so) and one of them had a cracked nib unit housing. The section was fine, thankfully. The feed and nib came right out but it was a PITA getting the housing out. Thankfully it's a Jowo #6 so easy to find a replacement. I tried all the usual tricks but it wouldn't budge. Ink gummed up all in various broken parts of the housing, practically glued it in. Not even the ultrasonic cleaner helped.
Screwdrivers didn't help (with or without rubber bands), nor did anything else along those lines.
I ended up getting out the drill and (carefully) extracting it that way. First drilled through it with a couple smaller bits but ultimately used a #6 screw extractor bit that was able to back it out of its threads.
No pictures since it was all carnage. But it seems to be OK now, just need to wait on a suitable Jowo #6 donor nib unit to arrive.
(bonus thought): I actually ordered two replacements. One Conklin Jowo #6 that will arrive this week, and I will probably toss that nib in a storage bin and re-use the feed+housing with my current stub nib. The other one is an Osprey ultra-flex Jowo #6 with an ebonite feed that will take a week or two to get here since they're on vacation currently. I'm curious how that compares with the FPR ultra-flex pens I have. And it was about the same as any other replacement nib.
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