# paging Lou Metcalf......(or anyone who knows)



## jbpaul (Jan 7, 2009)

Lou,

Do your small semiflex steel nibs fit the American Flat Top and/or the Series 2000 Flat Top and/or the Streamline Flat Top pens from Arizona Silhouette? Do they fit the Americana pen from CSUSA? I have turned most of these pens, but not the fountain versions.

Thanks for any help. Just want to be certain before I commit to a client and place orders for pen kits.

By the way, those nibs are sweet!!!

Thanks again,
JB


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## jskeen (Jan 7, 2009)

I can confirm the nibs will fit the flattop variants as well as the round top euro fp kits.  Don't know about the americana first hand, but can't imagine it being different.   HOWEVER!!  I have found serious issues with the section/feed that ships with the kits I got direct from berea a while back.  The housing is plastic, and it is not keyed for the feed to go in only one way, nor is the inner housing threaded, it is just a press fit.  After many hours of fiddling with them trying to get decent performance out of them, including fitting them with lou's excellent steelflex nibs and PR ink cartridges, I had to admit defeat and all the finished pens and kits are still sitting in a cubby in my shop.  The pens would not feed well, constantly had to be disassembled and primed to start them writing, and generally were not up to the standards of performance of any other FP kits I have built.  

If anybody has managed to adjust/repair these kits to get decent performance out of them, I would love to know how.  The only solution i found was to replace the entire section with one of the (now discontinued) sections from CSUSA, but they are only available in gold and the kits were chrome.


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## Firefyter-emt (Jan 8, 2009)

I have installed Lou's nibs (small series) in the Americana just fine.

Just a tip with the Americana... Buy the inner cap adjuster tool, it really is worth it.  And when it comes time to install the inner cap and adjust it to fit the pen, place a drop of shellac in the plastic threads of the inner cap.  This will be harmless to the pen when dried and allow you plenty of time to adjust.  If it ever has to be removed, heat from a hair dryer will loosen the bond.  Nothing is worse than that cap adjustment getting messed up because the pen is twisted and the cap loosened.  Well, maybe when the inner cap is tightened and the cap will no longer click on!

Seriously though, it's a good pen kit... The full rhodium line is one of the nicer looking ones out there.  Just use those tips for the inner cap and you will be good to go.


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