Waterman l'Etalon nib unit assembly and disassembly
Relatively few l'Etalon nib units have survived due to the failure (breakage) of what is called the technical section. The following is a description of how to disassemble this nib unit and check the condition of the technical section
Complete nib unit after removal of nib/feed
Central collar removed by knocking backwards over barrel threads. This collar is unthreaded and held in place by friction. It locks over the semicircular clutch ring and has recesses to fit over the flange at each end of the clutch ring
With the central collar removed, the brass connector thread unit can be unscrewed half a turn to release the clutch ring from its recess
With the clutch ring removed, the brass connector thread unit can be unscrewed from the technical section (see next photo) which sits inside the main front shell. This main front shell has no threading
This shows the technical section (bottom left) removed from the main front shell. The technical section has the visible gold ring on one end; the other end is threaded and there is a slot on the outside of the technical section which determines where it is to be inserted into the main front shell. The rubber O ring is retrieved from inside the main front shell
When reversing these steps to reassemble the nib unit, the small rubber O ring is inserted over the back of the technical section after it has been inserted into the main front shell. It is then held in position by the brass connector thread unit. Its purpose is to dampen slight lateral movement of the main front shell around the technical section
The normal failure point with this design is that the threads at the back of the technical section fracture off. If the fracture is partial, then ink will start leaking from around the main front shell. If there is full fracture, there will also be leakage but the front part of the technical section holding the nib/feed will be allowed to slide forwards out of the main front shell as there is then nothing retaining these parts in position. The main front shell stays attached to the other components as it is locked in position by semicircular clutch ring which, in turn, is fixed by the brass connector thread unit and the central collar. The slight (about 1mm) fowards/backwards movement of the main front shell is permitted by the clutch ring moving within its recess in the brass connector thread unit
This shows the broken technical section separated from the rest of the front end. The threaded end of the technical section with the cartridge piercing tube which has fractured off remains fixed inside the brass connector thread unit inside the nib unit
The only solution to partial/full fracturing is to replace the defective technical section but as this part has not been available for some years the nib unit is unrepairable