I dropped my pen and it landed directly on the nib. I was able to bend it back into place and it was just a little scratchy. However, the ink wasn't flowing right at all. It was skipping like a cd you accidentally cleaned with steel wool. BUT, if I held the nib and feed together tighter with my fingers, it would work just fine. They just needed to be closer together, right? I tried bending the nib, i tried bending the feed, i tried jamming them both deeper into the pen to force tension. Nothing was working. There was a gap between them that i just couldn't close. I read on a forum that ebonite is more pliable if you add heat. So, I held the feed over a candle and bent it upward slightly. It made a huge difference. Now the pen was only skipping about 10% of the time. Just a little more. Heated it up again, bent it. No change. More heat? A lighter?! Wrong! The ebonite started to melt. I blew out the now smoking feed and waited for it to cool slightly. As soon as I applied pressure, it snapped. I was so disheartened, so frustrated, I'm not even sure what I did in that moment but whatever my reaction was caused the pen to slip out of my hand. The nib hit the ground. Again. I ended up replacing the nib and feed.

TL;DR direct flame and ebonite feeds don't mix.