One of my VP's is a bit leaky. Well maybe leaky isn't the right word, but when I pull the nib out, I will often find some ink on the shaft of the nib. Which makes me think, that there must also be some ink in the body of the pen, or on the trapdoor, or some other places I can't imagine. Is it possible to clean that body out? Is it something I even want to do? And if the answer to both of those questions is yes, how does one go about doing so?

Thanks

I noticed that too on my VP... I never tried cleaning it, though. I was too afraid that I wouldn't be able to get all the water out, and it'd just sit there... slowly rusting the latch. Also, your nib would keep picking up water from the latch, and might come out watery for a stroke or two. I don't think too much ink will build up there, so I just say ignore it. Anyways, I always thought that little part of the design was a good thing; helps your nib get a small stroke in before you lay it on paper and minimizing the chance of a hard start.

I've decided that, unless the issue is actually affecting your ability to write or the pen's ability to function, don't mess around with it.

Question to gsmx5er, are you using a convertor or a cartridge? I had an issue with my pen where the trap would stay marginally open with the convertor installed and I ended up having a very hard starting pen. I very nearly sold it with the Binder stub just to get rid of it, until I tossed it in the Ultrasonic cleaner one day. A HUGE glob of crusted ink came out of the area just before the trap door.
I switched to a cartridge and since then have not had a single problem with the pen. In fact, it will now start on the first stroke even after a couple of weeks of non use.

Cheers,
Sean

I am using it with the squeeze converter. Noodler's Hunter Green (bulletproof) in particular seems to give me a bit of nib creep. The other inks I've tried so far seem to be less of a problem, namely the DI steelblue and monaco red.

Generally the pen works well. I haven't had any issues yet with poor flow or slow starting. It may be a bit tempermental on certain papers with bleedthrough and/or inability to write consistently. But that tends to be more an issue due to cheap notepads and post-its that are scattered about the office.

I just wipe off the shaft, put it back in, and repeat a few times. After that the amount of ink becomes negligible.

Noodler's bulletproofs will creep not only on the nib, but all over the place. If you've visited someplace kinda tropical, you'll notice a metal band placed around the trunks of coconut trees. That's to keep rats from clambering up to the fruit -- they can't get any traction on metal. Noodler's is the opposite, it only can creep on metal. So I "polish" the part of the nib assembly above the nib with some car wax. The ink can't creep on that and onto the rest of the internal bits. It really works. Good thing -- all I use are Noodler's bulletproofs.

Doug

Happened to me once too. I rinsed the pen then used some compressed air to get all of the moisture out. Worked great.

Thank you for that suggestion, Doug! Now I'll be able to put Noodler's Luxury Blue in my VP!

Moderators, please pin references to that post (number 415942) at the top of this subforum and Inky Thoughts too.
(edit: corrected grammar, twice)

I forgot about seeing this earlier when I went to ink my new VP. It's loaded with Polar Blue right now. I haven't noticed any nib creep, yet, though. Most of my bulletproofs creep almost immediately. I'll keep an eye on this, and I'll find some car wax. Any particular kind? Applied with a qtip? Regardless, sounds like a good failsafe. Thanks.