I love, love, love my first 2 pens--the Hero Dragon Phoenix and the Duke Sweet Heart. They write smooth and true right out of the box.

Next I purchased the Dinuoyang 818 and a Jinhao 9000. Both skip and give me a hard time with the ink flow. Once they start writing it is fine, but I notice that on the down stroke they tend to skip or not write at all.

My question is this...is it me, the ink, or the pen? How do I diagnose this problem, and what steps can I take to fix it?

Thanks,

deb

The easiest way is to change the ink to a very runny one (Waterman Inks always have good flow in my experience).

Sometimes it helps to flush out the pens with either cool water or a 1:10 ammonia/water solution. The theory is that oils from the manufacturing process are in the feed and nib and interfere with the ink flow. Whether it's true or not, I can't say...but I've done this with a couple of out-of-the-box hard starters, and it's done the trick.

I have two Parker Sonnets and one Waterman Preface that skip all the time. I've tried many different inks and I've cleaned them with washing up liquid. I have even added that to the ink in the converters and this helps, but does not totally cure.

Are they just rubbish pens that I should get rid of, or could I do something else to them? (Not worth sending them to be fixed, I'd rather just junk them or sell them).

Edited for spelling mistakes and typo's as usual ...

Shostakovich, if you're at the junk it stage anyway, you might try spreading the nib a little and see if that helps the ink flow. Instructions are at the bottom of that article.

OK, I'm going to try flushing out both pens, and then re-ink them.

deb

Thanks!! I've looked at the article and if all else fails I might try that on one of the pens!

Best wishes

Shostakovich