I've seen a few more than usual questions lalely regarding this condition, the downstroke is dry. I think we can all agree most of us have pens that do it. The answers posted in response is "clean the pen with dish soap/water or a 10% ammonia to water solution". And everyone chimes in "yeah, that did it for me". Well, that's never worked for me so.... What if that doesn't do it?

Is there a plan B?

What exactly causes this condition?

Why would a pen that writes wet, say 8 on the 1 to 10 scale, have this condition?

Does it have something to do with the space between the tines?

Flossing between the tines, is this a possible solution?

I've already got 2 pens out to a nib mechanic and besides nib work, the skipping on the down stroke issue is going to be addressed on both also. One is an older pen and I assume the feed might be a bit clogged but the other is a brand new pen and a trip back to the factory couldn't cure it.

So, can someone tell me what's going on with this problem that seems to touch everyone at some point.

Read: http://www.richardspens.com/ref_info/nib_primer.htm

Yes, thanks. A good read, no doubt, but I don't think the problem of this topic is mentioned. What we know is, A. the pen writes wet. B. It's not a hard starter. it will write any written letter except a downstroke. This could be at the beginning of a word or in the middle. C. The pen doesn't skip. It will write all day as long as it's not a down stroke.

Some examples, the letter I as in "I don't know". I don't loop the capital "I" as learned when I went to school, I use only a down stroke. The pen may start putting the line down mid stroke so only half the letter is on the page. If I looped the letter and started at the bottom and looped back, it would write.

Another example using how I write, any letter like..d,F,h,H,i,I,j,k,K,l,L...upper and lower case, I aways make the downstroke line first then finish off the letter. The problem is only with the downstroke and nowhere else. Again, if I just continued on looping these letters there's no break.

Which leads to another question - Why will it write an upstroked line with no problem but not one going down?

The only thing I can think of is the nib/feed adjustment might be off. On the downstroke it's likely that there is more pressure on the nib than on upstrokes, causing the capillary connection between the nib and feed to separate. If this is the case, adjusting the feed to be tighter to the nib might help.

Regards,

Gerry

Good idea. I once had this problem with a Pelikan M1000 nib that clearly exerted too little pressure against the feed. It would leave me in the lurch on downstrokes. Got it changed by Chartpak, and ever since the pen writes flawlessly.

I too have suffered with this condition. Some times cleaning or flossing does the trick. One time I removed the nib and feed and adjusted the position of the feed relative to the end of the nib and this worked. Once I had a feed that the slit appeared to have never been completely cut in the feed. A little razor blade work with the feed out did the trick. One other thing I have heard is that if the nib is not tight on the feed and down strokes pull it further from the feed it can cause flow problems. Again pulling the nib and feed and reseting my do the trick, but I have also heard folks talk about heating the nib/feed with a head gun and pressing them together between your fingers to make the feed conform better to the nib. I hope any of this was helpful.

I'm with you GC - I have had two pens in this condition. My most recent Omas needed to be readjusted, and I believe the issue was just as pak and Gerry described. I'm not brave enough yet to try pak's suggestions on my own.

I don't have the nerve either to operate.

You know who's pens I have a hell of a time with, Conway Stewart. I love the pens but damn, out of the box, they plain suck. And you'd think I'd learn and stay away. I have a brand new Duro I got in August and have never written more than a page with. Skipped on the downstroke. Washed it, tried different inks, sent it back to CS in the UK, comes back the same way, now Richards had it since Oct. 10th. Fustrating to say the least.

Let me know how it turns out! I may send him my Amber Dandy, same down stroke issues.

Sure, I can do that. He did a Sailor for me last year that had the same problems. Came out super, good flow, medium wetness, smooth, and.....NO SKIPPING!

Would you believe I have send Three Modern Balances back to Sheaffer with the same problem. Frustrating - interesting though it's never happened with an inlaid sheaffer or Waterman.

I done the feed tightening thing - I;ve only been successful with a Parker Sonnet - took the whole thing apart, adjusting tines and so on. Sometimes even a balanced nib and perfectly aligned tines skipped for me. And to make it even more baffling and frustrating the odd pen that writes well with slightly misaligned tines will write perfectly.

I think the key is the preassure of the feed on the nib. I'm not sure if it could be anything else. BUT I feel your frustration. One of my Balances I would have to tap every line or so to get ink out of it - and it was clean as a whistle.

The mystery is "What really does it?"

Possibly it could be 'baby bottom' as described in the last paragraph on Richard's nib page (link above). Two of my pens had this and I got rid of it by grinding the nib just a tiny bit. Both pens are wet writers, too, and would sometimes fail to put down a line, like yours, only with downstrokes. What you describe is exactely how my pens used to behave.
Nellie


Nellie