After much help from this forum I ordered and received my Pelikan M400 with a fine point nib (the first pen I have bought all my others are hand me downs). Not having much experience with fountain pens I have a question concerning ink flow. I order the pen from John at Nibs and recieved great service. The invoiced stated that I wanted a pen that wrote as smoothly as possible under light pressure with medium ink flow. I inked it with Waterman Florida Blue which I have used in an old Parker 21. In the old Parker I literally don't have to put any pressure on the nib for it to write very rich and smooth. In the new Pelilkan I have to use more pressure and the ink is very anemic looking. I tried my South Seas Blue tonight, another ink that writes very smoothly and rich in my Parker but with similar results. I am aware that with a fine point nib the lighter the pressure that smoother it writes. But when I write with light pressure I get such a pale line. My question is this: is this an ink issue (is it the combination of the Pelikan and Waterman), is this the nature of a fine point Nib, does it have to do with the ink flow, or is it me?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Laurie

That sounds odd. I have a Pelikan M200 fine point inked with Waterman Black, and the flow is terrific (although the color is a little washed out). I think it's very unusual to hear of a pen having flow problems with Waterman ink. I don't think you're imagining things.

Whenever I used Waterman ink my writing always looked washed out, no matter the pen (I do only have modern pens). I think Aurora Blue and Black has the nicest 'deepest' color I've tried thus far.

My experience is that fine nibs tend to write darker than larger nibs, using the same ink. But, it's possible your definition of "medium flow" and John's definition were different. Drop him an e-mail, explain the situation, and see what he thinks. You don't want to be bearing down on the nib, that's for certain. Not good for you, not good for the pen.

Did you pre-clean your pen to get rid of the manufacturing oils before inking it? That's helped my pens flow nicely when they are new.

If you have indeed cleaned the pen out as suggested, and you know the ink is good, and the paper is good (use the same stuff to test the Pelikan as on the Parker), and the screw-in nib+feed is installed and seated properly, then it's possible the nib has a problem called "baby bottom". The pressure/ no pressure difference can often be caused by this mismake in the nib.

I will say though- do try the clean out and a couple of different inks first if you haven't yet.

I'd recommend the cleaning/flushing mentioned by others. I was having similar problems with a new Cross Apogee in that it was writing ok but there wasn't a very smooth flow of ink. I'd already flushed the pen and the convertor with cold water, but then I tried a water/sope solution (as recommended by many on these boards) and it's made a big difference to the flow.

I hope you manage to get things working to your satisfaction.

Communicate with John at Nibs. He sold you the fountain pen. Their salient selling point is precisely avoiding these problems and solving them is certainly built into their selling price.

I tried a good cleaning like was suggested and it worked great.
Thanks for the advise.

I love a story with a happy ending!

It's really amazing that a cleaning with a dilute soap solution can make that much of a difference. You wouldn't think that there would be sufficient quantities of manufacturing oils or particulates to significantly impact ink flow.... but hey... I've seen it work myself, and you can't argue with results!

Instead of starting a new topic I thought I might post my question in here. Note, I have yet to try the solution that was mentioned earlier, but I would like to bring to attention the problem first.
First off I just received in the mail today a new fountain pen, Waterman Charleston (Yellow, very beautiful I might add) and it came with some Waterman ink (green). I started writing with it and I noticed that while I was writing the ink would stop flowing. I took it to the side and on scratch sheet of paper got it going again. After doing this about 10 times the ink finally stopped coming out.


Your thoughts?
Gary

I agree with the suggestion to call John. He's a nice guy, and he'll be helpful. You might write a few lines, pressing as lightly as you'd like regardless of the line that results, and then pressing as hard as you need to get the line that you'd like. When you speak with John, offer to mail him the card (or scan it in and e-mail it to him if you can make a high resolution scan of the lines.).

FWIW, while you will probably need answers to the questions you posed, the ultimate question may be, "What do you have to do to the pen in order to write the way you want with the ink you want on the paper you want." It might be, for example, that the cause of your disappointment is the fine nib and the weak ink. But, if you want to keep using that nib and that ink, then you'll need a very minor adjustment to the nib. Whatever it is, John should be able to help.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when new questions get piggy-backed onto an old thread. The original question is re-answered and the new question is missed. :-)

Congratulations, Gary, on your new purchase, and sorry you're having problems.

There are a couple of things to try. First, flushing your pen thoroughly in the dilute soap solution as described above may well do the trick for you.

If this doesn't do the trick, there are only a few things that can really be wrong: Nib, feed, or ink source.

First, check the ink source. Are you using a cartridge or a converter? Some converters cause flow issues, and there are several threads in the forums about that. Some people recommend Pelikan converters over other brands, because the material they are made from seems less likely to cause flow problems. Waterman is a particularly free-flowing ink, so I think it is unlikely that the ink itself is the issue. But, who knows?

Second, the nib itself may contribute to flow issues. If the two tines are jammed together, ink may not be able to flow between them. Some people have reported luck "flossing" the slit between the tines with a .001" or .002" brass shim sheet. See the link here: http://www.richardspens.com/?page=accessor...pping_films.htm

The tines of the nib may also be improperly aligned which could obstruct ink flow, but this may be difficult or impossible to see without a 10x or 20x jeweler's magnification loupe, and this type of repair is usually best performed by a professional. The last thing you want to do is to damage the nib trying to align it.

Finally, if the feed mechanism itself is clogged, and flushing the pen does not resolve the problem, short of sending it to a pen repair professional, you may need to contact the shop you purchased it from, or the pen manufacturer, and explain the problem to them, and see if they can repair your pen for you.

Contact information for Waterman is here:



Good luck.

Thanks for the quick response. Currently, I am using a cartridge. I did however manage to get it started again by shaking the pen forward as if I was going to throw a dart and some ink came flying out. Before I did that I was able to see between the tines in the nib that there was no ink. Apparently something is preventing it from flowing into the tines as easily as it should.

On a second observation I've noticed that ink flow seems to be more dramatic compared to my Van Gogh. While both pens have medium nibs, yet the Waterman seems to be more thicker on paper. Also, I'm using Waterman ink in the Waterman pen and different ink in the other if that makes a difference.

Perhaps it is taking a little while for the feed to get saturated? Let it stand overnight, nib-down, perhaps, so that the ink can flow into the feed, and see if it is easier to start.

This is less a problem with converters, because you dunk the nib into the ink and the piston sucks the ink through the feed into the converter. Carts on dry pens are occasionally hard-starting until they get wet.