Picked up a bargain eBay P61 capillary which is a real beauty, with an XF nib, much finer than anything I've used before. When it's had the cap on for a few hours and I want to write with it, the ink flow only 'comes awake' after a word or two. Flow is OK after that - a little dry perhaps - but it seems slow to start.

Is this a result of such a fine nib? Is there anything you chaps can recommend to make this one a little quicker off the mark?

Ray

Hi Ray,

I have your 61's fine nib cousin that I picked up on fleabay a while back and I had the same problem at first. The previous owner had used a black ink that had dried out and clogged the whole thing.

My solution was a garden sprayer, a piece of plastic tubing and tepid water. First soak the pen overnight in water. I put it in a plastic cup, nib facing upwards as I want and solids to fall out the back and not into the nib section.

After a good soak, connect the tube to the cover the nib section and the other end to the sprayer nozzle. Fille the sprayer with tepid water and the gentle pump to get a very gentle flow through the pen. You should find you get a load of old ink and solids out of the pen, but you will need to do several cycles of the soak - flush - soak cycle.

Before filling you need to dry the pen out. I gently blow through the pen to expel and excess water, wrap the nib section in paper towel and give it a good shake, then leave it somewhere warm to dry out for 24 hours.

It may sound basic, but then the best ink to fill it for a while is the old Parker Quink with Solve-X to clean it out. May sound a bit basic, but it has worked for me!

Jim

Thanks, Jim. Actually just writing with the thing a bit has brought a big improvement, but when its current fill is exhausted I'll proceeed as you suggest.

Ray

Ray,

If using it is improving it, then I think that maybe it is clogged up. If it was a "51" the taking the hood off to clean would be in order, but the 61 hood is so liable to cracking that flushing is the next best answer.

Nice writers when they are going though, I like the 61 and I use the Flighter I have as a travel pen.

Jim