I also posted this is the Writing Instrument forum (hope that is not bad form), but thought I would ask the good people of the Waterman forum about the issue I am experiencing.

The Waterman Charleston is the first non-disposable fountain pen I purchased. I like the thickness of the fine nib, but after 2 weeks of writing it doesn't feel as smooth (very subjective-I know) as I thought a fairly decent FP should feel. For example, today I picked up a Pilot Varsity briefly with a medium nib and noticed that the Pilot seemed to take much less effort to write with; it was very smooth. I am currently using Noodlers Midnight Blue. I also have Waterman Havana, PR Lake Placid Blue and Waterman Fla Blue.

Is this a case of me just getting used to the FP? Would I see a significant difference if the nib was tweaked/tuned, etc. by someone like Richard Binder? Or maybe I would be happier with the feel of a medium nib.

Thanks for any help.

It depends quite a bit on the quality of the paper you are writing to. On good quality paper, a fine Charleston nib should glide effortlessly (at least that's what mine does). If the paper is of worse quality, a fine nib might feel toothy. You should also check with a magnifying glass if the nib tines are in alignment (dropping/bumping into something hard might make a nib misaligned) or if some crud from low quality paper is stuck between nib tines.
If you do not like the feel of a perfectly aligned fine nib on quality paper, go for a medium one. A wider nib is much more tolerant to paper quality.

I agree with the above comment. It may depend on the paper quality, also on how you write with the nib. The wider the nib, the higher the tolerance, to a degree. I suggest you try different nibs, M, L/B, etc to see what you write more confortable with. Seen an expert for your first FP... I humbly suggest you try other things first. Flushing the pen and trying Florida Blue, getting a nice quality paper, and then checking basic things on the nib are OK, like tine alignment, etc.
Let us know how things flow .

Thanks for the tips. My belief is it is probably the paper. Our office buys the cheapest paper possible.

Update-Cleaned it last night and let it air dry and refilled it with Waterman Havana this morning and it seems to be doing well. Maybe it is the ink. I like the saturation of the Noodlers Midnight Blue, but maybe that was creating the problem. Waterman inks seems to do quite well in this pen.

Thanks.