My Waterman Le Man 100 doesn't want to write. I find this rather disconcerting because after the pen came in - typical eBay hyperboli "This pen is like new - inked only once!" but the ink must have been India Ink and left to dry - I kept the nib section in a plastic cup of room temperature water for a week and never was able to get all of the ink out. But what I was able to do was to get relatively good air flow by blowing on the body side of the section. I was also able to suck water up in through the nib.

So I put a Waterman Liaison converter on this Le Man 100 nib section assembly and I had no problems drawing ink into the converter through the nib. The seal of the converter seems just fine - no leakage.

The pen wrote wonderfully well until the ink that was left in the nib ran out. No ink went from the ink converter down through to the nib. Everything just dryed up.

Now I have an ink converter's worth of ink and a completely dry nib. Does anyone have any ideas as to why? Does the Le Man 100 require a special ink converter? Why would I be able to take ink into the pen using this ink converter, have absolutely no leakage on the inside of the pen, and not have any ink in the nib/nib feed?

BTW, I'm using Aurora Blue for my ink. It's a realtively new bottle and I have had no issues with this ink in any of my other pens.

Peace,

Phroneo

Hello Phroneo,

I'm sorry to hear this

I have one and the nib section is hard to clean 100%, there seems to have some kind of cavity that keep retaining ink. Long ago I had the bad "idea" to let ink dry in it (Waterman Florida Blue) and it was very hard to clean and many soaking, blowing, with lukewarm water and in the end it was no better. Ultrasonic bath at a pen store finally helped. But the way the feed or nib is done there seems to be some cavity, especially around the rim that are hard to clean. So if soaking was not enough I suggest the ultrasonic bath....

Keep us informed!

Once it is cleaned you'll enjoy a wonderfull pen.

Well sorry about that ... but look at the bright side ... at least you have one of these pens ...

I have been trying to find one of these for a while now ... and I keep missing every opportunity that arises ... just my luck !

Any update on your Waterman Le Man 100 pen? I'm curious how you resolved issue, and other ways you've tried to resolve issue. TIA

Well, the short answer to your question is that I've soaked the nib assembly for another week straight and still keep on getting ink out of it. One person was kind enough to suggest that I pull the ink feed, but I'm afraid that there may be some complications with doing that - deforming the fins for one. So what I'm going to do is pack it up safe and sound, write a note to go along with it, and send if off to Ron Zorn at Main Street Pens for him to repair.

I can and do repair fountain pens. However, this pen seems to present more problems than is worth my time and possibly my ruining the pen. So, I take the safe way out.

Peace,

Phroneo

=============

Forgive me if I sound like an idiot, but have you tried the dishwashing liquid trick? Stick a toothpick in dishwashing liquid, and stick that end of the pick into the convertor with the stubborn ink; insert convertor into pen as usual. Just curious. Or am I not understanding you?


diane

Hello Diane,

No, you don't sound like an idiot. And no, I haven't tried this trick because I didn't know about it. I've put a small amount of amonia into the water for about 4 days. When that did nothing, I put dishwashing liquid into the water in which the nib assembly was soaking for about 4 days and that has done nothing.

Are you suggesting that I insert this very small amount of diswahsing liquid into the converter side of the pen and then put the converter, filled with water, on the pen? Or the converter filled with ink? (Please don't think that I'm the idiot now - I just don't know.) Anyway, I'm happy to try just about any non-destructive method at this point.

Peace,

Phroneo

I believe she is referring to ink - seems I read that here on this forum (lurking gives time for a lot of 'catch-up' reading).

Phroneo - The dishsoap treatment is to put some dishsoap onto the inside of they converter (I think) so the converter does not hold the ink in suspension (hence why the toothpick). The soap affects the inside surface of the converter so it does not hold the ink through some sort of surface tension.

One other thing to try is to buy an "Infant nasal aspirator" (a light blue rubber bulb with an anteater-like nose on it). They are found in the baby section of your local mega drug store and cost about $4.00 +/-. The hole in the anteater nose is the perfect size to fit in the cartridge end of your Pen and over the nipple that the converter fits onto. Fill the aspirator with water and flush the nib from that end. Maybe the steady stream of water and steady pressure will dislodge anything there.

If you've already tried the ammonia and water solution and none of the other suggestions work then off to Mr. Zorn, unless others come up with other suggestions. My 100's work just fine. Have for years and love them. Good luck

The thing that has me confused is that I can actually blow air and/or water through the nib assembly. I seem to have a clear path along the ink air return that runs on the topside of the feed. (That's that little channel that runs from ende oen to the other right down the center of the ink feed.) I'm just not getting any ink through the feed to the nib.

One might think that because I'm able to blow water/air through the assembly that I'd get ink to the nib for writing. But that's certainly not the case here. So I'll try all of the suggestions each of you have been kind enough to give to me this evening. Somethings got to work sometime.

Peace,

Phroneo

Hi again,
Here is what I do when I notice the ink in the convertor is NOT getting to the pen:

You know how dishwashing liquid bottle always has some 'residue' around the cap (uh, unless you go around cleaning dishwashing liquid bottles )? Ok, I take a toothpick, touch it to that residue, and then stick that into the convertor with the stubborn ink. Remove toothpick. Less than 10 seconds later, the ink is 'loose'; I then put the convertor into the pen as one normally would. VOILA, ink flow. If that doesn't work, I ride a broom and throw frogs towards Janesville. That doesn't work either, but I like the exercise.

Let us know what happens!

Hi Diane,

I may be misunderstanding you - my ink converter is just fine - clean as can be and works as it should. I took it from my Waterman Liaison fountain pen to use in the Le Man 100.

In fact, I can draw ink up through the nib into the converter and push the 3 drops out after it's filled. The pen will then write until the residual ink leaves the nib assembly. After that, there is no ink flow through to the nib. I've tried two different Waterman converters on this pen with the same result. And I put an ink cartridge on the nib assembly only to have no ink flow.

So it's not the converter - it's between the converter/ink cartridge and the nib where the problem lies. If you still think your diswashing liquid trick will work, then I'll give it a try.

Peace,

Phroneo

Hi Diane,

I may be misunderstanding you - my ink converter is just fine - clean as can be and works as it should. I took it from my Waterman Liaison fountain pen to use in the Le Man 100.

In fact, I can draw ink up through the nib into the converter and push the 3 drops out after it's filled. The pen will then write until the residual ink leaves the nib assembly. After that, there is no ink flow through to the nib. I've tried two different Waterman converters on this pen with the same result. And I put an ink cartridge on the nib assembly only to have no ink flow.

So it's not the converter - it's between the converter/ink cartridge and the nib where the problem lies. If you still think your diswashing liquid trick will work, then I'll give it a try.

Peace,

Phroneo
========

Hi Phroneo,

I think it is the ink in the convertor that is stubborn, so I suggested to try the dishwaswhing trick. When you remove the convertor from the pen, does the ink in that convertor move, or does it seem like it is a 'gel'? If it seems like a gel, it is the ink that is being a bad kid, so I suggest the dish liquid. It should loosen the ink that is ink the convertor, and make it flow. Let us know what happens.


Edited so I could see the fine print.

Ok, try the dishsoap and see if it works.

This may be an air flow issue because the LeMan 100 nib does not have an air hole (the air has to go up the feed to allow the ink to come down or you create a vacuum in the converter after some ink descends).

Try the nasal aspirator in the same position, but air flow in reverse: i.e. squeeze the bulb so it is empty of air, attach it to the converter/cartridge nipple in the section, then let go of the bulb and let the air be sucked from the nib tip back through the feed. The air flow may just break-up and dislodge any blockage. A rinse following may then clear out the blockage.

Here's a different measure, if you dare. Carefully hold the pen (or the nib section only if you can hold a piece that small) upside down between the first two fingers of both hands. Then put the outside edge your thumb nails (i.e. away from your palms) inside the side edge of nib, between the side edge and the fins of the feed. Then, carefully, and with equal pressure, push your thumbnails outward from the feed and a little bit away from you (the nib being upside down, you are spreading and lifting the nib from the sides and top of the feed ever so slightly). This should spread the sides of the nib ever so slightly and maybe allow a little more air to return up the feed. You may want to try this two or three times in case there might be an old blob of ink blocking the air flow. Then see if there's better flow after filling and emptying the nib of its initial fill. (By the way, do this over a table with edges to keep the pen from rolling off. This is in case you accidentally drop the pen by mistake. You do not want it to do a one-and-a-half and ruin the nib or shatter the barrel or section when it hits the floor.)

I was also going to suggest taking the nib and feed apart for a thorough cleaning, especially the central canal on top of the feed, but I do not think you can remove the nib and feed from the section on a 100 like you can with other pen designs. It's glued in. I did this with a few other pen makes using a razor blade to just make sure the canal was clear. The change was amazing. Again on my two 100's I can not remove the nib and feed from the section; rather, I do not have the expertise to remove the nib and feed and then repack/re-glue them. That would be the work of the nibmeisters.

That's about all I can suggest at this point.

Greetings Friends,

Well, it's been a busy day at the work bench. I happened to have two of those baby nasal asperators - one new and the other I use for Parker '61' restoration - so I was in luck. I cut the new unit so that it fit tight over the threads of the converter side of the Le Man 100 nib assembly.

Here's what happened:

I was able to suck water into the bulb through the nib. However, when I tried to squirt the water out of the assembly, it only came out through the air return on the top of the ink feed and squirt out through the breather hole of the nib. Water never came out around the fins on the underside of the feed, which I thought was strange. I repeated this test twice with the soap, but same results.

At this point, it's been a good 18-days that I've soaked and tried to release this nib. I cannot figrue out a good, safe way to get the ink feed and nib out of the section so I'm going to punt. I'm baffled. I will send this pen to a professional before I screw it up out of frustration.

The irony of this is that I so wanted a Waterman Le Man 100 that I made the mistake of purchasing the pen on eBay from an unknown source. This will teach me. Fifeteen weeks from now when I get my pen back and its working as it should, I'll revisit this forum and let you all know how I like the pen.

Until that time, thank you for your kind advice and support. I appreciate it.

Pax et bonum,

Phroneo

Bummer! And I thought something would work. Sorry for you about that. Must be old India ink or something seized up in the nib. Off to a pro. At this point, it's safer that way, outcome more likely to be positive. Good luck and hoe it's faster than 15 weeks. Can't wait to hear the resolution.

I have one thing that I systematically do when I don't use my pen which is to flush them with cold water and even after some time of use when I use a pen I flush it too. The man 100 is a pen that normally never presents such problems.

Phroneo,
Any updates on your pen? Doubly curious because my LeMan 100 arrived last week and it has the same difficulties with 'breathing'. When the pen runs dry while writing, unscrewing the barrel will cause a bubble of ink on top of the NIB, and the pen will again write - until it runs out of air in the converter (or so it seems). Mine is soaking now. Looked for a 'baby nasal aspirator', but could not find one. Tried using a syringe to gently force water thru, but I have a poor connection.
BTW, if undoing the barrel fails, turning the converter screw 1/8 turn also works to start the ink. What an aggravation!
Wonder if you had yours repaired successfully, and would you recommend them...

Sharing my most recent experience... I found a baby nasal aspirator and used it yesterday evening. I did not really have a great experience until I switched to hydrogen peroxide. Suddenly I could not only push liquid throught the NIB, but I could pull it through too! About that same time I found two 'specks' of black in the liquid, along with a strand of black material that appeared flattened on the part showing. This strand appeared to be perhaps 1/32 inch in length. I continued pushing and pulling hydrogen peroxide for several minutes, then switched to water with a drop of dawn detergent. I continued to have a nice flow of liquid in and out of the NIB. I left it soaking in the water and when my current pen runs out of ink, I plan to fill the LeMan 100 and give it another try...keeping my fingers crossed!

I wonder if you bought your pens from epray and if those were serviced. I bought my man 100 patrician in second hand and never had any ink flow problems because mine was fully serviced.

epray is an apt description. yes - from a seller in Israel that described the pen as being dipped only - no use of converter. I should have inquired for how many years was it dipped only

Greetings All,

Thanks for all of your suggestions and advice. I do appreciate it. And I do have an update on my Waterman Le Man 100.

I've just kept patience with this nib assembly knowing that something had to give at some point. Yes, I did get sucked into an eBay - MINT!!!!! - fountain pen. (Thanxxxxxxxxxx, jonniebling) But what the seller didn't know was this is an anniversary edition with 1883-1983 engraved on the nib and embroidered into the hold-down ribbon in the original box with papers. And aside from the pen having years of dried ink in its feed system, it is pretty much in excellent-plus condition. So I have a very nice example of a first edition Waterman Le Man 100.

I have kept the nib and feed assembly in a plastic cup filled with room temperature water since the last week of April. I would use the baby squeege on it once or twice a day and see if any remaining ink came out on a lint free towel that I held tight to the nib. This past Sunday I noticed that there was no more ink spots coming out of the nib. I let it soak one more day, and then set it out to dry after I had blown out as much of the remaining water as I possibly could.

I inked the pen with Aurora Blue ink about 3-hours ago, and it hasn't skipped or stopped writing since. And although my hand is tired from writing you can color me happy. Very happy.

I even have a NOS ball point pen to go along with this pen. (Did I ever mention that I really like pens in sets?) It's something nice to compliment my RHR Liaison set.

Once again, thank you all for your advice and suggestions. Those, with a little perserverence and a lot of patience, got the pen writing.

Peace,

Phroneo

Congratulations! Well done!

I am very happy for you Phroneo, these nibs are SO smooth! I hope you'll finally enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine