Hi everyone, I've been lurking around FPN for awhile, reading the forums. This is a really helpful friendly place.

I have a Carene with some writing problems, and I think I know what I need to do about them, but any comments would be appreciated.

The pen has a medium nib. I flushed it with water and a drop of dish washing detergent before using the pen. I used a cartridge of Florida Blue and then switched to PR Lake Placid and PR Midnight Blues.

First, the pen tends to skip on vertical lines and on the northwest slope of curved letters, such as 9, lowercase a, o. The more I write, the more frequent the problem occurs. Second: I prefer a line that's slightly thinner than the very wet medium I'm getting. I'd actually started out with a fine point, but it was very dry and scratchy, and I exchanged it for a medium, thinking that would work. What I now wish I had done was discovered FPN when I had the fine point, read the posts about flushing pens with a little soap/water mixture. That probably would have cured the fine point's problems. The third problem: with PR Midnight Blues (which I really want to use in this pen), the ink pours across the top of the nib, and comes out the back ends of the nib fins. The pen works much better with Florida Blue, but it's the PR MB that I really want to use.

I'm thinking that I need to do is send the pen to a nibmeister and have them check it out and, possibly, grind the nib to a slightly finer point. They might also can adjust the feed/flow problem. Deb Kinney is not far away, and I'm thinking of sending the pen to her, as I've read so many good comments about her work.

Does this sound like a plan? Is there anything that I can try here at home? Would I be better off saving up a few dollars and buying a new fine point nib as opposed to having the medium reground to a finer point?

Thanks very much,
TC

Hi Treecat!

I was going to write a long post about how I knowingly bought a used Carene with a bent nib thinking I could fix it with some tine tweaking using my fingernail and a strong loupe....but I won't.

Long story short: a Waterman Carene is one fountain pen I will never try to fix myself

The nib is permanently attached to the section and cannot be removed without completely destroying the nib (don't ask how I know this)...making it very difficult for an amateur to straighten the nib. I'm not sure what your pen's problem is, but that whole skipping-on-vertical-lines-and-on-the-northwest-slope-of- curved-letters "syndrome" sounds verrrrrry familiar to me

I guess you have two options here then---get a nib exchange for a Fine nib....OR send the pen to a nibmeister for tweaking and nib regrinding to create a finer line (or perhaps the flow can be adjuster to write less wet).

I didn't have the first option as the pen I bought was damaged by a previous owner (not the person from whom I bought the pen) so Waterman wouldn't replace it at no cost. I had to pay $106 (or $107) for a new nib up here in Canada.

If you are able to get the F nib as an exchange, then go for it. If you aren't able to, then send it to Deb. I heard she does great work

Good luck and please let us know how it all turns out!

Thanks Maja. If you *ever* want to one day tell me how you know to NOT fool with a Carene nib yourself, I'd love to hear the story.

Reading the Carene threads here, I get the impression that some trouble with their nibs is fairly common, but also not difficult to fix by someone who knows how. I've already exchanged the fine point nib for a medium point from the seller, and I'm not sure it's fair to go back to them again for another nib exchange. I've had the medium nib on the pen now for well over a month, trying different inks and papers to see what would work best with it, hoping it would straighten out its problem on its own. I've paid shipping once to send the pen back, and would have to pay shipping a second time. Sending it to a nibmeister seems to be the most logical answer.

But any ideas/suggestions are welcome.

Thanks very much!

Well, the upshot was that I tried to straighten the wrinkle in the nib using a primitive burnishing tool...and I failed. I should have just sent it off to Richard Binder or John Mottishaw or Deb Kinney or....

If the same thing happens (heaven forbid!) to one of my Sheaffer inlaid nibs, they are going straight to a nibmeister


Well, I've noticed quite a few threads where people have mentioned dropping their Carene onto a hard floor, oftentimes with tragic results I don't know if it was a case of the gripping sections being slippery or the floor being a mysterious "Carene-magnet" or what! Actually a fellow member of my local pen club (who shall remain nameless) ) had the misfortune of dropping his brand-new Carene (for which he paid full retail price ) onto a tile floor and now has a damaged Carene nib. Very sad.....


Well, in that case.....I would definitely send it to Deb and perhaps ask her if she can fix the skipping problem and also
(a.) adjust either the flow of the nib (to make it less wet)
or
(b.) narrow the nib from a M to a F
or
(c.) make the nib a F or M stub or cursive italic. I don't know if you've ever written with the latter two types of nibs, but they are fun!

One last suggestion and forgive me if it's too obvious...check how you're holding the nib. We had one previous poster who was inadvertently rolling their nib so that they'd rolled off the "sweet spot" simply because they weren't used to inlaid nibs and couldn't tell the nib was turning in their fingers.

Maja, I've got a Pilot 78G broad/stub, bought from hisnibs.com. It gives an italic type of line. Are you familiar with those (there are some reviews around here, which led me to buy one.. such enablers you all are! lol.) I love it, I wouldn't mind having another. Would I have the Carene nib reground to a stub or to a cursive italic to get that kind of line?

Ghost Plane, thank very much. I did find that if I rolled the pen *very* slightly to the right, there was less skipping. That seems odd to me, I would have thought the sweet spot would be the pen flat on to the paper, not turned slightly. If I can get stuff off the top of the scanner tonight, maybe I can post a writing sample.

PRIVATE RESERVE Midnight Blues: is this ink know for being especially wet in Carenes? When I had it in the Carene, it flowed out of the nip, onto the top of the nib, from the back of the fins, like it was running a race to get somewhere.

Thanks again.

Hmmm, not sure. I've heard good things about the pens, though, and I believe Norman Haase of HisNibs.com says they are about the equivalent of a "western light-medium or medium" stub/italic....
I guess it you wanted a pen that had that kind of line variation, you could send both the Carene and the Pilot 78G (if you can part with it for a while) to Deb and ask her to create the same kind of nib on your Carene.



Never thought of that...
Thanks for the tip, GP!


Sorry, I don't own any PR Midnight Blues.....I seem to recall that my PR Sherwood Green flowed very well in it.....

I have a Carene stub and it's luscious! Remember, I'm a B nib lover. Gives a more precise, cursive seeming line, while still providing nicely broad lines.

Tanzanite is a bit too wet for my Carenes. Haven't tried Midnight Blue yet, but it might be a similar thing. Other colors have been better behaved. Noodlers, on the other hand, produced the effect you're describing.

Ghost Plane, I know you're a B lover. I wish I had the handwriting that could handle wet medium and broad nibs. It would make things so much easier! My handwriting tends to be medium to small, depending, and letters close up on me if a pen is too wet and too broad.

Oddly the Pilot 78G broad nib works great with my writing. I guess the italic characteristics tend to keep a's, e's, o's, etc. from closing up.

To ask a completely noobie question, what is the difference between a snub and cursive italic nib. I've read Richard Binder's descriptions, but I'm still not certain, if I should have the Carene nib ground to a stub, to a cursive italic, or just play it safe and have it ground a little finer (and the flow adjusted, of course).

FPN is a great forum. I've learned so much from reading the threads here.