Hi,

Firstly, I am French, sorry for my bad english.
I have a probleme with my Waterman Carene.
The nib sticks and it writes more grey than black.

What could I do ?

Thank you for your advices !

Maël

I'm no expert but it's dry and it skips? What ink are you using? Flushed it recently?

Something that always comes up which I find really helpful is a bit of dishwashing liquid. Put a small drop of it into a mug or jug, and fill with water. Then get a toothpick or something, dip it into the soapy-ish water, and then into the cartridge or converter. I also found it useful to flush my pen with the weak solution once, then rinse through with cold water.

Thanks for your response.

I use the Waterman Black ink in cartridges.

I'll try what you told me to do.

Always the same problem.

I think I will send it to the Waterman SAV.

I put some Waterman Black cartridges in mine two days ago and experienced some flow problems... it went dry and a little skippy on some strokes. Have you tried a different ink? Waterman Florida Blue (from bottle) and Diamine inks have been working brilliantly for me.

Yes, I tried !

Look the color :

Waterman Black is not a very black ink in either cartridges or bottles. It's always more of a dark grey. Try the convertor and some bottled ink; maybe Noodler's Black, Diamine Quartz Black, or Aurora Black?

That's what my Waterman Black from a bottle looks like, but the nibs don't seem dry when using that ink.

On the other hand, this post shows a much darker Waterman's black.

What do you mean by the "nib sticks"? Is the Carene the only pen that reacts this way with this ink?

Waterman Blue-Black apparently has good lubrication properties, and Private Reserve Tanzanite is famous for curing dry-flowing nibs, so you could try these as remedies if the pen seems dry. Like Diamine, they both come in cartridges, so you're not committed to 60 ml of a color you don't want to continue using.

I don't know how to describe.

When I write, the nib makes noise (contrary of loud, I don't know the word^^).

That is my post. I do find my Waterman Black to be darker than it appears on Cannot's scan, but the only reason it is so dark on my scan is because the pen that it was written with (Parker Striped Duofold) is a gusher.

Is it possible that there is some water in the pen? When I first started with FPs, I complained about how watery many of my inks were, and then I realized that there was still some water in my pen from flushing. Now I do the "thermometer shake" with a piece of toilet paper wrapped around the nib.

Would "scratchy", "toothy," or "dry writing" describe what you are experiencing with your Carene?

Thanks.
It's not because of water.
I have this problem since I have the fountain pen.
And I don't understand "scratchy" and "toothy", sorry^^.
But it's not dry.

Cannot-- there are a couple of people here who speak French (je ne parle pas, sadly). Why not explain your problem in your own language, and hopefully one of our Francophones will either have a solution or be able to explain it to the rest of us in English.

Good idea.

Salut,

J'ai un petit problème avec mon stylo plume Carene (Waterman).
Lorsque j'écris, ce n'est pas noir mais plutôt gris (vous pouvez regarder le scan plus haut) et cela ne vient pas de l'encre car je l'ai testée sur un autre stylo plume.
Quand j'écris, la plume accroche légèrement et il y a souvent des blancs.

J'ai déjà tout essayé, enfin pas mal de choses, comme par exemple laisser tremper dans du produit vaisselle etc...
Il ne reste pas d'eau dans le stylo

Que pourrais-je faire ?

Merci d'avance pour votre aide

Hi Ernst and Cannot,

A free translation of the above post.

I have a small problem with m Carene fountain pen. As I write with it the writing does not look black but more grey, you can see the scan above, it doesn't seem to be the ink as it is OK when I have tried it in another pen.

I have already tried everything including leaving it to soak in cleaning solution. There is no water left in the pen.

What else can I do?

Cannot,
I personally would try to floss the nib and clean the space between the feed and nib as this can clog with ink, soaking doesn't alwys shift this. Flossing might also ease the tines apart a little and allow better flow to the tip of the nib.

Bon chance,

John

I can read and speak conversational French, but my fountain pen terminology needs help. I'll explain in English and do a summary translation afterwards.

All right, what your pen is doing is skipping, and it's dry. I think the pen is either humming (from chattering) or squeaking.

The tines may be misaligned, or too close together, or the tipping has "baby bottom" . The ink may be going through the feed all right, but cannot flow easily to the paper. The ideal nib slit becomes narrower towards the tipping. The tines do not touch unless the nib is intended to be flexible. Look at Richard Binder's drawing of a nib.

If your Carène is new, can you take it to the seller or send it back to Waterman service?

If not, first, check the alignment. Ideally both tines should be contacting the paper equally; you should not be pushing down on one of them to make them even, or the nib may limp (very quickly) across the paper without leaving an ink line. John Mottishaw shows how to align the tines.

If the tines are touching at the tipping, that restricts ink flow. Because the nib is inlaid, do not try to pull up on the shoulders of the nib to separate the tips, as you would do with other kinds of nibs. That might loosen it from the section. Instead, insert a piece of photographic film or similar plastic into the nib slit to spread the tines. Some people might put a scalpel blade in the slit to do this, but you risk scratching the inside of the slit, resulting in poor ink delivery.

If the tips of the tines are very rounded where they contact the paper, the ink cannot get to the paper because the tips (what first touches the paper) are essentially too far apart. Look at Richard's illustration and explanation in his website (richardspens.com, search "baby's bottom"). If this is the problem, you will need to do some nib smoothing. Wim Geeraets explains how to do this. You may decide that it would be best to try this on a very inexpensive pen before smoothing the Carène nib. It is very easy to go too far, too quickly.

Voilà; je m'excuse des fautes de français. Je ne connais pas les mots techniques pour les stylos-plume.

Je pense que vous avez un ou plusieurs des problèmes suivants:
1. Les bouts des "dents" de la plume ne sont pas alignés. Ceci cause un boîtement d'un côté par rapport à l'autre. La plume commence à chanter et ne peut pas déposer une ligne continue d'encre. Regardez l'article de John Mottishaw pour une solution.
2. Les bouts de la plume se touchent et empêchent que l'encre passe entre eux. L'idéal pour une plume moderne sans flexibilité est une fente entre les dents qui diminue vers la pointe, et où les bouts ne se touchent pas (cf. le dessin de Richard Binder richardspens.com/images/ref_info/nib_primer/tapered_slit.gif). En ce cas, il faut séparer les bouts. La plume Carène est collée au stylo; ne tirez donc pas sur les côtés de la plume pour séparer les bouts comme on peut faire avec d'autres types de plume. Insérez un morceau de pellicule photographique (35 mm) ou plastique de grosseur semblable entre les dents de la plume pour en écarter les bouts. On peut aussi y introduire le bout d'une lame de scalpel, mais on risque de laisser des rayures sur la surface de la fente qui empêcheraient que l'encre coule bien.
3. Les bouts de la plume sont trop arrondis, et la tension de surface de l'encre crée une voûte par rapport au papier (explication dans le site de Richard Binder, chercher "Baby's bottom" dans la colonne gauche). En ce cas, il faut aplanir les bouts de la plume convenablement (cf. l'article de Wim Geeraets). Je vous suggère de faire un premier essai sur une plume meilleur marché que celle du Carène; il est très facile d'aller trop loin très vite.

Traduction de ce qu'a écrit Oxonian:
[A votre place] je nettoierais la plume [à l'aide d'un morceau de film ou d'une feuille de laiton de grosseur semblable] entre la plume et l'alimentation puisqu'il peut y avoir de l'encre déséchée, le trempage seul ne la fait pas toujours disparaître . Le nettoyage pourrait aussi séparer les [dents] un peu permettant que l'encre coule mieux.

Merci beaucoup à vous !!
C'est très gentil.

Thank you very much

Wouldn't flossing between nib and feed increase the possibility of a flow-interrupting gap?

Regards
Hans-Peter

Je pense que le mieux sera de faire un nettoyage aux ultrasons au niveau de la plume et du conduit. Réajuster les becs de la plume et tester le débit d'encre durant plusieurs sessions d'écriture et voir si le phénomène réapparaît.

Translation:
I think that the best would be to proceed to a vacuum cleaning at the level of the nib and the feed, so it will remove all the dried ink. Readjusting tines and testing ink flow during many writing sessions and check if the phenomena reappears.

cordialement

georges

Georges,
I think you mean an *ultrasound* rather than a vacuum cleaning. Isn't there a possibility that the ultrasound treatment would separate the nib from the section? It looks as though the nib is inlaid. If so, the glue might let go.
Cordially,
OnPoint

Traduction:
Georges,
Je pense que vous voulez indiquer un nettoyage aux ultrasons, et non pas au vide. N'y a-t-il pas une possibilité que les ultrasons sépareront la plume du stylo? Je vois que la plume Carène est "incrustée" ou collée au plastique du stylo. Si c'est le cas, la colle pourrait lâcher.
Cordialement,
OnPoint