Hello all,

I bought quite a few pens recently in my quest for the ultimate writer. The finalists were Sailor 1911 Full Size with Medium Nib and Pilot 823 Custom Medium Nib. While both were pretty smooth, the 1911 turned out to be the smoothest and the least toothy out of the box. Also, the 1911 Medium writes with a nice thick line, and has a perfect wet flow with FPH's Noodler's Old Manhattan Black (with zero nib creep) while the Pilot 823, also with a nice flow and no nib creep, lays down a meek-looking fine line that was on par with my Sheaffer Valor's Fine Nib.

So, I finally settled on the Sailor 1911 to be my 'everyday' pen. But, then came the bigger problem. The cartridge/converter was WAY too small for me - I ended up filling ink every 2-3 hours, and I don't want to purchase cartridges since I love the Old Manhattan Black. I thought for a while and then took a bold step by throwing away the C/C and filling the entire barrel with ink. I was expecting problems all over but instead, every part of the pen worked as well as before (still absolutely no nib creep) with a brilliant flow, etc. However, around the region of the golden ring near the end of the barrel, there seems to be some ink leakage from time to time staining the web of my palm between thumb and forefinger.

This brings me to my question. Any ideas on how to fix this myself? To do something to plug the leak for good. Preferably internally. (I was thinking of a lining of Super Glue, but I am not sure how to find the exact spot or how to do it at all. Any suggestions?)

Thanks in advance!
Stanley.

P.S.: I live outside US and it would be very difficult for me to send the pen to US just for this. But then again, I am really looking forward to getting another pen in this model but with Silver/Rhodium Trim. So, if you can suggest me someone in US who can do this minor modification for me, I can buy a new one and get it shipped to him. I already contacted Richard Binder, but a turnaround time of 5 months is way too long for me. I am looking at something like one week or less. Any suggestions? If not, I would really love to know how to do the fixing myself.

Try putting silicon grease. It usually does the trick.
By the way... nice idea that I will try.

Alejandro

If I was serious about it I find a round disc or ball and shove it in there.

Take the perfectly sized ball and shove it all the way into the end of the pen.

I'd avoid Super Glue, since tends to be non-reversible. Two ideas.
First, if that joint is threaded (i.e., you can twist it off), untwist it and, as Alejandro proposes, put a bit of silicone grease on the threads. That should keep the ink in.
If it is not threaded, you might want to try shellac before sending it out. Shellac is cheap as dirt. Drop some in the leaking joint and, hopefully, it will enter it and seal it. When the shellac has dried, polish away the extra from the outside with Simichrome.

Julio

(polish away the extra from the outside with Simichrome / polish the extra away from the outside with Simichrome / polish the extra from the outside away with Simichrome...??)

By the way, since you do not care for the 823, I can dispose of it for you

Alejandro, Julikko - Yeah, the place where it is leaking from is near the end of the barrel (metal ring) and is not threaded, so silicone grease would not work unfortunately. James of Pear Tree Pens also suggested the same thing.

The ball is an excellent idea, and very creative. Finding the perfectly sized ball with a nice oval shape could be a problem though (since the metal ring is further away from the end of the barrel than just the width of it). But, if I do, I will try that out first.

Julikko, are you sure the Shellac method would work fine? If so, I will order one off ebay asap (international shipping, as I am not sure where to find the Shellac and Simichrome here).

Thanks again! Hoping for more ideas too.

P.S.: I would like to sell the 823 as well, but I live half way around the world for most prospective buyers (US) and I am not sure of the shipping costs, etc.

Congratulations: you've just re-invented the oldest form of fountain pen, the eyedropper-fill.

How about some sort of caulking compound?

And actually, grease (e.g., facucet or stopcock grease) might still work: just ram a wad into the blind end of the barrel.

BTW, for leaks around threads, I'd try teflon tape (available anywhere that sells plumbing supplies) first. For those not familiar with it, it's a much less messy alternative to pipe dope, and it's been around for decades. Like pipe dope, it is used to form a water/air/vacuum/gas-tight seal at threaded pipe joints, and to retard the tendency of such joints to rust together. It's a thin, dry, non-adhesive strip of soft, self-lubricating PTFE, on a roll.

I used it in the nib sockets of my old Osmiroids, and it reduced the leakage around the threads to practically nothing. Unfortunately, the plunger-fill Osmiroids had a much worse leakage problem nearby: they tended to crack right at the edge of the ink window. That's when I switched to the lever-fill model. Shortly thereafter, I discovered the Pelikan M200.

Doesn't the section have metal thread? If so, it will be interesting to see how it holds up.

I believe the nib is metal, too.

Another option (someone here mentioned elsewhere) is to turn a cartridge into a bulb filler. Cut the end off of a cartridge and shellac a large sac onto it.

I was just wondering because I've heard many times that metal thread on section is not good for eyedropper conversion because of the possibility of corrosion. Since I don't have 1911 (I only have Sapporo Minis) I was not sure if the thread is metal like Sapporos. But I think it's really good if this eyedropper conversion is successful, as it seems the number one complaint about Sailor pens is the small capacity of Sailor cartridges and converters.

Stanley, I don't have any bright ideas to plug the hole, but hope someone here can help you. Good luck

Thanks a lot James. Nice ideas.

Taki, about the section being metal, would this become a real problem? Why would the gold-coated metal section corrode when the gold-coated, say, nib wouldn't? Has this happened quite often? If so, how long (weeks/months/years) does it usually take before the section becomes wobbly or starts leaking?

Also, what exactly is this corrosion? Rusting? Or something else? Anything could be applied on the exposed parts to prevent this from happening?

Thanks!

Nibs are usually designed for long exposures to ink; metal threads are usually brass and not designed for long exposures.

It's not the outside of the section or the nib, but the thread on the section (the part that screws into the barrel) on Sailors. I don't know if it's a real concern or a pen "urban legend." I don't think you have to worry about the nib, especially since 1911 has a gold one. Hope people with more expertise can clarify/explain, but there are several threads about eyedropper conversion, and they all seem to talk about avoiding pens with metal in the barrel. But there seem to be no definite answer, though.

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=61277
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=56483
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=37019
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=24502
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=16188
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...?showtopic=3112
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=12020

Thanks Taki. I had found a lot of the threads by searching previously, while some were very useful.

Also, I continued my search and found this page by Noodler's:
http://www.noodlersink.com/ph.html

Since I use Noodler's Old Manhattan Black, it seemed extremely relevant. It says that the content of the ink doesn't matter as much as its pH as far as the reactivity to metal goes. Does this mean that as long as the metal part of the section (threads) do not rust, there could be no other corrosion?

By the way, an update. I decided to order the Silver Trim Medium Nib version to go with my current Gold Trim (also Medium Nib) and James Partridge of Pear Tree Pens offered to do the 'leakproofing' himself at no extra cost! He sure is a great guy. I will update this thread with a review once I do receive the modified pen (could be a few weeks).

In the meanwhile, I will try working on my current Gold Trim with the suggestions you guys provided here. Thanks everyone! (More ideas are always welcome though.)

I CAN'T believe I wrote that. Sorry.
I meant to say that I think the nipple (where the c/c mounts) is metal.

I wonder if the nipples are made of stainless steel. I've bought several Sheaffer NoNonsense with dried out cartridge still in place. Even nipples that looked rusted at first clean up nicely.

I've got a couple of pens from the 1980s with gold-plated steel points that have some very lamentable corrosion from long exposure without cleaning to ink. It takes the form of pits of various depths, looking very like the holes boring insects make in wood. It's something to avoid, although you'll note that these were ill-maintained pens in which ink was regularly allowed to dry. A big load of ink might be worth the effort of weekly careful cleaning....

As far as sealing, silicon grease is the thing. It's a hydrophobe and easy to wipe away from places you don't want it (except up inside the point-- then it's non-easy. Avoid getting it there).

edit-- the pens in question are an Osmiroid B6 point (not huge quality) and a Waterman (low end for them, but still...).

This might be too permanent for you, but what about filling the end of the pen barrel with a neutral wax, past the point where it leaks? Basically, shortening the barrel up past the leak so no ink ever gets that far.

You should avoid the use of teflon tape for threads on pens. The tape can cause thread cracking - do a search on teflon tape and look for Ron Zorn's advice. It works great on pipes but creates too much pressure on plastic or HR threads.

I should think that would depend on how much teflon tape (certainly not the 2-3 layers I'd use on water pipes) how tight the threads are by themselves, and how delicate the parts are.