Greetings all!

Yesterday I filled my snorkel for the first time and it wouldn't write. Thinking there wasn't ink in it I extended the snorkel and pulled back on the touchdown tube and promptly squirted ink all over my kitchen sink. Hmmm. So I repeated the process and counted to 20 to make sure it drew up enough ink and nothing. No words on paper. I left the pen overnight with the nib down hoping gravity would draw ink to the nib. This morning just a whisper of a line 2 mm in length and then dry as the proverbial bone.

How do I get this thing to write?


Chris

The original instructions for Snorkels suggest actually dipping the point on the initial filling. I expect this wets the exterior feed, creating a path for the ink to emerge from the one that runs up the filling tube.

Doesn't that defeat the point of the Snorkel?

Nevermind realized for the initial priming only

Was the pen cleaned? Ink can go in and out of the snorkel part and still have trouble flowing to the nib if there is dry ink. A good soaking of just the nib in water over night could do the trick. Setting over night nib down was a good idea.

I like to use Waterman ink, esp Florida Blue to fill a new to me Snorkel or Parker.Fla Blue has excellent flow and helps to get the last of the dried stuff in the sac or nib moved out.

Now that I actually apply some thought to the matter, I agree it's probably wise to give the point a nice overnight soak, too. The secondary feed holds a surprising amount of ink, and if left uncleaned, that works out to a surprising amount of residue (it's not a P51 collector, but it gets into a similar state).

There could be crud in the feeds. Second the overnight soaking then trying again.

K

Thank you very much for the jpeg of the original instructions, Ernst. I immerse the nibs sometimes of my cartridge pens if they don't write after I've left them for a time and it does work.

The snorkel was fresh from refurbishing so there shouldn't have been any crud.

What happened is that a little while later I tried the pen again and it wrote just wonderfully -- gravity works too. Just kept that nib down.

But I will keep the nib wetting and the crud issue in mind for the future.

Thanks all for your help.

Chris

I have one Snorkel with a regular nib, not the Triumph, that only works when it is left nib slightly down. Level or slightly up-ish and it doesn't like to start or keep going. Left down it is an always start, keep on writing pen.

Like yours it was refurbished, cleaned, etc. Nib down is just what it likes.

Glad yours is writing now.