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Konrad Runs Dry


grahamtillotson

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Just wondering if anyone has had trouble with Noodler's Konrad pens running dry after a page or so of writing. I've flushed the pen several times, pulled the nib/feed and cleaned them then reset them, and after a filling the pen works great. Writes for a page or so, then runs dry all of a sudden. The weird part is that it is really hard to get going again -- like the ink is gone entirely (though it is full).

 

Could be this specific pen. I guess I'm wondering if there is something in the design that might result in this type of problem. I'll probably just get another one and see if it has similar issues.

 

Thanks!

Graham

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have you contacted the seller and told them of your issue's with the pen? Maybe that way they will switch you out of the pen .

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I seem to have gotten a 'dud' konrad myself. I have exactly the same issue. A lot of times I can get it going again by twisting out a drop of ink, but sometimes that doesn't even seem to work. I haven't found a work around yet but I haven't given the thing my full attention either. I've been occupied with it leaving a "present" for me in the cap every night :gaah:

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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I seem to have gotten a 'dud' konrad myself. I have exactly the same issue. A lot of times I can get it going again by twisting out a drop of ink, but sometimes that doesn't even seem to work. I haven't found a work around yet but I haven't given the thing my full attention either. I've been occupied with it leaving a "present" for me in the cap every night :gaah:

 

Ok so I attacked the thing when I got home today.

 

Took it all apart and did the following:

 

1. Piano wire to the feed. Found some debris.

2. Flame to the nib... caught fire and burned bright purple for three minutes (not really -- didn't seem to do anything)

3. Silicone to the inside of the barrel since mine had the most unreasonably sticky piston right out of the box (did this by pushing the piston all the way down, removing the piston mechanism, then q-tip with a tiny bit, then roll the piston back in to the silicone and spread it around)

 

refilled... wrote for about two mintes... seized up again. Ink won't flow. Ran under water, got two lines, sieze.

 

No time to play with it more :bonk:

 

At least the piston is moving more freely

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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I also forgot to mentioned I carefully set the nib the last time to look just like my ahab.

 

After dinner I attacked it again. I took an exacto knife and re-cut all the grooves and lines in the feed and tried setting the nib at all different positions and at all different positions relative to the feed...

 

I succeeded in making it wetter...

 

[edit]

later that night, after the family was in bed, I came back out and inked it up again and played with it for about an hour. Did some drawing and writing. I'd have to call it "fixed". It's a bit wetter than when it arrived, but that's OK. I'm still not sure what exactly the problem was but my sense is that there were multiple issues.

 

Now I've left it sitting here full of ink to see if it leaves me a surprise in the morning. That's one other defect I forgot, but that I know at least one other person has had with the konrad -- it keeps filling the cap with ink at night.

 

In the end I have the nib and the feed set pretty far out compared to my ahab, and the nib doesn't protrude much past the end of the feed.

 

 

My sense is that the overarching problem is breathing. I think what happens is that there's not enough air to support the ink flow for long and all I did was to cut the vents deeper and expose more of them....

Edited by terminal

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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Well I'm definitely a one-man-band on this thread at this point, but I thought I'd post my final status in case someone comes here wondering if the steps I took worked or helped.

 

I got up this morning and there was no big blob in the cap. The Konrad was just how I'd left it. It wrote right away and I was able to write a page.

 

It does still have just a hint of the behavior though. Every now and then a new letter will inexplicably be ink-free... it's very strange. I just go to write a new letter and there's simply no ink. Now, if I give the pen a good snap with the wrist, it'll start up again. It probably happens twice or three times in a page.

 

 

So my guesses are as follows:


  •  
  • The ink in the cap problem was because the piston wasn't sealing properly and letting a bit of air through. The silicone grease fixed that... for now at least.
  • The sticky piston was also fixed by the silicone grease.
  • I don't have a sense that there was any manufacturing residue on the nib in terms of oils, but there was visible debris in the channels of the feed, so cleaning them out certainly helped.
  • Recutting all the grooves increased flow, but I think it was outside of the core problem
  • I think the core problem is one of air flow. I think there's some kind of vacuum effect going on here and I don't entirely understand how the pen is supposed to breath. I think resetting the nib and feed out of the pen is what helped this but I suspect cutting more air holes would help even more.

 

 

The one thing I don't understand is why, about 2/3rds back from the tip of the feed, there is a deep rectangular hole in the feed channel that doesn't go all the way through.

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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Mine is amazingly able to hold a logo fink.

My Konrad brush runs out, but it is because i lay down so much ink.

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Hmm. I'm not having a problem with my Konrad writing dry. If anything, I'm having the *opposite* problem. Even Iro's Asa-Gao seems to be running wet in mine, which surprised me a bit because by all accounts it's supposed to be well-behaving in most pens.

I'm also having an additional problem and was wondering if anyone had been noticing the same issue with theirs: I'm getting condensation inside the ink window. I don't know if I just didn't give it enough time to dry out between fills and flushing, or if something else is going on. I dumped out the fill of La Reine Mauve over the weekend because it was just behaving too badly (nib creep, section creep, "how the heck did it get on the *heel* of my hand" creep :bonk: ; plus I'd get a blob of ink after writing about a page). Then I flushed and cleaned the pen well (no obvious residual color), before refilling it with the Asa-Gao.

Do people think I was just too impatient to let the pen dry out fully? Or is there something else happening? I've never seen this sort of behavior with a pen or ink before, but the emptier the pen gets the more condensation I'm seeing on the window.

I *SO* want to like this pen.... Thinking about maybe trying KTC in it next, because maybe a thick ink will be less blobby....(?).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: I'm also getting some nib creep with the Asa-Gao....

Edited by inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I've also gotten some condensation in the window.

 

I'm *ALSO* trying to like this pen...

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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This is awesome -- thanks! I won't leave terminal alone on the thread ;-).

 

I did not send mine back because I like Goulet and only want to bother them after I've tried out various inks and whatnot. I'll definitely look closely at the feed and maybe swap out with one of my Ahabs to test further. I'm really glad to see the mention of air flow problems -- my spider sense tells me there might be something in the design that isn't quite right. I've seen other posts on the ink blobs, and we are talking about dead stops, and that makes me think the design as it relates to air flow may be problematic.

 

I'll try my own experiments and see how it goes. Thanks again for the feedback!

 

Graham

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When I first got my Konrad, it alternated between me watching a big drop of in (and I mean BIG) roll down the nib and bleed through the page I was writing on *and* the page underneath; later in the day it would NOT start at all, and just railroaded. When I refilled it (BSiAR) both times, it was pretty well behaved -- as long as I didn't fiex very much.

Nothing in it since has made me overly happy. La Reine Mauve was just messy, which was annoying because i was hoping for a professional looking ink that I felt comfortable using on checks and stuff going through the mail (it seems to be better in my Guanleming Accountant -- I am still getting some creep, but the hooded nib and respectively longer section seem to have kept the worst of of it off my hands).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I'm really glad to see the mention of air flow problems -- my spider sense tells me there might be something in the design that isn't quite right

 

The more I play with it the more I think this is the case. I agree that the more I flex it and push it the sooner it happens.

 

I also decided not to harass the Goulets about it since it's not their problem and I ordered the day the thing went on sale. I AM, however, tempted to just empty it out and send it to Noodler's with a note saying, "here's one that doesn't work for research, I don't need money back, I just want you to fix upcoming ones".

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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When I first got my Konrad, it alternated between me watching a big drop of in (and I mean BIG) roll down the nib and bleed through the page I was writing on *and* the page underneath; later in the day it would NOT start at all, and just railroaded. When I refilled it (BSiAR) both times, it was pretty well behaved -- as long as I didn't fiex very much.

Nothing in it since has made me overly happy. La Reine Mauve was just messy, which was annoying because i was hoping for a professional looking ink that I felt comfortable using on checks and stuff going through the mail (it seems to be better in my Guanleming Accountant -- I am still getting some creep, but the hooded nib and respectively longer section seem to have kept the worst of of it off my hands).

 

yeah I've now tried half my inks in the thing... I finally settled on relegating it to my least favorite ink of ALL TIME (P.R. Shell Pink) because I'm just wasting it futzing around...

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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I don't have flow problems with my Konrad, but I just couldn't get comfortable with the flex nib. I installed a steel #6 Bock nib purchased from Indy~Pen~Dance (no connection, just a customer) and the flow is perfect. The nib seats deeper in the section to effect a tight seat, but other than that, it works really well. My issue with the Konrad is that it just feels cheap. Yeah, I know it is a very inexpensive pen designed to introduce flex nibs to the masses, but after only a week on the desk, mine already shows enough scratches to look worse than my Esties, which are way older.

 

I rank the Konrad as a fun toy, but not a serious pen.

 

P.S. Mine smells like puke. . .

Edited by SteveE
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I have absolutely NO experience with fountain pens, but I'll tell you about my Konrad experience ...

 

Got the Konrad in the mail after reading about problems on FPN. Before a first fill, I took my pen completely apart and gave it a good cleaning in water with a bit of liquid dish washing soap. I filled it and got blobs.

 

I emptied out the ink, cleaned it again and took a close look at the O-ring area others talked about. On the tip of the plunger, there was a teeny hair-like sliver of plastic. I plucked that off with my fingers. Washed everything a third time and put it back together. No blobs, but I did have a bit of skipping.

 

So, I played around with the nib and the plastic thing (sorry, I don't know the name) that helps the ink flow out. I pushed the nib way in, very little flex, no ink flow. I pulled the nib way out, more flex, too much ink! And the I got it just right ... a little wet for normal writing (at least for me) but it gives a good flow when flexing.

 

I have really enjoyed playing around with my $20 Konrad. For me, taking it apart and putting it back together again was part of the fun, and it teaches me a bit about how fountain pens work. I certainly would not have done this with a $200 fountain pen!

 

In short ... you just might try fiddling with the nib and plastic thingy until you find a flow that works well for you.

 

P.S. I like the way my Konrad smells. At first, it was overwhelming, but now I'm a little sad that the "special" aroma is wearing off.

Edited by melissa59

"You have to be willing to be very, very bad in this business if you're ever to be good. Only if you stand ready to make mistakes today can you hope to move ahead tomorrow."

Dwight V. Swain, author of Techniques of the Selling Writer.

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I have absolutely NO experience with fountain pens, but I'll tell you about my Konrad experience ...

...

So, I played around with the nib and the plastic thing (sorry, I don't know the name) that helps the ink flow out

...

In short ... you just might try fiddling with the nib and plastic thingy until you find a flow that works well for you.

 

You're much too humble, this is a great post!

 

I'm feeling pretty burnt out on my Konrad right now. It's so strange because my Ahab works so well and I never had to do anything serious to it.

 

I'll take another look at the plunger.. just for you ;)

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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This thread is both fun and depressing at the same time. Here are my latest tweaks and points of confusion:

 

Pulled a feed from one of my Ahabs and tried writing for a while. Seemed OK except for the line being more wet and varied in a weird way. Not bad, but not like the Ahabs write.

 

Pulled the feed and blocked up the breather hole with a dab of beeswax. Reassembled and started writing and I got a big blob of ink. Totally leaky. This was weird, because as far as I could tell I just turned the thing into a "normal" piston filler with a feed and the channel down the top.

 

Pulled the feed yet again, cleaned and scrubbed it fully, and reassembled. Now the pen is leaky -- drops ink on the page.

 

Just tried shoving the feed deeper into the section. No luck there. I think I'll put my Ahab back together and wait to see if anyone comes up with a magic cure for these problems.

 

Graham

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Man, this is discouraging! I played with mine today too. Got nowhere. I think it's found its final resting spot.

 

 

post-84219-0-52554300-1338079552.jpg

post-84219-0-03648300-1338079563.jpg

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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Oh, I should have mentioned that my Konrad likes really smooth paper. It does best on some graph paper that I've had laying around forever. I tried it in three different cheapie composition books with varied results. The book with the really smooth paper is fine, but takes awhile to dry. Book with the lesser smooth paper is just OK. The book with paper that is rough, kind of like newsprint, is terrible! My Konrad hates it so much that he won't even let go of his ink on those rough pages.

"You have to be willing to be very, very bad in this business if you're ever to be good. Only if you stand ready to make mistakes today can you hope to move ahead tomorrow."

Dwight V. Swain, author of Techniques of the Selling Writer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, this is absolutely true. I cooled off and broke out the Konrad yesterday. I washed it out and reset the nib a tiny bit farther back in to the barrel and then filled it with Pelikan ink and introduced it to Clairefontaine paper.

 

Under these circumstances the pen writes as I would expect and as well as the Ahab. So I'm happy to say I think the problem is mostly solved. Wet ink, smooth paper. Thanks Melissa59.

"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction" ...

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