Adjusting Ink Flow For Flexible Nibs

[Allanrps]

Hello All,

 

I have recently purchased a Waterman 52 1/2V fountain pen with a flexible nib and have restored it to good condition. However, I find the flow to the nib to much too wet. Both the hairlines and the broad lines pool with ink, and sometimes the broad lines will be nearly black when using my diamine midnight ink. The pen is practically incapable of writing on cheap paper due to excessive feathering. Is there a way to reduce the flow? I am sorry if there were other resources with this information, but I could only find information relating to reducing the ink flow to a firm nib, which included adjusting the tine gap. Obviously, this would not prove very effective when the tines flex.

 

Also, another minor question. I have aligned the tines on the nib when the nib is off the pen, but when placed into the section with the feed, the feed pushes unevenly on one tine, slightly misaligning it. It still writes, as the issue is small, but will I need to sand the feed down to be more even if I want this problem alleviated?

 

Thanks for the help,

Allan

[framebaer]

Feathering is almost always an ink Brand/ paper choice issue.

 

Adjust the tines when the nib is on the feed in the pen, don't sand a tine down.

Much better to just bend ( align) the tines when on the pen. Removal of tipping is best left to professionals and certainly needs to be done evenly. You don't want one large tipped tine and one small tipped ( cause you sanded it) tine. That makes for a very finicky nib which has a very hard time "holding a proper alignment".

Trust me, when I tuned countless nibs for Richard Binder I hated the Lg. tine, Sm.l tine problem which even some modern pen nibs had. Very difficult to set properly.

[Allanrps]

I'm sorry if I was vague, I meant sand down the walls of the feed to apply more even pressure to the nib. I am aware that paper and ink are important for feathering, but my ink is manageable when the pen is close to running out, as the flow necessarily decreases. The flow is just very wet, to the point that my dark blue ink comes out almost black on the thick strokes when the pen was just dipped, and when writing normally it shades only occasionally at the very tip of the stroke, the rest of the stroke being a pool of ink. I would just like to reduce the flow to allow better performance on bad papers, ink conservation, and more appealing writing

[framebaer]

If it is that wet, there may be other issues. Sometimes a sac can have a pinhole and it's too small to really leak but it moves enough air to cause blobbing/ extreme wetness. Watermans with their flat ( non-comb) feeds don't really buffer enough ink so they are much mor likely to blob on occasion.

 

If you need to adjust the feed shape to the underside of the nib, it is best to heat the feed, Hard rubber has a wonderful property in that you can bend it when hot and set it by cooling in water quickly.

[newlife]

Seems to me like the feed was somehow not straight, otherwise it would not misalign the the nib on one side only. In this case I'd take the feed out and roll it over an even surface to see if it wobbles. If it does, heat it with your hairdrier and press the feed firmly to the table to straighten it out until it cools down, half a minute will do for cooling. Then test again, nib to feed, if it misalignment has gone. Always watch what happens and draw your conclusions.

 

As to flexible nibs - it's all the same like firm nibs. Close the nib gap as far as possible until the tines almost rest against each other.

[Allanrps]

I will heat the feed and straighten it out; thanks for the info. I have bent the tines together so that they touch each other and moved the feed back, and that restrained the flow so that it wrote quite well without flex, but when flexing it, it would begin with a very dry line, then when the the feed opened up, it would release a lot of ink again, resulting in very strange shading. I will check the ink sac and replace it and see how that works, but the sac is brand new.

 

Is there a way to lessen the flow on a flexible fountain pen?

Edited May 11, 2013 by Allanrps

[mhguda]

If you heat-set the feed - the way I've successfully done it was simple: insert nib and feed, mounted in the pen, in very hot water (just off boiling). Hold there for about a minute. Not too long! Maybe use your fingers to hold the assembly together and gently press. This will slightly reshape the feed to the bottom of the nib, and probably reduce the gap available for ink flow. When you do, you also want to make sure NOT to immerse the collar of the section.

HTH

Edited May 12, 2013 by mhguda

[Allanrps]

The feed, despite being a little tilted, which I have determined by observing it when not in the section, does sit quite flush to the nib (in fact, flush enough to flex one of the tines). Something I did notice is that the feed has a dip in it, the shape of a half pipe, near the pen end of the feed, which reaches the comb, opening up a hole through the diameter of the feed. I initially assumed this to be a production feature, but the cut is somewhat rough and certainly not centered. Could this be a modification to increase flow?

[mhguda]

I don't think I've ever seen anything like what you describe, so cannot say. But the fact that the feed flexes one of the tines suggests to me that it is bent out of shape, and heat setting it would maybe correct that. In your place I would try that now...

[Allanrps]

I set the feed and plugged the hole that was drilled through it. The pen writes exactly how it did before. My one question is this:

 

How do you decrease the feed on a flexible fountain pen?

[TimGirdler]

I set the feed and plugged the hole that was drilled through it. The pen writes exactly how it did before. My one question is this:

 

How do you decrease the feed on a flexible fountain pen?

 

Allan,

 

How far apart are the tips of the tines? Can you see daylight through the tines, with magnification, when the pen is at rest?

 

A flex nib's tines should be slightly touching, not forcibly jammed together, though.

 

Also, if the feed is hard rubber, you can heat it and it will return to its original shape--this may, perhaps, be better than what you've already tried.

 

Tim

[Allanrps]

I have heated the feed and it is in optimal shape. Because the pen is a flex pen, it is of little consequence what the initial nib gap is when the nib is flexed. Still, the nib tines are touching and perfectly aligned. Again, the question I ask is only how to decrease the flow from the feed, specifically the Waterman 52 1/2V feed.

[Allanrps]

After playing around with the pen a little more, the flow did decrease and the pen can now be used comfortably as a wet writer. Still however, as a matter of personal preference, I would like to decrease the flow some to create better shading and cleaner looking letters. Does anyone know how I would do this? Would putting a small bit of hot glue or something in the feed work?

[mhguda]

I would not put anything in the feed, just when you have it set correctly!

But, if it is still too wet, you could do the reverse of what results in increasing the flow: push the tines of the nib closer together, and decrease the gap between the nib and the feed. Both are described in the Five bad things thread.

Another thing to try would be to use a drier ink. Or if you cannot change inks, dilute the one you have with a little plain water.

HTH

[Allanrps]

Again, I have set the feed, put on a new sac, closed the tine gap (despite this being a flex pen making that quite insubstantial) and filled a hole that likely let in too much air to the feed. I have also heavily diluted the ink. The pen is now quite writable, but is still very wet and guzzles ink. It writes best when it is almost out of ink.

 

Now, I appreciate all the input, but could I please have the answer to this (and only this) question:

How do you decrees the flow on a flexible fountain pen (normal writing and flex writing).

[mhguda]

You normally decrease the flow on a flexible fountain pen the same way you do on a pen with a stiff nib (nail). As all of us in this thread have tried to indicate to you, and the links we have pointed you to also explain. If you did all that and it still does not work, you are obviously not telling us everything about your pen. I have tried to help and the things I have told you are things I have done with my own pens, and they worked. I don't know what more I can tell you, and frankly, I do not care for the tone of this last message. We are trying to help, not hide a secret from you. There seems to be something else the matter with your pen, but I cannot figure out what it is. Good luck - I am giving up.

[Allanrps]

I have previously read those links and followed their instruction. Perhaps I don't understand, but I see no reason why adjusting the initial tine gap would fix the flow if the nib is writing with a large gap either way. Still, the tines are touching. I did say above that I discovered what I perceive to be some handiwork on the feed to increase the flow. I would like to do the opposite, and would like to know of any methods to do so. I apologize for the derogatory tone in my last message. If you or anyone else has any insight to contribute, it would be greatly appreciated.

[mhguda]

Allan, I am not talking only about the gap between the tines. I think the gap between the nib and the feed should be reduced, i.e. the space (small as it is) between the nib and the feed underneath it should be reduced. This can be accomplished by pressing down on the nib with your thumb while holding the assembly in your hand, pinching it, as it were. I have also done this by reversing the nib and pressing down slightly with the whole pen, but that is more risky because I don't know at what angle you are holding the pen. It should be a shallow angle if you want to try that.

As a last possibility, can you see if the nib and feed assembly are snug in the collar of the section? Sometimes air can come in there and contribute to excessive flow. Maybe having it sit more snugly might help, but since this is a vintage pen, I am unsure how to accomplish this.

[Allanrps]

I have set the feed snug to the nib, and both are pushed into the section such that the number 2 on the nib is covered. There is ink that fills the collar of the section above the nib, if that is a symptom of excess fluid flow where there should not be.

[mhguda]

I have read and confirmed by experience that if the feed is pushed farther into the section, the flow tends to increase. So if there is a possibility to pull it out slightly, you could try that. But, if I understand what you are describing correctly, you may indeed have an air leak around the nib & feed assembly. There I don't really know what to do, since you have an expensive, vintage pen, not a modern inexpensive one. But I have had this problem with one of my Pilot Plumixes, and I fixed it by putting a little bit of plumber's tape around the threads of the assembly. That fixed my problem, but all the experts that commented frowned on my solution. They said it might cause the section to crack (from too much pressure). So at this point, I don't really know what would be your best option. At least try pulling out the assembly a little, see if that helps. Beyond that, if you see a safe way of reducing the space around the nib and feed assembly, so that it fits better into the section, that would be what I'd do. Again, good luck, I really hope you can make it work. I do think we're on to something now.