Anyone Ever Get A Pen Tuned To A 9 Or 10? Or Had A Pen That Wrote That Wet?

[lightless]

I've heard of some pens being described as too wet, which gets me to wondering: has anyone ever gotten a nib tuned to a 9/10 or 10/10 on a wetness scale, or have had (or still have) pens that wet? Do any of you have a taste for pens with that kind of flow? Do they write wider, super saturated lines with little to no shading?

 

[Chopper88]

I've heard of some pens being described as too wet, which gets me to wondering: has anyone ever gotten a nib tuned to a 9/10 or 10/10 on a wetness scale, or have had (or still have) pens that wet? Do any of you have a taste for pens with that kind of flow? Do they write wider, super saturated lines with little to no shading?

 

 

Such wetness usually leads to more shading as you drag a line on the paper, and release a little 'blob' which is darker when lifting the nib off the paper.

Furthermore, I think these 'scales' are really subjective, a 10 could be interpreted as "the maximum usable wetness" or as "twisting your piston and releasing the ink" wet.

[ravantra]

I tune mine up to 11.

 

[studiohead]

Actually a number 10 when I was by Richard means the pen is dripping ink and it is not usable. And the scale varies due to the size of the nib so it doesn't equal flow rate.

[lightless]

Actually a number 10 when I was by Richard means the pen is dripping ink and it is not usable. And the scale varies due to the size of the nib so it doesn't equal flow rate.

Is it just on the scale for reference, then?

[rhodialover]

It is subjective to the pen, the person, and the one who is doing the work (if any) on the pen.

I would define it more on a 1-100 scale for more accurate measures of wetness.

The wettest pen I own is a Noodler's Ahab, which is a flex-y pen, so it has to be unbearably wet to work properly. Currently that pen has a 1.1 aftermarket stub nib in it, but is a tad on the dry side.

[georges zaslavsky]

I have several wet pens that run from 8 to 9.5

[Eclectica]

Most of my pens write slightly wet - it really helps with smoothness. I have increased the flow successfully of several Chinese pens (Hero 704, and Picasso) and they now write really well without being overwet or causing a mess.

 

One of my best is a Swan Mabie Todd which is near a 10.

Sometimes, when it is less than half full, if I take it out in a hot room from cold, I have to shake the ink back into the sac to make sure it does not drip out a blob on the page when the nib touches the paper.

Once it has settled to the environment temperatures all is sweet though and insanely smooth

I would not take this pen on an aeroplane! (unlike my Waterman Kultur/Phileas with convertor which behaved admirably!).

[studiohead]

Is it just on the scale for reference, then?

 

More or less, 1 on the scale is almost no flow while 10 is leaking ink (gushing) according to my notes. On top of the wetness, we have 2 factor the nib size as well because a broader nib needs more ink. (Broader as in size, Italic, flex and so on) And when we do adjustment, it is also subjective based upon ink so the standard we use is waterman blue black. A Pelikan 4001 is a drier ink so the results are different.

[ac12]

I have a Parker 180 that when using Parker cartridge ink would leak/drip ink out of the nib. So I guess it was a 10. It had me totally frustrated.

But since switching to Cross (Pelikan) bottle ink, the pen has behaved itself with no drips.

 

I have a Sheaffer caligraphy pen that would DRIP big drops of ink from the nib. It is quite aggravating to try to use it. Sheaffer is going to do a tip swap (section+feed+nib) to fix that problem.

 

My wettest pen is a Parker IM with a M tip. The amount of ink it leaves behind it a bit too much for my taste. I am going to try to exchange the nib via Parkers nib exchange program and get a smaller F tip. If the F tip is as wet as the M tip, it will handle office paper.