Vintage Flex Nib Adjustment?

[beanbag]

Hello folks,

 

I have an old pen with a Wahl #2 flexy nib. I have a few question regarding the adjustments of the tines:

 

1) It seems that when the nib is taken out of the pen, there is a lot of preload force squeezing the two tines together. If I manually displace one tine up or down, they will "snap" into a crossed-leg configuration. But when it is fit into the section with the feed, then there is some kind of pressing going on where that squeezing force is partially unloaded. But I still suspect the tines are pressing together too hard because they can still snap into a crossed-leg shape. (But never during normal writing)

 

1.5) Also because of this, I am not sure if one tine is displaced too far up or down because the friction holds the tines into the last position when they touched together.

 

2) On this pen, it looks like the tines bend in in the last few mm in order to touch. So what I have is a somewhat consistent gap from the breather hole until just a few mm from the tips. Is this supposed to be a more gradually decreasing gap? It seems that light and light/medium pressure writing on this is very wet. (For flex writing, the wetness seems to depend a lot on the ink)

[Mauricio]

There are several potential causes to your problems. Among them are:

 

(1) An improperly set up nib and feed onto the fountain pen body

 

(2) Parts that might be warped and/or worn

 

(3) Improper use by the writer, such as over flexing the nib, writing at a rotated angle in relating to the writing direction.

 

(4) A flex nib that is bent

 

And many other reasons

[Mauricio]

By the way, in your other post https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/290785-pen-angle-and-flex-writing/, you allude to the writing angle you use when writing. Your rotated writing will certainly misalign the tines in your flex nibs. And misaligned flex nibs will offer all sorts of sub-par flex writing performance in any fountain pen, regardless of the pen/nib/feed setup.

[beanbag]

There are several potential causes to your problems. Among them are:

 

(1) An improperly set up nib and feed onto the fountain pen body

 

(2) Parts that might be warped and/or worn

 

(3) Improper use by the writer, such as over flexing the nib, writing at a rotated angle in relating to the writing direction.

 

(4) A flex nib that is bent

 

And many other reasons

 

1) What is a properly set up feed, then? Does pulling the feed in and out relative to the nib tip make it more or less dry? (I have heard people say it both ways). I did notice one issue where the feed seemed to be pushing up on one tine a bit, and after doing a heat set, that problem is mostly gone.

 

2) Well, like I said, the tines are preloaded against each other, so I don't know if anything is warped or not.

 

3 & 4) I dunno, but that's how it was when I got it, and that's how it is now.

 

But after all this fixing, the pen seems even wetter than before. That's my problem - I can't leave things alone. I will take something that is working 1/2 decently, and fix it until it is working 1/4 decently.

 

One surprising thing that made the writing both drier and more responsive and less railroady was adding a ghetto Scotch tape overfeed.

Edited May 28, 2015 by beanbag

[Mauricio]

1) What is a properly set up feed, then? Does pulling the feed in and out relative to the nib tip make it more or less dry? (I have heard people say it both ways). I did notice one issue where the feed seemed to be pushing up on one tine a bit, and after doing a heat set, that problem is mostly gone.

 

2) Well, like I said, the tines are preloaded against each other, so I don't know if anything is warped or not.

 

3 & 4) I dunno, but that's how it was when I got it, and that's how it is now.

 

But after all this fixing, the pen seems even wetter than before. That's my problem - I can't leave things alone. I will take something that is working 1/2 decently, and fix it until it is working 1/4 decently.

 

One surprising thing that made the writing both drier and more responsive and less railroady was adding a ghetto Scotch tape overfeed.

 

Have read different questions you have made regarding flexible nibs in different posts in this board. This leads me to believe you are new to flexible nibs and flexible writing. To properly diagnose and correct the problem you describe, your best course of action is to ship your pen to a highly experienced repair professional who also specializes in flexible writing. This will be even more critical if you have very high expectations about advanced ink flow adjustments in your pen. With your limited experience on the subject, I doubt you will be able to take care of these issues yourself, even if someone provided you with lots of written guidance on the subject. The needed repairs and adjustments in your pen may amount to more than a quick fix.

[beanbag]

No thanks, sending it to a pro is out of the question for me. Not only will it double my investment costs, I'll have learned nothing about pen mechanics after that.