Ink Doesn't Get To The Tip Of Nib

February 9, 2016

Hi, I recently bought a Reform 1745 and did the usual stuff: flushed it several times with water and greased the piston with silicon grease because it wasn't smooth. Then I filled it with Waterman Serenity Blue.

The problem is, although the feed is saturated, the ink doesn't get to the tip of the nib and the pen doesn't write.

I checked and there's ink on the breather hole and, if a slide a sheet of paper under the nib, there ink on the surface of the feed and there's space between feed and nib, but regular space. The tines are aligned too.

Does anyone know how to fix this or point me to a source that has information about this particular problem. I googled some words, but I may not phrasing the problem correctly. Thanks.

February 10, 2016

Here are some pictures of the nib of the pen. To me it looks aligned. It's possible to see that the ink doesn't get to the tip. Should I try to approximate the tines points? Any help is appreciated.

February 10, 2016

Looks like the tines are spread too far apart. The ink will tend to retreat towards the breather hole. There's a way to reduce the slit width by carefully using your thumbs and forefingers, crossing the tines over/under each other in both directions. You can google it. Or if you don't want to try yourself, you can send to a nibmeister.

February 10, 2016

Thanks for the reply. I really believed they were aligned. I'll google it and try to fix is myself before deciding to send it to a nibmeister, unless it's a complicated procedure.

February 10, 2016

The 2 pix look conflicting.

On #1, it looks like the slit spreads out, then comes back together. The ink may be having trouble where the slit spreads out.

But on #2 the slit looks even.

I agree that the slit width at the tip (pix #2) seems to be too wide apart. You could "carefully" try bringing the tines closer together.

How much space between the nib and feed? Too much space would stop the flow of ink. The nib has to be in contact with or very close to the feed, for the ink to transfer from the feed to the nib.

Edited February 10, 2016 by ac12

February 11, 2016

The tines are aligned vertically, but too far apart horizontally.

I normally adjust my tines so that I feel a small bit of resistance when the finest feeler guage (O.002") is pulled through the tines. A lot of resistance, the nib will be too dry, no resistance and you will have the problem above.

See one set of notes here.

Google - adjusting nib tine gap - if you want more.

Edited February 11, 2016 by dcwaites

February 11, 2016

Thanks for the replies. I searched how to correct the problem and with some time and a few attempts the pen is working again. Here's a sample text written with it. The ink is Waterman Serenity Blue on a Staples notebook.

The 2 pix look conflicting.
On #1, it looks like the slit spreads out, then comes back together. The ink may be having trouble where the slit spreads out.
But on #2 the slit looks even.

I agree that the slit width at the tip (pix #2) seems to be too wide apart. You could "carefully" try bringing the tines closer together.

How much space between the nib and feed? Too much space would stop the flow of ink. The nib has to be in contact with or very close to the feed, for the ink to transfer from the feed to the nib.

The tines were straight, I believe it's and illusion caused by a reflection or something like that on the first photo. I saw it when I posted it, but it was the best photo I had at the time.

In the end the problem was just the space between the tines. The ink could reach the slit wherever it touched the feed, but not beyond that.