Bit Of A Chicken And An Egg Question

[Vespagirl]

First: I don't really know where to put this question/comment, but this forum seemed the best fit.

 

A little back story: a few days ago, I received my Kaweco Sport (😍). It was perfect. It fits in my girlie little pockets, it looks great, and (if yesterday is any indication) my students can't figure out how to work it, so it will not go on vacation without me. The only down side, I find that about every 4th word I have a hard start!?!

 

Never having owned a Kaweco before, I do some research and find that it is not uncommon to have this problem, particularly with the EF nib. Great 😣 I try some of the less evasive fixes and resolve to try a more lubricating ink once I empty the provided cartridge.

 

Here is the surprise: I found that the pen wrote perfectly on cheap school papers as I was grading. Apparently the absorbent lower quality paper suits my little pen, while the higher quality paper does not. Who knew?

 

Now for the point to ponder: assuming Kaweco has remained generally unchanged for the last 130+ years (I know, big assumption) and it is well suited for "daily" paper, how have pens/paper changed over the years such that most pens perform best on premium papers? I ask this in part because I do have to be aware when looking at pens, nibs, and inks as to how they will perform on lower quality paper so I can get maximum use. I also just find it interesting. Has paper quality decreased over time? Have inks changed? Do we just use out pens differently?

 

Like I said, points to ponder.

[MarcShiman]

I think the concept of "performance" is a relatively modern one. I'd be willing to bet that issues of ink viscosity and paper rag content was not something people were particularly concerned with 70 years ago. Performance back then was not to leak in the shirt, and probably to simply write when the pen hit the paper. There were enough pen repairmen around that you could probably have a scratchy nib smoothed at a pen shop quite easily.

 

I don't believe that Kaweco really tunes its nibs for one sort of paper or another, its more luck. Even now, a pen can be made to perform as you wish.

[Sailor Kenshin]

First: I don't really know where to put this question/comment, but this forum seemed the best fit.

A little back story: a few days ago, I received my Kaweco Sport (). It was perfect. It fits in my girlie little pockets, it looks great, and (if yesterday is any indication) my students can't figure out how to work it, so it will not go on vacation without me. The only down side, I find that about every 4th word I have a hard start!?!

Never having owned a Kaweco before, I do some research and find that it is not uncommon to have this problem, particularly with the EF nib. Great I try some of the less evasive fixes and resolve to try a more lubricating ink once I empty the provided cartridge.

Here is the surprise: I found that the pen wrote perfectly on cheap school papers as I was grading. Apparently the absorbent lower quality paper suits my little pen, while the higher quality paper does not. Who knew?

Now for the point to ponder: assuming Kaweco has remained generally unchanged for the last 130+ years (I know, big assumption) and it is well suited for "daily" paper, how have pens/paper changed over the years such that most pens perform best on premium papers? I ask this in part because I do have to be aware when looking at pens, nibs, and inks as to how they will perform on lower quality paper so I can get maximum use. I also just find it interesting. Has paper quality decreased over time? Have inks changed? Do we just use out pens differently?

Like I said, points to ponder.

 

Paper quality, absolutely. As in garden-variety paper you can buy at a drug, stationery, or Big Anonymous store. Whereas every piece of vintage (pre-1980) paper I have laid pen to works beautifully with fountain pens. Even the school notebooks I bought for 49 cents!

 

Ink is also a factor, especially with an EF nib. My Sport is Medium, and much less fussy. What ink are you using?

 

Hope this helps.

[jar]

Another possible issue is nib rotation. You do not have to rotate a fine or extra fine nib much to render it unusable. This is often seen when folk wrist write or when they transition from pencils or ball points to fountain pens.

[Jerome Tarshis]

I endorse what SailorKenshin wrote about the decline in quality of average cheap paper. On the other hand, the original posting observed that the pen seemed to write better on cheap, overly absorbent paper.

 

That is another possibility, especially when the nib is too fine for you. My most recent pen purchase is a Parker Super 21 with what was described in the advertisement as a medium nib. In the event, what came in the mail was a nib just a bit too fine for me. On what FPN considers excellent paper, such as Clairefontaine, the nib writes with great smoothness, but the line is narrower than I'd like and I experience what I think of as fine-nib unwillingness.

 

On what might be considered horrible paper of our time, much too absorbent, the pen is far more pleasant for me. The paper takes up too much ink, the line becomes wider, as I wish it to be, and there may even be more lubrication from the extra volume of ink.

 

Some bad paper of our time repels ink, by the way; I have had too many yellow lined pads for which too much absorbency would have been an improvement. In that case one can hardly write on the paper with a fountain pen because it somehow prevents much ink from being laid down.

 

I've never in my life done discursive writing with a ballpoint, because I began writing before the triumph of the ballpoint, but sometimes I am in sympathy with people who finesse their way around bad paper by using the more generally preferred instrument.

[Vespagirl]

This is the only pen I have experienced this particular issue with (although you can certainly see the differences in paper quality with the same pen as reflected in the thickness of the line).

 

I am currently using the Kaweco cartridge ink.

 

I love medium nibs (and I dream of getting a bold), but for my general purposed, I have to be very careful or they will put down more ink than the paper I have to use can handle. As a result, I get the finer nibs generally. To each their own, right?

 

I just find it interesting that a pen company, whether by design or my good fortune, has made a pen nib (yes, it is the nib and possibly the ink, but I will have to get back to you on that) that performs better on inferior quality paper. Am I the only one who has see this? Am I the only one who checked?

 

Since paper/pen/nib/ink combos have such a big impact on the performance of a pen and how it is received, particularly if you are new to the FB community, I find this fascinating. Think about it: if you are a student or someone just dipping your toe into this hobby and the EF Kaweco performs better on drugstore paper, wouldn't that be great to know? A novice could try out a good, relatively inexpensive pen and have a better writing experience than if they "dove in" to the whole paper/ink world as well.

 

What this intentional by Kaweco? If so, BRILLIANT! If it is just a function of my personal nib/ink/writing, then it is a good discussion. I just see this community as one which gets restricted, in some ways by need to maximize the writing experience (which is GREAT!), but here, my writing experience was maximized by broadening my options, not limiting them.

 

I love everything about this community. I actually pet my paper it is so silky smooth. But are we missing something because the society at large is no longer accommodating to these "wet writers"? Since we can't all get $0.49 note books from 1979, is there a value in having more everyday friendly pens?

 

Or maybe I'm just philosophical because I've been up since 2:00 am and I'm feeling the need to lament about the inter-workings of pens in my life.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I endorse what SailorKenshin wrote about the decline in quality of average cheap paper. On the other hand, the original posting observed that the pen seemed to write better on cheap, overly absorbent paper.

 

That is another possibility, especially when the nib is too fine for you. My most recent pen purchase is a Parker Super 21 with what was described in the advertisement as a medium nib. In the event, what came in the mail was a nib just a bit too fine for me. On what FPN considers excellent paper, such as Clairefontaine, the nib writes with great smoothness, but the line is narrower than I'd like and I experience what I think of as fine-nib unwillingness.

 

On what might be considered horrible paper of our time, much too absorbent, the pen is far more pleasant for me. The paper takes up too much ink, the line becomes wider, as I wish it to be, and there may even be more lubrication from the extra volume of ink.

 

Some bad paper of our time repels ink, by the way; I have had too many yellow lined pads for which too much absorbency would have been an improvement. In that case one can hardly write on the paper with a fountain pen because it somehow prevents much ink from being laid down.

 

I've never in my life done discursive writing with a ballpoint, because I began writing before the triumph of the ballpoint, but sometimes I am in sympathy with people who finesse their way around bad paper by using the more generally preferred instrument.

 

We can find a use for every sort of paper, then! I just wrote dry two inexpensive pens that didn't get along at all with any decent grade of paper. But they loved a top-bound steno pad that's probably made of paper towels.

[Vespagirl]

My cheapest pens literally leave puddles of ink on cheap paper. Maybe all FP just have personalities of their own.

 

I have visions of the sales pages being more of a Match.com setup: "this pen likes smooth wet ink and long walks on the beach. Really turn its nib with some high grain paper and let the night lead where it may..."

[rwilsonedn]

First, the assumption. Kaweco has changed a great deal over the decades, and the Sport is only a modern plastic homage to the original for which it is named. The early Sports were piston-fillers with, if I remember correctly, lovely gold nibs. The modern steel nibs are, again trusting my memory, made by one or the other of the mass-production nib vendors in Germany.

One explanation for the good writing on too-absorbent paper is, as jar said, nib rotation. Another is baby-bottom, which these days seems to be a frequent problem with mass-produced nibs. Nibs with baby bottom can be hard-starting or can tend to skipping on smooth-surfaced papers, but the fuzzier surface of cheap papers can solve the problem by reaching up and drawing ink out of the nib slit. If you would like your pen to work on good paper too, there are postings on treating baby bottom that you might explore.

ron

[Vespagirl]

First, the assumption. Kaweco has changed a great deal over the decades, and the Sport is only a modern plastic homage to the original for which it is named. The early Sports were piston-fillers with, if I remember correctly, lovely gold nibs. The modern steel nibs are, again trusting my memory, made by one or the other of the mass-production nib vendors in Germany.

One explanation for the good writing on too-absorbent paper is, as jar said, nib rotation. Another is baby-bottom, which these days seems to be a frequent problem with mass-produced nibs. Nibs with baby bottom can be hard-starting or can tend to skipping on smooth-surfaced papers, but the fuzzier surface of cheap papers can solve the problem by reaching up and drawing ink out of the nib slit. If you would like your pen to work on good paper too, there are postings on treating baby bottom that you might explore.

ron

Ron, I will be sure to look into baby bottoms. Thank you.

 

I will say, it been a week and the pen has worked great on all the bad paper I throw at it. I even noticed that I had less pleedthrough than my students on a poor quality workbook I was grading. Whatever the reason, this pen might be the perfect teacher grading pen. I just need to change the ink color (but that might change everything thing else😳)