Suggestions For Fixing A Hard-Starting 146

[ItsMeDave]

I've got a 146 that I bought last July that has been hard-starting ever since I brought it home. I meant to return the pen and get a replacement, but I ended up going on vacation, when I got back it was past the return period. Fast-forward to this January, I decided to bring it back to the boutique where I purchased it and get it fixed. They shipped it off to Toronto, it was back in less than two weeks, writing exactly the same.

 

It's the only pen that I own that consistently hard-starts. If I sit down and write for 30 minutes, it'll hard-start 15-20 times. The nib is an extra-fine, and it's quite a narrow nib, almost equivalent to the fine nib on my Pilot Custom Heritage 92. I was initially blaming myself, maybe I'm rolling the nib? I've got a John Mottishaw modified Pelikan M800 with a .3mm, no hard-starts. My 92 doesn't hard-start. And I've got a Lamy 2000 with an extra-fine nib that never hard-starts, and it's famous for having a narrow sweet-spot.

 

The 146 is pleasantly wet for an extra fine.

 

Is there anything I could do, short of going back to MB, to fix the issue? And there's no local nibmeister.

 

Cheers

[thygreyt]

Get a proper diagnosis.

[CS388]

Is there anything I could do, short of going back to MB, to fix the issue?

 

Sounds like you're doing everything right (ie. your other pens aren't showing this behaviour), so it has to be the pen which is at fault.

I know it's a headache, but, I'd take it back to your Toronto boutique and explain that the work they did didn't rectify the problem. If it was cheap $1 pen, I'd play around with it, dismantle it, tweak it etc. But, a pen of this quality should be writing perfectly out of the box - and it's the company's job to make sure it does.

 

Good luck.

Edited February 20, 2017 by CS388

[ItsMeDave]

Sounds like you're doing everything right (ie. your other pens aren't showing this behaviour), so it has to be the pen which is at fault.

I know it's a headache, but, I'd take it back to your Toronto boutique and explain that the work they did didn't rectify the problem. If it was cheap $1 pen, I'd play around with it, dismantle it, tweak it etc. But, a pen of this quality should be writing perfectly out of the box - and it's the company's job to make sure it does.

 

Good luck.

Thanks..

I really have no options here, I dropped it off at the boutique this afternoon.

[thygreyt]

If you have a good loupe you could check and see if it's the dreaded baby's bottom. I've had it in few Montblancs.

 

If it's so, there are simple fixes.