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Pilot Fine Nib Problem


Muhandis

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I bought a Pilot custom heritage 90 fine nib. I think the pen is very well balanced on hand but I was disappointed with the nib performance. The down-strokes and right-strokes are ok, but the ink flow is very poor for up-strokes and right-strokes. Is there any way to fix this?

 

 

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Edited by Muhandis
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That's a common problem for Pilot gold nibs. Usually the tines are too close together.

i have a falcon EF which works very good. Any tips on how to fix this?

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I had the same problem with the Pilot nib, you have to make the nib wetter essentially.

The way Pilot manufacture their nibs probably means that it is intended.

 

The instruction that works for me is from here:

https://www.nibs.com/blog/nibster-writes/smoothing-scratchy-nibs

 

See section 5 , paragraph 2..

 

Other methods includes instruction from Matt of Pen Habit and sbrebrown, you can search it on Yo*tube.

Edited by penzel_washinkton
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You have just purchased a piece of work - Work that you have to do yourself or spend additional money for a professional to do for you.

 

It is the nib grind AND the tines too tightly - almost vengefully - squeezed together. I used to think it might be the feed but no, Pilot feeds are immaculate. There are YouTube videos showing how to widen the channel of the feed and extracting a feeder tube from it, please don't do that. It will cause ink to drip uncontrollably.

 

What is a pen if it prevents ink from flowing? Pilot must seriously fill their pens and test-write.

 

I once bought a Pilot Custom 74 sf based on some reviews I watched on YouTube, and returned it for refund. They sent me a second pen and it was still the same. I was refunded in the end.

 

Now you can either:

1. Try to spread those tines a little (in my experience not an easy task with Pilot), or

2. Return the pen for refund.

3. Try a real wet ink.

4. Write on absorbent papers. Rhodia is out, it will only make inks look paler than they ought to be, especially with fine dry nibbed Pilot pens.

 

Looking at your picture, some people will try to educate you that it is 'shading', a desirable trait. Only you can decide whether you want a pen to write that way :)

Edited by minddance
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That's a common problem for Pilot gold nibs. Usually the tines are too close together.

The 2 posts above are excellent advice :)

I haven't fixed too many nibs, so am hesitant to give advice on what to do, but I'd say the best options would be trying another ink and/ or widening the tines a bit.

My n°5 Pilot nib (M, CH 91, so same nib & feed as yours) has the very same problem, but I just took it as is and haven't fiddled with the pen at all. It's actually a good writer and doesn't give too much trouble, mostly when I write many lines up (basically when testing the flow). The pen handles normal writing well enough, the odd interrupted line does happen (I think like in your pic?), which isn't too tragic.

Perhaps for your needs the pen (or rather nib) can stay as is like for me, unless your specific needs (eg drawing?) don't allow for that or you can't bear basically having a not perfectly functioning pen (which is a good enough reason, this is my main gripe with Pilot, they are my 2nd favourite brand and I love their nibs, but the super dry upstrokes are seriously a fault that shouldn't be happening & definitely shouldn't be normal like it is for Pilot; no other of my pens fails like this, that includes Sailors of several price points, Pilot's Prera, Platinums, Pelikans, Parkers, Sheaffers & Lamys; Pilot should overhaul their nibs).

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Initially like you, I did not want to tinker the Pilot but as I kept on writing with it, the skipping due to the upstrokes kept getting worse and worse so I tweaked it in the end.

 

Actually my Sailor Profit also has this problem although not to the extent of the Pilot, but I did not spread the tines on the Sailor.

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Initially like you, I did not want to tinker the Pilot but as I kept on writing with it, the skipping due to the upstrokes kept getting worse and worse so I tweaked it in the end.

 

Actually my Sailor Profit also has this problem although not to the extent of the Pilot, but I did not spread the tines on the Sailor.

That's interesting, luckily my Pilot hasn't become worse, I'd think it'd become better with use (some pressure spreading the tines) or stay the same.... Good thing though that the fix is well known and easy to do (i.e. spreading the tines a bit).

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Thank you all for your advice. So basically this is a habitual problem with pilot fine nibs and the solution is to spread the tines. I did try the youtube method with little success. I have finally inserted a small piece of plastic (the piece that comes with pilot parallel pens for cleaning) and the flow is very good now. The nib does look a bit odd but the plastic stays in place even when i spread the tines while writing, but more importantly, my wife likes it, it was actually a gift for her.

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post-144237-0-71467000-1531934115_thumb.jpg

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On a side note, ironically, I don't have any upstrokes problems with Pilot Stainless Steel Fine nibs. Not that I have many, I only have 3, and they write without problem at all. Yes, they are dry but no problem.

 

The gold nibs can be problematic. It is really weird. I have nothing against Pilot, just pens that don't write properly.

 

Price and nib material, gold or steel really tell nothing about the writing experience.

 

And reviews (whether honest or not) tell us nothing at all about the very pen that arrives in our mailboxes.

 

That said, Pilot should really check and tune their pens seriously.

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