Waterman 55 Dripping Fairly Often

[coleb87]

Hello all,

 

I've got a 55 woodgrain with an Account nib.

 

Question about the nib real quick: Is the account nib on these uncommon? I see the occasional manifold nib, but seeing #5 Account nibs seem to be seldom.

 

Now the main question:

 

-I use pelikan 4001 black in this pen, as a benchmark. It seems that this nib writes very dry and most of the time doesn't write at all/skips a lot. I have to run a brass shim down the slit to get it going a lot.

That being said, there has been times where it writes fine with no prodding, but those times are few and far between.

And many times accompanied with these problems, the pen drips from the end of the feed near the nib tip, when the pen is held in writing position. No matter how shallow or steep the pen is held, it'll eventually do it.

 

I took the section out from the barrel to inspect the barrel. I saw no holes in the sac, and put some talc powder on it thinking that the sac may have been sticking and bunching up when reinserting the section. No avail, the writing problems continue. I did notice that where the sac was installed, it was not *perfectly* flush with the end of the feed. There were some hard crusty bits in these gaps, though the sac seemed to be glued on adequately enough for this not to be of issue.

 

Should the sac be removed, as well as the nib and feed to be cleaned? Could it be that the pen was restored without cleaning gunk from the feed? Sorry for the longwinded post, just wanted to give as much info as I can. Thank you! I'll include pics if it would help, just let me know!

[IlyaKovic]

You’re going to have to examine the fit of the nib in the section. I would replace the sac for good measure since it’s cheap and trivial to do. The issue you’re describing means the capillary action is broken between the nib and the ink chamber. When you replace the sac go ahead and examine the feed and see if there is any ink buildup. Check the nib in the feed. Gently try to push it from side to side. Any play means it’s not seated correctly. Look at the nib straight on so the point is facing your eyes. Is there a lot of space between the nib and the feed? The top of the section and the nib?

 

Is the leverbox filling the sac correctly? Are there air bubbles? Is your nib sucking in air from the section and not ink from the breatherhole when filling?

 

Flow issues are unfortunately complex. Good luck!