Wality Airmail 71Jt Nib Swap?

[Sui-Generis]

Evening all,

 

Just a quick question.

 

I have a Wality Airmail 71JT winging it's way to me from India (or, how it feels, crawling it's way possibly by three legged tortoise...), was in the market for a cheap, excessively large capacity eyedropper to use as my daily writer for journaling, the 71J(T) seemed to fit that bill almost perfectly.

 

Except with one caveat, I hear the nibs are none too special?

 

With that in mind, and my decent history with Bock, I was wondering if one of their offerings would fit?

 

I've flitted around the forum a little & I think a #6 would fit after heat setting? (was relieved to find out 'heat setting' involves a cup of boiling water and has nothing to do with a blowtorch!).

Edited March 21, 2019 by Sui-Generis

[k3eax]

I replaced my 71JT's nib with one used on the Jinhao 450 and 750 series and am quite pleased.

[hari317]

.

With that in mind, and my decent history with Bock, I was wondering if one of their offerings would fit?

 

.

The nib from a Bock 220 or 250 nib unit can be shoe horned into the Wality section.

[Dip n Scratch]

I tried this. The Bock nib was thinner & I wasn't happy with it so I have stuck to native Indian-made #8 nibs from Ambitious and Kanwrite as well as the OEM Wality nib.

I have a Click Bamboo & a Wality 69A that have Ambitious M nibs.

I treat a scratchy nib with the 12000 micromesh if I come across a rogue example.

[Sui-Generis]

So, my 71JT arrived (didn't take quite as long as I thought it would!) and I swapped the nib with one from a Jinhao X450 (#6).

 

Now, while it works...and works well, there seems to be a lot of ink 'gathering' under the nib (by the 'wings').

 

What have I done wrong or...is this normal? :-/

[Dip n Scratch]

You did 'heat-set' the nib to the feed?

This is nothing more than dipping the exposed part of the nib & feed into freshly boiled water.

Then, when it is hot lift the pen out and pinch the nib and feed together hard.

I don't care if it is hot or it hurts your fingers, this is what you have to do.

Most recently I had to do this to a Click Bamboo as it had not been done during assembly. Even then I ended up replacing the supplied nib with an Ambitious nib.

I can recommend those, which reminds me: I need more of them.

The standard Wality nibs can be sorted out, but if you wish for a broader tip I recommend the Ambitious 'M' nib.

[Sui-Generis]

Dip, yeah I did heat set it.

 

I took it to work today to use as I knew I had a bunch of service sheets and invoices to write (usually our admin does them on a piece of software but he's off for two weeks, since he is the only person who knows how to work the software we're kickin' it old skool until he comes back...writing practice time!) & it decided it didn't want to write at all after a while.

 

Went completely bone dry, no ink even as far as the breather hole.

 

Would work for a little while if I gave it a shake & forced some ink down the feed, but after that was used up it'd dry out again.

 

So I re-re-re heat set it, this time being a bit more brutal & dipping the entire thing in boiling water after letting the exposed feed sit for a couple minutes.

 

Seems to have done the trick, at least for now, and I am back writing again.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Sui-Generis

[Dip n Scratch]

I have the theory that the heat set sticks the nib to the feed & stops air getting in. If there is air getting in where it shouldn't the pen will write excessively wet & may even drip ink.

I love the Eyedropper type pen, they are simplicity itself. If I wanted to use Diamine Registrar's Ink, or another with a high content of iron-gall or Carbon Black they can easily be dismantled to clean them.

I like the Ambitious M nib as an alternative to the Wality India Fine in my large Airmail pens

I have not used the Kanwrite Medium, so I don't know how the two brands compare on quality.

[Sui-Generis]

Dip, your theory may hold water (ink?), I certainly don't have any better ideas.

 

After sitting overnight, the 71JT did have a bit of a hard start when I first used it this morning, but since then it's been fine.

 

I've heard a lot of talk about the Ambitious and Kanwrite nibs, is there any particular source to obtain these from? I did a quick Google search but failed to turn up anything concrete.

 

And yeah, your rationale behind liking eyedropper pens is similar to the reason I got the 71JT, using it primarily as a journalling pen I am using De Atrementis Document Black/Red in it & had no idea how it would treat a pen long-term. Though I know it isn't iron-gall I didn't want to take the chance.

[mhguda]

Hi Sui, nice to see there are more people with a liking for the original fountain pen technology.

Here is something you might try to get your Wality to quit the hardstarts: push the nib&feed just slightly farther into the section. And just to be sure you may want to do the heat-set again. But I wouldn't put the section in the hot water - been told that hot water will damage the color of the ebonite... If you keep the nib and feed in the hot water for 20 seconds, then pull out and press, and repeat if necessary, it should work fine. I have a good number of Walitys, and I don't think there's one still with a Wality nib... You might contact asapens.in and see if they will sell you some Ambitious or Kanwrite nibs...

Good luck, and welcome to the eyedropper-lovers club!