Large Ebonite Ed Pen Burping

[Pjay]

I rarely use my hard rubber hand turned Ratnamson because it has a nasty habit of disgorging large blobs of ink when least expected or wanted. Are there any recognised strategies for minimising this unpleasant occurrence? Handwriting elegance is temporarily impaired by a broken wrist in plaster cast!

[Dip n Scratch]

Burping is a habit of the eyedropper type. It usually happens when the barrel is getting empty. It is because the air space expands due to the heat of your hand & it pushes ink out. The simple ebonite feeds do not have the intricate combs as found in a c/c pen. I think that is what slows the ink flow, but please don't regard that as gospel. Someone else will know the actual reason.

 

If the pen has this unwelcome habit, even when full I would look at whether the nib was properly heat-set to the feed. It it hasn't been done air may be coming back up into the pen and causing these burps. You are using a smear of Silicone grease on the section/barrel thread?

The heat setting is nothing special, but you will have to do it with an empty, clean pen.

Boil a kettle of water. Pour some into a mug or a dish & dip only the exposed nib and feed into that water for 1 full minute. Lift the pen out & then pinch the nib & feed together hard, while enjoying the pain from the hot metal & ebonite.

Leave it to cool off completely.

Re-fill the pen, not forgetting to grease the thread on the section.

Hopefully that will solve the issue. The pen just looks to be a seriously wet writer, which is why I suggested the heat-set. Burps are big blots.

[Lunoxmos]

Considering that the pen is:

 

a) an eyedropper

is quite large

and

c) is made of ebonite,

 

what tends to happen is that when you hold the pen, the warmth of your hand warms up the contents of the pen, which I believe changes the air pressure inside it as it forces the air to expand *(the transfer of thermal energy via conduction means that the warmth of your hand will always transfer to something cooler, and the particles will gather more kinetic energy, making the air particles move around more). I think the ebonite may contribute to that (though correct me if I am wrong) as I have heard some anecdotes about ebonite feeling warmer in the hand, so there is a chance that ebonite may be more effective at transferring heat.

 

The change of air pressure then forces ink out of the tip, causing a blob of ink to deposit onto the page.

 

Originally there had been special feeds designed which would capture and contain that drop of ink to prevent it from blobbing on the page. The Spoon Feed by Waterman is one such example. It was so popular the many rival pen companies at the time attempted to work around the patent, and designed slightly different versions of the same concept.

 

The fact that it is burping is only due to pressure changes, so if you notice burping you can just tip the pen with the nib facing the ceiling so that any warm air can be expelled out of the tip. That is a quick fix, but your best bet is to make sure that the pen is refilled regularly. It is best if you don't let the ink amount drop down too far.

 

There is nothing wrong with your pen (that's my view at least) so you shouldn't have to worry too much. Burping is a typical occurrence in eyedropper pens, going all the way back to when they were invented.

[Maccabeus]

Dip n Scratch's suggestion to re-heat set the nib and feed is a good step. Do be careful to only allow the nib and feed to contact the hot water, though.

As Lunoxmos mentioned, heat transference from your hand is another likely culprit. Try keeping the pen in your shirt pocket for a couple hours before writing with it. This allows the pen (and the ink and air in the body) to maintain a more or less steady temperature.

 

Some eyedroppers burp when the ink level gets halfway or below. Some don't seem to burp at all. It just depends on the particular pen's "personality." Yours may just be prone to burping. Keeping your pen mostly full should also help alleviate the issue.

 

Good luck! Keep us updated.

 

P.S. That's a very handsome pen!

[Dip n Scratch]

About how far would it be safe for the ink level to drop before you re-filled?

I haven't measured the ink capacity of all my ED pens, but id'd say we're still looking at a larger usable amount then a CC pen.

Then there's more if you use the advice of Maccabeus in allowing the pen to acclimatise to a environment nib upwards.

[rafapa]

I believe that Manu Propria posted some time ago he filled its eyedroppers with synthetic cotton.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/339475-new-entry-level-urushi-pen/page-2?hl=%26quot%3Bsynthetic+cotton%26quot%3B&do=findComment&comment=4104940

Edited July 7, 2019 by rafapa

[Maccabeus]

About how far would it be safe for the ink level to drop before you re-filled?

 

That's a good question, and one that will doubtless vary from pen to pen. My Ranga model 8 pens needed to be kept to more than half full. I had one model 3 that would write all the way dry without ever burping, and another that does really well until is gets to about 1/3. An Airmail/ Wality 69eb pen that I received as a bonus pen when ordering a pair of pens from Ranga will also write well until it runs dry.

[Dip n Scratch]

I have several Airmail pens. I just put the feed from a Shaeffer School Pen in a 71JT. It has also got a Kanwrite #8 nib. Not one of the OEM ones, it's a branded item. It is half-full of Hero 202 at the moment.

[Aditkamath26]

This problem is common with ED pens. Here are a few tips to help reduce the problems (note how I say reduce and not remove). These problems will never vanish because that's just the way ED pens are. If your pen is well set, and its ink reservoir is always more than 50% full, you're not gonna have any issues. but if it drops below that, it will have a good chance of leakage.

 

1) So the first tip is to set the pen well. That is, the nib and feed should be snugly fit in the section. Check that it doesn't wobble and is firm. A misfit could cause air gaps leading to leakage. No matter how much you heat set your nib and feed, if there's a misfit, it can leak.

If its wobbling, remove the nib and feed (you might have to knock it out) and re-set it in the section checking different locations so that it doesn't feel loose and is fit snugly. Then, heat set the nib and feed (Several tutorials online).

 

2)Once its heat set, you're pretty much done. The next thing to keep in mind is to keep the pen near full. 50% is the standard that people go with, but I like keeping it near full. If the reservoir falls down below 50%, there's a GREAT chance that the air will expand from the heat of your palm and push ink out.

 

Also general things like not using your pen on an excessively hot day, etc. helps.

[eachan]

In addition to the above, using a "dryer" ink like Pelikan 4001 may help.

[Maccabeus]

In addition to the above, using a "dryer" ink like Pelikan 4001 may help.

 

This is also sound advice. Iron gall inks tend to be fairly "dry." I use ESSRI (http://www.registrarsink.co.uk/registrars_ink.html)