Humidity Affects How Fountain Pens Write?

[Thymen]

I do most of my writing with fountain pens at home. And most of my pens are too expensive (for me) for office use. Would not want to lose them..

 

So I purchased a Lamy All-Star, some Preppys, and I already had a few Jinhao pens. Tried them at home, with the Lamy and Pilot cartridges they came with. I put some Waterman cartridges in the Jinhao pens . With a little tweaking they alkl wrote nicely, and, at least the Lamy and Jinhao pens, quite wet on different kinds of paper.

 

When I took these to the office, I found that they did show hard-starts, drying out quickly and in general were quite troublesome. I blamed the office-supplied paper, which is of the cheapest kind that can be found. So back at home I tried a combo of pen and my own paper that worked for me, and took them with me to the office. Same hard-starts and drying out... Tried other paper, other inks, other pens..... all same same.

 

Now, due to the airco in the office, the air is very dry. I wonder if this might affect the fountain pens, on how they write. Obviously dry-out time may be shorter, but once the ink is flowing, they should write consistently again.... but they don't.

 

Anyone experience with this, and what can be done about it?

 

Thymen

 

 

[bogiesan]

I live in Boise, Idaho.

Desert.

Unless it's raining, it's stupid dry. Inside or outside.

Sorry, my empirical experience cannot confirm your suspicions. I do not have these hard start issues with any of my Lamy AlStars and numerous Sheaffers, any nib widths, using Diamine, Sheaffer, Lamy, and Noodlers inks. My pens are fun to use all the time, everywhere.

 

You may be onto something and there are probably ways to improve the surface tension characteristics of your inks in ultra low humidity atmospheres. Perhaps a single drop of glycerin in the entire bottle? Could also be an awful idea. I do not know.

[Thymen]

I have googled around, and it appears that opinions about this subject differ. I imagine that if one has it's pens, ink and paper tweaked for certain environmental conditions, behaviour is consistent under those conditions and one doesn't notice any difference that much.

 

In my home, humidity is about 55% at about 18°C, which is fine. In the office, at 23°C it is 20 to 30% less, depending on the time of day and how much the airco has kicked in. Quite a difference.

 

The other day I brought some of my better and wetter pens to the office, and a pad of Midori paper. Behaviour was more or less like at home. So I guess it may be a combination of drier, finer pens, cheaper paper and lower humidity.

 

I will tweak my office pens to be a bit wetter, and use some other ink. And perhaps bring my own paper...