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Bock Nibs Leaking?


KingRoach

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Dear all,

 

I've recently tried 3 bock nibs (all new), all with three sealed cartriges, and all 3 nibs, when pointing downwards, would collect ink quickly between the fins, and if I write like that would burp the ink on paper. None of my other Bock nibs that I've had for a while did this.

 

Now I have another one in hand (for someone else), and it's doing the same thing, using a converter.

 

I am sure there is no air leak anywhere, and to be honest, 4 nibs is way too much of a coincidence. What are your thoughts please?

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Weird. Were the 3 cartridges all from the same box? It's possible that bock nib unit just doesn't play nice with that cartridge - "standard international" is a bit misleading, since there is enough variety in that for quite a lot of cartridges and converters to fit some but not others.

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Thaks for passing by. The cartridges are definitley the good varity and have been used with other pens, even other Bock nibs. This happened with a good quality converter just before that too, which is where I blamed the convertr and moved to the cartriges.

Really weird.

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Dear all,

 

I've recently tried 3 bock nibs (all new),

 

How many pens? Screw-in housings, or did you pull the nibs? Might not be a cartridge problem.

Edited by Karmachanic

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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3 new nibs and 1 used nib. Different inks. No cracks in nib housings and all screw-in units. Full seal between the nipple and cartrige, before you ask.

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I'm sure you checked, but I can think of only two other possibilities. Nib/feed not firmly seated, or housing not fully and firmly screwed in. To be doubly sure I'd be inclined to pull the nib/feed and re-seat, ensuring that the shoulders of the nib are not forward of the shoulders of the feed.

Edited by Karmachanic

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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I'm sure you checked, but I can think of only two other possibilities. Nib/feed not firmly seated, or housing not fully and firmly screwed in. To be doubly sure I'd be inclined to pull the nib/feed and re-seat, ensuring that the shoulders of the nib are not forward of the shoulders of the feed.

I've checked and then rechecked.

 

I've had an older nib which worked. I swapped feeds between this and a "leaking" nib, and the leak followed the feed.

 

I'm sure these feeds are allowing more air in than they should but I cannot for the life of me see how they could be doing that. They don't seem to have anything different about them, even very up close.

 

And yes I've checked alignment, positioning, and how deep a feed is going and where the nib is sitting, and how high I'm wearing my socks when I test them. Everything. It's just a real puzzle.

 

I hope to figure it out as I don't want this to happen often. :(

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  • 3 years later...

This is a late reply.  But I wish to report an identical issue with two brand new nibs from Bock.  Two titanium EF nibs with factory housing.  One started to fill up the fins after a few days of use.  I thought I might got a dud and ordered another one and that one had fins filled up very quickly after writing a few sentences.  The vibration of nib touching paper and the fact it pointed downwards apparently was enough to cause a massive drop of ink to drop down and completely fill up the fins.

 

I tried various cartridges. All new from Kaweco and Montblanc.  These cartridges all worked fine in other pens.  

 

The pen is a custom made, designed to take Bock housing.  It is milled out of a solid titanium stock using a CNC machine and has tight tolerance.  Everything fitted perfectly. And as it is metal and pretty much brand new also, there are no cracks. Besides I think the Bock housing is self contained and you don't need to seal it inside the section.  Correct?

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Okay I think I have figured out the issue and fixed it. 

 

I took apart the nib units for both of the titanium nibs. I was surprised at how easy it was.  It was as much friction as taking the cap off a bic ballpen.  Something was off.

 

I then checked on a Bock steel nib which was working perfectly.  I disassembled it too, this time it was much tighter and I had to use a rubber grip to get the nib and feed out.

 

I checked the feeds on all three nibs.  There were identical, no damage on either of them, and they were interchangeable.   The nibs themselves also looked fine.   HOWEVER, I realised the titanium nibs were noticeably thinner.   I think that contributed to the apparent looseness of their housing.

 

The dripping is a symptom of an extremely wet nib and this was due to the nib metals being thinner while Bock used identical feeds and housing.  There was simply too much space between the nib and feed.  I remember other people have reviewed the Bock Ti nibs and commented that it is wetter than their standard steel offerings.  I think the thinness of the metal is reason.

 

So I realigned the titanium nibs on the feed, letting the feed being aligned further towards the tip.  You could also see it as me moving the nib along the axis of the feed towards the back (section).  I reinserted them into the housing. There is a slight moulded indent in the inside of the housing where the nib is suppose to sit. By essentially moving the nib more towards the back of the feed, I am wedging the back of the nib into the area behind the indent, thus holding the nib firmer into place towards the feed.

 

Flow can be adjusted this way by moving the nib backwards or forwards ever so slightly.

 

I then ended up with a much dryer nib, showing its true EF qualities yet still smooth.  It no longer dripped.

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