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4 pens, funny water, nibs and inks


Idiopathos

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4 pens, all performing reasonably well or better:

 

Platinum 3776, 'Stone' celluloid with music nib, using Jentle Green.

Sailor 1911 (full size), 'Executive Smooth Black' with Naginata Togi MF nib and Visconti Black.

Mercury 'Francois des Trixhes', LE 12/80, Tibaldi Impero celluloid with Bexley B Stub, using Diamine Ultra Green (UG).

Mercury 'L'Union fait la force', LE 05/80, Tibaldi Havana Blue celluloid with Tibaldi B nib and Diamine Writing Equipment Society (WES) Imperial Blue.

 

So, experiment. Why? Well, because of the "reasonably well or better" above. As we all do, I imagine, I wanted 'best'.

 

First, the easy part - 'funny watered' the two Japanese. Washed out nibs, sections & converters in tap water and then soaked them in de-ionised water from local petrol station. Easy (in contrast to the Mercuries below).

 

Like many others', my experience of using de-ionised water is that it has the ability to improve the flow of a pen, almost as if the nib had been adjusted. Like many, too, I wonder if we rush to nib tweaking, when it's flow that the problem. (This reminds me of what may be an odd analogy. In equine medicine, there's a saying, 'Examine the shoulder and treat the foot'.)

 

Then, simply re-filled the 3776 with Diamine UG and the Sailor with WES, because I know that these two inks perform very well in a wide range of pens.

 

Upshot? The 3776 now produces a finer line, more like a B Stub, with excellent, wet colour saturation and has become a more generally usable pen.

And the Sailor just flows better - I like to see ink shine on paper - with more chance to produce a shaded line. I shall use it more.

 

Next, to the Mercuries.

 

Nibs, feeds & collars out, wash, into de-ionised water. Again and again and again and ... they continued to bleed ink until I was fed up with changing the water. Tried to dry them and ... they bled more. Finally, gave up. Dried them. Whatever was left could stay.

 

Ink change wasn't needed, because both pens were filled - quite literally - with Diamine UG and WES already. I'd thrown away their cheap converters and eye-droppered both. (Without silicone grease. The barrel & section threads are so well cut, it's not necessary.) The barrels takes the equivalent of 5 converter loads.

 

Outcome? Well, this is the part I don't quite understand.

 

I swapped nibs. And the Bexley B Stub that, in the FDT, had produced a too-wide line, is now a tighter, easier-to-use-in-most-circumstances writer, with excellent colour saturation and feedback. And the Tibaldi B from the UFF, which was just too juicy, is now a well-defined, full M in the FDT.

 

I suspect that this may be because the sections of the pens grip the collars differently.

 

Whatever, I'm pleased. A good evening's inky-fingered work.

 

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I always use deionized water (from my Brita filter e.g. for green teas). But I also always start off with plain ordinary tap water luke-warm tap water until I see no more colours. Then the deionized water. Both up to 10 times. If necessary, both first with a drop or two of dishwashing soap in it.

That has always worked. The only time it did not help at all, I sent it back to their headquarters here (had to do so twice) and since even that did not help, I just got rid of the darn thing (a brand new 146).

 

Mike

 

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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