Search the Community

My Pilot Custom 823 has started to leak small amounts of ink from the lower barrel and the trim ring. There appears to be a tiny hairline crack in the area. The pen has not been disassembled. The problem began after a normal flushing due to an ink change. Any way to repair this?

I'm stumper by a Parker 51 Aerometric that drops gobs of ink into the cap or on the page. It had a broken collector, replaced that, gave a new ink sac, ran a thin steel wire through the breather tube and blew through it, put everything back together but the problem persists. Saying I'm stumped would be an understatement. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I recently bought a Lamy 2000 FP. Great looking as well as writing. I am quite pleased. Except... The first ink I used in the pen was Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo. Nice and wet, wrote wonderfully. Used up the ink, gave 'er a good flushing out, and put in Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun. Had it in there a few days when one day writing I saw all this blue ink on my writing hand. Then I noticed ink creeping out from the seam where the piston filler knob is. It's a blue ink, probably the Tsuki-Yo that I thought I had completely flushed out. I have never dropped the pen; it resides in a quality pen case. No drastic temperature changes. It never leaked with the Tsuki-Yo. Any ideas/thoughts as to why it could be leaking, and how to fix the problem, are appreciated. Many thanks!

I have had a Pilot 912 for about a month and recently when I take the cap off it has ink on the feed section. Sometimes there is just ink around the rim of the section. There is no nib creep A little back story: the pen would have hard starts on certain papers. Sometimes the feed would run dry, so I would prime the pump to force a little ink into the feed. I tried Rhodia, Travelers Notebook and G. Lalo paper with Noodlers Greene cactus Eel and it got worse, so I went back to Herbins Bleu Nuit. Never seemed to have a problem with regular, run of the mill copy paper. While it was inked up with the Noodlers I took a brass sheet to floss out the nib. I inserted a corner of the sheet into the breather hole and lightly pulled it along the feed channel to get the sheet between the tines. When I pulled out a loupe to check the nib I saw an itsy-bitsy sliver of what looked like a piece of the feed stuck between the tines at the tip of the nib. It was very even looking; smooth, not jagged. It was so small it wouldnt be able to be seen with the naked eye and it fell out when I went to blow it off. I have never taken the feed out of the section. The only fiddling I have done is trying to floss the tines. Now, I read online that there is a small plastic dam in the feed (that helps control the ink flow?). Could that have been what I saw stuck in the tines at the tip of the nib? Is there even a so called dam in the feed? The feed doesnt leak while I am writing. I dont carry the pen in a pocket, but in a pen sleeve I keep in my work bag. Any thoughts? Im stumped. Thanks.

Good day! I've owned a number of fountain pens: some were lost and some were vintage. I've recently purchased a Faber Castell fountain pen (attached) as a gift to my fiancée, however it gave me some problems.. First was that she noticed that there was a leak. After some diagnosis (cleaning, putting the pen in upright nib up position, swapping the converter with the cartridge), I've concluded that the leak is at the point where the metal meets the plastic part.Kinda annoying since I never had those issues with Parker. Will be contacting the bookstore where I've bought it for warranty in a few hours. Anyone who can enlighten me on the matter will be most useful. Thanks!

When i splurged 200ish nzd for a fountain pen i thought it was an impulse buy. Two weeks later, i was thrilled with the history and build quality of the lamy 2000. but clip problems: the clip have some give and could move up and down . I couldn't be bothered to contact lamy support so I took tried to disassemble it with pliers with a micro fiber cloth between- bad idea scratched up cap aesthetically. Admittedly my fault by would have been nice if a 200 dollar pen didn't have these problems. Fast forward 1 year and oops- I dropped it- I screwed it up- thankfully lamy support sent me a replacement nib for 100 nzd- still ouch though Fast forward to present day and it's gone south: Sent three emails to l amy and got no response for a request to buy a clutch ring- you know the thing that keeps the cap in place with the knobbly metal bits. I'd lost it after I disassembled my lamy 2000 because it started leaking. I thought i was smart and it just needed some silicon grease and it would be fine. Now, I have spent 300 nzd as a student on a pen that doesn't function and I'm not even able to buy a replacement spare parts. I had bought lamy after those raving reviews about how helpful lamy support is but not responding to any requests- three of them- even after two months of waiting? I still a fountain pen addict though and I spent another 200 nzd on a pilot vp which still works- treating it with way more care now that I've already gone through this painful endeavor. I'm still new to this forum but hopefully someone has got replacement parts (need a replacement clutch tab spring as seen in last photo enclosed)- I've got budget up to 20 nzd- or advice on how to reach Lamy as their website query thing obviously doesn't work. praying still that it won't still leak- haven't found cause as there were no cracks even under friends microscope. Cheers. Jaydo

My Sheaffer Snorkel fountain pen makes my fingers blue, weeks after I last filled it and wiped it off. Sorry for the basic question, but how do I diagnose the problem? Thanks.

Hi. I got this National Controllor button filler pen of an auction, but the filler leaks a little around the button. Does anyone know how to fix this? It is a really nice pen with a nice flexy degussa 14k nib. /Pether

I have a vintage Parker 51 that is button filled (there is no sac, just a little tube that the ink rides up when you press the button repeatedly under the blind cap) and it has decided to act up all of a sudden. This pen has never caused me any issues and has always been a somewhat dry writer. Yesterday I inked it up and the ink ran straight out through the nib - literally ran out of it. I checked under the screw off grip to see if the nib housing had any cracks but there are none. The nib housing is a reasonably tight fit and no ink comes out at the seam. The ink is flowing out from the nib. I can't figure out what is causing it. Has anyone any ideas or, if they have a come across this before, a possible fix?

I have a 146 Montblanc, and it seems there is a leak or some ink gathering behind where the nib and feed meet the section. If I flush it with (cool, not cold, not warm) water I can change inks but some of the old ink seems to have gathered behind and eventually comes out on my hands when I rest near the end of the section. Does anyone know who repairs these? I suppose with tools I could do this, but if there is a defective part, then I'm stuck. I don't particularly want to send it to MB as they'd replace the old parts with current, though I may have to if I can't do the maintenance myself. It's a 1970 or so vintage.

Hi all - I have 2 pens that I only use cartridges in. One is a Cross Compact and the other is a Bexley Jitterbug. Both pens work great until I'm down to about 1/4 to 1/2 ink in the cartridge. Then all the ink left in the cartrdige will leak into the cap of the pen. Fortunately I haven't ruined any clothes but I am concerned. I read in one post where a change in temperature could cause this. What else can cause this to happen? I love both these pens but I am very concerned about carrying them.

Hello all, I recently acquired a Danitrio Takumi (lovely EEF nib!) with an included Danitrio catridge convertor. So far, so good. Problem is, I've discovered that ink tends to leak out of the convertor into the barrel every time I use the pen. I'm pretty sure I've inserted the convertor in correctly---it doesn't fall out and doesn't feel loose (though it does move if I try to spin/screw it)----so I'm at a loss as to what could be the problem. There are no cracks or holes in the convertor as far as I can tell. Anyways, I switched to a different Danitrio convertor yesterday (and changed the ink) and set the pen on my desk, horizontally, overnight. This morning I took the pen downstairs in my pocket, unscrewed the barrel to check the inside and saw ink on the outside of the convertor again! I'm going to try regular ink cartridges next and barring that, maybe use the whole pen as an eyedropper (since the threads are so ink-tight that none of the leaked ink ever escapes the barrel). In the meantime, does anyone have any clue what I could be doing wrong?