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Showing results for tags 'flow'.
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Hi, I am relitivley new to fountain pens, owning only 3 at this point. Yesterday I purchased my first expensice vountain pen, the visconti homosapiens steel midi, and am having some issues with the ink flow. What happens is, I fill it and it writes beautifully, then it will suddenly stop. At this point, there seemes to be no ink left in the feed, yet there is definetly ink left in the piston filler as I turned the piston and watched the ink drop out. If I give the pen a bit of a flick, It will write again as I have flicked ink into the feed, but this only lasts about a paragraph. The same goes for thurning the piston, which saturates the feed enough to write maybe half a page. I did some reading on the site and fushed the pen with soapy water, then with non soapy water a number of times to remove the soap. I then flushed it with ink before inking it up again. This did not solve the problem. I also removed the nib and feed to see if there was a blockage, but the feed looked fine, albiet dry, and the hole that joins it to the resovoir of ink had no observable blockage, though it was very difficult so see far down it. Just out of curiosity, I turned the piston and watched as the vacated cylinder where the feed normally sits, filled up with ink. I really dont know what to do now, and thougth to post here where it seems there are many knowledgable, long time pen owners who may be able to help me. Any help that is offered will be much appreciated.
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Hey all. Enjoying my brand-new 580-AL (I'll throw in a photo for happy times), but I'm having an issue that doesn't seem to be unheard-of in the TWSBI universe. My Medium nib writes incredibly smoothly and reasonably wet--it allows for some lovely shading, as you'll see. But after a page or two I start to get skips, nothing crazy, but it requires a re-priming to get them to go away. (The lines also darken considerably after a re-prime.) I'm hesitant to squeeze the tines to get a wetter nib--partially for shading, but also because it writes a relatively fat M line as it stands and I don't want to make it any broader. It seems like either the pen doesn't exchange ink for air very well, or else the feed doesn't quite keep up with the nib. So has anyone actually fixed this issue? If not I'll keep working with it the way it is, but if there's a quick-fix and I missed it in the forums somewhere I'd love to know http://www.samanthawilding.net/penstuff/twsbi2.JPG http://www.samanthawilding.net/penstuff/twsbi1.JPG
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Hi all; I'm working on a recently acquired 1938 Parker Parkette Deluxe with a nice somewhat flexible stainless steel nib. I have the pen 90% "there" but have one small issue. The nib delivers a nice, somewhat wet flow with just the lightest pressure except on the up-stroke. If an up-stoke follows a down-stroke then there is flow but even then, it appears to be residual from ink already on the tip. If I press down a bit on an up-stroke, then there is flow of ink. This is not a serious issue as the pen writes quite nicely but it does go quite light of line if a line begins on the up-stroke. I'm almost of the opinion that the tines are touching and are less likely to spread a little on an up-stroke but are inclined to separate on an upward or sideways stroke. Could it be that I need to separate the tines slightly? Any input from your experiences would be appreciated. Cliff
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Is It The Nib Or The Feed? (Or: Why Are Feeds Presumed Innocent?)
Houston posted a topic in Fountain & Dip Pens - First Stop
A question stemming from curiosity, rather than any present need. I like a juicy flow. If my pinky finger is getting stained by damp lettering as I drag my southpaw across the page, then the flow is too wet. But just short of that -- perfect. On a scale of 1 (the Sahara) to 10 (a river), I'll go for an eight or a nine. Quite understandably, most pens don't write this wet out of the box. So, I have a long history of nib tuning -- both by professionals (Mottishaw, Oxonian, others) and by my own hand. I'm well into flossing and gentle spreading. I'm good with all that. But here's my ignorant question: When questions come up on FPN about increasing the wetness of a given pen, the advice almost always -- 9 times out of 10, perhaps? -- goes to tweaking the nib, and/or to flushing and cleaning. Only very, very rarely do responses address the feed as the potential culprit of dryness and a potential site of constructive intervention. Why is that? Why, in other words, do we presume the nib is constraining flow, and not the feed? Isn't it just as likely that the feed could be starving the nib of sufficient ink to provide greater flow onto the page? I know folks may be intimidated by the prospect of even removing the feed, much less hacking it, but the question remains as to why the presumptive diagnosis, when presented with paltry ink flow, is a too-tight nib rather than a miserly feed that's holding back the waters. I would have thought that thorough advice to the flow-hungry would have to include either a combined -- or at least sequential -- approach to considering the nib *and* the feed. No? Looking forward to enlightenment, by my betters, with great anticipation. ...for which, thank you, in advance. In prospective gratitude, --h -
Dear community, for sure this issue has been discussed somewhere in the 89 pages of this forum. I apologize if I re-propose it again. My "brand" pens, with original unit (feeder and nib), work flawlessly. Great, generous and just the right amount of ink. My "restored" ones don't. Basically they all suffer from poor ink flow. As a user, I buy old pens and I put new feeder and nib. Nibs are the good ones, Knox, Artisan State. Feeders, I never paid too much attention, but I'm now since they all have just one tiny ink drain, and that could possibly cause the dryness. I checked a feeder from a good "brand" pen, and it had 3 drains instead of one. If this is the case, should I look for these multi-drain feeders? I haven't seen them around, where do they sell? Is this "the" solution? I can tell I adjust my nibs, I align the tines, with the correct separation, correct tiny space between nib and feeder for a good ink flow, etc.. so I think I'm ok on that side. Ink wise, I've tried all kind of brands, Montblanc, Private Reserve, Parker, Sheaffer, none gives the flow I need. So it's not an ink problem. Suggestions and help are very welcome. Thank you very much. Vieri
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Not sure if anyone seen it, Opus 88 is releasing a new pen after their Bella line up. The new release is called the "Flow": https://www.instagram.com/p/B7EGabljZen/ https://www.facebook.com/OPUS-88-%E8%A3%BD%E7%AD%86-%E7%B2%BE%E5%9F%BA-117055545603286/ It is the first of their pens to be fitted with a Bock nib unit housing I believe. In the past I had concerns on buying an Opus 88 pens due to their relatively high price point but was softening up for the Opus 88 Omar Demonstrator version. Then this came out. Better have an internal discussion with my head, wallet and heart again.
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I got fpnibs.com's semi-flex nib, and love the softness & snap-back. It's a real delight on my Gama Sneaky. But it railroaded quite easily, even after heat setting. http://i.imgur.com/8exsjPP.jpg I deepened the ink channel and widened the gaps between the fins until the railroading stopped. But now it can bleed thru on Rhodia(!) and I sometimes see a meniscus in the ink I've just written. So, for my next attempt at adjusting an ebonite feed for this nib, I was hoping for some pointers. How do I prevent railroading? ...without making it so wet it nearly drips ink when I hold the pen vertically? (I presume the current feed can't be salvaged, but I have spares)
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I recently got my hands on a PenBBS 355 (shoutout to everyone who helped me decide over here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/347558-penbbs-355-vs-456/) The pen came with a medium nib, and for the most part I really enjoy it. But I'm getting a persistent hard starting issue, irrespective of stroke direction, which is resisting all my best attempts to fix it. Under its own weight, the pen writes only sporadically. If it doesn't start right away, I can drag it all over the place with no ink getting down. Hard starts happen while writing as well. First I checked nib alignment, which was every so slightly off. Fixed that, but still hard starts. I thought there might have been debris in the way, so I gave the pen a very thorough flushing and flossed the tines. Didn't help either. Then I thought it must be baby's bottom, but some attention with micromesh didn't make a difference, and I was unsure if the tip showed the baby's bottom shape (although I am no nibmeister). Does anyone have any suggestions? I can always swap out for a different #6 nib if necessary, but I'd love to salvage this one if I could. Nib photos (sadly primitive ones) attached below; angles from above, below, writing angle, and head-on. Thanks in advance for any help. Edit to add: So far I've tried the pen with Pilot Blue Black and Iroshizuku Asa Gao, which have always behaved well for me in other pens.
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Forgive me if I'm repeating a topic here, but I couldn't find anything with the search function. I have a Noodler's Ebonite Konrad that I really enjoy. Up until now I've been using it with the flex nib, but today I decided to try swapping it out with a Goulet #6 Medium. The swap and heat setting went well, but the pen is now an absolute gusher. It writes more like a broad and puts down enough ink to puddle. I inked up with Asa Gao, which I know is a wetter ink, but even so it seemed extreme. Is this a problem with the nib, or the feed? Is it because the feed was intended for use with a flex nib? I generally like broader nibs, but this is a little much even for me. I have to write very quickly to avoid puddles. Is there anything I can do to fix this? I can always go back to the flex nib, but if there's a way to make the Jowo nib work, I'd be glad.
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Problem With Flow - Pineider Le Grande Bellezza
Rindy_Ruth posted a topic in Fountain & Dip Pens - First Stop
I hope you don't mind me copying and reposting the essence of a couple of posts from a Facebook group I belong to, but I wanted to reach a wider and more diverse audience with this. A few of us in the group have recently purchased Dante Del Vecchio's newest creation, the Pineider Le Grande Bellezza (which has also been reviewed in the Italy - Europe forum). As the reviewer there has indicated, OOTB it writes like a dream. The problems arise when one has only a small-ish amount of ink left in the cartridge converter - less than half, but not nearly empty. When one reaches that point, the pen begins with hard starts, skipping and even railroading. We are now trying wetter inks, Iroshizuku Shin-Kai in mine. One poster suggested that it is a converter problem, where the ink sticks to the sides of the converter instead of flowing down to the mouth and into the feed. I wanted to tap into the wisdom of this group for your thoughts. If this is a converter/ink flow problem, I would think that it would also happen to other people, with other pens. I love me some sheening (not shimmering!) inks - Organics Studio Nitrogen and Walden being two of my favorites - and would hate to have to give them up for this beautiful pen. Is there anything that can be added to the ink to insure that it will flow down to the mouth? Thank you for any insight that you may have. Best, Rindy_Ruth -
Hello forum, I bought a Jinhao x450 and I had a query regarding the nib. I thought the pen comes with a Medium nib, but it looks to be much finer. Can you confirm from the images ? Is there something wrong with the nib/flow ? You can see it breaks in the "F" and bottom of "G"s. (please zoom the images while examining) Also there is hardly a "hairline" gap between the tines. I cant even see the light through the gap. I love writing with the M nib of my old Parker Vector. The color is deep dark and uniform. But with x450, the lines are almost scratchy and non uniform. I tried to increase the gap by pushing the nib against a wooden board. Its too hard and nothing happens even after repeated efforts. Any suggestions to make the writing medium(ish) ? Can any x450 owners confirm if this is how thin the pen writes ? Also, is it normal for a fountain pen to make scratching noises ? My old parkers make a lot of noise, though their scratchiness is within the limits of "feedback". My new x450 too makes a bit of scratching noise, though it is a little quieter. Ink - Daytone Blue (500ml bottle pack) Thank You (PS: this is my first post on the forum, though I have referred to the FPN many times in the past. I am a newbie to the technicalities of FP, but I have been constantly using them since 2002, throughout my school and college times.)
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No one seems to have an answer in my other thread so taking another approach. Have you noticed that the trendy black ionized nibs tend to write drier than other nibs? If I try to swap a new black nib with another black nib, am I setting myself up for failure?
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Hello everyone. I'm new to this. Is there a permanent ink that does not clog or dry in the pen (nib?) if the pen is not used for a week or more? And, a permanent ink that flows well, is "wet", and easy to clean out of the pen? If I only use the pen several times a month for check writing, etc, is that enough? I have several Pelicans, a Sailor 1911, and a couple cheapies. Thanks so much for your help. Newbie here. Aloha jim
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Hey Everyone, I've just sent back my Franklin-Christoph medium S.I.G grind in order to exchange for a broad Masuyama italic. Don't get me wrong: the SIG nib was great to write with and I liked it very much; but, since you can't buy Masuyama grinds separately like you can a sig, I've opted for the CI. I'm also interested in learning an italic handwriting script some time, so this makes sense long-term. Now, however, I'm hearing that Masuyama italic grinds are dry writers. One post I've come across was particularly bothersome in that the OP said their f-c Masuyama italic required loads of pressure to write with until they eventually sent it back for a flow adjustment. Moreover, the nib wasn't said to be defective by the F-C team, they just tuned it to what they'd call "wet". I'd imagine that an italic tuned on the drier side would maximize line variation and the integrity of the cross-stroke-- are there any other practical reasons for a CI to write dry? I'm particularly interested in hearing from those who regularly write with any form of italic or own steel F-C Masuyama italics. Have yours been dry compared to others? Do they write under their own weight? Having said all that, I'm really not too fond of nibs that are very dry, especially if they're broad. On the other hand, perhaps I should leave this to the expert Mr. Masuyama -- it is, after all, my first hand-ground cursive italic. Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.
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Hello! I'm new to the forum and have spent some time looking through the repair Q&A posts that have been pinned relating to this problem. I have had a vanishing point for about three years now, and one summer (I'm a college student) I left my pen unwashed in an apartment without heat, so I believe I had some ink clog up the nib. I have since taken the nib out and let it soak a few times in water--this has not yet seemed to work. I put it in warm water and left it soaking for a week to see if there was some super stuck pigment/dried ink, but today when I went to test it out it did not work. The tines are working just fine and seemed to have a good alignment--some residual water has continued to flow out of the nib, but I can't seem to get new ink (I use cartidges) to flow through the pen. Anyone else have any advice or any other posts that I might find helpful? Thanks, Rachel
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So a few weeks ago I got a beautiful Green Senior Maxima Parker Vacumatic. It writes beautifully. But I am really into flex pens for my spencerian and the nib on this pen did not flex much. So I have been on the hunt for a flex nib that would fit or another pen like this that would flex. Today I got one!! Its not as pretty and mostly looks black. It flexes from a fine to a BBBB Which is wonderful. BUT......around a medium to B line it starts shooting ink. No blobs but on Claire Fontaine Paper the BB to BBBB takes about 5 min to dry. I have an assortment of inks (none promoted to be "fast drying" inks) and they all behave about the same. When I write with my Watermans, Conklins, or eversharps they do not take this long to dry. At normal writing pressure the latest ink (Waterman intense black) dries in <5sec. The tines are set well. Its when I open the tines and pull back the nib from the feed that the flow happens. Today I swapped nibs between the two but it seemed to make no difference. I am looking at getting faster drying inks. I guess I could live with it and just carry a blotter? Is there anything I can do to the feed to slow down the flow? Other ideas?
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Aloha Everyone, Newbie here. I am starting to find out that I like an ink that flows well when writing. I guess that is called "wet"? because the ink is lubricated? I have the following inks, which ones are the "wettest". Aurora Black Aurora Blue Waterman Paris Black Diamine Majestic Blue I have 2 pelicans and a sailor. Any suggestions for an ink that flows better than what I have? Thanks so much for your help. mahalo jim
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Hi all I was questioning the performance of my new pen (TWSBI Diamond 580, stub 1.1mm). Sometimes the ink just stops flowing during a couple of characters. Then everything goes normal again. When this happens, I have to stop and repeat the missing lines. The samples below illustrate the problem. On the first image, the same text is repeated several times: see how some characters (or sometimes whole words) are "skipped". The same with the spirals on the second image: a part of the line is missing. I was wondering if this should be considered normal behavior of a stub nib (I wouldn't believe it), or is there really a problem with this pen or nib? Any opinions/suggestions? EDIT: I forgot to say that the pen was flushed with distilled water before inking. Other pens with the same ink work normally on the same paper, so no problem with ink or paper.
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I am having trouble with my fountain pen writing. It is a cross spire (fine nib) and I have been using Noodler's Upper Gangs Blue almost exclusively for 2 years now. I believe I ran one cartridge of Noodler's Revolution Blue in a long time ago. Over the last few months I have noticed that the pen would have problems writing, and I would have to shake it to get ink to come back to the tip. As this progressively got worse and worse, I decided yesterday to clean it, so I pulled the nib and feed and cleaned it all out very well. But it did not seem to fix anything. Upon closer inspection what seems to be the problem is that while writing the nib seems to (from pressure) move to far away from the feed, and ink stops wicking to the tip, I can see ink all the way up to the edge of the feed, it just wont go the last 2 mm. Does anyone know what to do to fix this problem?
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Gday everyone, Long time lurker first time poster I'd like to jump straight into it and go ahead and say that I've been having problems (or should i say A problem) with my Noodlers Bulletproof black. It's an absolutely wonderful ink in pretty much every way, except one. My 'Online German: Event' Pen doesn't seem to agree with the Noodlers ink. (I have a Noodlers Flex pen inked up in Noodlers black which works perfectly fine) I've inked it up through a converter and for about, I would say the first page and a half of writing, it writes fine. It flows well with no skipping etc. However once that 1-2 page thresh-hold has been passed the problems occur: The flow becomes weaker and the nib starts to dry outMinor skipping occurs (some shaking and tapping remedies this)Flow becomes near non-existent Every second stroke skips (No amount of shaking or tapping or wetting the nib remedies this)I've went back and talked to the boutique owner and he says that he's not surprised that an American ink, especially the 'Bulletproof' line, works poorly with a European pen. At first I thought that maybe there was a problem with the nib/feed. However after purchasing some J-Herbin and Mont-Blanc inks I'm starting to think he may be right. MY PEN WRITES PERFECTLY!! It's a very wet writer and has never skipped or been prone to dry or anything of the sort. I decided to brave the Noodlers in my Online German again, but alas, the same exact problem. I've recently read a post somewhere that the Noodlers 'Bulletproof' line is not a very well lubricated ink and is prone to flowing problems. Anyway tell me what you guys think of my situation and if you've had any similar problems with any of the Noodlers inks.
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I was gifted a Waterman expert. After a thorough cleaning, with pen flush, I was finally able to test it out with some Waterman Intense Black. It has trouble starting, consistent trouble, but once it gets going it's fine. I understand that baby's bottom might be the cause, but sometimes the same thing happens even when I'm bearing down with a fair amount of pressure. If something is wrong with the pen, how do I go about fixing it?
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Waterman 52 Bchr Actling Like It Runs Out Of Ink (Noob Question)
sundragon posted a topic in Waterman
Hello All, I recently purchased a Waterman 52 BCHR that was restored before purchase. It writes very well, no flow problems/railroading but it does something weird. I can write a couple of pages and then it acts like it's running out of ink in mid sentence. The first time, I figured it had run out (surprisingly in a short time) but when I pulled the fill lever over the sink, it sprayed quite a bit of ink. I figured it was an aberration. Fast forward, I flushed it with water and filled it again with a different ink. I've again written a few pages and it started drying out in mid sentence. I remembered the first time and I gently lifted the lever a couple of mm and it sprayed ink. Now it's writing again... It's not like it's a hard start caused by a nib drying out it's in mid sentence and it fades, then railroads, and stops writing all together. What causes this? I know it's an old pen but it's pretty simple design. Could the sack be twisted? Is there a way to fix it? -
I have some lovely old pens, but while some of them start happily and willingly, some need a great deal of encouragement to get the ink to flow. Is it the nib, the feed, the ink or something else? What do you do to fix the problem?
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Nib Pairing For Lamy Al-Star And Noodler's Bad Blue Heron.
mpennxr posted a topic in Fountain & Dip Pens - First Stop
Hello everyone, So I have tried inking my Lamy Al-Star (EF) with Noodler's Bad Blue Heron ink, and I have been running into what I can only describe as some flow problems. What I am experiencing is ink drying or perhaps congealing at the tip of the nib, and it makes it so that the pen needs to be stroked a few times before the ink starts to flow again. And even after I start writing the ink seems hard to get out and flowing easily. I am new to fountain pens and I would like some advice on whether or not I need to get a larger nib or do something about the ink to remedy this issue. Thanks a lot, MPenn P.S. And if anyone has had experience with how Bad Blue Heron flows and works in a Pilot Metropolitan (F) I would love to hear about it as well! -
After reading many postings on this and other forums regarding J. Herbin's 1670 inks and their apparent ability to clog pens, I decided to share my experience with them after some 6 months of usage on several pens on an almost daily basis. Hope this is helpful. Like many pen enthusiasts the world over, I became truly hooked to the idea of using J. Herbin's inks after watching some videos depicting their shinning and sheening characteristics, specially those of Emaraude de Chivor, which is without a doubt, the most fascinating ink on this earth for those of us creative types (I'm a designer and photographer). Yet, after doing my proper research on them, I came across many, many posts, stating that these inks were the equivalent of Armageddon for the majority of fountain pens. A few lone voices claimed otherwise, but the general consensus was to stay away from them. Low and behold, I ordered 3 bottles: Emaraude de Chivor, Blue Ocean, and Stormy Grey. I filled 2 Lamy Safari pens with Ocean Blue (M nib) and Stormy Grey (F nib) and then I filled an Al-Star with a stub 1.5mm nib with Emeraude. After using them for nearly 3 months (refilling the same pens or inking similar pens), I've had experienced no flow issues whatsoever. No hard starts, no skipping, no clogging of any sort. The only "issue" I got to experience is that the finer the nib, the less gold flecks that will end up on your paper. After this initial test, I decided to convert my brand new transparent Kaweco Sport Classic with an M nib into an eyedropper and the ink I decided to fill it up with was Ocean Blue. Kaweco's are known to have starting and skipping issues when brand new. Mine not only turned to be and excellent writer right away, but the conversion also helped turn the feed into a very wet one. After 3 months of constant use, I'm yet to experience issues. BTW the gold flecks look gorgeous laying on the barrel and match the pen nib, clip and markings in a lovely way! One thing that I have noted thou is that the gold flecks tend to get everywhere into the pen. My eyedropper has some flecks -with ink- stuck between the feed and the section, it also appears trapped in some parts of my converters and, needless to say, they are also present on the feeds. Yet, so far, they seem to be quite easy to clean off. The only bad experience I've had so far has been with a Kaweco AL-Sport that I filled with Stormy Grey. Right after filling it, all it came out the nib were gold flecks, not a single drop of ink! I shook the pen hoping for the specks to settle but it never worked. I had to extract the ink from the cartridge, and then it all took to clean and unclog the pen, was a standard rinse with water. This pen has since been inked-up twice with other inks and so far, it works flawlessly. The AL-Sport uses a different feed than that of the Classic, so maybe it is a bit more restrictive. I have also used the Emeraude ink on my Pilot Parallel pen without any issues. The only thing I should note here is that the gold flecks didn't show on the lettering work I did with this combination. I will fill it up again and update this post to reflect the outcome. So, to recap, I truly consider these inks to be pretty safe for most pens and they seem pretty easy to clean-off. I will refrain myself from putting them on vintage pens or expensive ones just to remain on the safe side. But other than that, they all prove why J. Herbin has been around for more than a hundred years!
