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I definitely need to lubricate the piston of my Go after the present fill of ink is used. The piston is becoming a little stiff in the bore that the spring pressure alone will not return it to the top. Is the pen capable of being dismantled and lubricated? I note they did not supply any toll to dismantle the pen.

All: I need help choosing a chocolate or dark brown ink that will flow well. Wet, in other words. I write pretty quickly with Noodler's and Fountain Pen Revolution(FPR) flex nibs. I also like stubs and italics. I have only one old 1935-1939 "Ink-Vue" Waterman pen with a true old-style moderate flex. Love this sweet old writer. But my question is about the inks that have a consistently good flow down the spreading steel nibs we use to give handwriting character if we're budget-constrained. I jam together odd combinations of body and nib for fun. I take notes of plans and projects, write letters, keep track of things with pen and paper. In a Neponset with the Neponset feed and an FPR "super-flex" #6 I found good results from a now old (over ten years, I think) less-than-half-bottle of Private Reserve Chocolate (not the fast dry variant.) Okay, I thought, since it's lubricated in some way (described as "ITF") Monteverde should also work. I switched to my new bottle of Monteverde Canyon Rust. Railroaded all the time. I haven't tried Mr. Tardiff's "eel" formulations partly because there aren't as many colors. I do like X-Feather with these nibs. A wonderful black but takes extraordinary care over drying time in some papers, which limits its use, especially out in the wild. I'll post separately my question about when we'll see the *brown* X-Feather color. I am considering ordering a new bottle of Private Reserve Chocolate but I had heard there are a lot of changes in the formulations due to the death of the PR founder. (Too bad, I liked some of the colors and bought a lot of PR inks in the early 2000's.) So, since it appears I need a *very wet* ink, and perhaps a lubricated ink, who knows of a almost-black dark brown that will flow through challenging nib gyrations I enjoy? Remember, I am using these pens to write notes at a fast cursive, not slowly forming attractive labeling, invitations... Thoughts and suggestions welcome. Thanks, in advance.

I think I'm in the right forum section, but mods feel free to move the post if it isn't. I've got a question about inks "lubricating" the nib, and whether that's affected by water solubility. Anyway, context. I recently started using my neglected Waterman Serenity Blue again, and I'm about to chuck the bottle out the window. It's horrible . I feel like I'm writing without ink, and my handwriting is garbage because of the vastly different feel. Thing is, the Waterman is the most (read: completely) water soluble of my four routine inks. I also remember reading about "lubricating" inks, and I got the idea that "lubricating inks" helped reduce the friction between nib and paper (I may have misunderstood, though). Do more water-soluble inks tend to cause more friction when writing? I figure maybe it's got something to do with viscosity? Or maybe less pigment/filler/whatever in washable inks that causes less lubrication or something. Any explanation would be greatly appreciated; anything for that good writing experience, hey?

I have this obsession with ensuring that my possessions get the longest longevity possible, and since hearing things about threads getting worn down (especially metal to plastic ones) I have been wondering if threads on my pens, even plastic to plastic, would last longer with some lubrication. The answer would have obviously been yes, but then I heard that even silicone grease will weaken plastic with time. So yeah, should I lube up the threads or not, if long term longevity is what is desired? Also, how important is it that the silicone grease in question is 100%? Silicone grease is hard to come by where I am, and the one brand I was able to find was Polypipe. Anyone have any experiences with this brand? Are there any other kinds of lubrication that may be better than silicone?

I recently acquired a 1950s vintage Aurora 88. The pen is in good shape overall and I would like to press it into service. However, the piston turning knob is incredibly stiff. So stiff that I thought it was jammed. With increasing pressure, I was able to move it, but stopped. I'm afraid of stressing the piston rod or stripping threads, etc... If it was a modern pen, I would think to apply silicone grease. Is that appropriate for this pen? If so, how do you get the grease to where it needs to be? Thanks in advance for your help!

I have 2 Al-Stars. One of them came with a nib that was very resistant to being changed and in the process of removing the nib I unseated the feed just slightly. The second Al-Star has the feed completely removed from the section and it does not want to be reinserted. I have lined up the feed with the triangular section but it still will slide only halfway into place. My question is how to I replace the feed correctly inside the section so that the cap will properly close on the section without interference? Lubrication? Silicone grease? Please help!