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I Can't Write With My New Fountain Pen (Pelikan M200 - Medium), Am I Doing Something Wrong?


conrad1616

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Am I doing something wrong or something is not quite right with the nib? This is my first fountain pen, sometimes its writes sometimes not. Am i missing the sweet spot or what? Im not holding it too high, and not too low, and i try to keep the nibs top part up, its not on the right sight and not on the left, its at middle. And still no ink comes out. Sometimes if i find a point its okay, but its so hard to find that again. Its my fault or the pen's?

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Hi,

 

what you describe is not normal.

 

What ink are you using?

 

Did you rince the pen before use? It is recommended to flush the pen a few times with clean water (some add a drop of dishwashing liquid in a cup for better degreasing) to get rid of any gunk left after pproduction.

Just repeat rincing till clean water comes out.

 

Then fill it with a boring good flowing ink like Waterman blue or something, and it should lay diwn a nice wet line reliably.

 

if the pen was used before there might be dried ink everywhere, then letting it soak for a night might help.

 

if it was a permanent ink it might need the attention of a specialist to get cleaned. Or maybe a more experienced member has some other tips.

 

good luck,

 

Peter

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Hi,

 

what you describe is not normal.

 

What ink are you using?

 

Did you rince the pen before use? It is recommended to flush the pen a few times with clean water (some add a drop of dishwashing liquid in a cup for better degreasing) to get rid of any gunk left after pproduction.

Just repeat rincing till clean water comes out.

 

Then fill it with a boring good flowing ink like Waterman blue or something, and it should lay diwn a nice wet line reliably.

 

if the pen was used before there might be dried ink everywhere, then letting it soak for a night might help.

 

if it was a permanent ink it might need the attention of a specialist to get cleaned. Or maybe a more experienced member has some other tips.

 

good luck,

 

Peter

Thanks for the fast help! Its better now, don't knw what happened. Its brand new by the way. Maybe it needs to be used a bit to start up. I'm using Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, but its a bit dry for me and the color is too light blue for my taste, maybe i'll try Pilot's famous ink.

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I know of some people who aren't really familiar with fountain pens who actually try to write with the nib upside down. The metal nib should be up and the usually black feed should be down. I wouldn't think that a Pelikan M200 with a medium nib would be giving you a problem. Flush the converter as was mentioned before if you haven't done that and look at the tines of your nib, if the tines are out of alignment you also might have a problem with ink not flowing properly.

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Thanks for the fast help! Its better now, don't knw what happened. Its brand new by the way. Maybe it needs to be used a bit to start up. I'm using Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, but its a bit dry for me and the color is too light blue for my taste, maybe i'll try Pilot's famous ink.

The colour is light because the nib was probably still wet with water when you filled it. Leave the pen sitting nib down overnight and the colour will get darker.

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Also, get a pad or sheet of blotter paper. Just holding the nib to the blotter, or drawing it lightly across the blotter will draw a lot of ink through the nib. I will help get the ink flowing through the feed, nib and tines. It will also help draw out all the water and diluted ink in the feed.

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Great suggestions all around. If the pen writes after establishing contact with a drop of ink but it is prone to drying out or hard starts at times, you may also have a case of "baby's bottom". You can fix that yourself with some 8 figures on Mylar paper or if you don't feel up to it, you can send it off to a nib specialist.

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If you're still having trouble after a good flushing, take a look at the tines under a loop to make sure that they are aligned. Misalignment can given you issues like you describe.

PELIKAN - Too many birds in the flock to count. My pen chest has proven to be a most fertile breeding ground.

fpn_1508261203__fpn_logo_300x150.jpg

THE PELIKAN'S PERCH - A growing reference site for all things Pelikan

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:W2FPN:

 

Hi,

 

For reference, below are some samples of Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue from six different pens, so give an idea of the range of Value (light to dark) that ink could look like on a copy/print paper. It is not a dark Blue ink.

 

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/FPN%20Stuff%20-%202011/One%20Of%20The%20Ten%20OOTT%20Summary%20and%20Picks/21baacdf.jpg

 

P4RBl is a dry ink, making it a good match for dreadful 'lowest bidder' copy/print paper (good line quality and low risk exposure to line-width gain and bleed- show-through.) It is a very good 'starter' ink - it is Washable, so any stray ink should not leave a stain, and lax pen hygiene will not invoke an event horizon.

 

Bye,

S1

The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

 

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:W2FPN:

 

 

... so any stray ink should not leave a stain, and lax pen hygiene will not invoke an event horizon.

 

Bye,

S1

 

 

"event horizon, I like that , or actually I don't like that .... you know what I mean.

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If new, and this 'baby bottom' of hard starting. Return the pen and nib, and you will get a new one, with no fuss, no muss. Pelikan has a great return and repair system.

 

Do hold your pen very lightly, like holding a featherless baby bird.

don't make baby bird paste. :angry:

 

Do hold the pen so it is behind the big index knuckle. Like a fountain pen and not before like a ball point.

 

Let it find it's own resting point at 45 degrees right after the big knuckle, 40 degrees at the start of the web of the thumb, or 35 degrees in the pit of the thumb.

The 200 is a Standard sized pen, that has great balance posted.....no balance un-posted. Posted is placing the cap on the back of the body....gently..do not palm slap it on. :doh: :angry:

 

You can use the 'classic tripod' to grip your pen or a variant the 'forefinger up'.

I use the latter, in it's an automatic light grip.

If you wish later in this thread we can discus the fore finger up method for grasping a fountain pen....as shown in the picture.

 

 

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/SAM_0418.jpg

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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Here is a video about it, sorry for the quality, its a bit hard to capture the problem with my phone.

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At least two trouble with your pen.

 

Hard starter Ink does not come out when you start to write

Skipping Ink flow disturbed when you are writing

 

 

Possible two major causes for problems are

 

1. (Notorious) Baby bottom

2. Some oily material between the tines prevent ink from touching the surface of the paper.

 

 

 

Baby bottom is not an easy trouble to handle with for beginners.

 

So, try these methods below to remove the oily material from the nib.

 

Flush the pen with warm ( not hot ) water.

If not effective, add a small amount of ammonia or dishwashing luquid as suggested.

Still not effective, I sometimes clean the nib (only nib!) with ethanol.

(Be careful not to expose your pen's surface finish to ethanol.)

 

 

When all these methods above failed, you have still choice to have your nib replaced.

You have every reason, because it won't write correctly.

 

 

Tor

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