New To Fountain Pens And Not Sure If There's Something Wrong With My Nib

[WatermanLamy]

This nib is on my dad's Pilot Custom Black Stripe. I'm using Diamine Sargasso Sea (the only ink I have available right now) and the pen is displaying the characteristics in the attached photo. Is it normal for the nib to ink in certain directions and not others? My other fountain pens don't do this but the Pilot has the finest nib out of all of them. Besides this inking issue it writes well but to my unpracticed hand it feels like writing with it is not as effortless, and the sweetspot of the nib is quite elusive. The paper is Rhodia Premium.

[Ergative]

That's not normal. Perhaps the nib is misaligned? Others will know better than I.

[wimg]

Hi WL,

 

When was the pen last cleaned?

If it hasn't been cleaned in more than 3 months, I'd suggest soaking the section with nib in cold water for a day or so, and then try and clean it out completely, let it dry or use tissue paper to dry it thoroughly, and try again.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

[swanjun]

No, not normal. Possibly the first thing I would try is a smoothing mesh like this: http://www.gouletpens.com/goulet-micro-mesh-12000-grit/p/GPC-Micro-Mesh

[jar]

Certainly not right but I always suggest avoiding any kind of smoothing until the issue is completely identified and there are no other options or you decide to get an experienced nib doctor to adjust it to meet your expectations.

 

You have made a good start with the identification part.

 

Next get someone to watch you while you repeat the effort. Tell them to watch your hand to see if you turn your wrist or rotate the pen when making right to left strokes and bottom to top strokes.

 

Remember, fine nibs will be very susceptible to skipping if the nib gets rotated while writing.

 

Get a good loupe and take a look at the nib. Is the left tine slightly higher than the right tine? If so, gently push the left tine down. Test the writing between every adjustment and try to make small changes and only one direction at a time.

[UnCupoDeCafe]

Hi WatermanLamy,

 

First and foremost, welcome to FPN!!!

 

The issues your father's pen exhibits are remarkably similar to those that I had on my Pilot Custom Heritage 91 in a Fine-Medium nib.

 

While you didn't specify the pen's nib size in your original post, it seems like it's an EF/F/FM nib.

 

Pilot gold nibs (particularly those with the smaller tipping sizes) have a tendency of being dry out of the box. On my Custom Heritage 91, the nib slit was near-completely squeezed shut. And the tines were out of alignment, as well.

 

I would start by looking at the nib with a loupe. If the tines are too close together, I'd get a set of .001, .002, .003, and .005 inch brass shims to carefully adjust the flow the your liking.

 

While you're at it, check the tine alignment and adjust as necessary.

What I would not do, is smooth the nib on micro-mesh/lapping film before adjusting flow/tine alignment. Iridium tipping is incredibly easy to remove with abrasives, and smoothing a nib that's out of alignment will result in uneven tipping removal.

 

This nib is on my dad's Pilot Custom Black Stripe. I'm using Diamine Sargasso Sea (the only ink I have available right now) and the pen is displaying the characteristics in the attached photo. Is it normal for the nib to ink in certain directions and not others? My other fountain pens don't do this but the Pilot has the finest nib out of all of them. Besides this inking issue it writes well but to my unpracticed hand it feels like writing with it is not as effortless, and the sweetspot of the nib is quite elusive. The paper is Rhodia Premium.

 

[WatermanLamy]

Wow, great advice everyone, thank you so much!

 

I don't have access to a loupe and my magnifying glass isn't of much help. The pen hasn't been used in at least a decade, maybe more. I'll give it a more thorough soak than I already have to see if that helps.

 

I'll look into somebody evaluating my writing and the pen itself because I'm not comfortable doing any adjustment to a fine pen like this as my first heh.

[Bo Bo Olson]

If a C/C pen, buy a rubber ear syringe, in that cleans out a cartridge/converter pen very fast, and is of great help when changing inks.

Should take less that two minutes to clean out your nib section.

 

In a paper towel, give it the old thermometer flick and put it with the paper towel for a few hours in a cup if changing ink color.

[UnCupoDeCafe]

My apologies for not realizing that this was a 'vintage' pen.

 

I would start by soaking the section in regular tap water overnight. In the morning, use a bulb syringe (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OTK6JG/) to flush out the nib and feed.

 

Start with a drop of synthetic dish soap (such as Dawn) dissolved in one cup of room temperature water. Flush two-to-three syringes-worth of the soap solution through the section. Follow this up with an equal number of flushes with regular tap water.

 

If the section is made out of resin, I would use a 1:10 solution of clear household ammonia in water instead of dish soap. This is especially effective at removing caked-up ink.

 

Either way, place a tissue on the bottom of a small tea cup and place the nib (point down) onto it. This is very effective at draining the water that remains within the section following flushing.

 

Lastly, Pilot nibs are friction fit; thus, you could disassemble the section and give everything a very thorough cleaning. Ultrasonic cleaning is another option--though I've never tried it myself. If there's dried ink in the feed channels, you can gently "floss" it out with .002" brass shims.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Wow, great advice everyone, thank you so much!

 

I don't have access to a loupe and my magnifying glass isn't of much help. The pen hasn't been used in at least a decade, maybe more. I'll give it a more thorough soak than I already have to see if that helps.

 

I'll look into somebody evaluating my writing and the pen itself because I'm not comfortable doing any adjustment to a fine pen like this as my first heh.

[rwilsonedn]

Since the problem is directional and doesn't show up significantly in your cursive writing samples, I would not be too concerned about cleaning. That brings us back to what jar said. The most likely suspect is that F/EF nibs can have very small sweet spots (as you mentioned already in your original post) and that until you adjust to the pen it is easy to let your hand rotate, change angle, or change pressure with different strokes. I would definitely experiment with that--and especially with using no pressure and carefully watching the pen angle--before even considering doing anything to the nib.

If it turns out that the pen requires some pressure to write, then you have identified an additional problem that may require some adjustment. But first things first--your hand.

ron

[Pravda]

I find directional problems are usually more often than not related to tines alignment. The reason why the pen 'prefers' one direction more than the other is because that tine is higher set than the lower side.

[Piper 987]

There are many valuable videos on youtube on fountain pen maintenance and cleaning, including nib alignment and solving smoothness/ flow issues.

 

Brian Goulet and SBRE Brown are two sources you might use to start. Writing with fountain pens is (my opinion) the way to go but it does require some basic knowledge of pen maintenance and tuning. I don't see that as a detriment but an asset. Unless a fountain pen is seriously damaged (boo, hiss) it's really quite simple to get it writing properly.

 

Ditto to what UnCupoDeCafe said. Don't try to smooth a nib with micro-mesh etc. until you're sure that the nib tines are properly aligned. Once aligned, smoothing is seldom necessary.