Misaligned Tines And Hard Starts/skipping

[Mannyonpil]

I recently got a Pelikan DF nib in the mail and found that it had some hard start/skipping issues. It was also a little scratchy. When I checked the tines they were indeed misaligned so I corrected them, which was not so easy with a DF nib. I then found, to my delight, that the hard start/skipping problem had vanished! I had no idea the two were related. Or are they? Was it coincidence or did I kill two birds with one stone?

 

And while we're at it, does anyone know why this nib has two breather holes?

[T4TEXAS]

What's a DF nib?

Edited May 9, 2016 by T4TEXAS

[Mannyonpil]

DF = document fine. It actually stands for something in German that I do not remember. It's a manifold nib.

[Mannyonpil]

Here we go: Durchschreib Fein

 

https://thepelikansperch.com/2014/08/28/pelikan-fountain-pen-nib-sizes/

[davyk]

I've not encountered a situation where misaligned tines caused skipping or hard starts but it could happen if the misalignment was severe enough to disrupt the flow of ink via capillary action.

[Mannyonpil]

Thank you for your reply. It was fairly severe but I wonder if there was some other cause.

[Bo Bo Olson]

95% of scratchy is from miss aligned tines and holding a fountain pen like a ball point at a too vertical hold before the big index knuckle.

Using a ball point is like plowing the south forty with out the mule....so one gets use to holding on to a ball point like the edge of a cliff you are falling off of.

 

A fountain pen should 'rest' behind the big index knuckle at 45 degrees, 40 degrees at the web of the thumb or if the pen is heavy or long, at 35 degrees in the pit of the web of your thumb.

Let the pen rest where it will. Holding it rigidly at 45 degrees will cause the dreaded 'Death Grip'...and never, ever use the 'Kung Fu' thumb nail pinch.

 

In a properly held fountain pen floats on a small puddle of ink, no pressure is needed. Held like a ball point, you are plowing furrows in the paper....Jack Hammer Ham Fistedness. The 'puddle' is way to small to float the nib on....also causes those Grand Canyon gouges in your desk....like from a Ball Point.

 

A fountain pen should be held as lightly as one holds a featherless baby bird.

Do Not make baby bird paste.

 

The last recorded incidence of a fountain pen doing a somersault out of someones hand, was in the 1970 Guinness book of records. By a spoon bender named Uri Geller.

Edited May 11, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson

[Witsius]

Yes, misaligned tines can be the cause of hard starts and skipping because both sides of the tipping aren't always touching the paper simultaneously. If this is bas enough, the place where ink should be drawn from the nib to the paper is too far away from the paper for the ink to flow. So, yes, very often you can kill two birds with one stone as you did. A properly aligned nib is important not only for smooth writing, but also for consistent ink flow.

[Bo Bo Olson]

You may have pulled away from the feed...check that. With ebonite it is easy with heat seating, other wise you have to disassemble and reassemble your nib to the feed.

 

Check to see how much space you have between the nib and the feed and then check that out in the Repair section.

[Mannyonpil]

Witsius, thank you for the explanation. That makes perfect sense.

 

Bo Bo, thank you for your primer. The nib does work quite nicely now. I have been using it almost exclusively for several days and it has been nothing short of euphoric.

 

As for how to hold the pen, etc, etc, do not fear. I have been writing with fountain pens for the last seventeen years. It has been only in the last year, however, that I have begun to use vintage pens so the mysteries of nibs and feeds, etc are now more pertinent than they once were.