What Makes A Pen Suddenly Start Writing Thinner And Darker?

[Cassotto]

I've got a pen (Jinhao 991) which I always use with the same ink (Waterman Harmonious Green). It wrote with what I consider to be a good medium point (I like it generous), and you could clearly see the colour of the ink. But suddenly, with the converter still half full with ink -not after having just refilled it or when there's just a little ink left- the line has become a bit thinner, maybe slightly drier (not completely sure here), and noticeably darker, which is what annoys me most.

 

Why can this have happened?

 

Thanks!

[cattar]

Sounds like ink evaporating and drying out in the pen.
Since the line is getting darker and thinner, the ink may be drying and partially clogging the feed.

Some pen caps seal better than others.
Soak the section (no need to remove nib and feed) for a few days until no more ink comes out. Soak in water with a bit of plain ammonia or plain liquid dishsoap. Rinse daily to check progress.

Pens that don't seal well need to be used daily so they don't dry and clog.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Vapor lock, a common converter problem....add a small plastic ball like in a Pelikan 4001 cartridge or a tiny spring to break up the vapor lock...would have to turn the pen...I guess.

I seldom use a converter, being mostly a piston guy.

[Cassotto]

Thanks a lot, both of you! :)

 

 

Sounds like ink evaporating and drying out in the pen.
Since the line is getting darker and thinner, the ink may be drying and partially clogging the feed.

Some pen caps seal better than others.
Soak the section (no need to remove nib and feed) for a few days until no more ink comes out. Soak in water with a bit of plain ammonia or plain liquid dishsoap. Rinse daily to check progress.

Pens that don't seal well need to be used daily so they don't dry and clog.

 

 

Thanks a lot. It might be that, as it's possible that I left the pen unused for one or two days (it's a pen I use daily). I'll do that.

 

 

Vapor lock, a common converter problem....add a small plastic ball like in a Pelikan 4001 cartridge or a tiny spring to break up the vapor lock...would have to turn the pen...I guess.

I seldom use a converter, being mostly a piston guy.

 

I've looked up this "vapor lock" thing, and it seems to be something I'm very familiar with, ink that gets stuck in the wrong end of the converter and doesn't reach the feed. I've had that happen lots of times with my pens (to the point that I've been on the verge of giving up pens altogether), but this looks different. When ink gets stuck inside the converter, the pen won't write at all after a few hours. In this case, I wouldn't notice any problem, had I not known that the ink is lighter than it shows, and that the pen used to write with a thicker line.

 

I'd never heard it called "vapor lock" before. It's good to know that.

[sirgilbert357]

I think what BoBo refers to is actually surface tension. The ink doesn't want to let go of the converter wall.

 

I could be wrong here, but I understand vapor lock to be when the air can't get into the converter and so the ink stops flowing to the feed. Sometimes, turning the nib up and flicking the side of the pen has been enough to restore ink flow for me when this was the issue.

 

A pen writing darker and drier from sitting unused will usually be back to its normal self in a few sentences unless something more is wrong...

[Sailor Kenshin]

Just dip the nib in water a couple of times and scribble with it. If it's nothing more than hard starts/evaporation, that should take care of it. Good luck.

[bugsydog55]

If I was to take a guess, since the pen is a daily user and has the same ink run through it, the pen is calling for a serious cleaning. With a Jinhao 991 it should be a snap since the nib unit will unscrew out of the section. Even the best of pens can develop a problem like you describe. One really good cleaning and a little TLC after that could make a world of difference.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Piston pens are wide enough that vapor lock....due to surface tension don't happen. Do look to go to a good piston pen.

[SoulSamurai]

I'm wondering if maybe you had recently cleaned the pen and there was still water in the feed, so initially the ink may have been a little diluted with water and therefore exhibited different writing characteristics, which then changed when the water was "used up"?

 

Just a vague theory; I've experienced pens writing differently (putting down a less saturated line) right after cleaning because I didn't wait for the feed to fully dry before filling.

[sirgilbert357]

If I was to take a guess, since the pen is a daily user and has the same ink run through it, the pen is calling for a serious cleaning. With a Jinhao 991 it should be a snap since the nib unit will unscrew out of the section. Even the best of pens can develop a problem like you describe. One really good cleaning and a little TLC after that could make a world of difference.

 

 

+1

This is a good possibility too. I have that very issue with one of my pens that is dedicated to a highly saturated ink. It usually writes very wet with excellent flow. Once the flow tapers off even with a full converter, I know it's time to clean it.

[Cassotto]

I'll clean the pen carefully and see whether that solves the problem. I hadn't recently cleaned it, or inked it, when this problem suddenly happened.

 

These are samples from the 21st August and the 23rd August entries in my diary (I didn't write anything on the 22nd, but one day without using the pen is more or less common for me, and this had never happened before). Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, out-of-focusness, feathering and ghosting. I'm using a notebook I got as a present, and the paper is not very good. But I think you can see the difference in colour and line thickness:

 

 

 

As you can see, the change was sudden, not gradual, and nothing happened to the pen in between both entries. I'm pretty sure that the 'good' original colour of the ink is that in the first photo, as I've been using Waterman Harmonious Green for years, and for several months with this specific pen, without any problem at all (other than the fact that I don't like the colour too much, and am looking for a less bluish replacement).

 

I must acknowledge that I don't clean the pens too often when I'm using them regularly and always with the same ink. Only now and then, once a year at the most. But since I'd only been using the Jinhao since May or so, I didn't think it would need cleaning so soon.

 

I'll start by dipping the nib in water, and if that doesn't solve the problem, I'll disassemble the nib unit and clean it thoroughly.

 

 

 

I think what BoBo refers to is actually surface tension. The ink doesn't want to let go of the converter wall.

I could be wrong here, but I understand vapor lock to be when the air can't get into the converter and so the ink stops flowing to the feed. Sometimes, turning the nib up and flicking the side of the pen has been enough to restore ink flow for me when this was the issue.

A pen writing darker and drier from sitting unused will usually be back to its normal self in a few sentences unless something more is wrong...

 

Oh, the distinction is something I'm not sure I understand. I've had plenty of problems with the ink not getting to the feed in many pens, and I've always attributed it to surface tension, so I though vapour lock referred to the same thing. This Jinhao doesn't completely behave in what I'd expect to be the normal way (though I've long ago stopped expecting anything as far as converters are concerned), because if I turn it, the ink won't fall to the other end of the converter unless I tap the pen. But this is something that has happened since day zero, and the pen wrote well notwithstanding.

 

But, talking of vapour... I've noticed several times that the inner walls of a Waterman Kultur demonstrator get misted up while I'm writing. I find it mystifying, but it doesn't seem to affect writing, so I've just ignored it.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Cassotto