Misbehaving Kakuno

[essayfaire]

I have a happy smiley-face Kakuno that was brought to me from Japan; I am quite unhappy with it at the moment. I thought it was a cute little pen but it is now giving me difficulty; the nib starts writing and then after a few lines stops unless I shake the pen.

 

Here's what I've done so far:

Clean the pen

Change the ink

Flush the pen

Floss the tines

 

None of these interventions has been able to get the pen writing properly again. I do not have a high tolerance for hard-starting pens and if I can't get this issue resolved will let it sit unused in a drawer. Has anyone had a similar experience? If so, were you able to fix it?

 

 

[tamiya]

What ink are you using? Cartridge or Convertor?

 

All my Kakunos are behaving well, none cause any trouble. I might get around to cleaning them once every other year, more likely they just sit around inked until they dry up then they get refilled either with same ink or just water.

 

Dry inks like Pelikan 4001 don't write too well in Kakuno but they dont skip. I stick with Quink or Pilot basic ink, both works fine. The last Kakuno I washed & filled in recent weeks I used Iroshizuku... and it loves it! Smooth bold lines, lovely.

 

Give it a good wash with detergent to degrease it.

 

If you're refilling an old cartridge... I like to pull out the sealing disc. Sometimes depending on how you reinsert the cartridge the disc can obstruct ink flow.

[essayfaire]

Not refilling old cartridges; I've been using a Pilot converter. I now have recleaned the pen and stuck in a PIlot cartridge to see if the converter was causing the problems; it wasn't. The pen is still misbehaving with the cartridge.