Jinhao flow issues

[twigletzone]

Hi all,

 

Posted about this in the Far East forum but nobody's answered - I'm going through my Jinhaos with a view to not owning pens I won't use, and finding that if filled via a converter some of them have crazy variable flow - they'll be fine for a few lines then spit a massive ink blot and go like a firehose for the next few. Happening to a 159 and an X750. Ink was Quink washable blue and converters were supplied with the pen. Anyone know if this is common with Jinhao?

[OCArt]

Does your converter have a small spring or weight in it? They were added to break the surface tension of the ink against the walls of the converter and allow better flow.  Try washing your converter with soapy water and flushing the pen with soapy water too.

[Dimy]

Now I don't own a jinhao and have extremely limited experience with them in general (from friends mostly) so my suggestion might be grain of salt. I have corrected some feed issues that was faced in jinhao earlier by few people, in their cases the feed had issues of either misalignment or feed channel issues these were solved so might take a look as second option.

 

In your case if its only when you use convertor (and the particular ones) , might really be convertor itself, in such case above suggestion should work, if there is no aggregator then you might wanna add one (I tend to use a small spring by cutting it), that should help (not completely sure though as the convertor are very small to cause the issue in general). Try other convertor to see if issue is still present, if no issue then old convertor needs work.

 

In case is seen with others too, might try realignment of nib, works sometimes in my case with cheap pens.

[twigletzone]

18 minutes ago, OCArt said:

Does your converter have a small spring or weight in it? They were added to break the surface tension of the ink against the walls of the converter and allow better flow.  Try washing your converter with soapy water and flushing the pen with soapy water too.

 

No, it's just an empty space. Soap ahoy then!

[OCArt]

Just a couple of drops of a dish washing soap like Dawn, err in your land Fairy, in a small glass of water.

[sansenri]

before  adding dish washing soap to the ink, try this treatment on the converter: fill it with a degreaser, something like Cillit Bang or similar degreaser washing liquid, leave it like that for a few hours, then wash very thoroughy.

Often it helps especially with these very oily, almost misty plastics that are used on some converters...

 

(just to make sure, treat only the converter like that, not the pen...)

[Sailor Kenshin]

Does your Jinhao have the same problem if you use a cartridge?

[ENewton]

Does your Jinhao have the same problem if you use some other ink?

 

My rebranded x750 had robust flow for the first half page and then became lighter when I used Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa in the pen.  With other inks, the flow was consistent, page after page.

[twigletzone]

7 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Does your Jinhao have the same problem if you use a cartridge?

 

I need to test the two rogues with a cartridge. The X750 wouldn't write at all when I tried it with a partial cartridge nicked from another pen, but I've not tested it with a brand new one - the cart I tried was a purple ink and also may have dried out a bit, so a fresh cartridge of a stañdard blue/blue-black might well perform better. I have an X450 which is entirely reliable with a cartridge but I find it uncomfortable to write with, sadly, so it's gone on the PIF pile.

 

I know Jinhao pens have a tendency to dry out fast though, so I was hoping I could get a converter working so I could use small amounts of ink at a time - not that I don't have a whole bag of el cheapo standard international cartridges cluttering up my ink stash and wanting to be used up.

 

3 hours ago, ENewton said:

Does your Jinhao have the same problem if you use some other ink?

 

My rebranded x750 had robust flow for the first half page and then became lighter when I used Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa in the pen.  With other inks, the flow was consistent, page after page.

 

Only tried the one so far - I wanted to check if I was just onto a loser with Jinhao and converters in general before I go wasting good ink.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Standards are SOMETIMES a tough fit with Jinhao pens.  There are Jinhao/Gullor carts that can fit better.  And carts are refillable, too.

 

Let us know how things turn out.

[sansenri]

I was suggesting treating the converter as mentioned above because the behaviour you describe, gushing flow and then very dry and so on is typical of converters in which surface tensions blocks the ink flow.

Ink sticks to the plastic wall of the converter, so the ink that is in the feed writes for a while then becomes thinner, usually you shake the pen to see what's happening, that's enough to release more ink that goes to the feed and suddenly the pen is a gusher, ink is used up, and so on...

Treating the converter with a de-greaser reduces the surface tension.

Cartridges suffer less from this problem so if the pen works better with a cartridge it's a likely confirmation of the surface tension issue with the converter, and further confirmation that treating it with a de-greaser might solve the converter issue.

If the problem remains with the cartridge, the it's more likely the issue is either with the nib or the feed.

Sometime I have treated the feed in the same way with the de-greaser. It's worth a try in such cases, but only on the feed alone and only if it's a plastic feed (don't do it on an ebonite feed).

 

[twigletzone]

1 hour ago, sansenri said:

I was suggesting treating the converter as mentioned above because the behaviour you describe, gushing flow and then very dry and so on is typical of converters in which surface tensions blocks the ink flow.

Ink sticks to the plastic wall of the converter, so the ink that is in the feed writes for a while then becomes thinner, usually you shake the pen to see what's happening, that's enough to release more ink that goes to the feed and suddenly the pen is a gusher, ink is used up, and so on...

Treating the converter with a de-greaser reduces the surface tension.

Cartridges suffer less from this problem so if the pen works better with a cartridge it's a likely confirmation of the surface tension issue with the converter, and further confirmation that treating it with a de-greaser might solve the converter issue.

If the problem remains with the cartridge, the it's more likely the issue is either with the nib or the feed.

Sometime I have treated the feed in the same way with the de-greaser. It's worth a try in such cases, but only on the feed alone and only if it's a plastic feed (don't do it on an ebonite feed).

 

 

Ah - thank you for explaining the physics behind it, I was wondering! And yes, looking at the converter I took out of the X750, there's a drop of water left in it from cleaning it out which when I move the piston is very much beading up as though the surface it's on is waxy or greasy.

 

I'll have a wash out of the converters in a bit then. I come fresh from trying out a cartridge in the X750 instead and it's behaving fine - so as you say, very likely to be the converter. Haven't tried a cartridge in the 159 yet; partly I'm trying not to end up with more pens inked than I can use up the ink in, and partly I need to find my masking tape and cover up the section because it's so shiny it makes my fingers sweat! Really annoyed about that - I've always known I prefer chunky pens, the Parker Vector I had at school used to make my hand cramp sometimes because it was so skinny. But given that I can't even think about affording a Montblanc 149 or a M1000, I'm delighted by how much I love the feel of the 159 in my hand and it'd be good to rescue it!

 

Strongly suspect that Jinhao pens will not contain anything as exotic as ebonite, though. I mean it costs more than the absolute bare minimum!

 

2 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Standards are SOMETIMES a tough fit with Jinhao pens.  There are Jinhao/Gullor carts that can fit better.  And carts are refillable, too.

 

Let us know how things turn out.

 

Well, at present the X750 has a standard international cartridge in it (short one) and seems to be sealing OK - time will tell if it leaks in storage, but it's writing fine. The cartridge is certainly smaller in diameter than the space allotted in the top end of the section, there's a noticeable gap around the outside, but it's firmly attached if you nudge it with your finger. Looking at a Jinhao converter next to an unopened international cartridge, the major difference seems to be simply that there's more plastic around the central opening - the converter has a thicker donut, if you like. And I think is a little fatter overall too.

[mizgeorge]

1 hour ago, twigletzone said:

I need to find my masking tape and cover up the section because it's so shiny it makes my fingers sweat! Really annoyed about that - I've always known I prefer chunky pens, the Parker Vector I had at school used to make my hand cramp sometimes because it was so skinny. But given that I can't even think about affording a Montblanc 149 or a M1000, I'm delighted by how much I love the feel of the 159 in my hand and it'd be good to rescue it!

Have you got any micromesh? Or even wet and dry paper? A very light sanding of the section will make it much less shiny and easier to grip without the risk of leaving sticky horridness behind or having problems with cap fit, both of which are almost inevitable if you tape it. Looks better too

[twigletzone]

3 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

Have you got any micromesh? Or even wet and dry paper? A very light sanding of the section will make it much less shiny and easier to grip without the risk of leaving sticky horridness behind or having problems with cap fit, both of which are almost inevitable if you tape it. Looks better too

 

No micromesh, not at present. Not sure I'd know where to get micromesh in the UK at all, come to think of it - any tips? Halfords have wet and dry paper though and there's one not far from me.

I'd be surprised if tape wrecked the cap fit completely given that it's a Jinhao 159. The section tapers really quite sharply and the cap is (a) gigantic anyway and (b) wider than the body. But you're right, abrasion is likely a more sensible solution and is certainly longer lasting!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Four-way nail buff files make a halfway decent micromesh substitute.

[mizgeorge]

1 hour ago, twigletzone said:

I'd be surprised if tape wrecked the cap fit completely given that it's a Jinhao 159. The section tapers really quite sharply and the cap is (a) gigantic anyway and (b) wider than the body. But you're right, abrasion is likely a more sensible solution and is certainly longer lasting!

The cap's not as big as you think - don't forget there's a liner in there. And it's when the tape starts to fray and get stuck in threads that you've got a real problem! 

 

Micromesh is readily available on the bay of evil - you don't need a full set of grits - just one coars-ish (2400 or 3600 is good) one around 6/8000 and a 12000 for final polishing and nib smoothing and you're good to go. A sheet lasts a long time - they can be washed out again and again, cut into bits, wrapped around stuff etc. Much better value than the cute little pads that get sold in kit form. 

 

But yes, a 3 or 4 way nail buffer will do the job - just make sure it's a buffer and not a file!

[twigletzone]

9 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

The cap's not as big as you think - don't forget there's a liner in there. And it's when the tape starts to fray and get stuck in threads that you've got a real problem! 

 

Micromesh is readily available on the bay of evil - you don't need a full set of grits - just one coars-ish (2400 or 3600 is good) one around 6/8000 and a 12000 for final polishing and nib smoothing and you're good to go. A sheet lasts a long time - they can be washed out again and again, cut into bits, wrapped around stuff etc. Much better value than the cute little pads that get sold in kit form. 

 

But yes, a 3 or 4 way nail buffer will do the job - just make sure it's a buffer and not a file!

 

Of all the many things I own that are wildly inappropriate to my gender presentation, I am amazed to say that a nail buffer is not one!

 

I shall peruse the available options, thanks for the info