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How to make the airmail 69t write a bit more fine


cvk

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Hi all, i recently got a couple of Airmail 69t pens. I love them the build is great. The nibs are good and smooth. The only issue i am having is that the pen is more wet than i want it to. Is there a way to make it slightly finer and lesser ink? I dont have similar size extrafine nib. I do have a #2 noodlers charlie nib that writes fine as i like it. 

 

i am using normal notebook paper and have tried 3 inks: camlin royal blue, noodlers hod and Noodlers black swan in Australian roses. 
 

 

any idea how far the tip of the nib should be from tip of feed to make ink flow lesser?


Thanks in advance


 

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there is little you can do to make a nib write finer other than grind it down or replace it.

 

To make a pen less wet, you can make the nib slit narrower than what it is currently. essentially you cross the tines but taking care that the crossing does not cause tine rotation as well. Nib tip to feed tip distance of 2 to 2.5mm is correct for airmail stock nibs.   

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Thanks so much! 

10 hours ago, hari317 said:

there is little you can do to make a nib write finer other than grind it down or replace it.

 

To make a pen less wet, you can make the nib slit narrower than what it is currently. essentially you cross the tines but taking care that the crossing does not cause tine rotation as well. Nib tip to feed tip distance of 2 to 2.5mm is correct for airmail stock nibs.   

 

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I have got a Wality 70 with a Pilot 'F' which means 'EF' to the rest of the world.

Did you want less ink flow because it was bleeding through the cheap paper? I know what you mean. Camlin Blue is prone to that sort of thing.

If your personal preference is for blue there's not much you can do about the ink showing on the other side of the paper apart from what hari has already advised.

Not unless you cared to try Hero 232 blue/black that contains iron-gall and is more resistant to UV light.

I am on my fourth pot of the stuff.

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2 minutes ago, Dip n Scratch said:

I have got a Wality 70 with a Pilot 'F' which means 'EF' to the rest of the world.

Did you want less ink flow because it was bleeding through the cheap paper? I know what you mean. Camlin Blue is prone to that sort of thing.

If your personal preference is for blue there's not much you can do about the ink showing on the other side of the paper apart from what hari has already advised.

Not unless you cared to try Hero 232 blue/black that contains iron-gall and is more resistant to UV light.

I am on my fourth pot of the stuff.

Thanks! Yes, that is the thing.. actually more than bleeding, it feathers on my paper.. I also tried with Noodlers HoD. 

How did you fix the pilot nib on the Wality pen? I do have pilot F and EF pens (in Pilot Metropolitan and Kakuno.)

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The nib was from a Pilot 'Tank' or non-self-filling pen. On that part of the barrel was filled with foam which soaked up the ink & made changing colours a pain you-know-where. The Pilot nib is 5.5mm wide and is a perfect fit for the smallest Wality pens. Kanwrite also make a 5.5mm nib. The kanwrite Web site does not seem to mention the pens they sell into the domestic market. Only the Desire & the Heritage, which have a unit nib.

 

Fitting the Pilot nib was just the same as with any other eyedropper pen & ebonite feed.

After inserting the nib & feed into the section to the proper depth one has to 'heat set' it. This means dipping the nib into boiling water for 2 minutes to heat it up.

Then you take it out and using fingers press the nib and feed together hard, forgetting the temporary discomfort.

This sticks the nib to the feed & prevents air getting in to the extent that the pen would drip ink.

If any ED pen drips ink it needs the heat-set process to be performed on it if the dripping is not due to any visible defect.

I do not know the size of the nibs in those two Pilot pens. The 'Tank' is the only Pilot I have encountered.

 

'Feathering' is the fibres of the paper soaking up the ink. It makes the line look broader than it ought to be.

You need to get a better grade of paper.

I have a packet of 'copy' paper I feed to my PC's printer that is unusable by a pen on account of the way it soaks up the ink.

There is also a section of this site where you can ask about fountain-pen friendly papers made in India.

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for feathering issue on camlin ink, might I recommend a 75 GSM Spectra copy paper, its cheap and widely available on most paper stores in India. You can also go for JK cedar papers or 100GSM papers. Get them spiral or soft or hard bounded whatever is the preference or need and walla good papers for decent price (I do this and go for spiral bound, have been doing it for years).

 

As for nib, Hari sir recommended me No 8 nib from kanwrite catalog when I was planning on swap of nib so I think that can also be looked into, a direct mail to Kanwrite should help as well. Rest of Ideas are same as everyone have pointed out so thats that.

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19 hours ago, Dimy said:

for feathering issue on camlin ink, might I recommend a 75 GSM Spectra copy paper, its cheap and widely available on most paper stores in India. You can also go for JK cedar papers or 100GSM papers. Get them spiral or soft or hard bounded whatever is the preference or need and walla good papers for decent price (I do this and go for spiral bound, have been doing it for years).

 

As for nib, Hari sir recommended me No 8 nib from kanwrite catalog when I was planning on swap of nib so I think that can also be looked into, a direct mail to Kanwrite should help as well. Rest of Ideas are same as everyone have pointed out so thats that.

Thanks so much. Yes, I agree with Hari Sir's recommendation. It was his wonderful review that prompted me to buy this pen in the first place :)  I agree that it has more to do with the paper. In my diary, which has heavier paper i think (no idea about the GSM), there is no feathering or bleeding. But in my school notebook, there is a little bit. 

 

Also, I observed that it writes thicker right after a fresh fill (that includes priming of the feed). But after I have written with it for about 20 min, it is normal fine (although a tiny bit finer  would be great), but I dont want it to be a Kakuno EF - which is like writing with a needle.   I wonder how No8 KW EF nib compares to Kakuno EF. 

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Our member is a student. I suspected as much. 

I refrained from mentioning papers we know as they are likely un-affordable, even if available in India.

I am glad that cvk is taking the time & effort to use a fountain pen.

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1 hour ago, Dip n Scratch said:

Our member is a student. I suspected as much. 

I refrained from mentioning papers we know as they are likely un-affordable, even if available in India.

I am glad that cvk is taking the time & effort to use a fountain pen.

I suspected as much, I am the same, even now I am a sort of student that is why I suggested spiral or soft binding of papers, works surprisingly well (approx 170 for 500 sheets and then spiral cost of 15 to 20 each).....I mean I have been doing this since school days now (nowadays its jk cedar for me, price break up to help, 600 rs for 1000 sheets and 4 spiral out of 500 of 1000 sheets leaving 500 sheets unopened for future) :lol:

 

6 hours ago, cvk said:

 In my diary, which has heavier paper i think (no idea about the GSM), there is no feathering or bleeding. But in my school notebook, there is a little bit. 

 

Also, I observed that it writes thicker right after a fresh fill (that includes priming of the feed). But after I have written with it for about 20 min, it is normal fine (although a tiny bit finer  would be great), but I dont want it to be a Kakuno EF - which is like writing with a needle.   I wonder how No8 KW EF nib compares to Kakuno EF. 

 

Most school copies are really badly made, I am not even exaggerating here, most never work properly with FP inks until we shell some money for so called 'higher quality notebooks'. This really encouraged me to get spiral bounds and soft bounds of normal office papers....its actually amazing how good a normal 75gsm specta copy paper is. I used then in school days and even now I use spiral cos...well write a lot.

 

The start happens to me too sometimes (always in case of convertor pens which start like dips), other times its harder to start, I think it just takes some time to get saturated with ink as I see different behaviour with different inks.

I have Kanwrite No 6 EF nib with me at the moment and its like japanese F nibs so EF for western nibs....its finer than F nib by a hair and might actually be more to your liking (finer then fine but not as fine as japanese EF). I have yet to experience No 8 EF and from my understanding Kanwrite doesn't make a EF for that nib either (just checked price listing its fine and medium for No 8 nib)......ouch.....I don't think modding the nib at this stage would be good idea so I will refrain myself on that point.

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9 hours ago, hari317 said:

My guess from his posts is cvk is an Indian or of Indian origin located in USA.

Oh, I did not notice the details, my bad here....well hope the post helps someone later. My experience is very limited especially in terms of region....so my info really are only good for india on these fronts...

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even India is too wide a region to make any reliable generalization, availability varies from city to city even within the same state.

In case you wish to write to me, pls use ONLY email by clicking here. I do not check PMs. Thank you.

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9 hours ago, Dimy said:

Oh, I did not notice the details, my bad here....well hope the post helps someone later. My experience is very limited especially in terms of region....so my info really are only good for india on these fronts...

Hi all,  just logged in. I am actually from India but in US. I am actually not a student right now. I mentioned “school notebook” out of sheer habit. 😅 i always refer to my classmate notebooks as a “school notebook.” 

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3 hours ago, hari317 said:

even India is too wide a region to make any reliable generalization, availability varies from city to city even within the same state.

True that hari sir, this is why I never mention anything local (I assume that brands like classmate and spectra copy have managed to shorten the huge cultural and regional variations of our country.....at least I hope, they sure did in northern part where I live).

 

Reliable generalization in India......well what to say.... maybe tea is only one to trust......nah can't be too sure either....

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  • 2 weeks later...

In my experience Airmail pens write very finely. At the moment I am using a pen tipped with a fine nib but its line is as narrow as the one made by a Preppy's EF nib.

 

The feed-nib setting might be the problem causing the flow issue. If you don't want to work the nib you could try ordering a 35 mm ebonite feed from Kanwrite.

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