Pilot custom 823 ink blots

[BambinoFortunato]

I got a Pilot custom 823 with a broad nib. I love it but about a week after I got it the pen started running dry. I took it apart and cleaned it, put it back together and it was fine. A few months later, though, it now tends to have major ink creep on the nib. Also, a dangerous tendency to through a blot of ink while writing. If anyone has any thoughts on fixes for this that’d be a huge help. Thanks. 

[Harold]

Did you take the nib and feed out of the grip section when you disassembled the pen and if yes, did you put the O-ring back onto the feed when you re-assembled it?

[BambinoFortunato]

22 hours ago, Harold said:

Did you take the nib and feed out of the grip section when you disassembled the pen and if yes, did you put the O-ring back onto the feed when you re-assembled it?

Yep! Put it back exactly as found, including the o ring. 

[BambinoFortunato]

On 6/5/2021 at 5:41 AM, Harold said:

Did you take the nib and feed out of the grip section when you disassembled the pen and if yes, did you put the O-ring back onto the feed when you re-assembled it?

So the pen has been working well. But it seems to get fairly dry with certain inks. I was using Diamine Bilberry, which worked great but dried out very quickly when uncapped. Then I flushed it and tried Birmingham Celestial Blue. This ink is usually wet but in the 823 it got drier and tier to the point where the broad nib was writing like a fine. 
 

I’ve disassembled to fully clean as before and that seemed to help so I did this again. I’ve since noticed lots of posts about how to do this but also lots saying don’t you dare ever disassemble it, that there’s some kind of factory magic that makes it not ever the same if it’s disassembled. 
 

I get why Pilot would void the warranty on a disassembled pen. I understand their not wanting to do maintenance on a pen someone has disassembled and broken. BUT is it really that bad if you know what you’re doing and treat it properly?

 

Also Ive noticed that the inner surface of the o ring on the back of the feed is asymmetrical. Does it matter which way it goes on? Thanks!

[Harold]

17 hours ago, BambinoFortunato said:

So the pen has been working well. But it seems to get fairly dry with certain inks. I was using Diamine Bilberry, which worked great but dried out very quickly when uncapped. Then I flushed it and tried Birmingham Celestial Blue. This ink is usually wet but in the 823 it got drier and tier to the point where the broad nib was writing like a fine. 
 

I’ve disassembled to fully clean as before and that seemed to help so I did this again. I’ve since noticed lots of posts about how to do this but also lots saying don’t you dare ever disassemble it, that there’s some kind of factory magic that makes it not ever the same if it’s disassembled. 
 

I get why Pilot would void the warranty on a disassembled pen. I understand their not wanting to do maintenance on a pen someone has disassembled and broken. BUT is it really that bad if you know what you’re doing and treat it properly?

 

Also Ive noticed that the inner surface of the o ring on the back of the feed is asymmetrical. Does it matter which way it goes on? Thanks!

The vast majority of manufacturers and some of the less adventurous users will adamantly tell you not to disassemble any of your pens, but in the end it's just physics and it's not magic(someone tell Apple). The only reason you shouldn't repeatedly disassemble a friction fit pen is that as you pull out and push in friction fit parts, the fit will get looser eventually(a couple hundred cycles and you can certainly start to notice), so you should ideally only do it when it's actually necessary to thoroughly clean or maintain the pen. And you already mentioned the "if you know what you're doing" part, which is really the most important part. See if there is a video online of how to disassemble each specific pen before you do it and apply common sense.

 

As for the O-ring, put the thicker side towards the nib and the thinner side towards the barrel. That's how it comes from the factory, though I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes in practice.

 

It's also possible that some debris or oil from the manufacturing process was still somewhere in the feed and it made its way into the ink channel as you were writing, but that would clear out as you keep going and as you clean the nib section regularly. Forcing distilled water through the feed from the back with a bulb syringe is great for that, that's always the first thing I do when I get a new pen or even a second hand pen. You can cut the tip off the bulb syringe so it fits snugly around the back of your grip section to make it more practical. Adding a singular drop of regular old dish washing detergent to the water can work wonders there too; just make sure to flush it all out thoroughly with clean water or your ink might behave unexpectedly.

 

One last thing: do you just leave the knob unscrewed at the back when you write, or do you open it up and then close it again repeatedly every time it runs dry? The reason I ask is because if you unscrew it(or maybe even pull it back a little after unscrewing it) and then tighten it again, you are first removing a part of the rod from the barrel and then pushing it back in, and this will invariably push about a drop's worth of ink into your feed, which can explain why it's blobbing. Unless you are going to fly, drive through the mountains, live in a very hot place or have extremely warm hands, you can just leave the knob open to get a wetter ink flow and there shouldn't be any issues.