Advice regarding dry Sailor 1911 nib

[Kanenas]

Hello everyone,

 

I recently bought a new Sailor 1911 as a graduation present to myself. The pen feels and looks amazing. However, it writes very very dry. I appreciate that Sailor pens do tend to write mory dry, but the main issue is that it is more wet with reverse writing. The nib does not looks to have any misalignments or other issues and it feels quite smooth when in touch with the paper. But, it doesent write with its own weight (or does but barely any ink comes out) unless reverse writing. Is this normal? To be honest I would want to avoid returning it back, first because its been a few months since I bought it (due to personal reasons I did not ink it until now) and I bought it from the UK and I am now in a different country. Are there any chances of the pen improving with writing or this being a simple fix? I did try washing the pen with water and soap as well as with different inks but nothing.

 

Many thanks,

Loukas

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, the_writer said:

But, it doesent write with its own weight (or does but barely any ink comes out) unless reverse writing. Is this normal?

 

No.

 

Is the nib slit aligned with the centreline of the feed?

[Kanenas]

Hi A Smug Dill, many thanks for your reply. Yes it seems to be aligned.

[A Smug Dill]

OK. Have you tried using different inks with the pen?

[Kanenas]

Yeap, I tried J herbin perle noir, visconti blue and pelikan topaz, it writes best with visconti as it is the most wet of the three.

[A Smug Dill]

Strange. If reverse-writing is what is ‘required’ to make the ink flow, then it sounds like there must be an air gap between nib and feed, that is only closed when pressure is put on the top of the nib to close that gap and allow capillary action to occur.

 

Try pressing down with your fingertip on the face of the nib while the pen is in normal orientation, and see if it'll put down a long unbroken line on the page that way?

[Kanenas]

Thanks, I will give that a try and let you know. Will pics or a video help?

[A Smug Dill]

Photos of the nib and feed will probably help, if there is any apparently misalignment (between tines, or between nib slit and feed('s ink channel), or a case of the tines being too far apart, or the tipping having a case of baby's bottom, etc.

 

But if there's a very tiny air gap between the nib and feed, it may be hard to see that from photos.

[Kanenas]

Here are a few photos of the nib and feed, they are not great but I hope they are clear enough. I can't see any gap between nib and feed. The gap between tines seems quite narrow though I dont know if that can cause such issues.

[Kanenas]

Here is another one of the tines

 

[BlueJ]

You probably need to open up the tine gap slightly. If you do not feel completely confident about doing this adjustment yourself, send the pen to a nibmeister. I have two Sailors, and both were excessively dry until they were adjusted in this way.

 

 

[Vladpu]

The tips are too tightly together.  They need to be loosened up.  There are a variety of ways to do this, but if you have no experience with nib tuning, send it to someone who does this routinely.  

[A Smug Dill]

@the_writer You take good photos!

 

The tips of the tines do look like they're pressed a little tightly together. The tine gap itself is fine and typical for Sailor nibs, in my experience; it doesn't need to be wider for ink to flow sufficiently to write.

[Kanenas]

Many thanks everyone. So there seems to be a consensus that the issue is the tips of the tine are too tightly together. Can anyone suggest a way or a tutorial on how to do that? Unless you believe its too complex for someone who hasent done it before and I would be better off sending it to a nibmeister or back to sailor?

 

haha, thanks @A Smug Dill, it took me some time to figure out the appropriate settings on the camera 😅

[Kanenas]

Also, why would this issue cause a nib to be more wet when reverse writing?

[A Smug Dill]

The tine gap does not have to be all that wide, for the nib to write an unbroken line under just the weight of the pen (which my pen does).

 

[Kanenas]

@A Smug Dill your photos look good as well 🙂 

 

Yours doesnt look that much different to mine. If the correction that the nib needs is so tiny, can it improve on its own with use? i.e., I am referring to the idea that nibs (especially gold) can 'adjust' to the handwriting of the individual. 

[A Smug Dill]

22 minutes ago, the_writer said:

If the correction that the nib needs is so tiny, can it improve on its own with use?

 

What I cannot gauge from your photos is whether the tines are actually exerting force against each other clamping the two halves of the nib tipping together, or whether they're just sitting side by side but without a gap between them.

 

I had a (non-Sailor) pen that would write out of the box, but not really quite smoothly per se (and I don't mean it was scratching the paper surface). It just so happened that the Bock-manufactured nib was asymmetrically cut, with 60% of the round blob of tipping on the end of one tine, causing the bulk of that ‘half‘ to be taller than the other. When I reverse-wrote with it, it forced the tine with the larger half to shift vertically; and every time it did that, it made a metallic clicking sound because the tine tips were actually constantly pressing against each other, and that vertical movement just made the inner walls on the tips of the tines rub against each other. That's not good for ink flow, even if the tipping was cut symmetrically.

 

If that is the case with the tines on your nib, then writing with the pen won't cause the tines to eventually become more relaxed and stop pressing against each other every second of every day.

[Kanenas]

I think they are just sitting side by side without a gap between them, nor can I hear any clicking sound. So if I understand correctly, a nib can in theory become more relaxed (i.e., widening of the gap) with writing?

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, the_writer said:

So if I understand correctly, a nib can in theory become more relaxed (i.e., widening of the gap) with writing?

 

I can't see how that could plausibly happen.

 

If the user always holds the pen's orientation at a particular angle, then over time the wear on the tipping material, however hard it is, may cause a facet to take shape, or a burr or uneven contact point may get worn or ‘polished’ flat, and thus start to ‘conform’ to how the particular user writes.

 

If there is some slight misalignment of the tines, then all the unpleasantness and/or suboptimal performance that results from using the pen in that condition aside, the (mis)alignment may actually change very slightly over time, depending on the material and geometry of the nib.

 

But if the tines are aligned and the tipping is round and cut symmetrically, then in the absence of abuse of the nib by pressing too hard on it, etc. I just don't see why the tine gap would be forced to change persistently for the wider.