Five Bad Things That Happen With New Pens

[troglokev]

Misaligned tines

Through a loupe, the tipping looks like this.

The pen feels scratchy, and may skip in a particular direction.

The cure is to bring the tines into alignment (carefully!) using your fingers to (gently!) bend them.

Note that the misalignment may be due to the nib being off centre on the feed. Again, tweak the nib or feed (judiciously!) to bring it into alignment.

 

Poor gap set

Tines are squeezed together or too far apart. Pen has poor ink flow (too little, too much), may skip if the tines are too far apart.

The cure for too narrow a gap is to spread the tines of the nib. (see point 5 in John Mottishaw's excellent article).

Passing a thin (10 micron) brass shim between the tines can help with this problem.

Narrowing the gap requires removing the nib from the pen, squeezing the tines past each other so that they spring back to the correct position, and re-adjusting the alignment. Professional help is preferable, here.

 

Badly set feed

There is a gap between nib and feed.

Pen alternately skips and floods.

Cure is to reset the feed. Feeds are made of thermoplastics or hard rubber, and become flexible with gentle heat. Use hot water to soften the feed and set it up against the nib.

 

Manufacturing gunk in the ink system

Pen skips or doesn't flow at all because oil in the ink channels in the feed or in the slit of the nib prevents the flow of water.

I always assume this is there, and flush a new pen with water before use. Sometimes standing the pen in ink overnight helps.

 

Baby bottom

The shape of the nib keeps the ink away from the paper.

Pen is a "hard starter". It writes well, but needs a bit of a push down on the nib to get it going. May skip a bit.

The cure is to grind away some of the tipping, to get a better shape. If you are at all unsure about doing this, seek a professional. I use a nail buffer, available for a small amount of money and a large sacrifice of dignity from the health and beauty section of the pharmacist. The finest grade buffer only!

 

Notes:

It is best to work out what your problem is, before trying to fix it. Many of the symptoms are similar, and fixing the wrong problem may damage your pen.

 

A 10x loupe is sufficent to see these problems, though some prefer to use magnifications as high as 20x.

 

A nail buffer is not an emery board. It is a thick thing with three or four grades of grit, the finest being gray, and smooth to the touch. Women apparently use it to bring their nails to a high degree of polish.

 

Grinding the nib is a last, not a first resort.

 

Further reading

It's also worth reading John Mottishaw's excellent article, Ludwig Tan's article on grinding italic nibs, and the articles in Richard Binder's reference page.

Arthur Twydle's article describes some of the more drastic measures taken in the past. I'm not a fan of spirit lamps and the like.

 

Edit: Added a notes section in response to some of the questions below

Edited March 5, 2011 by troglokev

[ethernautrix]

Kev.! That's very helpful!

 

Wow. Simple and informative. Thank you!

[RedSox04]

help me too!

 

I've decided to take a look at some of my pens (cheaper ones at first) under a school microscope, pretty nice ones actually.

 

Ill be looking for these signs, but do you think that I should find something finer grit than a nail buffer, seeing that I've never done this before?

[CatBookMom]

Thank you for the helpful info; your graphics are simple but effective in showing the problems.

 

RedSox04, not to worry; a nail buffer has much finer grit than a nail file. Often these buffers are in 2 colors on one side with a third on the other. Nail files are usually 2 shades of brown or are metal.

[RedSox04]

Interesting, I was under the impression that some crazy high grit count from Home Depot was better.

I have heard of 14,000 grit count... but a normal nail buffer will do?

[csmorris]

Great tips! Thank you!

[Mech_Pencil]

Misaligned tines

Through a loupe, the tipping looks like this.

Pen feels scratchy, may skip in a particular direction.

The cure is to bring the tines into alignment (carefully!)

 

How do u exactly align the tines?

How powerful of a loupe do you need to fix a pelikan m600?

My nib got scratchy and I still dont know how to align

[Miranda]

Thanks Troggi. very clear and helpful

[in the flow]

Very helpful - learnt a lot from this! Is it appropriate for this one to be referred to in one of those pinned posts for people to find? I dunno, I'm a newbie, but it seems like it'd be useful to a lot of people not already in-the-know.

[Shangas]

Misaligned tines

Through a loupe, the tipping looks like this.

Pen feels scratchy, may skip in a particular direction.

The cure is to bring the tines into alignment (carefully!)

 

How do u exactly align the tines?

How powerful of a loupe do you need to fix a pelikan m600?

My nib got scratchy and I still dont know how to align

 

1. Let your fingernails grow (you need nails to do this).

 

2. Pinch each tine between a pair of nails and pull or pinch accordingly, until the nib has been bent into the appropriate shape. Keep in mind that your WILL get ink on your hands. Sadly this is necessary. If you don't have ink in the pen, you'll never know if it writes smoothly when you test it. I've straightened out several nibs and it's not that hard. Frustrating and messy it may be, but it's not hard.

[mholve]

Sticky!

[troglokev]

I've added a notes section, in response to some of the comments.

 

The process of passing a brass shim between the tines is sometimes referred to as "flossing" the nib. I deliberately avoided using the word because people have mistakenly used dental floss in the past. Wax is hydrophobic, and has no place anywhere near your nib or feed.

Edited March 5, 2011 by troglokev

[trhall]

Very good information! This should be sticky or in a FAQ.

[clickiechick]

+1 on sticky status. Very helpful, great illustrations.

[Essensia]

Very, very useful and helpful information. Thanks so much!

[Mr Ink]

This is useful information that is explained succinctly but very clearly. The diagrams are also simple to understand and unambiguous. Thank you very much and well done. This topic should be pinned.

[79spitfire]

Another vote for pinning!

[troglokev]

Interesting, I was under the impression that some crazy high grit count from Home Depot was better.

I have heard of 14,000 grit count... but a normal nail buffer will do?

The nail buffers that I'm referring to have a 12,000 grit count on the grey side.

[ClassicHippie]

Very helpful!

[Fuddlestack]

Well stuck!

 

Another common thing that misaligns tines is a nib that is off-centre on the feed. I have had this a few times. Again, the cure is shoving nib or feed with a fingernail, according to which is out of whack.