Pen Flowing Out Too Much?

October 29, 2012

So, I feel this problem is posted somewhere, but I couldn't find it going through the FAQ as well as searching this forum.

Pretty much, my fountain pen (Waterman Phineas Blue Marble) is flowing out too much ink, more than necessary. I feel it might be the ink, but I'm really not sure. It used to work pretty well when I bought it five years ago, but recently, the lines are just appearing a bit too thick and partially leaking through the other side of the page as well. There are a lot of help topics on how to get more ink flowing, or how to get ink to not get blocked out, but I haven't really seen many on how to fix this.

I think maybe using thicker ink might solve this, or maybe somehow getting the nib to get closer together, but I'm really not sure. Any ideas?

October 31, 2012

So, I feel this problem is posted somewhere, but I couldn't find it going through the FAQ as well as searching this forum.

Pretty much, my fountain pen (Waterman Phineas Blue Marble) is flowing out too much ink, more than necessary. I feel it might be the ink, but I'm really not sure. It used to work pretty well when I bought it five years ago, but recently, the lines are just appearing a bit too thick and partially leaking through the other side of the page as well. There are a lot of help topics on how to get more ink flowing, or how to get ink to not get blocked out, but I haven't really seen many on how to fix this.

I think maybe using thicker ink might solve this, or maybe somehow getting the nib to get closer together, but I'm really not sure. Any ideas?

Have you started using a new ink or paper? Also, post a photo of the nib if possible.

November 11, 2012

Stopped checking/forgot about this thread sometime right before you posted, so sorry about the late reply.

Here's the picture, first:

And I have changed ink as time went by, brandwise, but I think I had a working pen and an overflowing pen through the same bottle of ink. Since then I've used cheaper inks so perhaps I should try and buy new ink. As for paper, I've tried all kinds of paper, and it makes sense that it doesn't bleed through as much on thicker white paper as opposed to lined paper, but it used to work pretty well on both before which is why I'm a little confused.

November 11, 2012

Maybe an air leak? Is the phineas a cartridge converter? How do you usually fill it? An imperfect seal at the cartridge nipple could conceivably make the flow far wetter than it used to be.

November 12, 2012

I fill it up using a bottle of ink, and I pull in ink using the twisty cap kind of cartridge (yes, there's a technical term, and no, I don't know what it is xD). Are air leaks still relevant?

November 12, 2012

Is the pistion converter fully seated? Swapping it out for a new watermans cartridge would give you an idea of whether there's an issue there too.

November 17, 2012

Yahoowizard, +1 on what Flounder said. Your Waterman Phileas is a converter pen (that's the technical term you were looking for ) and I too think maybe you have an air leak either in the converter itself or where the converter meets the pen. You can get an air leak with any kind of filling system, so yes, it's still relevant.

But like Flounder said, it's easy to diagnose and fix. You can reseat the cartridge just by pressing it into the nib section with a little twist. If that doesn't solve your problem, replace it temporarily with a disposable cartridge. If either of those fixes slows down your ink flow, then you know the problem was a leaky converter and you can just get a replacement converter for cheap.

I don't know why, and please forgive me if I'm guessing wrong, but from what you wrote I get the impression you pretty much leave the converter attached all the time. If so, that's fine, it's not wrong, but it pulls right off and as Flounder mentioned, can become unseated somewhat, or lose a good seal with time, which would totally explain your problem. If you haven't ever taken off your converter or put on a cartridge, it's super easy to do -- and if that fixes your problem then you know you just need a new converter.

Good luck!