Badly Twisted Waterman Feed (New Pen)

[Cassotto]

I've got four new Waterman Kultur pens, three of which I've been using for a couple of months. After seeing all of them were very, very dry, I decided to disassemble them so as to widen the feed channel. One writes perfectly now, and the other two will need some more widening (I'm doing it very little by little, so as not to run the risk of overdoing it). Today, I've disassembled the fourth pen at last (it takes ages, since it's a very tight assembly). It's the one I hadn't used before. And, to my surprise, the feed looks like this:

 

Have you seen something like this before? Is it a new design, or a manufacturing fault? Do you think it'll write? And, if not, do you think it can be fixed?

 

[penzel_washinkton]

[taimdala]

Whoa!

 

 

It is probably worthless as a feed but as a curiosity (of something gone horribly wrong)--you've got a winner!

Perhaps if you could contact the manufacturer and show them the pictures you showed us, they might be able to provide you with a working feed? Why not give it a try? The worst they could say is no. The best is they'll send you a new feed. You'll never know what the results will be unless you try.

Edited June 6, 2020 by taimdala

[Mr.Rene]

I've got four new Waterman Kultur pens, three of which I've been using for a couple of months. After seeing all of them were very, very dry, I decided to disassemble them so as to widen the feed channel. One writes perfectly now, and the other two will need some more widening (I'm doing it very little by little, so as not to run the risk of overdoing it). Today, I've disassembled the fourth pen at last (it takes ages, since it's a very tight assembly). It's the one I hadn't used before. And, to my surprise, the feed looks like this:

 

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Have you seen something like this before? Is it a new design, or a manufacturing fault? Do you think it'll write? And, if not, do you think it can be fixed?

 

KOOL !!!!

[jchch1950]

Problem in the factory. An example that QC can have gaps even in the best brands.

[penzel_washinkton]

When the defect is so blatant, I would look into whether the QC should be kept as an employee or not if I was the owner.

[Cassotto]

I wouldn't say Waterman's QC is anything to write home about, at least as far as feeds are concerned. As I said, three out of four Kultur pens I've got needed a modification, and the fourth is this. Even if the other three looked OK, they didn't work. I can't say that a pen that doesn't write after 12 hours unused works well. Having widened the channel, they write well, but it's not users who should do that!

 

I'm wondering whether I may have caused this myself, though I don't think so. The assembly of these units is very, very tight. I had to resist the temptation to use pliers, and what I did is leave the pen soaking in warm (not hot) water, hoping it would loosen it a bit. I repeated that twice a day for a fortnight or so, and that's how I managed to disassemble it. Is warm water enough to make the plastic so deformable? I did (try to) make a twisting movement while I pulled, but I'm completely sure it wasn't a 90º twist. Besides, I always try to pull without twisting the first time I try (I mean, every time I try, which is twice a day), and when it came out, I hadn't twisted it at all.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

While i suppose anything is possible, i don’t think you caused this

[markh]

Obviously it's a left handed feed

 

If you heat set a feed (plastic feed = water just below boil) you can cause this. Whether this case was accidental, or on purpose I don't now.

 

I have slightly twisted a feed adjusting it - but nothing like this. Then I have to "unadjust" it to correct it my adjustment. Part of the learning process that never actually ends......

 

.

[Cassotto]

Obviously it's a left handed feed

 

If you heat set a feed (plastic feed = water just below boil) you can cause this. Whether this case was accidental, or on purpose I don't now.

 

 

Then I'm pretty sure I didn't do it. The water I used wasn't close to boiling temperature (I could comfortably put my finger inside), and I suppose I would have noticed that the end of the feed plus the nib had twisted almost 90º while still inside the section (when they came out at last, it was because of a straight pull, which I alternate with the twisting pulls).

 

I've inked the pen. And I must say I can't see any difference between it and my other three Waterman Kultur pens with a normal feed. It writes beautifully when it writes, but after a short time unused it becomes completely dry. My four pens fall within two categories: those which dried overnight (two of them, and I use the past tense because they are fixed now after widening the channel), and those which dry after 10-15 minutes (the other two, including the twisted one). I don't think I'll try to widen the twisted channel for now. I want to experiment with the other "bad" pen first (I'm a bit afraid of widening its channel further, as it's already a wet pen... When it writes. But it sometimes even dries while writing). And I'm not sure I want to modify or damage this "odddity".

[Honeybadgers]

I'm guessing the feed channel is pinched. On plastic feeds, it's as wide as a human hair, so a slight constriction (maybe caused by the thing trying really hard to cosplay as a drywall screw) could easily stop it.

 

Why not reach out to waterman?

[Cassotto]

Why not reach out to waterman?

 

Because I've found all their feeds are so bad that I can't tell the difference between the twisted one and the straight ones. As I said, four out of four pens I've got were useless when new, before I modified them. I'm not sure their sending me a new feed would fix anything. I already sent an angry (but not rude) email to them telling them they've lost a customer (if there's something I know is that I won't be buying a Waterman pen ever again, and as to their inks, the only one I more or less like is their red, which I will be replacing with Pelikan 4001, which, though not exactly the same colour, is perfect for what I want it). So asking them to send me a new feed doesn't sound right... Though maybe I will.

[Andrew_L]

I think this is a factory marriage or sabotage (resentment) of one employee for some management action.

 

it’s very fun to see it from the outside, but I sympathize to you. Good thing you bought not one of these pens. As they say: any experience has a positive effect if you can use it right .