Search the Community

I've had a Waterman Kultur for some time, but I've never been happy about its performance. It dries too easily, and writing isn't either smooth or continuous. I've realised that the ink seems to get sort of clotted in the upper (as I write) part of the piston converter. Since I store the pen with the nib upwards, it seems that the ink falls down because of the law of gravity, but then the law of gravity is not enough to make it fall again when it put it with the nib downwards, so the pen writes until the ink that floods the feed runs out. I give a few taps to the pen, the ink falls and I can carry on writing... Until I store the pen again, nib upwards, and next time the ink is again at the top of the converter. I've read somewhere that this is related to the ink's surface tension. I've tried to change the ink I'm using with this pen, which is usually Montblanc Oyster Grey, and use Waterman Serenity Blue instead, but the result's been the same. I read that one option is to put one of the small balls that can be found inside cartridges inside the converter. Even though they say that converters can be disassembled by unscrewing the metallic ring, I haven't been able to unscrew mine. Either I lack the skill, or the strength. However, I saw that the ball of the cartridges I have at home (Faber-Castell, the only brand I can find near my home) have a very small ball. I thought that perhaps, with a little push, I'd be able to put it inside the converter through its hole. But it didn't even need the push. The ball's so small that it went easily in. So my question is: if I've got this ball whose diameter is smaller than that of the converter rim, would it be dangerous to fill the converter and see whether the surface tension problem is solved? Can the ball come out of the converter and block the feed of the pen, or something like that? Or is it safe to have a go?