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Back in the 1990s I used Waterman pens with #2 nibs for drawing, which seemed to be the most perfect tool — but they frequently leaked and had problems. I didn't get back into fountain pens until recently when I started to hunt for flexible nibs again on a modern, more reliable pen. First I discovered Fountain Pen Revolution flexible nibs, which are great, but then I found that I could also insert vintage Waterman nibs on some modern pens, which was a revelation. The problem was that the FPR pens are so leaky and unreliable, and both nibs always seemed to be starving for ink in various pens I found. Enter Kaweco Liliput. I discovered that their #5 nib/feed was a perfect size for the FPR and Waterman nibs, but I needed to improve ink flow. I also found that the pens are too short for quick sketching (without having to cap them). So I: • Bought a second set of each pen so I can use the cap as an extender • Drilled a hole through the back of the body so a standard ink converter will fit the pen • Altered the feeds so the ink channel/gap was wide enough to accommodate steady ink flow. (I melted the channel with paperclip attached to a soldering iron so the gap was about 2mm.) • Used a flame to "blue" the stainless steel pen, which made it kind of yellowish and colorful • Patina'd the copper pens by soaking in an ammonia bath, which has now mostly faded • Used a cap from a brass "Space Pen" to extend one of the copper pens, instead of another Kaweco cap (and each extra set is not cheap at ~$65, and I am only using the extra cap). Soaked that in ammonia as well, and it's stayed blue-black for a while now I now feel that these are perfect drawing pens (other than the fact that you cannot cap them on the end, which is a minor issue for me). I love using ink converters with flexible nibs since if it the pens stalls you can just shoot a bit of ink with a turn of the dial on the converter. I also find that converters are the best way to experiment easily with different inks. The feel of the copper is really nice and the color keeps changing. A gold Waterman nib in a copper pen is just sublime! Has anyone else hacked their Kaweco pens?

Well well, we who collect and use Chinese fountain pens tend to hoard loads after loads, and then we start experimenting and hacking ; and ultimately ending up with a bunch of success and equal bunch of failures and with that we usually end up with a cache of parts , partial pens etc etc .. so I figure let's start a thread that chronicle our ( mis ) adventure with these parts and how we end up with something uniquely one's own, and might end up inspiring more ... I will start with my Nov haul ; the Sunnymax Selmy Piston Filler , aka WSE Wing Sung 3009, a plain un adorned trim down version of the 3008 with all Demo styling and Lamy style nib ; my hack had to do with hacking a Hero 58 nib onto it. Well normally the Hero 200/50 and the equal tooled Wing Sung 400/500 nib will not fit a Lamy ( Safari ) but well not all of these same kind of nib are actually the same. The Hero 58 nib , the only varaint that got this 2 tone finishing happen to just a wee bit different in size and one can coax the nib to fit onto the pen / feed ( or the other way round ) The Hero nib will in its form fit loose if you are using the 200 or 50 series nib but the 58 nib, probably due to its finishing is just that bit thicker so it would fir somewhat if one just pry the side wing a bit tighter ) on the claws ) or one could score the side of the feed that engage the nib's wing with a hot X-acto knief and thus forming a raised ridge along the scored line that give a bit more girth and some friction to the side, then its just the simple job of putting the nib onto the feed

Ok let's admit it, most of us who frequent this prat of the forum are stationary junkies. Now no excuse and need no explanation either. And let's also admit we like to tinker around with all of them ... some do their own pen case, , some do their own notebook etc etc .. so what's your planned hack / DIY / project for 2020 ??? Well for me, its going to be a months if not year long project .. I just about give up on trying to find a decent priced todays production of a traveling writing slope ; they can be had but usually only as custom order and let say luxurious price .. so I figure forge it I am going to hack my own .. no I am not that good at carpentry to go do it all but I figure I would hack an artist / painters traveling case type easel to made one .. just order one and then some raw material for the writing surface .. shall see how it goes Do you had a stationary project you aim to do this year and let's talk about it

How do you get the nib out of the unit. It seems like they are almost glued in. Compared to getting a #6 nib free of it's unit dealing with the #5 is a bit of a swine. I got one unit with a Bock EF nib and I was going to get another with a 1.1mm Italic tip. I just want the nib removal to be easier next time.

Hello FPN, Here's yet another Zebra G hack. I had an extra Pilot 912 that was gifted to me and extra titanium coated Zebra G nibs I wasn't using so I figured why not. Maybe a crazy thing to do with a $150+ pen, but I sure like it a lot better now! I like dip pen calligraphy and I even like the action of going slow and dipping the pen for every word because I'm a masochist I enjoy the soothing nature of it and the purity of it all; puts me in some kind of meditative state. Sometimes you just want to write without stopping though and add some flair to boot. I was looking at various Zebra G hacks for pens; JinHao, Noodler's, Ranga etc. and seeing that poor unused Pilot gave me an idea: the Pilot 912 "G". Knowing that flow is always an issue, I modified the feed by deepening the ink channel with an x-acto knife. The Zebra G nib won't fit snugly onto the feed because the feed is too wide. So I took my x-acto knife and started shaving off material on the top and top-side areas of the feed in a way that would make the nib fit flush. Then I took fine grit sand paper to smooth it out and sanded down some other areas to make it fit well. The feed tip wasn't flush to the underside of the nib (there's space) so I put the feed in some very hot water then took it out and held it in place so as to alter the shape slightly, pushing the feed tip upwards towards the underside of the nib. Had to do it a few times (this was the trickiest part for me and I probably didn't even have to do it if I shaped the feed to the nib better by sanding it). The Zebra G nib is too long and the feed sits too far back when both are pushed in, so I took my trusty Dremel tool and in two to three minutes grinded down the back edge about a quarter of an inch keeping the same rounded shape, smoothed it out with fine grit sanding paper and cleaned the nib properly. Fit the feed and nib back into the section, inked it up with Iroshizuku just to keep it all Japanese (no it's actually fantastic ink), and there you have it. I rarely have to prime it and it almost never railroads unless I'm writing feverishly fast. I left it capped (cap fits fine) horizontally for a couple hours and came back and it started right back up again and no leaks so far.

Here's what I spent my day doing, as a result of being salty about my Ackerman pump pen not arriving and getting no responses to my multiple queries to customer service. And really, it was so stupid-easy, I should have just done this to begin with. Annnnnd here's a general run-down on how I did it: Close-up of the tape overfeed on the nib: Hopefully other tinkerers and those who desire, specifically (like me), to use G nibs in their pens, will find this helpful and interesting. I know I'm enjoying it! The only problem I've come across is that you CANNOT give the pen a little downward shake to prime the nib. It will spew a big ol' droplet or two. The way I would describe how to get the nib tip primed, should it run dry, is to do little "woodpecker taps" on a piece of scrap paper. Or if you're really careful (*cough*adventurous*cough*), light taps where you're going to start your line. This should be familiar to others who have put dip nibs in fountain pens before.

Does any one know if the MontBlanc Legrand Rollerball will take the standard Montblanc rollerball refill? Or if the Legrand refill can be "hacked" and made to use bottled ink? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hello, just sharing a little trick I just used to effectively clean stained silicone grease from the threads of my demonstrator eyedropper pen. I have a Franklin-Christoph Stabilis 65, which is clear acrylic throughout.. except for the threads, which were a beautiful shade of Tsuki-yo blue! Cleaning these of silicone grease was really difficult - an old toothbrush couldn't access them very well, whilst a soggy cotton bud just smeared it all around. Then inspiration struck! (or perhaps it was wind..) Anyway, I rummaged around in my bathroom drawers for an old mascara tube, and scrubbed the wand under running water until perfectly clean. The soft wand bristles are firm enough to poke into the threads but not stiff enough to scratch, and they did a marvellous job of clearing all the old silicone out in just a minute or two! Hey presto: clean demonstrator. *beams smugly*