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I have a Pilot VP with a broad nib (18k). Great writer and I love it except for one thing: When the ink - whether in a Pilot Cartridge or the CON-40 - drops to about 1/2 full, there is no flow/hard starts (which do not resolve after a few strokes) if the pen has been stored nib up. If then placed nib slightly down for a few minutes, the flow is back to normal. By stored, I mean overnight in a pen cup or in my shirt pocket for an hour or so. FYI - the ink - whether in cartridges or via converter - is and has always been Kon Peki. Has anyone else run into this or have any ideas (other than not storing the pen nib up) ? TIA!

I recently got my hands on a PenBBS 355 (shoutout to everyone who helped me decide over here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/347558-penbbs-355-vs-456/) The pen came with a medium nib, and for the most part I really enjoy it. But I'm getting a persistent hard starting issue, irrespective of stroke direction, which is resisting all my best attempts to fix it. Under its own weight, the pen writes only sporadically. If it doesn't start right away, I can drag it all over the place with no ink getting down. Hard starts happen while writing as well. First I checked nib alignment, which was every so slightly off. Fixed that, but still hard starts. I thought there might have been debris in the way, so I gave the pen a very thorough flushing and flossed the tines. Didn't help either. Then I thought it must be baby's bottom, but some attention with micromesh didn't make a difference, and I was unsure if the tip showed the baby's bottom shape (although I am no nibmeister). Does anyone have any suggestions? I can always swap out for a different #6 nib if necessary, but I'd love to salvage this one if I could. Nib photos (sadly primitive ones) attached below; angles from above, below, writing angle, and head-on. Thanks in advance for any help. Edit to add: So far I've tried the pen with Pilot Blue Black and Iroshizuku Asa Gao, which have always behaved well for me in other pens.

Duraflex by Conklin I bought it from Singapore for months already, the pen is wonderful in looking, big size, all black with rose gold details, affordable, and limited edition with individual number engraved on the barrel... Oh wow, you name it, it has it. I finally use the pen days ago, using Iroshuzuku Murasaki-Shikibu (a wonderful purple colour). I have the pen flushed before using, and yes, within 20 minutes, I regret it. Very disappointed. As mentioned on many forums around, hard start problem appears as frequent as it can and it rails even not pressing hard for some line variations. I could withstand the rail problem as I can use it as a normal pen and not pressing it. But the hard start thing.....uuuuug. T_T The pen needs to break in? or that's the way of the omniflex nib? or other kind of ink may help? Guys, anything I can do? Please share your opinions. Thanks

This problem happens on my Faber Castell Loom and I just bought a pilot metropolitan so now I have something to compare it to. I first want to mention a problem I had months ago but seems to have worked itself out, just in case it's relevant. That would be while writing a couple of pages, the ink would stop flowing and I'd have to lower the piston to get it to write again. That problem appears to have gone away after a couple of months. On to my current (small) issue. If I leave the pen uncapped for about 30 seconds to a minute, it generally doesn't write on the first stroke. Once it starts writing it writes fine. This same problem occurs when moving from a higher angle to a lower angle of writing. Sometimes I'll re-position my hand at a lower angle and it will skip a line or two. I bought a Pilot Metropolitan yesterday and for a third of the price of the Loom.... it writes better. Smoother nib and no hard starts if left uncapped for less than a minute. Now I wouldn't call the Loom's nib scratchy but it does have more feedback and needs more pressure to write well. Below is a video of what happens when I adjust the angle. There are also a few pictures that took way to long to ghetto-rig together but gives a better picture of the nib point. If the ink looks a bit weird it's because it has started to dry as the pictures took some time.

I've seen with one of my wing sung 3008 pens that there's always hard starts on cheaper paper. If i press hard on the nib, the flow resumes but is a bit too wet. It does not write with it's own weight. This led me to think it had baby's bottom since the tines appeared aligned. However, when I use Tomoe River paper, it writes the first time every time. It also delivers a wet line, not a faint one. So is it a feed issue? I've never had this kind of a problem before. There's no issues with the feed keeping up with Tomoe River. I'm willing to experiment on this pen as well and would love any advice!

I recently purchased a serviced Parker 51. However it skips terribly, and starts hard. Backstory: So I asserted that the seller had maybe mislead me about servicing it. So I decided to take it apart and fix it myself. The filler unit works well, so I didn't bother to take that apart. I took off the hood, but realized that the seller didn't lie about it, the collector and feed were completely clean. I re-aligned the nib and feed with the collector carefully, so that the wide air gap on the collector is now precisely over the top of the nib. Then I pushed the nib and feed into the collector as far as they go, and screwed the hood back on. The result: Flow has improved a little bit (possibly because I aligned the nib + feed in relation to the collector better), but the pen still hard starts and skips and like hell. There is a very tight sweet spot, ie. I can hold it in a way in which it skips much less, and of course it doesn't skip when I apply considerable pressure, but... it is not pleasurable to write with it this way. How can I fix this? What am I missing?

Hi, As I was writing today I observed the ink was running lean. Using a loupe I looked at the nib between the tines and before my eyes an air gap between the tines appeared, the ink 'separated'. If you look at the image there is some ink at the tip of the nib, an air gap, then ink near the breather hole (too dark to see). Would anyone know what the cause of this would be ? I've thought of possible reasons such as: feed running dry, nib and feed not mating, problem with nib causing capillary failure. Observing: there is still some moisture/ink between nib and feed, the nib and feed are properly touching (no gap); I'm open to other suggestions. The nib is a generic JoWo #6, feed is common generic plastic, pen is cartridge/converter. Thanks, Fabian

I bought a Parker "51" aerometric from someone and began to experience hard starts with the pen after about a half hour of the pen being capped. I contacted the seller, who offered an immediate refund, but I didn't want to part with the pen. I took the cap off my Hero 616, put it on the Parker 51, and the hard starts went away. I checked the pen cap for a cracked inner cap and all looked good. The seller offered to send me another cap. I put the cap on the pen, and it immediately began to hard start. But with the Hero 616 cap, it does not. The seller tested the second cap in a 51 and did not notice any hard starts. At this point, I am thinking it might be the clutch ring on the pen not forming an air tight seal with the cap. New clutch rings look pretty cheap, so I am wondering whether I should swap the clutch ring out, or is it better to just return the pen in case it's not the clutch ring. Also, would a Hero 616 clutch ring work in a Parker "51" ? I figure since I have a 616 just lying around uninked, I could cannibalize it for parts.

Hi, I bought a Custom 74 recently, and it was very dry attempting to write on Rhodia paper with Iroshizuku ink. I took it apart, widened the nib tines until I could see light all the way to the tip, made sure that the tines were aligned and tried again. Now the pen writes quite well, when it writes. Unfortunately, it does occasionally hard-start on Rhodia paper, especially on upstrokes and side-strokes. As far as I can tell, it does not have baby's bottom, and the tines are well aligned. I don't want to go to micro mesh if it doesn't need it. When I write on lousy copier paper, it's fine. I'm at my wit's end with this nib. The pen seems perfectly wet so I don't think it's a feed issue. What else could cause this behaviour? Thanks, Mike

I recently got a Pelikan DF nib in the mail and found that it had some hard start/skipping issues. It was also a little scratchy. When I checked the tines they were indeed misaligned so I corrected them, which was not so easy with a DF nib. I then found, to my delight, that the hard start/skipping problem had vanished! I had no idea the two were related. Or are they? Was it coincidence or did I kill two birds with one stone? And while we're at it, does anyone know why this nib has two breather holes?

Hi everyone, I have a Parker Vacumatic in Emerald Pearl (can't tell about date; Made in USA) that I bought from a Goodwill-type place for $22 (obviously they had no idea of its worth) in good condition. I've attached photos for your observation. Here's my problem: my nib dries out constantly. I thought, at first, it was the way I filled the pen, or the nib wasn't wet enough. Now I think it's the cap with those ventilation holes. Does the cap have to do with the nib drying out? Or am I on the wrong track? To put it simply, what's going on? Any help is appreciated, from old forum thread links to replies! Em (Hope the photos are okay)

I've had a new TWSBI 580 AL inked with Noodler's Rachmaninoff since Friday. When I first set it up, I had no problems. Tonight, I'm getting hard to non-existent starts. Anyone have any experience with this? Edit: Yes, I did disassemble and clean all parts with warm soapy water when I first got it.

I had an unfortunate mishap with my Pilot Metropolitan at work, and destroyed the nib. I dropped it (cap off), onto a tile floor, it bounced off the nib and "double-tapped", bending it in two different directions. Needless to say, the nib was mangled. Wanting to try a different type of nib, and not willing to buy another metropolitan, just to cannibalize, I decided to buy a plumix and swap the nibs. I did not try out the Plumix first. I immediately dismantled it, cleaned both pens with plain water, and re-assembled the plumix nib and feed together on the Metro, using the same half-spent black cartridge I was using previously. After the first few strokes I noticed it would randomly skip on the first 1/10 inch or so of a downstroke, and randomly on side strokes, then start flowing. Now, I have never used an italic/stub nib before, so maybe I'm doing something wrong. I was trying to keep the nib flat and straight on the paper, and not roll it to one side. I was also writing very slow. Even so, it was still acting up. I've read reviews where many people have said the plumix nib is one of the smoothest Pilot nibs out there. While actually flowing I would say its very smooth, but the skipping issues ruin the experience. I do not have a loupe, but I do have an SLR camera, and multiple lenses, so I tried the "reverse-lens" trick. It was hard to see, as I probably shouldn't have used a 28-200mm zoom lens (very small opening at infinity focus), but I could not see any misalignment of the tines. I did end up buying another metro to use as-is, and both Mediums are/were buttery smooth. It's a shame I'm having trouble with their stub. Any ideas?

I received a pen in a PIF and, though I love the pen (as does my 10 y.o. granddaughter), it's a very hard starter. As soon as you lift the pen from the paper, it stops writing. However, turning the pen over, it writes quite well, if a little scratchy. When I looked at the nib under magnification, I did notice that the feed wasn't lined up very well so I adjusted it. Then, I noticed this... This isn't normal, is it?