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I am a new fp enthusiast. My first pen is a Noodlers Ahab flex nib and I love it! I love how it writes. I enjoy composing correspondence to my distant friends with this pen. I love the wide variety of Noodlers ink colors I buy. Noodlers inks are the only ones Ive used. The current favorite of mine is the legal blue. My question lies in the amount of ink that is regularly on the nib and the section. Im going to try to upload pictures to show you what Im experiencing. I try really hard to store my pens nib up. Ive noticed that heat, sunlight, hot car, etc... encourages what I think is called nib creep and Ive tried to minimize that. If this is normal Im fine with it but if theres something I can do, please let me know. My photo files are too large at this moment. I get so much ink on my finger that supports my pen that, if Im using red ink, people ask me if Im bleeding. I try to keep a tissue with me to wipe the section before I write but I often forget the tissue and I dont forget my pen. The ink amount thats on the end of the pen keeps me worried about leaks into my day bag so I dont carry my pen in my bag (would be helpful to be able to do so) and Id really like to do so.

I recently bought my first esterbrook, a black lever fill 9550, my first vintage pen. I have flushed and resacked it with a #15 silicone sac as no 16s were available. This was my first resacking. It writes very nicely. The trouble is that there is a lot of ink collecting on the nib and collector, even when it is stored nib up. Ink fills the valleys of the collector and onto the nib itself. Oddly, it seems to start from the flared sides of the nib rather than the slit or hole, almost as if it flowing round from the underside. I am using diamine jet black which I now know is a 'wet' ink. Is this a normal part of owning an older pen? Will a drier ink help? Should I consider other means of reducing flow? Could it indicate poor sealing of the sac? Thanks in advance.

Whenever I uncap my Edson (M), I find ink on the section. I've learned to grip farther away from the nib, but I still get ink on my fingers. I think what's happening is the ink from the nib creep transfers to the cap which then transfers to the grip section when I cap/uncap the pen. Anyone know how I can prevent this? Thanks in advance.

Hello, About 4 weeks ago in late August I purchased a medium nib Sheaffer 100 fountain pen as my first fountain pen. I have accumulated knowledge and I do believe that mine has a factory defect. My pen seems to suffer from "nib creeping" where ink in the slit flows onto the top of the nib. Being new to this, I assumed this was normal until I found out through the internet that fountain pens aren't supposed to do this. The nib creeping looks as follows: there is ink on either side of the slit, about 1/2 mm in width all the way from the point to the hole in the middle (it comes to a point toward the hole starting about 1 mm away from it). Sometimes it will be larger, even filling in the whole middle of the nib to the edges of the engraving. I read that this is caused either by a stray cut in the slit during manufacturing, creating a channel for the ink to follow; or, it is caused by the type of ink. I happened to have a bottle but it is not expressly meant for fountain pens, I don't think. It is titled "the Writing Collection" with a sticker that says "Au Musée" and "Scribe's black ink." If you know anything about this, I would be very keen to know. It has worked fine for me so far, but I can't find anything about it on the internet. It is quality ink with plenty of the properties of credited inks that I have read about, and I believe that it is not the problem in this case. I have disposable cartridges and I tried one of those and it did the same thing. If you could get back to me on what you think may be causing this issue and how we can solve it, I would appreciate it. I believe that it is a factory defect, personally; I cannot see any other reason, unless my knowledge of fountain pens is wrong (which it could be). To be clear, ink is not dripping off of it or anything, but I think it does impede writing a bit because an excess of ink is flowing onto the paper. That was quite long-winded!-Cyan

HI, I'm thinking of buying a Lamy Black Al star with a black nib and using it for school. Nib creep really irritates me, but my favorite ink- noodlers black is very prone to this. Anyone who has then pen and ink, can you tell me if the nib creep- if there is any- is noticeable on the black nib? Thanks

Dear all, I'm new to the forum. This is my first post. I hope I'm posting this inquiry to the correct board. I have a Waterman Edson fountain pen with a broad nib. It is in perfect condition and is rarely used. Unfortunately, I discovered that the nib "creeps", when the pen is held vertically. The leakage can be substantial if I ink the pen and hold it in a vertical position; ink would slowly gather at the tip of the nib, and even form a tiny drop and fall from it. If I slightly tilt the pen to its normal writing position, this problem is alleviated. However, the nib would then become excessively wet when inked up freshly and used for normal writing. Also, I noted that when I use a converter to ink up the pen, as I turn the knob of the converter, the ink is not being drawn up as it is supposed to. Thus, I cannot fill the ink up to the converter's full capacity, but can only fill to less than one third of the converter's visible capacity. I'm not sure if any of you have encountered this problem before with a Waterman Edson and if there is an easy fix. Or would you recommend that I send it back to Waterman for repair or nib exchange. Although the warranty card says "lifetime warranty", this is an old pen (looks brand new), and I'm not sure if Waterman would honor that. I've read online that years ago Waterman changed its policy and annulled the lifetime warranty on its pens. Any input would be appreciated, as I really would like to start using this pen instead of just putting it away in my collection. Thank you.

Not really any specific point. Have just noticed a vast array of opinions on nib creep. Some people really get bothered by it, others don't really care. It's said it doesn't effect the performance of the pen. Just more of a visual thing. Do you downgrade a pen slightly or an ink if it tends to have nib creep? I know there are quite a few people who do. Just thought it would be interesting to throw it up and see what everybody's thoughts were. Personally I don't really mind it unless it's something outrageous.

Hey folks, This is my first post on the network and I'm dying for some input. A friend of mine gave me a Pelikan Celebry his family received as a gift from a German exchange student. It wasn't treated well and was headed for the trash until he found out I was a pen addict. It has a broad nib and writes beautifully after a few priming lines. But, when it sits (even for a short period of time) with the cap on, ink leaks below the nib at the base of where I hold the pen. There is clearly a chip on the pen which you should be able to see in the picture. Currently it has a black Kaweco sport cartridge. Is there any way to stop this leaking? I'd love to use this pen regularly but not if it's bleeding ink. Any ideas would be great! Thanks pen people.

Hello all, One of my favorite inks is Noodler's 54th Massachusetts. I like it as a daily ink in one of my pens because it's a dark enough blue/black that I feel it's appropriate for just about any task (not that I'm in a legal setting or anything anyway). I have noticed, though, that it tends to creep a lot. I thought at first it might be the pen I was using, but I tried it in other pens and had the same result. I recently started using it in an Edison Pearlette and it's doing it with that as well. Is this just a characteristic of this ink or is it just maybe a bad batch? Anyone else noticing this issue? Thanks for any information you guys can offer up. Best, Matthew

This is my first MB fontain pen. I bought it as second hand item from Ebay. It is quite new but I have a nib creep problem. While writing a droplet of ink comes up the surface of the nib and immadiately whicked back into the feed living a stain behind. I tried it twice with both MB Black and with Aurora Black ink. It happens more with MB ink when compared with Aurora Black. I flushed and cleaned the pen before inking. I called MB Service in Turkey about the problem before seeing the pen we can't say anything exactly they said. Except these what can I do what can the reason for it? Kind regards. Cengiz

This is my first MB fontain pen. I bought it as second hand item from Ebay. It is quite new but I have a nib creep problem. While writing a droplet of ink comes up the surface of the nib and immadiately whicked back into the feed living a stain behind. I tried it twice with both MB Black and with Aurora Black ink. It happens more with MB ink when compared with Aurora Black. I flushed and cleaned the pen before inking. I called MB Service in Turkey about the problem before seeing the pen we can't say anything exactly they said. Except these what can I do what can the reason for it? Kind regards.