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Hi, I am relitivley new to fountain pens, owning only 3 at this point. Yesterday I purchased my first expensice vountain pen, the visconti homosapiens steel midi, and am having some issues with the ink flow. What happens is, I fill it and it writes beautifully, then it will suddenly stop. At this point, there seemes to be no ink left in the feed, yet there is definetly ink left in the piston filler as I turned the piston and watched the ink drop out. If I give the pen a bit of a flick, It will write again as I have flicked ink into the feed, but this only lasts about a paragraph. The same goes for thurning the piston, which saturates the feed enough to write maybe half a page. I did some reading on the site and fushed the pen with soapy water, then with non soapy water a number of times to remove the soap. I then flushed it with ink before inking it up again. This did not solve the problem. I also removed the nib and feed to see if there was a blockage, but the feed looked fine, albiet dry, and the hole that joins it to the resovoir of ink had no observable blockage, though it was very difficult so see far down it. Just out of curiosity, I turned the piston and watched as the vacated cylinder where the feed normally sits, filled up with ink. I really dont know what to do now, and thougth to post here where it seems there are many knowledgable, long time pen owners who may be able to help me. Any help that is offered will be much appreciated.

Hey guys. I'm new to fountain pens, and I don't know who else has the problem of people ALWAYS wanting to borrow your pens. This one guy even pretty much took it right out of my hands to write down his number (jerk), and ended up leaving ink splotches all over the paper, he pressed down so hard. Ugh. Do you think this damaged the nib (Lamy Safari EF)? It writes kinda funny now; it just feels different than before, and I think the lines are thicker, which negates the EF nib bit. I might even get a new one, which is a shame because I've only had this one for about three months, even though I've used it loads. Do they typically last longer? Also, my friends are always curious about it, because nobody else really uses them, and want to borrow it. How do you all deal with this? Thanks bunches!

Hey everyone, so I'm pretty new to fountain pens (first one yay!), and I was wondering, how often should I replace my nib? I have a Lamy Safari XF nib, and recently (IE yesterday) a jerk 'borrowed' it, and pressed down so hard on the paper that he left ink splotches, and now it writes funny. I think the line is wider, which negates the whole XF nib thing, and I was thinking about replacing it, but that's fifteen dollars I'm loathe to spend. I really need a thin line for my handwriting to approach legibility, though. Any advice?