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Perhaps this is of some use to some of you. Making a pen wetter is relatively easy. Usually, changing to a wet ink does the trick. Conversely, making a pen dryer can be done by changing to a dry ink and this should always be the first step, at least in my opinion. I've had really good results with changing to Pelikan 4001; this is a great ink for taming a pen that's a bit too wet for me. But if the pen is a real firehose and using dry inks doesn't do the trick, then it becomes more difficult. Many experienced fountain pen folks push the tines over each other sideways to bring both halves of the tip closer together. Personally I would never do that to a pen that's valuable, either financially or emotionally. This method often leads to misaligned tines, which then has to be corrected. Twice I've had a nibmeister do this to a pen, and twice I was disappointed with the results. The feel of the pen changed and I spent many, many hours of very gentle, patient and persistent tinkering to get them back to their former self (only drier). Over the last month or so, my circa 2005 MB146 with a much older EF nib somehow decided to become wetter. I don't know why. I use Montblanc ink in it (lavender purple). It got to the point where the ink became extremely saturated and it sheened. The huge flow also lubricated the nib (which is very very smooth to begin with) to such an extent that writing became like hot butter on glass. Exercising control over my writing became very difficult. Changing to a dry ink didn't work well with this particular pen. Now, I'm not about to meddle with this pen. I don't have the required tool to dismantle it and I don't want to take any risk with this wonderful nib. The solution was this: ^---This is the stuff they use to heat-seal your chicken filet into its little plastic basket. I guess it's cellophane. It's rigid enough to stay horizontal if you hold it at one end. It's thin enough to slide between the nib and the feed, using tweezers. ^---Put the cellophane on a glass plate (or a stainless steel plate or something similar) and use a very very sharp knife (a Stanley knife or a scalpel, etc) to cut a small strip out of it. It should be long enough to pass underneath the breathing hole and wide enough to cover 2/3rd of the width of the nib. If it's too short, it won't work because ink will flow around it and the pen will stay wet. If it's too long, there might be no ink flow left at all. Experiment. I got it right in three attempts. I took this photo before cutting off the excess plastic. ^---These photos are only indicative. They don't fully capture the original wetness of the pen. But you can see the difference. This method seems to me to be both safe and reversible, yet there are three minor pitfalls that I can think of: >>Pitfall: the effect is *not* immediately noticeable! It took appr. 7 minutes of writing before the wetness started to decrease and after appr. 15 minutes the pen reached its new equilibrium. So cut the cellophane, insert, write for a while and do not jump to conclusions too fast. It will take longer for pens where the feed has a large buffer capacity. Be patient, write, take your time. >>Pitfall: be very careful to make sure that some of the cellophane remains visible underneath the nib. Since the nib is wider than the feed, the cellophane needs to be wider than the feed yet smaller than the nib. That way, using a pin, a needle or the point of a pocket knife, you can remove it again. If it completely disappears between the nib and the feed, then removing it means dismantling the pen. >>Pitfall: it might not work with every pen. It works great on my MB, but if you somehow cannot make the cellophane pass the breather hole or if you don't get the cellophane cut to the right size, then it might not work.