Five Bad Things That Happen With New Pens

[Pen Engineer]

Another kind of bad thing is when you see a pen online, the photos make it look so lovely. Then when it arrives, it doesn't seem to match that. I got one pen, in a purple color, but inside it looks dark, almost black. It needs very good, bright light to show off the color, plus the reds and blues that are in it.

At night all cows are grey... in Germany they are even black! The colour receptors in our eyes work only within a limited range, once the light strength is below a certain level, all we see is grey. Try it.

[krysza2]

It is a very helpful topic for newbie :-)

[Hauriant]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but sometimes more than a flush might be required for getting gunk out.

I just got a Lamy al-star today. Unlike both of my pilots, it did not want to work well out of the box. . . would write OK-ish for a bit and then get dry. After a moment or two of waiting, same thing. I tried flushing it, no real luck, and then flushing it with a very weak dish-washing detergent solution. That made it usable.

I *love* the grip on it too, but it is not as smooth as the pilot, which is a bummer.

Edited January 13, 2018 by Hauriant

[Dorf]

I have problem with a Montblanc pen. Sometimes when draging the pen in one direction, there is too little (or nothing) ink coming out. I suspect a misalignement. But I would NEVER dare to start fixing the problem by myself!

Edited January 31, 2018 by Dorf

[Noihvo]

I have problem with a Montblanc pen. Sometimes when draging the pen in one direction, there is too little (or nothing) ink coming out. I suspect a misalignement. But I would NEVER dare to start fixing the problem by myself!

 

 

[Dorf]

 

Tack så mycket

[surprise123]

You saved me a trip to the nibmeister! !t was a Parker 51. God, its nib was scratchy. But then I took my fingernail and a cheap microscope and fixed it in under 30 seconds. Now I am a proud user of a Parker 21 with a buttery smooth 51' nib (because I'm too afraid to bring out the 51' to school, the cheapo 21' version was 13 dollars so I'm not too attached to it. Not gonna lose it, though, that 51' nib is a keeper.)

[mabuckit]

Bad thing #147 Puppy who puts everything in his mouth jumps onto the table with your new Lamy 2000 from the sofa. I was not amused. Okay I was a little, he's cute.

[southpaw]

Don't forget the usefulness of an ultrasonic cleaner too, although NOT on inlaid nibs. They do wonders at cleaning out nibs and feeds with dried ink. First got the idea at the Raleigh Pen Show years ago when I noticed that Ron Zorn and Richard Binder both had them at their work stations.

[paradigm]

My Visconti LE Typhoon vs Mosquito has collected a lot of problems. To list them in the Ebay lot, when I decided to sell it, I had to take a lot of pictures and explain all her problems with red arrows and text.

1. Engraving on thе nib did not coincide with the split nib halves by about a millimeter!

2. Inside the Moscquito, the rubber insert (upside down) was incorrectly glued. And this problem, judging by the reports on the forums, was present at these pens everywhere. That is, for most buyers, "Mosquito did not work."

3. The metal ring on the cap fell off a month or two after the purchase. Just badly glued.

4. On this metal ring (covered with platinum, it seems), there were very strong scratches a month after the purchase. And this despite the fact that I very carefully used this pen. And the impression was as if I rubbed it against the stone, not otherwise.

5. From a small reservoir of ink could leak into a large reservoir for a couple of seconds and not return from there. This occurred when the ink supply in a large reservoir decreased noticeably. Back to return the ink could only be an explicit replenishment of a small reservoir.
However, an unsuccessful turn of the fountain pen, and ink again leaks into a large tank. Judging by the specially made for ChatterLuxuries versions of Visconti with a single ink reservoir, many are aware of this problem.

 

 

I was too blinded by the acquisition of this Grail-Pen to notice problems in the first month, and some showed up only later.

[Pen Engineer]

Using your pen regularly keeps it free from gunck! and if you plan to put it aside, empty it and flush it with water until (almost) clear.

[mthayeb]

Well said, especially those pictures you posted is awesome , anyone can understand. A thoughtful effort.

[Pen Engineer]

help me too!

 

I've decided to take a look at some of my pens (cheaper ones at first) under a school microscope, pretty nice ones actually.

 

Ill be looking for these signs, but do you think that I should find something finer grit than a nail buffer, seeing that I've never done this before?

I use 1000 grid wet and dry paper which works well. The paper is wet and I write my signature 23.5 times

good luck

[Pen Engineer]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but sometimes more than a flush might be required for getting gunk out.

 

I just got a Lamy al-star today. Unlike both of my pilots, it did not want to work well out of the box. . . would write OK-ish for a bit and then get dry. After a moment or two of waiting, same thing. I tried flushing it, no real luck, and then flushing it with a very weak dish-washing detergent solution. That made it usable.

 

I *love* the grip on it too, but it is not as smooth as the pilot, which is a bummer.

take some 1000 grid wet and dry paper, wet it and write your signature about 20 time. Unless the tines are not set properly, that should help

[Honeybadgers]

take some 1000 grid wet and dry paper, wet it and write your signature about 20 time. Unless the tines are not set properly, that should help

 

 

1000 grit is way, way, WAY too coarse to smooth a nib. 1000 grit is for reshaping a nib. doing that will probably broaden the line dramatically and create a huge flat spot. You can easily ruin a nib that way, especially a fine or extra fine.

 

Get some 12,000 grit paper or micro mesh and write the alphabet several times through. follow up with mylar paper after that if you still find it too scratchy.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Honeybadgers

[Says]

Hi, I think I have a slight misalignment of the feed, and also a problem with the gap set.

 

Its a pineider la grande bellezza, and I can't find any videos on this.

Can anyone tell me where I can find instructions to remove the Nib?

[vamsivadrevu]

This is the most helpful post for my situation. I had a Deccan advocate with a kanwrite nib that was a hard starter (I guessed it was a baby's bottom issue after reading this thread). After two unsuccessful trips to the Deccan pen store to get it fixed, I decided only I could fix it. So I ran it on a 220 grit sandpaper slightly (I know that it's too much and too coarse) now there are no hard starts but the nib is too rough. I've ordered myself some micromesh pads to do polishing. I'll post my updated results here soon.

[Says]

My Visconti LE Typhoon vs Mosquito has collected a lot of problems. To list them in the Ebay lot, when I decided to sell it, I had to take a lot of pictures and explain all her problems with red arrows and text.

 

1. Engraving on thе nib did not coincide with the split nib halves by about a millimeter!

 

2. Inside the Moscquito, the rubber insert (upside down) was incorrectly glued. And this problem, judging by the reports on the forums, was present at these pens everywhere. That is, for most buyers, "Mosquito did not work."

 

3. The metal ring on the cap fell off a month or two after the purchase. Just badly glued.

 

4. On this metal ring (covered with platinum, it seems), there were very strong scratches a month after the purchase. And this despite the fact that I very carefully used this pen. And the impression was as if I rubbed it against the stone, not otherwise.

 

5. From a small reservoir of ink could leak into a large reservoir for a couple of seconds and not return from there. This occurred when the ink supply in a large reservoir decreased noticeably. Back to return the ink could only be an explicit replenishment of a small reservoir.

However, an unsuccessful turn of the fountain pen, and ink again leaks into a large tank. Judging by the specially made for ChatterLuxuries versions of Visconti with a single ink reservoir, many are aware of this problem.

 

 

I was too blinded by the acquisition of this Grail-Pen to notice problems in the first month, and some showed up only later.

 

Sounds like you should just send it in to Visconti

[Gabo]

This is a very enlightening post. Got lot of useful information. I've tried to look at some nibs with a loupe I use for checking record stylii. However I don't have the guts to put a hand on the nibs yet.

[/url]Nib magnifier by gabo4198, on Flickr">Nib magnifier by gabo4198, on Flickr

[waveonwave]

I'm on the same page - find this all fascinating, scared to death to try any of it!