Five Bad Things That Happen With New Pens

[teketeke]

Thanks for the helpful info! I'm taking a closer look at some cheap pens I had written off previously...

[Krittabhas]

Very useful and thank for posting.

[emiliovillegas]

I just bought a Visconti Rembrandt in B. The tines are correctly aligned as far as I can see but the pen skips a lot! When it writes it writes smoothly but all the skipping is killing me! I'm starting to dislike the pen and I see it sitting in my drawer for a long time until I can get a new nib or something...

[nikoskard]

The first case happened with my brand new Pelikan Ductus and send it back for nib change. Was misaligned and a little scratchy when writing lines from right to left.

 

Now I have to wait for 4-6 weeks....

Edited July 26, 2012 by nikoskard

[Gcouch]

Thanks for the post… that would answer a few questions

[nikoskard]

The first case happened with my brand new Pelikan Ductus and send it back for nib change. Was misaligned and a little scratchy when writing lines from right to left.

 

Now I have to wait for 4-6 weeks....

 

My new Ductus arrived from Pelikan Germany, although wrong color, but is buttery smooth in comparison with the first one i bought.

 

It was due to tines misaligned and Pelikan change the whole Pen with brand new one boxed.

 

 

 

[OceanBlue]

Speaking of new pens, I've had a hard time breaking in my Kaweco Sport medium nib. Love the looks and convenience, but I have to press down really hard to get a good line, and the first stroke is usually invisible. I squeezed the cartridge before screwing the body back on today (I refilled the cartridge with an ink syringe) to get the flow going, but later in the day it blooped a blot on my work...oops. How long does it take to break the thing in? My Luoshi "Marmalade" from Hisnibs required no such patience, though I did have to tuck the ink feeder back in once.

[kma335]

Thanks! I'm new to fountain pens but this will really help in the future

[Penpradeepjain]

great!

[challakere]

Misaligned tines

Through a loupe, the tipping looks like this.

The pen feels scratchy, and may skip in a particular direction.

The cure is to bring the tines into alignment (carefully!) using your fingers to (gently!) bend them.

Note that the misalignment may be due to the nib being off centre on the feed. Again, tweak the nib or feed (judiciously!) to bring it into alignment.

 

Poor gap set

Tines are squeezed together or too far apart. Pen has poor ink flow (too little, too much), may skip if the tines are too far apart.

The cure for too narrow a gap is to spread the tines of the nib. (see point 5 in John Mottishaw's excellent article).

Passing a thin (10 micron) brass shim between the tines can help with this problem.

Narrowing the gap requires removing the nib from the pen, squeezing the tines past each other so that they spring back to the correct position, and re-adjusting the alignment. Professional help is preferable, here.

 

Badly set feed

There is a gap between nib and feed.

Pen alternately skips and floods.

Cure is to reset the feed. Feeds are made of thermoplastics or hard rubber, and become flexible with gentle heat. Use hot water to soften the feed and set it up against the nib.

 

Manufacturing gunk in the ink system

Pen skips or doesn't flow at all because oil in the ink channels in the feed or in the slit of the nib prevents the flow of water.

I always assume this is there, and flush a new pen with water before use. Sometimes standing the pen in ink overnight helps.

 

Baby bottom

The shape of the nib keeps the ink away from the paper.

Pen is a "hard starter". It writes well, but needs a bit of a push down on the nib to get it going. May skip a bit.

The cure is to grind away some of the tipping, to get a better shape. If you are at all unsure about doing this, seek a professional. I use a nail buffer, available for a small amount of money and a large sacrifice of dignity from the health and beauty section of the pharmacist. The finest grade buffer only!

 

Notes:

It is best to work out what your problem is, before trying to fix it. Many of the symptoms are similar, and fixing the wrong problem may damage your pen.

 

A 10x loupe is sufficent to see these problems, though some prefer to use magnifications as high as 20x.

 

A nail buffer is not an emery board. It is a thick thing with three or four grades of grit, the finest being gray, and smooth to the touch. Women apparently use it to bring their nails to a high degree of polish.

 

Grinding the nib is a last, not a first resort.

 

Further reading

It's also worth reading John Mottishaw's excellent article, Ludwig Tan's article on grinding italic nibs, and the articles in Richard Binder's reference page.

Arthur Twydle's article describes some of the more drastic measures taken in the past. I'm not a fan of spirit lamps and the like.

 

Edit: Added a notes section in response to some of the questions below

[OceanBlue]

This has become one of my most-consulted articles. I "fixed" one calligraphy nib (rotring) by buffing--felt so daring. Now going to try it on my handy-dandy Kaweco sport, which has always been a little too rough and reluctant (though it is tamer after a couple of months of scribbling and signing...). Thank you very much for the precise information.

[OceanBlue]

I assumed the information applies to people with artisanal tendencies and some experience with pens, and that they know who they are. On the other hand...I mean, if I see instructions on how to fix a tractor or a microscope, I am unlikely to try them just like that. Or a recipe for a souffle.

[OceanBlue]

Kaweco nib took about a minute to get perfect, looping on a buffer and trying it every few seconds. A different personality! Cooperative rather than stubborn. I take it all back about the hard nib...Next frontier, eyedropper and gel seal adventures.

Edited October 13, 2012 by OceanBlue

[Kiarelle]

Thank you for the tips! My long-anticipated Sailor 1911 Young arrived today and is scratchy. I have already flushed her with water, as I do for all my new pens, so I will look into the other possibilities.

 

Interestingly enough, I have not had this happen with any of my inexpensive Chinese pens! They write smoothly right out of the box.

[Hellmut]

Thanks a lot for the useful information !

[Yomillio]

Thanks for the information - this is great for new FP enthusiasts! I really have to get around to getting myself a loupe for this.

[jptech]

I'm curious about using sandpaper to grind a nib.

 

No, I'm not talking 600 grit stuff you use to make your boards smooth.

 

I have 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper used for lapping CPU heatsinks and wet sanding auto paint jobs.

 

The 2000 will actually put a high shine on copper.

 

Has anyone tried this?

[Lince]

Use buff sticks used to bring shine to the nails.

2000 grit seems like to rough you will have to go to 10,000

[Brien Crotty]

A fantastic thread that should be reference material in the back pocket of every FP enthusiast!

 

Nicely done!

 

B

[quickdraw]

I didn't have a loupe, only a childs magnifying glass. I couldn't quite remove all the scritch'n so I used a 4000 grit sanding stone and polished the nib with the edge of the stone. Worked like a charm. I made sure to use a side to side action with extremely small changes in the pen-to-stone angle so I didn't flatten the nib.

 

...After playing with this some more, I think I've got something nice...

 

I worked the nib on the stone as if I was writing with it, but in a small circle area half the diameter of a dime. Pretending to write, I could feel rough spots catch on the stone, probably because 4000 grit is a take-down grit. I'll have to look for a 10,000 or 15,000 cloth to finish it off, but it feels very very nice as it is!

 

And as a bonus, Amodex took all the ink off the stone!

 

Here is a video of what I did:

http://youtu.be/uT75E363MsY

Edited January 11, 2013 by quickdraw