Rotring Art Pen

[Venemo]

Dave, do you remember any issues with ink flow when you were using a converter?

 

It seems that my Art Pen sometimes behaves like as if it were running out of ink. It lays down a thinner line which looks pale and then even becomes grey and the pen starts to require more of an effort to write. Then I screw off the barrel, squeeze the converter (basically I empty 1/4 of the converter into the feed) and then all is back to normal.

 

Maybe my converter can't keep up with the ink flow?

[RMN]

Dave, do you remember any issues with ink flow when you were using a converter?

 

It seems that my Art Pen sometimes behaves like as if it were running out of ink. It lays down a thinner line which looks pale and then even becomes grey and the pen starts to require more of an effort to write. Then I screw off the barrel, squeeze the converter (basically I empty 1/4 of the converter into the feed) and then all is back to normal.

 

Maybe my converter can't keep up with the ink flow?

 

If a normal cartridge runs without problems you are probably suffering from airbubbles in the converter.

 

That is a well known problem. The airbubble prevents proper inkflow. You will have to fiddle with the piston every now and then, or perhaps insert a small steel pellet in the converter.

 

 

D.ick

[Venemo]

 

If a normal cartridge runs without problems you are probably suffering from airbubbles in the converter.

 

That is a well known problem. The airbubble prevents proper inkflow. You will have to fiddle with the piston every now and then, or perhaps insert a small steel pellet in the converter.

 

I haven't had issues with normal cartridges, yeah.

Is there a way to get rid of the air bubble? How would I insert a small steel pellet? (And where would I get such a pellet from?)

[amk]

I love my Art Pens. I have quite a few, in different nib widths, and they have always been reliable. Good little writers.

 

The clip comes in useful for storing them in my pen wrap.

[RMN]

Most converters are assembled and can be disassembled, especially around the metal sleeve ate the end. Then you can pull the piston out.

 

You could try a pellet from a normal cartridge but these are fairly light. Steel works better, it rolls around the converter breaking up bubbles. Some insert a piece of ballpoint-spring instead.

 

A 2.5 or 3 mm ballbearing would work.

 

Some converters come preinstalled, I have some olde Parker slideconverters having one, and the Monteverde mini has one, also. MB uses a springcoil, but they have altered the shape of the converter making it proprietary.

 

 

D.ick

[Venemo]

 

Most converters are assembled and can be disassembled, especially around the metal sleeve ate the end. Then you can pull the piston out.

 

Wow! I wish had noticed this before! This will also make it much easier to clean the converter.

 

You could try a pellet from a normal cartridge but these are fairly light. Steel works better, it rolls around the converter breaking up bubbles. Some insert a piece of ballpoint-spring instead.

 

A 2.5 or 3 mm ballbearing would work.

 

Not sure where I would get 2.5 - 3 mm ballbearings, but I'll look around. I've found some standard cartridges that have plactic pellets - I'll try one of those.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure I understand the physics behind this. How does the small pellet or the spring help with ink flow?

[RMN]

The insert breaks down the bubble. Same is when kids blow soapbubbles, as soon as it touches something, it bursts.

 

 

D.ick

[Tasmith]

I have two Rotring Art Pens. One a 1.5 mm italic, the other a Medium. Both quite new.

 

The 1.5 mm is utterly useless, leaving huge blobs of ink on the paper. The Medium writes an overly, MUCH too overly wide and generously wet line with lots of bleed-through, practically useless.

 

Both of them are hidden away, kept secret, forgotten (almost), banished, vanished. I am VERY dissatisfied. The Lamys and Schneiders - even the cheapest Chinese - are so very much better there's simply no comparison.

I purchased a set of Art Pens last Spring and they too wrote as you describe. But, after a week or so they were broken in and now write fine. I find that if the convertor get below 1/4 full, they start to write "blobby" again. Refill and they write fine. I use Noobler's X-Feather and really like it in the Art Pen.

 

I recently sharpened my 1.1mm, 1.5mm, 1.9mm and 2.3mm using ths method:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5MrU-5jf_U

 

and it really helped make the pens write more crisp.

Edited January 10, 2015 by Tasmith

[Strombomboli]

 

A 2.5 or 3 mm ballbearing would work.

 

 

A 3 mm ballbearing! Isn't that a little exaggerated? I mean, too big and too heavy? The little plastic balls from cartridges don't measure more than 1 mm, when looking at them.

[RMN]

 

A 3 mm ballbearing! Isn't that a little exaggerated? I mean, too big and too heavy? The little plastic balls from cartridges don't measure more than 1 mm, when looking at them.

 

I have tried the plastic balls from a cartridge before. They are more than 1 mm!. And I have some slide converters from Parker. Some have a little coil, but two have a steel ball that looks like 3 mm to me. I think that would move around much better in the cartridge. The smaller plastic one has too little mass/weight.

 

So the idea is not mine, but Parker's.

 

 

D.ick

[basterma]

My Artpen is a Medium point bought when it was Made in W. Germany. It is as described in the review. It shares the same nib and feed with an A&W pen from the mid-80's as well as with various German pens at the time made by Herlitz. All the pens write a bit on the dry side when compared to the Pelikans and Gehas I have from that time. I would love to know who made the nibs for these companies as they are quite robust as alluded to in the review.

[Strombomboli]

 

So the idea is not mine, but Parker's.

 

I am with you in what concerns plastic or steel balls; I think, steel is much better, since my experience with plastic is that it doesn't make much of a difference, if at all.

 

I just checked the size of a Pelikan cartridge plastic ball, it is 2 mm, so I was a little mistaken. Still - this size in steel would do the job, I think. Larger balls might seal the end of the converter, and then, no ink would flow (I had this problem before, but don't remember which little ball was involved).

[Venemo]

Actually, I put a small plactic ball (extracted from a standard cartridge) inside the converter and it already helps a great deal with ink flow.