Fp Noob Help: My Pen Doesn't Seem Fond Of Writing. . . .

[Zettachrome]

Hello, fellow Fountain Pen geeks! I've always wanted a good fountain pen, but have only hitherto owned disposable ones, until yesterday, when I purchased what I beleive to be a Parker Sonnet. It took a bit to get the ink flowing after I stuck an ink cartridge in there, but it's kind of . . . halting. Sometimes it writes, and sometimes it doesn't.

 

Did I do something wrong, or is this normal for fountain pens, you know, to take a bit to start writing without interruption?

 

I store it upright, I put the cartridge in correctly, and write as I should with it, it just stops from time to time and I have to wait a bit or shake some ink out through the tip again to get it working.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Notgatherox]

I would say it's probably a case of residue manufacturing lubricant left in the feed/nib that causes this issue.

 

Try flushing the pen with some soap and water. Or mix up a batch of ammonia to water pen flush in a 1:10 ratio.

 

Clean the pen throughly with water after doing the above step, and you should get a pen that writes consistently.

 

 

 

 

~Epic

[Mike 59]

If your pen is brand new, never been filled with ink, then it would really benefit from a 'flush' through, as mentioned above (#2).

It's thought that new pens are likely to have at least a small amount of 'release agent' still on the surface of the plastic components.

With the ink channels being only around 0.001" or so wide, it doesn't take very much to cause ink flow issues.

It's normally a good idea to give the finger grip/feeder/nib part of the pen, a soak in a solution of cool water with a drop or two of dish washing up liquid mixed in.

First remove the ink cartridge. An old jam jar or beaker would be useful too.

If you can scoop the water up into the top opening where the cartridge would fit, let it run through (10 seconds) and repeat a dozen times, then dry the nib on a paper towel.

Refit the cartridge and test again. the ink may be slightly watery for a few words but will improve with writng.

Hopefully the Sonnet was supplied with a Parker Quink cartridge, with blue or black ink.

Parker pens will accept only Parker Quink cartridges or converters, other types will not fit.

Hope that makes sense.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Mike 59

[kidde]

Your post leads me to think your pen had prior use. Flushing is still a good place to start, either new or used. If my assumption is correct about being previously owned I'd also soak it to loosen up any old ink dried in the feed. Your issue seems to be a flow problem, so flushing is a good starting point. Let us know how it goes.

 

Paul

[H1N]

You can try to stress on the Nib more a bit than the normal pressure of writing for one time, let the Nib take its first breathing then your pen should write well.