Faber Castell Pens. Have You Experienced Drying Out Issues?

[MuddyWaters]

On 10/7/2021 at 10:19 AM, Tas said:

My black plastic Ondoro was marvelous to start with but after a goodfew months it sadly began to behave like yours. It's no longer permanently inked which is a shame as I found it ergonomically wonderful. Faber Castell kindly FOC sent me a replacement cap but that sadly made no difference.

My Basic and Hexo are way better than the Ondoro in this respect. (My medium nibbed Hexo has replaced the Basic on the desk for the time being. Super wet, super smooth)

 

How do you like the hexo for ergonomics? Looks very comfortable, and how do you find the nib?

[Tas]

18 hours ago, MuddyWaters said:

 

How do you like the hexo for ergonomics? Looks very comfortable, and how do you find the nib?

I find the Hexo is nice and chunky but light. A joy to use. Similar in many respects to an Al Star but I gave my Al Star away and I have no intention of giving my Hexo away...
It's nib is super smooth and nice and wet. It glides, which makes it great for speedy note taking (click cap too). Troublemaker inks like Milky Ocean love it in there.

 

[MuddyWaters]

7 hours ago, Tas said:

I find the Hexo is nice and chunky but light. A joy to use. Similar in many respects to an Al Star but I gave my Al Star away and I have no intention of giving my Hexo away...
It's nib is super smooth and nice and wet. It glides, which makes it great for speedy note taking (click cap too). Troublemaker inks like Milky Ocean love it in there.

 

 

Sounds like I've spent too much money on other pens and ought to get one for myself. What line width do you use?

[Tas]

20 hours ago, MuddyWaters said:

 

Sounds like I've spent too much money on other pens and ought to get one for myself. What line width do you use?

Mine's a medium - writes like a proper medium. Try one first perhaps though . . . 😊

[MuddyWaters]

49 minutes ago, Tas said:

Mine's a medium - writes like a proper medium. Try one first perhaps though . . . 😊

 

Beauty! I was thinking of getting that colour too, first because it seems to be the only way to avoid a coated black nib. Glad the nib works for you and glad that Faber Castell responded to critics about cap dryout, weight and ergonomics. 

[Antenociticus]

My (plastic) Ondoro dries out. My several Looms do not.

[maclink]

Drying out after writing a couple pages sounds like surface tension with the converter and ink, has the ink stuck at the top of the converter and not flowing into the feed.  I would suggest getting a converter with an agitator in it.  The agitator looks like a little spring.  When I check Amazon, the available Faber Castell converters do have agitators in them.

 

Dry starting or the ink being more saturated when initially writing has to do with evaporation.  I have had both.  Dry starting seems to be from a poor cap seal.  A more saturated start may be down to evaporation within the cap.  This may depend on humidity etc.

 

I have an Intuition that I acquired pre-owned.  I haven't had any drying out issues with it.  Although I have a number of FC pens, I've not used them a lot or taken them through the challenge of not being used for several days.  Usually, when inked, I use them pretty much daily until the ink in the converter runs out.  

[mtcn77]

On 11/14/2021 at 4:46 AM, Antenociticus said:

My (plastic) Ondoro dries out. My several Looms do not.

My Loom tends to suck ink during openings. I get to clean the cap under running water, otherwise the section will be covered with ink the next time I open it.

I grew some ritual habits using the pen. Hear me out: I store it upside down, I don't cap it, it sits that way in order to saturate the feed with ink. I like how it writes, the air hole is larger than my Kaweco, hence Faber Castell takes better care of vacuum seizing issue. The same converter I gave up using with Kaweco Classic Sport M is perfectly adequate with Faber Castell Loom M.

The pen is flawless; however it needs higher quality paper to show its full capability. I should give up medium nibs, or change my notebooks. Too bad I'm stocked for now...

[maclink]

Do you uncap the pen with one or two hands. Snap/slip caps, I uncap with one hand. I grip the barrel of the pen with my middle, ring and little finger and uncap with my thumb and index finger. This makes for a controlled uncapping that has never lead to ink spillage for me. 

[senzen]

I seem to finally have managed to tame my pearwood Ambition: (1) got it an ink with nice viscosity, Sailor Rikyucha; (2) I keep it in a velvet pouch and a zippered case when not in use; (3) I put some silicone grease on the barel threads; (4) there is still some tape in the cap. My impresion is this ink has made the biggest difference, even the nib feels smooth.

[mtcn77]

On 12/24/2021 at 8:49 PM, senzen said:

I seem to finally have managed to tame my pearwood Ambition: (1) got it an ink with nice viscosity, Sailor Rikyucha; (2) I keep it in a velvet pouch and a zippered case when not in use; (3) I put some silicone grease on the barel threads; (4) there is still some tape in the cap. My impresion is this ink has made the biggest difference, even the nib feels smooth.

I find success in running tap water over the nib and dripping a few ink drops in the sink before a session to prime the feed. It relieves me from hard starting with peace of mind. This also overcomes all sorts of inky residue issues which I can feel as dryness. Interesting enough, my misaligned gusher emotion stops skipping altogether and controls its line width until it regains saturation.

[mtcn77]

On 12/10/2021 at 1:26 PM, maclink said:

This makes for a controlled uncapping that has never lead to ink spillage for me. 

I quit using the Loom with Kaweco converter which solved it for me. It is my perfectly tuned writer now.