Need Help With A Kaweco Dia

[Desert Rider]

I've had the Kaweco Dia (not the Dia 2) for a couple of months now, and have been using cartridges only. At first I used the cartridges supplied with the pen and they worked well. Started up fine, seemed to flow well, no major issues.

I bought some Diamine Black and J. Herbin Perle Noir cartridges and the pen dries up frequently to the point that I have to put the nib under tap water to get it going. I was traveling for a week or so and came back, the pen wouldn't start. I changed cartridges, got it flowing, and after a couple of days the pen wouldn't start up without the water treatment.

I love the pen, size, balance, nib, smoothness, the look, but this nib flow is killing me.

Should I just be patient, write with it everyday to keep it flowing, send it back, consider a nib master? It isn't a super expensive pen so the nib work might be excessive, in my opinion, for a pen of this calibre.

Hope you can suggest something.

I've considered buying the Kaweco converter but I read somewhere that someone had trouble with it. It's only a few bucks so no big deal financially but if this pen is flawed, I'll be disappointed.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Mike 59]

It would be worthwhile giving the whole nib/ grip section a flush through, in a glass of water with a drop of detergent mixed into it.

First remove the ink cartridge (!), drop the nib/grip section into the mixture.

Leave it overnight, then rinse it through with plain water, then put the nib upside down on a folded up paper towel, for half an hour, to wick the water out, shake the unit to make sure there is no water down where the cartridge fits.

Refit the cartridge and test. This might be enough to make your 'Dia' write as it should, without paying for other work.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Mike 59

[Desert Rider]

Thanks, Mike.

That's pretty much what I figured out needs to happen. I ordered a converter, too.

[pepsiplease69]

I would agree with the recommendation to wash it thoroughly first.

 

But my experience has been that Kawecos are famous for being dry writers. I've been struggling with my dia 2's and sports for a long time.

[tinta]

I have not had a Kaweco that wrote well right out of the box (a Classic Sport an AL Sport & a Dia2). The two sports have both been passed on, but the Dia2 is a keeper. It's intended to be a DC cartridge-only pen, but only after we are able to solve its ink flow problem.

 

My Kawecos were not just dry writers, they would not write at all. Not one of them.

Despite a thorough flushing of the nib-units with detergent + water, using a de-soldering bulb, I could not get any of these nibs to put any ink on paper. On closer inspection, the tipping on one stainless & on two gold nibs was poorly formed. The tines were miss-aligned as well. Clearly not the best QC from the nib maker Peter Bock, or from Kaweco for that matter.

 

My Dia2 went to Pendleton Brown, who ground my 14K BB nib into an exceptional stub, ink flow adjusted to my usual 6/10. I like wide, italic style nibs, adjusted on the wetter side.

This nib however would not perform as it should. After about ten lines of normal writing the ink lines would get lighter & lighter till the ink flow would completely stop. The Dia would write after the pen was flicked firmly downward, only to stop writing again after a few more lines.

 

This was not the performance I expected from an otherwise well built & designed pen. The nibs that Pendleton had ground for me in the past, using JoWo nib-units, were all excellent writers. This Kaweco nib was an exception. If only the feed would work efficiently.

 

I'm now sending Pendleton a second 14K B nib to be stubbed, along with some extra feeds & collars, cannibalized from my stainless nib-units. Pendleton thinks (I agree) that the weak link in Kaweco's ink delivery system may be the feed inside the Bock 060 nib-unit. Mr Brown said that he might have to widen the channels on these feeds to somehow increase their flow. This will take more experimentation & extra effort, but he is up to the challenge.

 

Other than suggesting a thorough flushing & perhaps some nib adjustment, I cannot offer any help to the original poster. I normally don't tinker with nibs or feeds but always send them off to one of my favourite pen/nib techs. I ordered this Dia2 knowing full well that there have been some reports of flow problems with Kaweco's pens.

I just hoped that my pen would not be affected.

Edited March 24, 2016 by tinta

[pepsiplease69]

I normally don't tinker with nibs or feeds but always send them off to one of my favourite pen/nib techs. I ordered this Dia2 knowing full well that there have been some reports of flow problems with Kaweco's pens.

I just hoped that my pen would not be affected.

 

Thanks for your reply, it reassures me of the same thing, that Kaweco's are notorious for poor ink flow.

 

For a while I had been tinkering with the inks to make them wetter by adding miniscule amounts of dish detergent to them, but am unsure of the long term effects of doing that so I stopped doing it now.

 

I just got so fed up with the poor ink flow that I wound up moving all my kaweco 1.5 nibs to the Noodler's Nib Creaper pens which have a compatible feed. Those feeds have no problems whatsoever, keeping up with the ink demands of a 1.5 or even a 1.9 italic nib from Kaweco.

 

I didn't know, going into it, that I'd be plagued by the same poor ink flow issues with the Dia 2 and the Al Rounder. Those being the more pricier alternatives than the plain old kaweco sport, carried more of a sting to it.

 

I think at the upcoming SF Pen Show in August, I'm going to take the Dia 2's to Mike Masuyama and ask him if he can modify the feed to make it more generous with the ink. I've tried gouging out a wider ink channel from the feed with an x-acto knife but it didn't help very much. I believe I need to do something up-channel to adjust the ink-air interchange into the converter, that part is still untouched.

 

Masuyama is a very nice guy and he's very generous with giving knowledge about how the nib and feed works. Asking him to do a couple and learning how he does it will help me, maybe to do the others on my own.

 

I wish Pendelton Brown makes it out to SF this year, he's a super nice guy.

[Opus105]

I have not had issues with my Kaweco nibs, however I recommend the following

 

1. Unscrew the nib unit (a plus with Kawecos)
2. Follow the detergent soak described above
3. Get a thin brass shim/sheet and floss the nib (just search on FPN for instructions)

[Mike 59]

Have only the single Kaweco Sport here, but I find it worth the time with any new F.P. to give them at least one flush through with water mixed with a drop of detergent, and if easy enough, to take out the nib and feed, giving them a scrub with an old toothbrush, especially along the ink feed channel and on the underside of the nib.

From new this one wrote well enough, really couldn't complain, but I decided that I wanted more ink flow than it had, so I did widen the ink channel by a small amount, guessing, about 25% more than standard.

Of course this is a 'no going back' type of mod, and has to be done a small amount at a time.

I also set the tines with a gap of about 3 thou/inch, and now it writes as well as I need.

[Desert Rider]

Thanks for all your advice. At least I know the Kaweco/Bock issue isn't unique to me. I'm relatively new to fountain pens and it's the only one besides my Monteverde Invicia that has problems like this.

I have a full cartridge in it now so I'll wait and try and write out more of the ink, then give it the soak treatment.

I'll report back.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Supersaturated inks may be too thick for the pen.

[Desert Rider]

The Kaweco Dia is responding to treatment and the prognosis is good. Thanks to all of you for dialing in and offering suggestions, treatments, prayers, and free X-rays.

I ditched the Diamine and J. Herbin cartridges and have put them in on-hold status, installed a Waterman standard converter, after flushing the nib in water with a drop of detergent. After soaking for a night in the bath, I rinsed the nib and placed it in a cup lined with paper towel and drew off the remaining ink.

The Dia was ready to go with it's new converter, some Noodler's Polar Blue ink, and a pad of Rhodia paper.

For the last several days it's laid down a juicy flow every time. I've been carrying the pen in my pocket when on the go and storing it in a small wrap when it's at home. Every time I've un-capped it and put it to paper it's flowed like a river....almost too much but I am not---repeat---NOT complaining. Don't know if it was the nib that needed a soak and rinse, or the converter or the ink or all three but I think we're on our way now to a beautiful relationship.

[Christopher Godfrey]

I am pleased to hear your good news: my two modern Sports are pretty good writers, happily; but you really ought to see if you can try a vintage Kaweco from the 1930s or '40s! You won't have ink flow problems with those!

[Desert Rider]

I am pleased to hear your good news: my two modern Sports are pretty good writers, happily; but you really ought to see if you can try a vintage Kaweco from the 1930s or '40s! You won't have ink flow problems with those!

Mr. Godfrey, I'm relatively new to fountain pens, but I do have much respect for the vintage pens. My father gave me one or two old Parker 51s, back in the day, and of course, I didn't know how good they were and they went missing in action decades ago.

I've been aware of the Kaweco Sport models, but for me they look too small. I fell in love with the look of the Dia and Dia 2 and the reviews were all excellent, especially considering the price. Right now I'm enjoying the pen and a few others that I own. Maybe some day I'll pick up a vintage Kaweco or maybe a Parker 51, maybe a Sheaffer. It's quite addicting.

[pb2]

OOoopps! Yikes! ... if I said "widen the channels" to increase flow, my brain must have had a temporary disconnect. "-" (I knew I should have

 

paid more for my lobotomy!) .... Such misinformation would have meant my mouth was mis-talking (or fingers mis-typing). .... All that to say .....

 

you don't want to "widen" your channels to increase flow. Floss them with a 0.2mm brass, and then you might want to deepen them ever-so-

 

slightly with the same 0.2 mm brass square (slightly sanded with 4000 grit micro-mesh to take off funky ridges). (Or have a nibster do it for you).

 

Widening them can actually halt your capillary action. PB)2

[Mike 59]

This flow issue might be because (as far as I know) most pen manufacturers tend to use one feed for all their range of nibs, from EF to B or more.

So the flow could be just right for the EF/F nibs but then, ideally needs a wider channel for M and wider.

I found with the Bock 'M' nib as supplied, the flow was ok, totally useable, but I thought a slight increase ink flow would be what I wanted, and some small adjustments with a scalpel/xacto blade did make the difference in flow.

This has to be done using a loupe and slowly, keeping in mind it cannot be put back to 'new' state.

I would estimate I increased the ink flow by 25 % over the standard feed, I won't need to do any more to it now.

[pepsiplease69]

This flow issue might be because (as far as I know) most pen manufacturers tend to use one feed for all their range of nibs, from EF to B or more.

 

Yep. That's the unfortunate part. Since fountain pens are such a niche market, nobody takes the time, care and consideration to pair the nib with an appropriate feed.

 

(rant)

In this particular case it does very much look like kaweco went for a 1-size-fits-all solution (and I hesitate to call it a solution since what they really did was to cut corners).

 

Once the pen is in the hands of the consumer nobody cares whether it performs properly or not. There's very little that the retailers will be able to do, save for taking it back and refund your money.

 

And it is not really feasible to send a $30 kaweco sport to Germany to get it worked on.

 

(/rant)

[tinta]

OOoopps! Yikes! ... if I said "widen the channels" to increase flow, my brain must have had a temporary disconnect. "-" (I knew I should have

 

paid more for my lobotomy!) .... Such misinformation would have meant my mouth was mis-talking (or fingers mis-typing). .... All that to say .....

 

you don't want to "widen" your channels to increase flow. Floss them with a 0.2mm brass, and then you might want to deepen them ever-so-

 

slightly with the same 0.2 mm brass square (slightly sanded with 4000 grit micro-mesh to take off funky ridges). (Or have a nibster do it for you).

 

Widening them can actually halt your capillary action. PB)2

Thanks Pendleton, you have just explained how you may want to approach my balky Kaweco feeds.

I was erroneously thinking about the "widen the channels" option, but I can see how widening could get us into a pickle with the capillary action.

Istvan

[Mike 59]

Regarding increasing the ink flow through the front half of the feed, of the two options, making the channel deeper is probably the better one, but I have found that it's very difficult to know how much deeper I have made the channel.

In this case, I have widened the channel on the feed supplied because it's so much easier to judge how much plastic has been removed. I did this over several 'goes', testing each time, and I would say the channel is now around 10/11/12 thou/inch (0.25mm) along the 20mm length.

The channel will now be 'V' shaped as the plastic will be only removed from the top edges.

This does cause a few ridges in the plastic which have to be smoothed down, and then the channel checked again to be sure no bits have gone down into the channel. But well worth the time as the pen now writes as I think it should.

(See #8 in this thread.)

Edited April 12, 2016 by Mike 59