Making Japanese Pens Wetter.

[Willtato]

I do love my Japanese pens, design wise and nib size, but as they are known to be, mainly dry writers. My perfect pen would be an absolute gusher while being able to produce a fine line.

Yes, I know that there are methods to increasing the flow mainly along the lines of tinkering with the nib (I've been both successful and unsuccessful) or having a pen Meister do it.

There just seems to be a thought lingering in my mind about of it is possible to adjust the feed instead of the nib (or both). I've been searching and there hasn't been much at all about this. Is there anything that I can do with it which will make a difference or not?

 

Thanks.

[RMN]

I do love my Japanese pens, design wise and nib size, but as they are known to be, mainly dry writers. My perfect pen would be an absolute gusher while being able to produce a fine line.

Yes, I know that there are methods to increasing the flow mainly along the lines of tinkering with the nib (I've been both successful and unsuccessful) or having a pen Meister do it.

There just seems to be a thought lingering in my mind about of it is possible to adjust the feed instead of the nib (or both). I've been searching and there hasn't been much at all about this. Is there anything that I can do with it which will make a difference or not?

 

Thanks.

 

Hi and welcome to FPN.

 

I have moved this topic to the appropriate forum.

And I have removed the other topic with the exact same question but different title.

 

I hope the members of the Japanese forum can help you.

 

 

D.ick

Moderator

[tinta]

Bit disappointed that all of a sudden my reply was made to disappear, just as I hit the send button Spent a fair bit of time on the reply.. I too welcomed the newcomer & offered advice.

I understand why the topic was moved but nevertheless still disappointed.

tinta

[jar]

Welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell.

 

Maybe you can give us some more information since my experience has been that Japanese pens seem to be moderately wet and certainly not dry as they come from the maker. Granted mine is a somewhat small sample but it has been over spread over more than a quarter century and includes at least a dozen pens each from Pilot, Platinum, Sailor and a smaller number from Nakaya, Danitrio, Eboya and several US & European companies who sold pens that had been made or refined in Japan.

 

What pen, nib and ink combination is it that you find "dry"?

[Icywolfe]

Grab yourself a bottle of PhotoFlo and add 1 drop into your ink supply of like 20ml to 1 drop. And watch the ink become much wetter.

[Arkamas]

I had issues with feedback and flow on my Custom 74 and came across a video by Stephen Brown on making nibs wetter. Just go about it carefully like he says and it should help your issue. My C74 writes like a dream now.

[dcwaites]

The main cause of wetness or dryness in a nib is the gap between the tines.

If the tines are just touching, then the pen will be on the dryish side,

if the tines have a tiny gap, then the pen will be wetter and

if the tines have a visible gap, then the pen will be quite wet.

 

The feed will have no effect on this, unless it is blocked somewhere.

[Dr.Grace]

Adjusting the tines is reversible, but increasing the flow of a feed is an irreversible step. And as dcwaites says, it's almost always sufficient to adjust the tine spacing.

[Willtato]

It's just that other than that I don't like my stub 'not so round', I'd still like to keep the same length of line and have not too much feedback from a fine nib since it's quite small...

[jar]

It's just that other than that I don't like my stub 'not so round', I'd still like to keep the same length of line and have not too much feedback from a fine nib since it's quite small...

Help us.

 

What make, model and nib? What ink? What does "I don't like my stub 'not so round' " mean?

[Willtato]

Mainly on my platinum #3776 (I don't enjoy it) I have a soft fine. I don't want to see the gap in the stub, because with a small one, the gap looks somewhat more visible. Also, if I were to do so, if the tines would be so split apaer they would be like 2 ef pieces on the paper.

[Gasquolet]

I'm guessing you may have similar experiences to those discussed here:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/311370-is-my-platinum-3776-faulty-or-it-is-expected/

 

The original poster on that thread had issues with nib dryness but the thread departed to a discussion of flexing a soft nib. It sounds like you may have similar experiences. I posted a link near the end about feeds which is good reading.

 

In respect of your post further up; I have generally found that the very fine Japanese nibs, anything finer than a Platinum F, achieve their very fine lines with a very precise but quite dry ink flow. To a certain extent dry nibs and fine lines go together. Where you are looking for a very fine nib that's also a gusher I think you are not likely to find this combination to a 'Japanese' definition of fine. In my experience something like a Visconti may more easily give lots of ink from a fine nib.

 

As said by others above, I would avoid modifying a feed on a pen like the #3776 as it's not going to be easy to get a replacement without buying the rest of the pen too. If you do go down this route, get an Ahab or FPR pen to try with first as parts for these are available. It's not a guarantee though - working on the feed channel can increase flow or make little difference. Worse case is that it stops equalising ink:air properly and the pen won't write of starts to leak from the feed intermittently.

[jar]

Mainly on my platinum #3776 (I don't enjoy it) I have a soft fine. I don't want to see the gap in the stub, because with a small one, the gap looks somewhat more visible. Also, if I were to do so, if the tines would be so split apaer they would be like 2 ef pieces on the paper.

A soft fine is not a stub nib so please understand our confusion. It sounds like you are abusing the nib. Stop pressing on the nib. Use a very, very, very light hand. That nib is NOT meant to create line variation.

[Arkamas]

I recently got a 3776 myself with a sf nib and it came a bit scratchy so I did some figure 8s on some micromesh. Smoothness and flow are perfect now but that's for me and and tuning is a careful process.

Ditto what jar has said.

[arsimoun]

I have a Nakaya that I had done by John Mottishaw's shop. It was a little on the dry side. Nakaya are apparently aware of this and redesigned their feeds. I got one of the new feeds. Big difference.

 

FWIW

 

Adam Rodman

[minddance]

I have a Nakaya that I had done by John Mottishaw's shop. It was a little on the dry side. Nakaya are apparently aware of this and redesigned their feeds. I got one of the new feeds. Big difference.

 

FWIW

 

Adam Rodman

I am sorry for digging up an old thread but is anyone aware of this or can attest to this?

[Inkling13]

Why didnt you make your own topic? If i didnt know better, your question would be buried in responses.

[Maurizio]

Grab yourself a bottle of PhotoFlo and add 1 drop into your ink supply of like 20ml to 1 drop. And watch the ink become much wetter.

This is good advice. Assuming you have already thoroughly flushed the pens in question, making your ink wetter should help

 

I make all my inks wetter because I like my nibs juicy. I have many Pilot pens and, even before I adopted the practice of, adulterating my inks, I never had a problem with any of them being dry.

 

PhotoFlo works for many. I use a liquid called Liquitex. I put one that of that plus I drop of glycerin in all of my inks including Iroshshizuku inks. Glycerin will increase the dry time so beware of that and use very sparingly if you decide to try it.

 

If you have flushed well and use a wet ink and still have problems your pen or pens may need adjustment by the mfg.