Santini Italia Libra

[Forsooth]

Sorry, I was trying to use a quoted post here but got confused, so <DELETED>. 

[Karmachanic]

2 hours ago, como said:

I am not a fan of captive converters

 

 

 

At the risk of seeming didactic.

 

Captive converters can be un-captivated at will. Leonardo Momento Zero for instance. This is not the case with pens using the above Schmidt piston unit, which is, from the user point of view, permanently mounted within the pen. Not to be -un-captivated at will.

 

Santini pens are piston fillers.

[bbs]

It’s a lovely pen but I have just found mine to run out rather earlier than expected. I wonder if the ink is prone to evaporate? I’ve found this to happen with my Leonardos. I was using Sailor Red-Brown. 
 

It is also possible I hadn’t filled it fully, however.

[Forsooth]

The Smug Dill stated on February 10, 2020:

"The inside surface of the pen's ebonite or acrylic barrel is not the wall of the ink reservoir, but the housing of the nib unit screws directly into the piston-filled ink reservoir unit...[T]he inner core, up to the thread that holds the nib housing in place inside the gripping section, is a single self-contained piece."

 

QUESTION: In the unlikely event that a serious problem should develop (e.g., the piston drive shaft or rod becomes permanently disconnected from the rubber piston seal), is there a way for the owner to access the components and replace or repair as needed?  Or would this be a factory repair?

 

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, Forsooth said:

is there a way for the owner to access the components and replace or repair as needed?

 

I don't know, but personally I wouldn't even try.

 

2 hours ago, Forsooth said:

Or would this be a factory repair?

 

If repair is required, that is how I would approach it. Santini Italia's customer service has, in my experience, been prompt, communicative, courteous and excellent in every instance; and it was pretty painless when I had to send my Calypso back to Italy late last year, with my return postage costs promptly reimbursed, and the pen was fixed and sent back to me by UPS.

[como]

On 1/16/2021 at 7:47 PM, Karmachanic said:

 

At the risk of seeming didactic.

...

Santini pens are piston fillers.

Don't worry about that. Once I am pretty sure what's inside, what it's called doesn't matter any more. Though I am more in favour of old fashioned piston (direct touch between piston seal and barrel's inner wall, I have not had any problems with the mechanism used by Santini nor the quality of their customer service. So far so good.

[Pen_Noob]

I have a Libra Ambra and that one has a translucent resin. So I can say with 100% certainty that it is a piston filler. The mechanism doesn't seem to be longer than other piston fillers.

And the ebonite feed you are getting only with the flexy nib.

[Mezu]

It uses the Schmidt unit mentioned earlier, which counts as a piston filler.  It holds ~1.5ml using an eye dropper and likely less in practice.

 

You can request an ebonite feed.  The ebonite feed is noticeably more generous with flow but not overly so imo.  I'm enjoying it over the plastic feed with a requested 0.4mm nib point (xxf?).

[lehi53]

Thank you

[mike.f]

On 1/16/2021 at 12:55 PM, bbs said:

It’s a lovely pen but I have just found mine to run out rather earlier than expected. I wonder if the ink is prone to evaporate? I’ve found this to happen with my Leonardos. I was using Sailor Red-Brown. 
 

It is also possible I hadn’t filled it fully, however.

I've noticed with my acrylic Libra with ebonite feed that it dries up a bit if I don't use it often enough. A little turn of the piston and I'm back in business but a little frustrating at the same time. I'm using Diamine Kensington Blue.

[JonSzanto]

15 minutes ago, mike.f said:

I've noticed with my acrylic Libra with ebonite feed that it dries up a bit if I don't use it often enough. A little turn of the piston and I'm back in business but a little frustrating at the same time. I'm using Diamine Kensington Blue.

 

One thing you can try with a pen such as this is quite simple: touching the very tip of the nib to some clear water. Often it isn't that the entire nib/feed are dry of ink, but only the very front portion of the nib tip. I have a very small vial of water on my desk; if a pen hasn't been used in a while but is inked, and doesn't start immediately, I simply touch the tip to the surface of the water, not plunging it in. It dampens any ink that has dried in the tip that has kept ink from flowing, and in a few letters the water is written out and the ink is of normal color and consistency. I've grown to like this a lot more than shaking, tapping or flooding the feed. Maybe it would work for your pen, as well.

[lionelc]

1 hour ago, JonSzanto said:

touching the very tip of the nib to some clear water

good tip - had the perfect pen to try this on as it was loaded with kwz iron gall blue black - no hard starting

[mike.f]

2 hours ago, JonSzanto said:

 

One thing you can try with a pen such as this is quite simple: touching the very tip of the nib to some clear water. Often it isn't that the entire nib/feed are dry of ink, but only the very front portion of the nib tip. I have a very small vial of water on my desk; if a pen hasn't been used in a while but is inked, and doesn't start immediately, I simply touch the tip to the surface of the water, not plunging it in. It dampens any ink that has dried in the tip that has kept ink from flowing, and in a few letters the water is written out and the ink is of normal color and consistency. I've grown to like this a lot more than shaking, tapping or flooding the feed. Maybe it would work for your pen, as well.

Thanks @JonSzanto I'll give it try.