The Taperite Nib And Feed...blotting Ink

[Bristol24]

I recently purchased my first vintage Waterman's fountain pen... a Taperite Crusader. I bought it for next to nothing but have a significant amount of time invested in it just getting the section out of the pen. We're talking about long soaks in water with a little Dawn detergent, ultrasonic baths, and of course heat. This was done over several days with me giving up numerous times rather than to risk breaking the pen. What finally produced the slightest movement of the section was my decision to wiggle the heated joint side to side, rather than just up and down. I got a sudden little "crack" sound causing me to think that I had broken the pen but then I noticed that the section was slightly askew to the left. Reheating and applying pressure in the opposite direction suddenly released the section. After giving the released section, nib, and feed an ultrasonic cleaning, I installed a new sac, loaded the pen with some ink and was pleasantly surprised with how smoothly it writes. Unfortunately, it also manages to blurb an ink blot now and then. I've tried several inks and some seem to work a bit better than others but eventually, either a small drop of ink begins to appear at the nib's vent hole or (worse) a larger drop forms hanging from the bottom of the feed.

 

What can be done with this? My thinking is that the feed is not allowing the free exhange of air for ink and that the only way to address the problem is to remove the nib and feed from the section. How in the world can that be done? The shape of the section precludes the use of a conventional knock out block. Does the nib push back through the feed in the opposite direction? Or, is there some sort of custom knock out block that must be used? Anything that can properly support the section would have to be tapered which would make the section a wedge being driven into the block. Does anyone have experience with this issue and can enlighten me on how to fix the ink blotting issue?

 

Thanks much,

 

Cliff

[Sholom]

Sorry for the delayed reply. My Taperite Corinth doesn't blot unless I am a bit too vigorous waving it around but it does seem more prone to that sort of thing than my other pens. The feed designed is reputed to be rather simple/outdated for its time period. The nib on mine is great though. That aside, I would check that the sac is firmly attached. There is always a slight chance that the sac has a pinhole so you could try resaccing it. Taperites have a reputation for being rather prone to cracking under the hands of the inexperienced so I for one would not try knocking the nib out myself. Richard Binder was the Taperite guru but he doesn't do repairs anymore. I believe Ron Zorn and probably others will tackle them. Good luck.