Majohn M2 with FPR Ultra Flex #5.5 nib, FPR Classic Black Ink, and a dash of Photo-Flo

July 26

I know, I know. It can't be done. It shouldn't be done. No one recommends it and It is silly to try and do it. But. I did it.

I absolutely love Fountain Pen Revolution's Ultra Flex nibs. I don't understand why everyone's not making a version of this. Actually, I think I do. The issue's not the nibs -- it's the feeds. Ultra Flex nibs need a very generous ink supply to flex while writing and not produce the dread railroad lines. There are Youtube videos of folks like me, damned to optimism, modding their plastic feeds with Xacto knives and advising that once done, it can' t be undone. I am sure that's in my future. But for the moment, I just sort of wanted to see what would happen. Actually, I wanted to know whether the FPR nibs, which are listed as #5.5's on the FPR webpage (where I am spending an inordinate amount of time) would fit in a #5 nib housing. I mean: 5.5 whats? Millimeters? Yes, as it turns out: millimeters.

So I got out a Majohn M2 that had yet to be inked, tugged the nib out and straight up replaced it with a new #5.5 FPR UF nib right over the M2's plastic feed. And whaddaya know? It fits. So now the acid test: would the pen actually write? Well it turns out that the Internet is correct (sort of) about many things, and the pen did, in fact railroad if I got too excited and wrote too quickly. Not terrible, but not ideal. And not up to the great performance of the UF nib on FPR pens like the Airmail 44 and the Guider Desk Fountain Pen (a personal favorite, even if the pen is a bit eccentric). These built to purpose FPR pens have ebonite feeds fitted by FPR when they are sold with the Ultra Flex nibs and mine perform flawlessly. Here's doodle sheet from that first M2 test (not pretty -- you can see the railroading all over the place):

But then I started thinking (always dangerous). If the problem was ink flow, maybe a bit of helpful surfactant would loosen things up a bit. I had a small bottle Photo-Flo that I had diluted to a 0.5% solution (very dilute already). This was left over from another experiment, so to the Majohn M2's reservoir full of FPR Classic Black ink (it's a dropper filled pen) I added two drops from a straight-needle syringe (no idea how much this measures -- less than 1mm certo). RIght away, things eased up. You can still make the pen railroad if you put your mind to it. But for ordinary writing with a bit of flex, it should be fine. Here is the page of doodles AFTER the Photo Flo solution was added:

Not perfect, but much nicer! Paper was Neenah Classic Natural White 24 lbs.

Here's what the rig looks like all inked up:

FPR is having a sale for the next five days and I purchased a couple of 3-packs of these #5.5 Ultra Flex nibs and their #6 brethren (sistren?) to fool around with other inexpensive donor pens. Honestly, I got my hands this week on a Geha No.790 with gold nib and I thought I might never need another pen. But then. . . naaaah, I am having too much fun. I also have some standard replacement nibs coming from across the sea and will be filing some cutouts to try and replicate the effect. Lord, I am so easily amused. No connection to Fountain Pen Revolution other than as a satisfied customer.

July 26

Follow-up: This morning I wrote a letter to my daughter using the new UF nib and Photo-Flo'd FPR Classic black ink. Slightly more railroading than I originally thought. It seems to happen on a downstroke for a capital letter or a letter like a lower case "l" (ell). I can go back and fill in the RR lines, but that is not the result I am looking for. So I will probably have to do some minor plastic feed surgery to get it working the way I want.

August 27

Just as a quick follow-up: the M2 has become one of my favorite pens with the Ultra Flex nib. I did take the thing apart and chase the feed channel with an exacto knife. I didn't really remove any material from the channel, or not much. It was more like making sure that the channel on the top of the feed was open/clear. This, it turns out, plus a few drops of dilute PhotoFlo in the ink were plenty to free up the ink flow.

I actually just purchased another M2 and some more #5.5 nibs from Fountain Pen Revolution so I can have one with black ink and one with a shading ink loaded up at the the same time in different pens. The ink capacity of the M2 is really nice - large, really. My original post was from July. I am still using the original ink that I mixed up then. But the nib performs so well on the page -- it just glides. And the line on the page has such great variation. It is perfect for a sheening ink like Sailor Manyo Ayume, or one of the Birmingham Pen Company's sheening inks. Such a pleasure to write with.