tune-up Duofold writes dry—is a tune-up required?

[Dougal]

Increasingly, my Duofold is dry and hard to get started. Considering it’s a Broad nib, I’m wondering what’s going wrong. What would you suggest?

[Penguincollector]

  Have you tried running a small brass or aluminum shim between the tines? I would also clean it out and see if just water will flow through before reinstalling the converter or cartridge. 

[Beechwood]

I am assuming that it is a modern Duofold

 

Start with a thorough flush using plain water, as many times as you can. I blow down the section to try and get rid of any remaining water

 

Then use a new Parker cartridge, stand the pen nib down on kitchen paper, and leave it for an hour, the paper  should have signs of ink.

[Penguincollector]

  I just realized that I also thought it was a modern Duofold, @Beechwood.

 OP, I still recommend cleaning it out if it’s a button filler, but if it’s full, try a drop of water on the feed when first starting to write. Some they need some moisture to jump start the capillary action. 

[Dougal]

On 2/7/2025 at 8:12 PM, Penguincollector said:

  Have you tried running a small brass or aluminum shim between the tines? I

Thanks. I haven’t tried that. Now I will!

[Dougal]

On 2/7/2025 at 8:57 PM, Beechwood said:

I am assuming that it is a modern Duofold

It’s a relatively modern (1990s) Duofold from the Newhaven-manufactured era.

[Beechwood]

3 minutes ago, Dougal said:

It’s a relatively modern (1990s) Duofold from the Newhaven-manufactured era.

 

Ah okay. Try a thorough flush as an opening gambit. Check that the nib looks correctly aligned.

 

Jet Pens make an easy guide

 

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/How-to-Troubleshoot-a-Fountain-Pen/pt/777

 

There is a similar guide on youtube from jet pens

 

After the flush try out the cleaning with a new Parker cartridge.

 

Always assuming that the pen has not been dropped.

[thx1138]

If you have an ultrasonic cleaner then use that. It will remove dried ink that would take hours to flush out.

[Penguincollector]

  I doubt this is the problem, but here’s a story about my MKI Duofold Centennial. I received it as my big gift on my 15th birthday. Long story short, it hated every ink besides Quink Washable Blue. Everything else would clog, especially Penman Sapphire. I went about my life thinking that it was just a weird idiosyncrasy and just used the one ink. So last year in April I went to an in person nib grind event with Kirk Speer and brought my Duofold. While he was grinding the nib into a beautiful crisp italic for me, he found a piece of the acrylic stuck inside the section, likely from the time of manufacture. It stopped having any flow problems ever since.