Pen "Throwing" an Ink Drop

[Bill_D]

I have a couple pens that, once in a while, will throw a drop of ink at me while I put the cap on. It happens when I turn the pen from the writing position to put it into the cap. I never turn it very quickly, but I have two pens that will occasionally fling an ink drop either onto the paper or, worse, onto my shirt. One pen is a modern Omas Arco Celluloid and the other is a vintage Wahl. Neither is a particularly wet writer. Does anyone know what would cause this problem or how to fix it?

[greencobra]

I haven't experienced this yet. How wet do the pens write? Sounds like you have a ton of ink sitting on those fins that whip off at you when you turn the pen to cap it. :hmm1:

[Bill_D]

I haven't experienced this yet. How wet do the pens write? Sounds like you have a ton of ink sitting on those fins that whip off at you when you turn the pen to cap it. :hmm1:

 

 

That is the odd thing; neither pen is a wet writer. The Omas Arco Celluloid has always been a little bit of a disappointment. I spent a lot of money on the pen and expected great things from the Omas nib, but it has always been a little inconsistent. The line it lays down always seems a little jagged, and the nib is occasionally scratchy. I don't know if those problems are related. I am going to show up bright and early at next year's DC pen show and get Mr. Binder or Mr. Mottishaw to look at it.

[Fountainbass]

This very thing happened to me today. I filled up a newly-arrived Parker 51 Vac, wrote with it for a few minutes, and when I went to cap it (gently), a big glob of ink flew onto my paper and my white shirt. I'm at work, so now I have to go home & change shirts.

[Jinnayah]

Since you specify that neither is a wet writer, I wonder if perhaps the nib is too far from the feed, and so the feed is getting good and wet, but not all of it is getting to the nib.

[Paddler]

Hmmmm. It reads like an air pressure problem. Your pen warms up in your hand while you write with it. The air in the reservoir expands because of the heat. Then, when you turn it up to put the cap on, the pressurized bubble rises to the bottom of the feed and pushes out a drop of ink. Why doesn't it push ink when the pen is nib-downward? The bubble is high in the barrel when the pen is nib-downward. When you turn the pen up, the bubble rises to the portion of the pen you have been holding in your hot little lunch hooks and it expands more there.

 

Probably wrong.

 

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

 

Paddler

 

[captnemo]

Wow. Never had that happen. Sure would be annoying. Hmm.

 

 

The only problem I've run into was after filling pens I'd find a couple of microscopic bits of ink on the counter a considerable distance from where I was working (like 12 inches). We're talking just a tiny speck of ink but if I run my finger over it, it makes a very visible smear. This had me mystified until I figured out the cause. When I open a bottle of ink, especially Noodlers, there is often a big bubble, like a soap bubble film across the mouth, and when it pops it flings tiny bits of ink up to 12 inches.

[RayMan]

I had this happen with two different pens. With a Parker 51 it happened on two or three occasions. I speculated that it might have occurred due to applying too much pressure on the nib (I was still learning how to properly use fountain pens). It did not occur after I practiced writing with light pressure. I haven't used the pen for a couple of months, however.

 

It also happened with one of my Watermans (I don't recall the model). Someone else in this group also reported it happening with their Waterman. When I posted that it occurred to me shortly after tapping the pen to get it to start writing, one of our pen gurus wrote that this can occur with Waterman pens, due to something in the design of the feed.

 

That's all I know. This has never occurred with any of my other pens.

[Ray-Vigo]

I had an old pen with a very plain feed that did this- I think the feed had no real space for the extra ink to go since it was a very plain, narrow smooth rubber feed (no comb on this whatsoever).

[MicheleB]

I am resurrecting this thread again. I have a Wahl Gold Seal Personal Point which plops a drop of ink while I write. Doesn't take long - just a few sentences and it drops an ink blob. The nib does seem wet. Ink is Iroshizuku Asa Gao - I find it to be very well behaved ink in general.

 

Any thoughts? Ink too far from feed? Other trouble shooting suggestions to diagnose root cause?

[GeGeLan]

Only time I've had something like this happen was on a Pel 800 in which the nib assembly was starting to work loose (unscrew).

 

I'd wondered why the pen suddenly started to write very wet and caught it because I saw the nib move when I first started to write.

 

Taught me the lesson to gently check the nib each time I fill the pen.

[JDR]

This happened to me with a Lamy Persona. The pen had been used for at least five years. It was a smooth writer with a nice line ...not overly wet or dry. (Well, maybe a little dry compared to my Binderized Pelikan nibs) Anyhow, as I would write, a little droplet of ink would, all of a sudden, splatter itself on the paper. Sometimes the splatter would be as much as two inches away from line I was writing! I sent the pen back to Lamy, with an explanation. When I received the pen back, there was simply a short note that said the nib was quite dirty. There were no other comments, but the pen writes beautifully now without a hint of splatter. It has been almost two years since the Persona was returned. So, maybe a good (ultrasonic?) cleaning of the nib is in order.

[churl]

This happens to me frequently, but mainly because I have a habit of pen flicking, which is not so conducive to fountain pens...

[kuragari389]

This happens all the time with my vintage Waterman Ideal. It's sort of a Frankenpen, 'cause it has a US-Made body and a Canadian semi-flex nib, as well as a really smooth feed, but I don't know if that has anything to do with it. I do know that a lot of ink tends to collect at the top of the feed so that sometimes when I write with it I have to keep checking it, otherwise I'm going to end with ink all over my fingers. But yea, capping and uncapping tends to be a tedious process sometimes because it does fling drops of ink if I'm not careful. Even the slightest jar will splatter ink out of the feed.

[DanF]

I would suspect one of two things. You may have an air leak somewhere, so that air is getting into the system and not holding the ink in securely. Same principle as dipping a straw into a glass of water and put your finger over the top of the straw, then lifting it out of the glass. The water already in the straw will stay there until you lift your finger off the end and break the seal, letting air into the system, which allows the water drain out of the straw.

 

The other thing, is that in certain vintage pens there is a tendency for ink to weep a bit when the pen is nearly empty.

 

Dan

[jpc9isfine]

I have this happen occasionally with a Hero 330, a nice, cheap fine (and not wet) writer. Circumstances sound the same as the OP, Bill_D... once in a while when I turn the nib down (quickly tho not violently!) to insert pen into cap, the pen throws a blot. So far (haven't owned the pen for too long), the blot has landed on paper... haven't hit my shirt yet.

 

I'm pretty trainable. I could just adopt a different capping motion. I also wonder if giving the section/feed assembly a wash in mildly soapy water would help (didn't do any washing of the pen when it was new) the ink-gripping power of the feed. The 330 has a hooded nib, so I can't see what the feed looks like. Maybe it's smooth, without a comb?

 

[Mrsal]

my pens do tend to shoot ink at me sometimes. i still have a nicce big ink spot on my favorite aeropostale shirt.

[wacomme]

I would suspect one of two things. You may have an air leak somewhere, so that air is getting into the system and not holding the ink in securely. Same principle as dipping a straw into a glass of water and put your finger over the top of the straw, then lifting it out of the glass. The water already in the straw will stay there until you lift your finger off the end and break the seal, letting air into the system, which allows the water drain out of the straw.

 

The other thing, is that in certain vintage pens there is a tendency for ink to weep a bit when the pen is nearly empty.

 

Dan

 

Ink seep, ink condensation, and an occasional ink blob happens with my "51's" when I'm running low on ink. Once refilled, the problem goes away. This is somewhat bothersome, but I don't have a solution to "fix" the problem.

[Johnny Appleseed]

Michelle,

 

If a Wahl Personal point is dripping ink in the normal course of writing, then there is something wrong - it might be a sack leak (even a pin-hole) or it might be a problem with nib-feed alignment. If you aren't into taking them apart, send it to a pro for adjustment.

 

Regarding the ancient OP issue - an early Wahl feed, like most early feeds, are pretty simple and do not have the complex combs that more modern (even 1930s "modern") feeds have. Nearly all early pens (1920s and earlier) will flick a drop of ink from the feed without too much trouble - it is not just a Waterman thing.

 

If a Parker 51 is flicking ink, particularly after it has been recently filled, I would think something is wrong. They have an enormous network of fins in the collector to collect ink. However, it is possible to overfill the collector when filling the pen - when filling a Parker 51 (or one of it's copy-cats) you should press and release the vac plunger or Aerometric pressure bar several times until no more air emerges from the pen, then press it one more time, pull the tip out of the ink, and release. This sucks in all the excess ink from the collector and leaves the pen ready to write without any weeping or excess flow.

 

John

Edited May 11, 2009 by Johnny Appleseed