Nib drying out

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bjbear76

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Sep 4, 2008
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I was talking to a buddy this weekend about using fountain pens and the question came up - why do some fountain pens seem to dry out after a couple days and some work continually. I know I have 4 fountain pens at work that I use daily and leave them in a pen holder over the weekend. One will write right away on Monday morning, one will take forever to get started, the other two take a few strokes to start. All are stored nib end up.
They are all different kit pens and have the stock nibs.
Ink is Private Reserve.
I thought this would be good information to know in case a customer had a similar issue.
 
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Just speculating here, I am no nib meister. Wouldn't even call myself an apprentice yet.

Myself, I have found that private reserve ink, especially velvet black, dries out very easily. I am trying out some J Herbin Perle Noir right now. It is a beautifuly black ink.

One thought. Is the cap air tight? This would create a small vacuum and keep the ink from flowing back into the resevoir. But since I have seen pens with air holes in the cap, this may not be an issue..

Possibly the feed. The feed and the nib should be in contact all across the feed surface. The ink should only flow through the channel to the point of the nib, via capillary action. This action also holds the ink in place. If there is a gap between the nib and the feed, the surface tension would change or be broken and thus possibly let the ink flow back to resevoir. The little ball in some convertors does this to the ink to keep it from getting stuck at one end of the resevoir.

Like I say, idle speculation, but I am really interested in hearing the thoughts of everyone. The mechanics of a fountain pen are facinating.
 
Chances are there is some dried ink build up in the feeder veins or nib flow. Take the feeder assembly out, take it apart and wash it well under warm water. Some of your pens may be clogging more than others because ther are staying partially clogged all the time.
 
My experience is that FPs with snap caps dry out far faster than FPs with screw caps. Snap caps simply don't seal as tightly.

A second issue is that if the nib is 'tuned' to be a 'dry writer', it will dry out faster than if it is tuned to be 'wet'. Those terms are not part of the normal vocabulary of pen turners, but nib-meisters know them well.

A third issue is the inherent wetness of the ink. Inks are not all the same.
 
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i'll add something - i have 2 custom fountain pens. both have the exact same heritance nib, same feed, same K5 converter and same private reserve 'dark magic' ink.

One stays wet continuously even if I don't use it for a week.

The second one dries up and takes forever to start writing again after just a few hours of sitting.

I've compared the gap in the tines as well as the contact with the feed. I like you am stumped.
 
dansills said:
i'll add something - i have 2 custom fountain pens.
Click to expand...
Dan, what's the material of the caps?

I know that most wood, unless it's lined/sealed, can allow water vapor to pass through -- which might lead to the ink in the nib drying up.

I suspect that some resins are also porous, or more porous than others.
 
dansills said:
You may have something there. One is alumnilite and the other is wood with alumilite inserts
Click to expand...

Perhaps try a thin coat of CA inside the cap to see if that helps seal it? (Hopefully not getting any on the threads -- but you could always run the tap through again to clean out any stray CA.)
 
This past weekend, Roy from Classic Nib had a section on nibs. It was very interesting and informative! He says he prefers the J. Herbin inks. He mentioned that solids in other inks contribute to ink flow issues.
 
duncsuss said:
dansills said:
You may have something there. One is alumnilite and the other is wood with alumilite inserts
Click to expand...

Perhaps try a thin coat of CA inside the cap to see if that helps seal it? (Hopefully not getting any on the threads -- but you could always run the tap through again to clean out any stray CA.)
Click to expand...

Be careful of doing this with CA! The off gassing will put a white film ALL over your nib and could ruin it.

The gap between the nib and feed could play a part in one staying wet and the other drying out.
 
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