How to Write Again With a Dry Pen

If your fountain pen is dry whenever yous starting time to write, information technology's hard-starting. Luckily, you can do multiple things to easily prepare it. Here are my best tips.

How do y'all set a dry out starting fountain pen?

Endeavour adjusting your grip
Squeeze the cartridge until y'all come across an ink drop
Shop it horizontally or facing down
Make clean the nib and feed with warm water
Soak the pen in fountain pen flush overnight
Use a thinner ink (or dilute the ink yourself)
Tape off the breather hole
Make clean information technology ultrasonically
If it'southward still hard-starting, accommodate the tines
Smoothen the nib using micro mesh

Below, I'll explain each of those solutions in more detail. But first, I desire to get over the reasons your fountain might be hard-starting. Some of them are expressionless elementary - you lot may want to striking yourself in the head.

Why Is It Difficult Starting in the First Place?

When you're dealing with starting problems, it is crucial to diagnose the problem correctly. You don't desire to start adjusting your tines - in most cases, that will do more impairment than good. There are two ways to become about fixing the trouble:

Selective: you diagnose correctly and but fix what needs fixing
In the right order: you fix in club of least intrusive to most intrusive

By fixing stuff in the right gild, you prevent to do major irreversible impairment to your pens. So in my mind, going through the fixes ane by one until your pen works is a great strategy. Withal, if you lot're interested in fixing other pens in the time to come besides, the better approach is to learn to diagnose starting problems correctly.

Is Information technology Normal for Fountain Pens To Dry Starting time?

Whenever you're experiencing starting problems with your fountain pen, there is something wrong. That is unless you haven't used your pen for weeks or months on end. A pen that'south not in employ for a long period volition somewhen dry out and simply needs a good clean.

Possible Reasons for a Hard-Starting Fountain Pen

You're holding the pen at an odd angle
You're storing the pen with the cap facing up
You're using the wrong paper
The breather hole is too big, drying out the pen
The feed is clogged, restraining ink menstruation
The ink is too viscose
The nib is misaligned or damaged (baby-bottom)
The nib and feed are misaligned
The cap doesn't seal properly

I want to simply chop-chop touch on using the right paper. I will discuss the residue of the reasons below. Fountain pens won't write well on fatty paper. If yous accept rested your mitt on this particular piece of paper, try using a fresh sheet, or if the paper is fatty by nature, try getting something less so. Also, course paper tin exist problematic. Ideally, you lot want to use a polish and thick paper. I prefer Rhodia Le R, which is a classic notepad for fountain pen writers. Other good brands are Clairefontaine and Leuchturm, to a lesser extent.

x Piece of cake Fixes You lot Can Attempt At present

Try adjusting your grip

Some fountain pens have a sweetness spot on the neb: especially Fine nibs tend to be pretty unforgiving. Endeavour rotating the pen just a trivial bit to both sides. If that doesn't work, alter the angle to the newspaper. Most fountain pens need to be held at a camber and won't write if you lot hold them at a 90-caste bending to the newspaper.

If there'south however no ink coming out, cheque whether you can write after dipping the neb in some ink. If it writes, your problem is most probable with the feed, non with your technique or the nib.

If yous don't have any ink standby, you can clasp out a standard ink cartridge into a plastic cup. I have these white plastic cups beside my desk for pen maintenance; it's a great tip if you frequently need to clean or maintain your pens.

Squeeze the ink cartridge

Sometimes the prepare is really easy: you simple unscrew the fountain pen department from the trunk, and clasp the ink cartridge. Look for an ink drop to class at the nib'south bottom. Pro tip: put a slice of sacrificial paper on your desk or yous might leak on your desk. If this fixes your problem, bravo, information technology was only a case of dry ink clogging up the cartridge or feed. The problem might return soon though, equally dry ink has a habit of creating problem until you clean the pen properly.

Shop it horizontally or facing downwards

Some people store their fountain pens with the cap facing upward, as you would with other pens. This will forbid the ink from saturating the feed. Since it takes a while for the ink to travel downwardly (sometimes information technology can take a minute or two!), it won't beginning immediately. The set up is very unproblematic. Store your pens horizontally or place them cap down from now on. A word of advice: make sure you don't drop them in your pen cup, tapping the cap ... That will ensure a right mess within your cap.

Clean the nib and feed with lukewarm water

In near cases, a difficult starting fountain pen comes down to a feed problem. The feed is an intricate black plastic labyrinth that controls the leak of ink to the nib. Over time, information technology can clog upwardly with ink pigment, dust, or even paper particles. Every fountain pen needs a good clean at present and then.

Luckily, this is a super unproblematic process. Exit your cartridge or converter, rinse the nib and grip section under the tap (use lukewarm water). In some cases, this might exercise the play a trick on. If not, y'all want to soak the pen overnight.

Soak the pen in fountain pen flush overnight

When the feed is clogged up desperately, you want to soak the pen overnight. I recommend trying to soak it in regular tap water first, before resorting to pen flush. In almost cases, a long soak will dissolve whatever remaining ink pigment. Afterward the soak, make sure to flush the feed by using an ink converter or a syringe bulb (check on Amazon).

If this doesn't ready your trouble, you lot might want to use pen affluent. You tin can go pen flush at most pen stores, simply you tin likewise easily make your own. Pen flush is a bit more than ambitious, and some pens don't like it, so I use it as a concluding resort only.

You can use this well-known pen flush from Amazon or create your own for $ii.

Apply a thinner ink (or dilute the ink yourself)

Pens utilise different feed designs. Some pens are wetter, meaning they accept larger ink channels in the feed, others are dryer, significant they accept smaller ink channels in the feed. If your pen keeps drying out, even later cleaning with regular use, chances are your ink is to viscose for this particular pen. The feed just tin can't handle all the pigment.

Switching out to a thinner ink will probably do the trick. Almost of the well-known brands (Parker, Waterman, Lamy) comport blackness and blue inks that are more often than not pretty thin. If y'all don't take any other inks at hand, you could besides dilute the ink yourself. Simply mix your ink in a plastic cup with some aerosol of h2o. You just need a tiny bit of water to dilute it.

You could also try lubricated ink instead. These inks contain a small amount of lubrication to improve the ink period. I've previously compiled a list of my favorite lubricated inks.

Tape off the breather hole

Most fountain pens accept a breather hole in the cape. The breather hole is a tiny pigsty that is used breath, which means to get rid of condensation. When the environment temperature changes, pens start to condensate, burping up water from their ink reservoir. If the sabbatical hole is too big due to a blueprint flaw, you lose too much water, drying out the feed section over and once again.

I actually have a pen that does this and is infamous for this tiny pattern flaw. The Parker IM is a bloody dry pen in and of itself. Just the breather pigsty is but too damn large, drying information technology out after just one or two days.

Luckily, there is a very like shooting fish in a barrel gear up: put a tiny scrap of record over the sabbatical hole. With my Parker IM, it is located underneath the clip. If y'all hold it against light and concord information technology at an bending, you can merely see information technology. Try it, record her up and see what happens. For me, it worked wonders.

Clean it ultrasonically

This step is optional. If all of the higher up doesn't piece of work, yous might desire to exercise a more thorough cleaning. Specialists utilize an ultrasonic cleaning car that uses audio waves to clean every nanometer of the pen. Yous can go your ain, only you could likewise bring it to a fountain pen specialist, who volition nigh likely accept one already and charge you a pocket-size fee for the clean.

Vintage pens might not like ultrasonic cleaning, so yous desire to check before using this method.

If it'southward still dry starting, accommodate the tines

If all of the above doesn't work, you might have a beak problem. You could salve yourself a lot of trouble past checking out the nib first, but permit'south say you have eliminated whatever issues with your technique, materials, or the feed. The tines might exist misaligned.

At that place is no pretty way to realign tines: you simply take to bend them until they are perfectly aligned once more than. You don't want to do this without a expert loop or magnifying glass, and a proper pair of tweezers. If this is a particularly valuable pen, I highly recommend handing it over to a specialist, as these kinds of nib tweaks may very well ruin your pen forever.

Polish the bill using micro mesh

If you are certain information technology is a bill problem, only the tines are aligned properly, y'all could be dealing with babe's bottom. To set baby'south bottom, you'll have to polish the nib until it regains its original direct tine border. I use micro mesh to do this. It is affordable and a must-have for every serious fountain pen possessor. You can get it at the pen specialist, or if you don't accept access to a skillful fountain pen store, you could probably get it at a model train shop. You tin besides become Micro-Mesh at Amazon.

You shine the nib by wetting the nib (or by using the ink in the feed, if it flows properly), and writing an 8 or infinity symbol over and over again on the micro mesh. You want to hold the pen like you normally would, at your normal bending, and apply simply a trivial chip of pressure. Smooth out the nib until the baby's lesser is no longer visible or your hard starting bug are gone.

Y'all can detect which products I personally utilise for fixing nib bug here.

Diagnosing Starting Bug

Whenever we're dealing with starting problems, you may deal with ane of three areas (in club of easiest to set up to hardest to fix):

You operate the pen incorrectly: there's something wrong with your technique
You utilize the wrong materials: there's something wrong with the surroundings
The pen has pattern flaws or is damaged: in that location's something wrong with the pen

All possible problems fall under one of these iii categories. Interestingly, I e'er tend to skip the kickoff two and blame the pen for its problems (which are clearly its, and not my fault. However, the starting time two problems are the easiest to fix, so information technology pays to check them first.

How do yous diagnose a difficult starting fountain pen?

Inspect whether the cap seals properly
Inspect the nib and check for tine misalignment or baby's bottom
If you suspect babe's lesser, the pen should write nether actress pressure level
Inspect the feed past dipping the nib in ink and check whether the pen writes
If this fixes the problem, you most likely have a feed problem

Checking the cap

When trying to figure out what the problem is, you want to do a couple of things. The first thing I advise doing is checking the cap. In some cases, the pen dries out because the cap doesn't seal properly. You could accept damaged the cap by dropping information technology, for example.

To cheque the cap, you want to try to wiggle it. Almost caps wiggle a niggling, but you should only be able to move it side to side merely a tiny bit. If the cap doesn't seal, y'all should get a new cap, which with most entry-level pens simply means getting a new pen. Withal, don't forget to check the warranty: yous might become lucky.

Checking the nib

Next, you want to take a look at the nib of the pen to meet if information technology'due south damaged or misaligned. You can use a loop or magnifying glass to do this. The nibs need to exist aligned and have a somewhat straight edge. Yous want to check the top of the neb, and the side view.

If you lot can see whatever misalignment, y'all desire to bank check for two things:

Tine misalignment
Baby's bottom

Infant's bottom

Look at the bill from higher up using a loop. If the two tines don't end in a straight border only have a crescent dip to them instead, that's what's called 'babe'due south bottom' - because it'due south a tiny bottom! It'southward a funny name for an annoying problem (although baby'southward bottom can be a potentially annoying trouble besides, every bit many young diaper-wiping parents might hold). If you see a tiny bottom, that will near probable exist your problem. After y'all see this crescent dip, some other way to verify the trouble is to endeavour to write while putting a lot of pressure level on the pen. If it writes properly, you accept baby'south lesser.

A nib with babe's bottom won't lay ink on the newspaper, as it only touches the paper with its outermost edges. In that location's not enough contact area to lay down ink.

Please note: only utilise pressure after you have diagnosed baby's lesser visually. Yous get baby's bottom by putting too much force per unit area on the pen in the first place, forcing the tines outward and wearing out the inner sides of the tines.

Tine misalignment

Tine misalignment is easy to diagnose. If you wait at your pen from the side, the tines should be perfectly level. They shouldn't be crooked, with one being higher than the other. If that is the case, you lot are dealing with a tine misalignment problem.

In nigh cases, you get tine misalignment after dropping the pen on the nib or tapping information technology to get ink period starting. Y'all shouldn't tap your fountain pen on the nib!

Narrowing it downwards to feed or technique

If at that place is no visible pecker harm (in most cases that won't be the trouble), you want to endeavour narrowing it downwards to either the feed or ink or the way you use the pen. To exercise this, you lot tin endeavour dipping the neb in ink and writing with the pen.

If it writes properly, y'all most likely have a feed trouble (this is the problem in about cases). If it doesn't write, you are probably using the pen incorrectly.

The feed is the section that provides ink to the beak. It'south the ribbed part, made of black plastic, under the pecker.

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Source: https://onepenshow.com/pens/fix-dry-starting-fountain-pen