Leaking while capped

[fqgouvea]

Today I had one more incident of a kind that I find particularly annoying: a pen (this time, a Doric) leaked into the gap, either when it was in the pen tray waiting its turn or when it was in my shirt pocket. So the section was full of ink. And I then capped it, leaving ink all over the barrell too. Hands, shirt, ink everywhere.

What causes this? Is this something that can be cured?

Fernando

[jar]

Most likely temperature change or rough handling.

But Dorics are old pens and it would also depend on who did the most recent restoration.

[tandaina]

Generally two things: With slip cap pens if the seal is too tight the act of pulling the cap off can actually pull ink out. A doric is not a slip cap though so this isn't likely the issue.

The Doric is an antique, I've found some of my antiques, especially the lever fillers just don't like to be jostled. If I use them (and I've removed most lever fillers from my collection) I leave them inked and nib up on the desk. This keeps them behaving. Otherwise, like jar said. Change in temperature can really affect sac fillers like the Doric. A little jostling with an old pen can just plain shake ink out. They just don't seal up like a modern pen. (Either because they never did or because things have shrunk/changed over time.

[carlc]

To be honest, every Carene I've owned does that if not kept upright. Lovely pens but very irritating.

[fqgouvea]

Well, it's not just the Doric. I had a stipula do that yesterday. But yes, it could well be a combination of heat and jostling in the pocket.

One shirt pocket issue is now clear to me: the threads in some of my pens are loose enough that they can unscrew in my pocket, especially if the position and size of the clip make the bottom of the pen not touch the bottom of the pocket. One more reason to like Skylines: their long tapered barrels are just long enough.

Ah, the things I'm learning from old pens...


Fernando Gouvêa -- fqgouvea@roadrunner.com

[Cob]

Another possibility is an air leak; does the pen write very wet?

Cob

[fqgouvea]

Yes. Both of the pens are wet writers.

It would be good to find a solution, since the budget for pens competes with the budget for shirts!


Fernando Gouvêa -- fqgouvea@roadrunner.com

[mhosea]

To add to what's been said already, the heating issue can be a particular problem with piston, plunger, and Vacumatic type fillers, really anything that uses the barrel as an ink reservoir without an air-space for insulation. Modern feeds can usually soak up ink that is thrust forward in the feed by expanding air, but vintage feeds tend to lack sufficient capacity for that, so the ink comes out. The only mitigation I know of is to make very sure the external fins are free of ink after filling by wicking the ink out with the pen pointed upwards...and perhaps following up by repeating that exercise periodically or when one senses that the feed might have become saturated. The worst case scenario is having a saturated external feed. Storing the pens nib up when inked might help, I guess, but I don't like doing that, personally.