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sjimenez
December 10th, 2012, 01:07 PM
Good evening everybody,

Iīm new here and also new to the whole fountain pen world so excuse me if I donīt use the lingo properly, lol.


Long story short, Iīve recently made the step to buying inks and refilling my pens. I have various Lamy Safari pens which I havenīt tried to fill yet but I have tried 2 of my 3 Cross Beverly fountain pens. I wrote with all three before filling them, and I fell in love with them. Before, I only had experience with the Safariīs, and I felt that I had taken a huge leap with the Beverlyīs. The ink flow was amazing, it came out super strong (but not clumpy or strong in a bad way). When I bought the converters for the pens, I noticed that the ink flow was dramatically decreased, right off the bat. I donīt know if it has to do with the ink itself or with the converter. The cartridges in the pens were by Cross, in blue black and blue. I then changed to Waterman bottled ink in Red, Inspired Blue and Mysterious Blue. The latter two colors are beautiful and I just wished they came out stronger. The lines generally come out thinner and after writing for a short while (and I mean short) it starts to get fainter. I also feel like I have to push harder to get everything out whereas the cartridge Cross Blue Black comes out dark without any effort.

Now, I have never used the Waterman inks in cartridge so I donīt know if this is simply a property of the ink, or it has something to do with the converter.

I would appreciate any suggestions or ideas that anyone may have!

Many thanks in advance!!

Sarah

KrazyIvan
December 10th, 2012, 01:25 PM
Did you wash out your pens before putting in the different ink?

sjimenez
December 10th, 2012, 01:29 PM
Well, of the three that I have converters in, only one of them had been previously used. The other two were new.

KrazyIvan
December 10th, 2012, 02:08 PM
Lamy generally tests their pens before sending them out to be sold. The pens will have some blue ink residue in them even when brand new. I am not sure if Cross does the same. In any case, it is a good idea to wash out your pens to get any manufacturing residue out. The other thing that it could be is the nib needs adjusting to flow the way you like. If you do not have a jewelers loupe, I would advise against doing this yourself as it will be hard to check the nib alignment without one.

snedwos
December 11th, 2012, 07:44 AM
When you wrote with them before filling, did you just dip them in the ink? That does normally result in a much wetter line, as the nib and feed are over saturated.

sjimenez
December 11th, 2012, 02:12 PM
Thanks for the tip, KrazyIvan. I will give washing it out a try and then will post back to see how it worked out.

And snedwos, no. I wrote with them using the cartridge.