Kon-Peki causing railroading???

[Spoonage]

Hi all,

I'm having a bad start to 2017... My Sailor KOP that was flawlessly writing with Iroshizuku Take-Sumi (Tomoe River, Rhodia Dot Pad, standard office paper) is now railroading after I cleaned and filled it with Kon-Peki. It was previously only filled with Take-Sumi. First fill with anything else. Brand new bottle of Kon-Peki.

[Spoonage]

Some pictures...

[Spoonage]

Writing in pictures is on Rodia Dot Pad. Difference in writing is ~ 2 days between the Take-Sumi and Kon-Peki. Clean, dried, and filled.

[Chrissy]

I guess it could be slightly less lubricated.

[stub]

Or stop flexing your non-flex nib? </i kid>

or could just take a while for the feed to saturate?

There are 10000 other inks roughly the same color. Try Sailor Souten?

[Jon Szanto]

I'll combine some of the above: yes, judging by your writing sample, an ink that was very much on the wet and/or lubricated side might give better performance. However, unless that is truly a flex-designed nib similar to a Pilot Falcon, you are putting way, way too much pressure on the nib. Standard nibs are NOT supposed to be pressed so hard that the tines spread that far apart, and if the pen were designed for this much flex, the feed would be cut to accomodate the need for increased ink flow.

I mean, please, by all means, tell me about a special nib for the KOP that I'm unaware of, and I'll be able to sleep at night. When I look at those pictures and think of standard nibs, I envision a very short life-span for that one.

[Sammyo]

Looking at the fine line rather than the flexed line, the Take-Sumi was definitely putting out more ink and a wetter line. I know experienced flex nib users that swear by Kon-peki as a great ink for their pens.

A few things could be affecting the flow of ink to the nib.

One is that a good flex pen ink is usually "thicker" so as not to break the surface tension of the ink and thereby "railroad". If you filled the pen before allowing it to dry fully, the feed could be saturated with water, thinning out the ink. Give the feed time to adjust and re-saturate, or use the converter to flood it with ink and try again. Alternatively, but related, if the converter was still wet and watered downthe ink, it could have the same affect.

If you have over-flexed the tines, you could create ink starvation by affecting the connection between the nib and feed. I am not saying you have done this, I am just offering an opinion, however I think this could be possible due to the skipping shown in the other image.

Not all inks work the same in all pens. A good example, I have a pen that is fine with Diamine Silver Fox, but dry and scratchy with Iroshizuku Kiri-same; I have another pen that is fine with Iroshizuku Kiri-same, but dry and scratchy with Diamine Silver Fox. Add in the paper too and the list goes on.

I know it is not a definitive answer, but I hope that it helps.

I also agree that the nib is being pushed too far too often by the looks of what you have written above. Japanese nibs are meant to be springy, but not flexible. Japanese characters are made up of many short strokes, the nib and feed are typically designed for this. The bounce adds a subtle line variation to the stroke to make it look nicer, but they are not normally designer for long, flowing, continuous varying line creation. I live in Japan and have had pens adjusted by big names over here. When I produced a flex nib pen I wanted one of them to look at to try and improve the nib performance, he was first shocked... then I could see the typical "I'm not sure what to do with this, but I'll figure something out" face... then he told me it was a very nice pen and proceeded to do the standard smoothing and tine adjustments. I write all of this as information for you and hopefully others. Japanese nibs are bouncy and soft, but not flexible ;)

[Marsilius]

One question to ask also is "Am I bearing down harder BECAUSE it is drier?" Some inks just put down more so I am less likely to try to add that. From the picture I doubt this is the case too much (though your Take-sumi looks like it is already broader from the get go).
It is something I keep in mind: what effect might an individual ink have on how much effort I put into writing.

[Spoonage]

Hi all thanks for the replies. To answer some of your concerns... I don't write flexing on a consistent basis. This was merely me playing a bit and checking out new to me inks. With the Take-Sumi I've gone through several converter fills of normal writing. And the above writing sample of a short play with the flex. When I cleaned and let the pen dry to fill with I let it sit apart for ~2 days. Should it be let to dry longer?

[Pterodactylus]

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/569/32769719805_8d2fa64bb4_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/RVKo24)
Show_response_1036 (https://flic.kr/p/RVKo24) by Ptero Pterodactylus (https://www.flickr.com/photos/117783735@N07/), auf Flickr

(Serwex MB flex EMF ..... KWZ IG Blue #6)

[Marsilius]

Well, I am not too concerned, but, railroading in general is a good sign that a particular nib might like less pressure. Good luck!

[KrazyIvan]

Use a flex nib for flexing and a standard nib for regular writing. Springing a nib once is all it takes to learn a lesson, especially if it's a pricier nib. Budget modern flex pen I recommend is the FPR Serwex MB. I've yet to make it railroad. I feel it's much better than the budget offerings by Noodlers. A Sailor KoP means you like higher end pens. I have my Pilot Falcon but ilike the flex on the Serwex better because the nib is smoother than the Falcon's. There is something to be said for restraining yourself even with flex pens. Less is more in some cases. I push my Desiderata with the Zebra G nib much more but nib replacements are easy and inexpensive.

[Pterodactylus]

Be also careful with the more flexible nibs from Pilot.
I would not call them flex nibs.
Otherwise something like this easily can happen:

https://www.instagram.com/p/2VZJ2OKJNV/

[focer]

I have my Pilot Justus 95 filled with Kon-Peki and have yet to manage making it railroad. But again I'm not trying to find out how far I can push the nib either.