Is there a problem with my pen?

[ivan_ddt]

I have Pilot Custom Heritage 91 (CH91) that I bought last year with an SF nib and it is inked up with Diamine Oxblood using a CON-70. I noticed on several pen reviews (of different pens) where the reviewer is able to allow the pen to write under just using its own weight but mine doesn't. The CH91 is a relatively light pen, but is it supposed to be able to write under its own weight as well?

Also, the nib writes pretty smoothly with some feedback but if I draw quick strokes with using minimal pressure, it skips occasionally midway through lines and circle. Once some pressure is applied, the line becomes much wetter (and hence thicker) and there is no longer any skipping. Is this a sign of a problematic nib, or is it a characteristic of a soft nib?

I will upload some pictures of the writing in a few hours time if that helps. Thank you!

[jar]

First, welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell. Yes, you should never need to apply pressure to get a pen to write.

BUT...

let's try a few tests first. Switch to a Pilot cartridge for a few days and see if the issue goes away. No decisions until you've used the pen with a Pilot cartridge for awhile.

[ivan_ddt]

First, welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell. Yes, you should never need to apply pressure to get a pen to write.

BUT...

let's try a few tests first. Switch to a Pilot cartridge for a few days and see if the issue goes away. No decisions until you've used the pen with a Pilot cartridge for awhile.

Thanks for the welcome jar! I'll find a way to introduce myself to the people around here soon enough!

Does it have to be a cartridge? I have some Iroshizuku inks around so just wondering if loading that up into the CON-70 might be a good substitute.
Nonetheless I will plan a short trip out to get some cartridges, never hurts to have some spares. Does it have be a specific colour?

[jar]

First, welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell. Yes, you should never need to apply pressure to get a pen to write.

BUT...

let's try a few tests first. Switch to a Pilot cartridge for a few days and see if the issue goes away. No decisions until you've used the pen with a Pilot cartridge for awhile.

Thanks for the welcome jar! I'll find a way to introduce myself to the people around here soon enough!

Does it have to be a cartridge? I have some Iroshizuku inks around so just wondering if loading that up into the CON-70 might be a good substitute.
Nonetheless I will plan a short trip out to get some cartridges, never hurts to have some spares. Does it have be a specific colour?

The goal is to remove variables. By using a Pilot cartridge with Pilot ink we are looking at what was originally the design basis for the pen. We eliminate variables like surface tension on converters and the various properties of the inks. The most common issue I've found is that particularly with converters, the surface tension of the ink itself inhibits flow.

[JunkyardSam]

As the others suggested - make sure it's not ink stuck at the top of your converter or something silly like that. Then make sure your tines are aligned, though that's probably not the issue.

I have four Custom Heritage 91s, a 912, 743, 743 and 823. Several of these had a similar issue as you describe and in each case the problem was a result of tines touching overly tightly at the tip. (The same issue affected two of my four 3776s as well.)

In my case the feed was never a problem - the tines simply would allow any or enough ink to flow.

Matt Armstrong has a good 3 part series on how to adjust your fountain pen. In my case flossing the tines to reduce the tightness at the tip got things working perfectly. Look up "Pen Habit Adjusting Your Fountain Pen Part 1" on YouTube.

A common test for this issue is - write a downstroke with a hint of pressure. Slight pressure opens the tines a little and allows ink to flow, yes?

Now test upstrokes and other directions without any pressure. Drag the pen by its tail up and down, left and right to test the pen with no pressure. I tune my pens to write at least a moderate (but not overly wet) line in this test. Often my Japanese pens produce no ink at all out of the box with this test!

If you haven't worked on a nib before -- yours is an expensive one to learn on. Adjustment would most likely be easy for a nibmeister... but if you have many pens it's good to know how to deal with this yourself. Just be very careful.

Also, avoid the SBREBrown "make your nib wetter in seconds" video. Also avoid the Jet Pens video with similar advice to "press down on the nib" to make it wetter. While that may technically work you risk bending the nib upward when all you really need is reduction in the tightness at the tip.

And finally, do your adjustment with Pilot ink. Pilot Black is good for this... you don't want to assume you have a problem when it's just the ink. And you don't want to tune your pen with an overly dry ink only to have it be too wet with others.

Some inks actually require at least a small gap at the tip of the tines in order to flow. Noodlers' Nathan Tardiff has said he tests his inks with such pens, and as one example - he says Polar Brown requires this in his blog post about that ink.

Most of my Japanese pens arrive touching - tightly - at the tip. Rule out other issues first of course, but I bet this is the problem if it's happening consistently with all inks.

Forgive my lack of brevity, and good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mhosea]

Often my Japanese pens produce no ink at all out of the box with this test!


Yes, my experience with Pilots in general, coincidentally a Custom Heritage 91, is that the factory adjustment has the tines in contact with one another at the tip. Up strokes were quite dry. I don't recall checking back then if it wrote without pressure. I probably didn't check. It was early on for me. I sold it in unmodified condition, as I was not comfortable adjusting gold nibs at that time. Only later, after buying more Pilots and learning more, did I look back and smack my head, realizing that the pen would have been fine for me after literally a few seconds of adjusting. I suspect that the Pilot ideal out-of-the-box adjustment for Japanese writers regards the pen as a "brush-like" instrument. If that's the issue here (and no harm in dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's before deciding so), introducing slight separation at the tip would be all that is needed to make it a more normal "western" writer. I'll leave it to others to teach how. I'll just say that this sort of adjustment requires no use of abrasives. Abrasives won't help this problem, and they can create new problems.

[ivan_ddt]

Just as an update, the pen has been brought to a local nib-meister and his assessment was that I tend to rotate the pen when writing. This was what caused some of the skipping issues. After a short stint in the sonicator, it is already writing a little wet. As I didn't want the pen to write any wetter, no nib adjustments were made. Thanks for all the help!

[Chrissy]

Good job! :)