1993 (IIL) Sterling Silver Sonnet with factory stub nib

I bought this pen to celebrate our 25th anniversary. The only problem was hard starts due to drying out, which by many has been blamed on the cap not sealing properly. I have heard some suggest dripping wax or epoxy into the cap, but I was hesitant to do that. Instead, I cut the tip of a latex glove finger and stretched it over the nib and replaced the cap. Even after many hours the pen would put ink to paper immediately. So, I decided to stuff the latex finger tip down into the cap to see what would happen. Surprisingly, the nib did not dry out even after a day of non use. It did require one downstroke to get ink flow, but after that it wrote flawlessly.

This seems to be a viable solution, so I will defer the dripping of shellac or wax into the cap. Blowing into the cap still indicates a smaller air leak, but since the pen starts almost immediately I think I will live with this solution for a while.
How have others addressed this problem?

Hello,

I have assume that your Sonnet is a Fougere.

Can you please tell me what ink you are using in it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by proteus

Hello,

I have assume that your Sonnet is a Fougere.

Can you please tell me what ink you are using in it.

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Yes, it is Fougere. The ink I am using is Diamine Onyx Black.

The epoxy drip into the cap continues to prevent nib drying out in the five Sonnets I did it to. The latex glove finger solution appears to be another solution. I will probably try that also, since it would be less potentially messy and it would be reversible. You do have to consider a possible sale of the Sonnet, and a potential buyer might not be OK with the permanence of the epoxy solution. With the latex glove option you could just pull the cut off glove finger out of the cap.

I never considered selling any of my Sonnets, because I thought most people seem to think all Sonnets are possible fakes from China. I did check my Sonnets carefully againse the known and publicized list of fake Sonnet characteristics, but people are skeptical of Sonnets. If you look at ebay Sonnet listings today, most seem to come from China.

Paul,
As I mentioned, I bought this for our 25th anniversary and so have no intention of selling it. In fact, I've never sold any of my pens, although the collection still numbers under 50. Most are Esterbrooks [but you know that] and most of the remainder are equally divided among Sheaffer or Parker, and I've been on hold for more than a year now. (The 2312 is still a favorite for many writings. Thanks again.)