Hero 616 too wet - me or pen?

[azkid]

My first Hero 616 (fine) arrived last night in the mail. The pen is laying down way too much ink for my taste, as compared to two my Pilot Metro F nibs, Jinhao 8802 F or even the B nib X450.

I am seeing an atypical amount of bleed / line fuzziness, and line thickness on Apica CD11 notebook where the above pens show little or no such behavior using the same Pilot Take-sumi black ink.

Could this be due to some mistake I made in filling this 51-like pen?

Or is it more likely the nib requiring some adjustments?

Any and all tips appreciated.

Thanks!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Iro inks tend to be wet. Maybe it's the ink, or the 616 feed MIGHT be misaligned; hard to tell from the angle of your pic. Sometimes the 616 feed and nib are easy to re-set. Sometimes you rip out your hair.

[carlos.q]

You should try using a dry ink such as Pelikan 4001 or a mild IG ink like R&K Salix and Scabiosa.

[Pterodactylus]

You should try using a dry ink such as Pelikan 4001 or a mild IG ink like R&K Salix and Scabiosa.

I would also second this, the ink can make a huge difference.
For a wet pen I would also recommend the ones above, these are excellent inks.
May I add another one to this list, ESS Registrars Blue-Black (also IG which writes almost on toilet paper great and can tame a gusher pen)

[azkid]

Thanks all. I will try some of those inks and see what happens.

I am not entirely sure i know what a misaligned feed/nib would look like. What angle of pic would be best, bottom view or facing the nib? Thanks.

[Pterodactylus]

May I give you an example which huge difference the ink can make.

Currently I´ve tinkering arround with an FPR Himalaya.
This pen was an extremly wet pen per default (which is a good thing for a pen with a (somehow) flexible nib.

I´ve EMF modded the nib and the big amount of extra flex made this pen a real gusher (even I´ve heat set the feed).
It now lays down seas of ink (and it do not have railroading problems even without modifying the feed, which is normally necessary if you add more flex to a nib).

The following picture illustrates the differences the ink can make:


Ink differences in a wet pen by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

All writing is done with the same pen, an FPR Himalaya with an EMF modded FPR flex nb.

Paper is good quality Clairefontaine.

Above Sheaffer Skrip Purple:
Massive bleeding and feathering.

Middle:
Back side of the paper, massive show through and bleed through.

Bottom:
Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black, no feathering, no bleeding, no show through no bleed through, and believe me, you see nothing on the other side of the paper (otherwise I would have made a picture, actually there is something written on the back side as well, if you look closely you can see minor indents of the tines in the paper, but nothing from the ink)
The edges of the ink are sharp and clearly defined, simply a top notch result.


Yes a dry ink can reduce the flow of the ink and normally also this will make a huge difference.
But in this case even this make no real difference other attributes of the ink show up here as well clearly.

Also with the Pelikan ink the pen lays down seas of ink, it is still a gusher, but the result is a completely different.
Here the overall quality of an ink shows up clearly.

Many inks work well on "normal" conditions (more or less), but these conditions are normally no challange for the quality of a ink.

The difference will show up when you lay down seas of ink, will it bleed, feather, show and bleed through the paper?

These conditions separates the top notch inks from the common average inks (every newby ink designer can throw on the market) and will make an incredible difference.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks all. I will try some of those inks and see what happens.

I am not entirely sure i know what a misaligned feed/nib would look like. What angle of pic would be best, bottom view or facing the nib? Thanks.

It's not easy to get pics of this. When I have a hooded Chinese pen with problems, I need to get a close 360° look. A picture rom the side (ie: nib on top, feed on bottom) and then from the bottom might help. You can also look from the side to see if the feed makes contact with the nib; I have one or two that I can't fix no matter what.

Your problem might only be a too-wet ink. Let's hope so!

[Pterodactylus]

Thanks all. I will try some of those inks and see what happens.

I am not entirely sure i know what a misaligned feed/nib would look like. What angle of pic would be best, bottom view or facing the nib? Thanks.

If you look from the feed side to the nib, the feed should be in the middle of the nib.
If you look from the side, there should not be any gap between feed and nib.
If you look at nib slit from the top there should not be a big gap between the tines, if you look against a light through it it should only be minor.
The tines should be perfectly aligned to each other (but you most likely would feel it in at least one stroke direction when you write with it.

But to be honest, I dońt think that it is real alignment problem.
Sure, you could try to tinker arround with the nib and the feed to make it more dry, but if you do not really know what you are doing I think itˋs the simpler and easier option to us more dry ink.

But checking if the feed is in the middle of the nib absolutely make sense, if not you could easy fix it.

[azkid]

Ok, thanks. Those are what I thought you meant. Feed is in the middle of the nib looking from bottom, there is no gap between feed and nib looking from the side. No scratchiness when writing and looking up close the tines are aligned vertically (I have experienced the feel and appearance when they aren't).

The gap between the tines is very small at the tip but wider than some other pens I have between tip and breather. Not reading too much into that, though. Probably this pen/design just wants a different ink.

I have some of the suggested inks on order now. That seems like a good next step. I'll post up the results.

[azkid]

Thanks for the advice, all. The Hero 616 is a whole new pen with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black.

Instead of sloppily pouring forth a river of ink, it daintily deposits a thin, controlled line.

While previously gliding a bit too smoothly over the page, I sense a pleasant bit of feedback, a bit more than the Metro. And it is actually quite enjoyable to write with.



I am well aware of my capriciousness with pens; this is yet another example. Where once I was annoyed enough to 86 this dreadful, flimsy instrument, now I won't be able to let it go because it writes too enjoyably.

Too, could it be that it looks a little nicer and feels a little more substantial than I remember? How can this possibly be?

(I jest; it is just as chintzy as ever, but performance and writing feel are, clearly, almost everything to me, washing away a multitude of pen sins)

Incidentally, this is the second pen which Pelikan 4001 B.B. has completely transformed, the other being my Wahl ringtop. Time to order a bottle.

Both were made to work far below their potential with Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi.

[carlos.q]

Thanks for the advice, all. The Hero 616 is a whole new pen with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black.

Great! We all love happy endings.

[Stefan-Ionut-Marius]

That is not a Hero 616 it is a Hero 329 . Hero 616 has a ink window on the section .

[Stefan-Ionut-Marius]

That is not a Hero 616 it is a Hero 329 . Hero 616 has a ink window on the section .