Understanding Ink (or not!)

[FredRydr]

I admit it. I don't understand ink, or more specifically, all the variations in attributes (and I don't mean color).

For example, I own a Sheaffer Connaisseur that has been frustrating me to no end. It is a "hard starter" and with a few shakes ink would flow...for about two lines of writing and then stop. I tweaked the nib as best I could, but I am not one for disassembling this era Sheaffer section/feed/nib units. I flushed it with everything in the arsenal, and rinsed it thoroughly. I tried a range of inks without success. Then I sent it off to one of the best known Sheaffer-authorized independent repairmen who swapped out the plastic feed for an ebonite feed, and he could mess with it. (Mind you, my Sheaffer Balance II and Sheaffer Nostalgia with identical plastic feeds never gave me such problems as the Connaisseaur - go figure.) Alas, on its return the pen continued its misbehavior. I flushed and rinsed and tried different inks, especially the classic reliable unsaturated ones. Then, I tried something different which changed things, and I do not know why.

I had plucked the pen from the pen cabinet and filled the pen with Monteverde blue/black to see if the ink would behave better with a broad stub nib, but that changed nothing for the pen or the ink. I didn't like the ink, anyway. Flushed and rinsed. I was about the put the Connaisseur away, but I spotted a bottle I hadn't drawn ink from in a while: Diamine Kensington Blue. I filled the Connaisseur with that, and...no hard starting! And it kept on writing. I set it in my pen rack. The next day, no hard starts and the Connaisseur continued to write for as long as I wanted. What's so special about Kensington Blue?

As I wrote above, I don't understand ink.

[christof]

Congrats to another rescued pen Fred!

[Chrissy]

Sometimes a pen just likes a particular ink and writes nicely with that one and not with others.

[Yazeh]

Glad your pen is working now. I've had this adventure with many pens, the same pen reacts differently with different inks. It's the nature of the beast

[Jon Szanto]

Like other people have indicated, I sometimes find the pairing that saves a pen from not being used. As with other aspects of life, at this point I don't question the solution but go with the flow, so to speak.

[Thom.]

... It is a "hard starter" and with a few shakes ink would flow...for about two lines of writing and then stop. ...

Perhaps the pressure equalization was simply missing because the air duct was tight.