Fountain Pens and Shaving Instruments

Having been forced to use a fountain/cartridge pen at school, I too have a love of them but being left handed and writing in the way, pushing rather than pulling, I do there are two issues. One I can't see what I've just written and secondly I tend to drag the heel of my hand over the wet ink! I could try writing right handed -left handed by contorting my hand so I pull instead of push, but in my sixth decade I feel its a little late for that. :ROFLMAO:
 
Having been forced to use a fountain/cartridge pen at school, I too have a love of them but being left handed and writing in the way, pushing rather than pulling, I do there are two issues. One I can't see what I've just written and secondly I tend to drag the heel of my hand over the wet ink! I could try writing right handed -left handed by contorting my hand so I pull instead of push, but in my sixth decade I feel its a little late for that. :ROFLMAO:


I went into pen shop in Kendal, the owner was in shock. The customer before me had asked to try two pens that she was thinking of buying, she pick up a pen in each hand and wrote at the same time. I have tried to do the same and just find it impossible, especially if I want to read what I have written. Not sure if its more impressive or not but what she wrote with each hand was different.

Left handed use with a fountain pen is not easy, Obama is a left hand overwriter, his wrist looks contorted as he writes. i have also seen a writer trun the page through 90 degrees and, effectively writes sideways up the lines. This is actually a bit easier than it sounds.

The only thing I can suggest for left handers is to use a fine nib with a quick drying ink such as Parker but it may be that if I were in your shoes I think I would settle for a mechanical pencil or a good ballpoint.
 
Good choices. The Sailor ink is described as a Permanent (as opposed to washable) ink I know that some people wash out such inks from their pens after each fill, is this somethiing that you suggest?

The only two brands that I avoid are Noodlers and Diamine. Noodlers inks are very inconsistent and Diamine are cheap but have a tendancy to stain
pens, and plastics, its a pity because they have a huge colour range and are cheap.

The Sailor ink uses carbon nano-particles rather than dye, as such it's a pigment ink which is what gives it its permanence. As long as you don't let it dry in the pen it's fine, I use it a lot of the time and have just refilled when I've been getting low on ink without washing the pen out, and have done this three or four times before cleaning with no ill effects. I would definitely wash out the pen if I wasn't going to use it for a while though. I've found that kiwi guro washes out easily, and for me the minor extra care required is more than worth it for the performance and the sheen on the paper. It's simultaneously the blackest black ever as it's carbon, and one of the less blacks because of the sheen, it almost looks like extremely black pencil on the page. Love the stuff.

Perle Noire is a very easy to live with ink and is definitely one of the blacker blacks. It even has surprising water-resistance for a standard ink. If it wasn't for kiwa guru it would be my go-to black. I only wish Herbin bottles were a more practical shape.

I've had a few Diamine inks and had success with them, but 99% of the time I use either black or blue-black ink. I also enjoy Baystate Blue but that one does need special attention as it stains everything. I've dedicated a pen to it.

I went into pen shop in Kendal, the owner was in shock. The customer before me had asked to try two pens that she was thinking of buying, she pick up a pen in each hand and wrote at the same time. I have tried to do the same and just find it impossible, especially if I want to read what I have written. Not sure if its more impressive or not but what she wrote with each hand was different.

Left handed use with a fountain pen is not easy, Obama is a left hand overwriter, his wrist looks contorted as he writes. i have also seen a writer trun the page through 90 degrees and, effectively writes sideways up the lines. This is actually a bit easier than it sounds.

The only thing I can suggest for left handers is to use a fine nib with a quick drying ink such as Parker but it may be that if I were in your shoes I think I would settle for a mechanical pencil or a good ballpoint.

Writing with both hands is impressive, doing so simultaneously while writing different text is on another level!

I'm a left-handed overwriter, but have managed to arrange my hand and the page to minimise the hooking of my hand as I write. It still looks awkward and it would be easier if I was an underwriter, but if it's good enough for Barack Obama it's good enough for me. I actually find writing with a fountain pen easier than a ballpoint as a fountain pen will write with no pressure, whereas with a ballpoint I need to press on and because I'm pushing rather than pulling the ball can stick and cause skipping, I also find ballpoints tiring for the same reason. I sometimes wish that I'd been taught to write from under the line when I was starting out. I do like the Pentel Energel pens if I have to use a ballpoint but the majority of the time it's a fountain pen.
 
Thanks for the tip @Vacumatic . My same brass fountain pen arrived from China a few days ago and I must say it's a nice writer and feels great in the hand. I can see why you like it.

I must admit that I like this pen more than I should. It feels very different from all my other pens, its always cool, to the touch anf has a very good look to it, you know that it will still be around 100 years from now and it works very well.

In these days where we are thinking about the environment more than ever, I am pleased that it is not disposable, better than recyclable it is endlessly reusable and all for not a lot of money,
 
Yes it takes International cartridges. From memory, the pen comes with a converter so that you can fill the pen from a bottle of ink.

There are a number of people who are selling similar pens to this one at prices from £4 to £35+ and they are similar to a Kaweco brass pen which is german made at £70 although I have owned 3 Kawecos and regretted buying them.

Not sure that forum rules permit giving you an ebay link but seller soyoung54 has stock.

Perhaps I must have been a brassfounder in a previous life because I also like brass nesting screwdrivers.
 

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@fancontroller @Vacumatic Does it take Int'l Std. cartridges?

I should have said that there is a whole range of cartridges available to you and you can do a lot better than what you may be able to buy on the High Street.

This online seller in Bury St Edmonds offers a perfect service from his shop and stocks a huge range of cartridges and bottled inks. Link attached for the cartridges. The only type I would avoid are the shimmer inks.

 
I have been interested in the Kaweco fountain pen for ages. I didn't realise there was a chinese 'tribute'. I ordered a silver one a couple of weeks ago from ebay from China. It arrived this morning.
Very impressed, nice weight and very well built.

It was around £3.50 delivered. I'm struggling to see how they make any money from it.

Unfortunately, I think I have a dud. I put an ink cartridge in it and discovered that it skips quite badly.

Anyone have any tips on how to fix the nib?
 
I have been interested in the Kaweco fountain pen for ages. I didn't realise there was a chinese 'tribute'. I ordered a silver one a couple of weeks ago from ebay from China. It arrived this morning.
Very impressed, nice weight and very well built.

It was around £3.50 delivered. I'm struggling to see how they make any money from it.

Unfortunately, I think I have a dud. I put an ink cartridge in it and discovered that it skips quite badly.

Anyone have any tips on how to fix the nib?


The first job is to have a good look at the nib, ideally through a jewellers loupe or strong glasses. The end of the nib should be perfectly in line, the tips as 00. The pen probably came with a converter, use this to flush the pen using warm water with a couple of drops of washing up liquid, what you are looking to do is to check that the pen is cleaned of any manufacturing oils or similar from the pen.

The pen will take International cartidges, some of these are are a lot better than others, to remove this question see if you can find a bottle of ink and fill the pen using the converter. One of the crazy things, unlike DE blades, is that all manufacturers cartridges will not fit all pens.

I am reasonably sure that the problem will now be fixed, most Chinese pens are good to go straight away, I have bought many of these pens from China and always been happy with the results, especially at the price.

If you are still having problems I will happily have a look at the pen for you and see if I can make it work, if you want to have a go yourself, try some me nib smoothing. You will need one of the following,

Micromesh sheets
A piece of shiny soft metal such as copper or aluminium,
Something mildly abrasive such as a piece of flint or polished granite or marble,

The idea is that you are going to draw some figure of 8s and lines on pne of the above as you will be polishing the tip of the nib. The pen should have ink or water inside the pen as a lubricant for this proceedure and you should work the nib for about 2 minutes.

One last test is to fill the pen with ink, take a damp paper towel, stand the pen upright nib down on the towel and leave if for 30 minutes. The ink should move down the nib by capillary action and the towel should now bevery ink coloured. If it doesnt happen then there is a substantial manufacturing fault or the ink in the cartridge is dried up, or is not for fountain pens but for drawing pens such as India ink.

As I said, I am quite happy to look at the pen and see if it is a dud, no charge.

If I had to identify the most likely fault I would be looking at the ink supply first of all, preferably filling from an ink bottle or a use a different cartridge, as with many things, eliminate the easy stuff before moving on to the things that need work.
 
Thanks for the generous offer, it is very much appreciated.

I did a quick Google after posting and watched a couple of you tube vids. You were correct, the tips were misaligned. I managed to straighten them and the pen now writes smoothly.

The only issue remaining is that when first using it it takes a couple of strokes to get the ink flowing, after that it seems fine.

It's been a while since I used a fountain pen so I'm not sure if that's normal or not.

I have a few Parker Vectors, a Lamy and a rather nice Kickstarter Namisu. I can't remember if I had the same issue with any of those.
 
Thanks for the generous offer, it is very much appreciated.

I did a quick Google after posting and watched a couple of you tube vids. You were correct, the tips were misaligned. I managed to straighten them and the pen now writes smoothly.

The only issue remaining is that when first using it it takes a couple of strokes to get the ink flowing, after that it seems fine.

It's been a while since I used a fountain pen so I'm not sure if that's normal or not.

I have a few Parker Vectors, a Lamy and a rather nice Kickstarter Namisu. I can't remember if I had the same issue with any of those.


Good result on the nib straightening. It sounds like the ink flow is still a bit dry, this might be due to the ink or the setting of the nib. It may be a little bit high as compared to the feed. Firstly, squeeze the nib to the feed using your finger and thumb, dont use too much pressure, you are looking to check that the feed is making good contact with the nib, especially close to the end of the nib. Please see the image 1. Gentle pressure on the nib should fix this but you may need to check the alignment again afterwards.

image1.jpg





Whilst you are moving the nib around try pushing the nib home as far as you can so that the feed covers as much of the underside of the nib as possible, you do this by pushing on the shoulders of the nib, you may need a tissue to protect your fingers.

Finally check the alignment of the nib, you are looking for the slit to be parallel ideally, just touching may work but have problems, splayed needs fixing. If its a problem then come back and we can work on this


image 2.jpg
 
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