Piston fountain pens - Do I advance the piston?

[TexOkie Shaver]

I have a TWSBI 580ALR. As I write with it, it uses ink from the ink chamber. Above the ink in the chamber is a pocket of air. What keeps the pen from vacuum locking? Do I need to advance the piston a bit as I use up the ink? If so, how much?

 

[Tomo]

No need. If the feed is working correctly it will allow air to be pulled into the chamber to balance the pressure.

 

[tankerjohn]

I agree. You shouldn't need to do that. Some pens do have a feature to seal up the ink reservoir by cutting off air. The Pen BBS piston fillers do that, as does the Pilot 823, which is a vac filler.

 

[KW Driver]

yep, never had an issue with my TWSBI. the only time it needs to be advanced is when you reload it. same for any piston, but you can see yours.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

The reason I asked is that it started skipping last night. I’m using Noodler’s Black Eel ink. I guess when it’s ready for a refill I’ll clean the nib. I didn’t write with it for a couple of days and the Black Eel does dry pretty quickly. But I would have thought that a screw on cap would have kept that from happening.

 

[Dog Whiskerer]

I've advanced the piston to force ink into a feed that, like in your case, may have sat too long.

It's also okay to advance it if you don't like to see your ink sloshing about in the ever enlarging gap between ink and piston. Just be sure to hold the nib up and go slowly.

 

[tankerjohn]

A couple additional thoughts:

• Did you flush the pen with water before inking it? Sometimes new pens get manufacturing oils and other gunk in the nib section and it can cause skipping.
• Some pens are picky about ink and some inks don’t work well in every pen. It sounds like you have such a mismatch. A technique that many people use when putting a new pen through its paces is to initially fill it with a “safe”, proven, and consistent ink like Waterman Serenity Blue. Then you can ensure that anything that doesn’t work correctly isn’t the ink’s fault. If everything is flowing and running well, then refill with a different ink and if it starts skipping or whatever, you can be sure it’s not a good ink for that pen.
• Here’s the thing about Noodlers inks, they are known to be very inconsistent. I love what Nathan Tardif, the owner of Noodlers, does. I love that he makes all the ink himself in his cabin in the North Woods of New England and fills each batch on his grandfather’s antique desk (or workbench or something). I love how he strives to provide good value, gives his inks historical and sometimes politically edgy names, and is this reclusive, yet colorful, character in the stationary world who is unafraid to push boundaries in either ink properties or social commentary. But it remains that his inks are inconsistent. How could they not be? I certainly wouldn’t expect his operation – a one man show – to have the same level of QC as major manufacturers like Pilot or Lamy. And I think you have to embrace that as part of the charm of Noodlers. If you want to try to make the Black Eel work better, you can experiment with adding small amounts of distilled water and/or dish soap or a commercial ink additive such as Vaness’ White Lighting.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

A couple additional thoughts:

• Did you flush the pen with water before inking it? Sometimes new pens get manufacturing oils and other gunk in the nib section and it can cause skipping.
• Some pens are picky about ink and some inks don’t work well in every pen. It sounds like you have such a mismatch. A technique that many people use when putting a new pen through its paces is to initially fill it with a “safe”, proven, and consistent ink like Waterman Serenity Blue. Then you can ensure that anything that doesn’t work correctly isn’t the ink’s fault. If everything is flowing and running well, then refill with a different ink and if it starts skipping or whatever, you can be sure it’s not a good ink for that pen.
• Here’s the thing about Noodlers inks, they are known to be very inconsistent. I love what Nathan Tardif, the owner of Noodlers, does. I love that he makes all the ink himself in his cabin in the North Woods of New England and fills each batch on his grandfather’s antique desk (or workbench or something). I love how he strives to provide good value, gives his inks historical and sometimes politically edgy names, and is this reclusive, yet colorful, character in the stationary world who is unafraid to push boundaries in either ink properties or social commentary. But it remains that his inks are inconsistent. How could they not be? I certainly wouldn’t expect his operation – a one man show – to have the same level of QC as major manufacturers like Pilot or Lamy. And I think you have to embrace that as part of the charm of Noodlers. If you want to try to make the Black Eel work better, you can experiment with adding small amounts of distilled water and/or dish soap or a commercial ink additive such as Vaness’ White Lighting.

I did not flush the pen when I first got it, so I suspect that is the problem. If it continues, I will dump the ink that is in the pen now and rinse it out. I’ll then find the Waterman’s ink you mentioned and try again with that.

I sure hope it’s not the ink. I so love the rich black of the black eel ink. I’m normally a blue ink fan opting for the darker, almost black blue colors. But, if the Noodler’s isn’t working, then so be it. I’ll move on to something else.

 

[Dog Whiskerer]

Sometimes all you need for a slow starting pen--if that was the case, having sat for a few days--is a drop or two of water on the nib. Or dip the tip of the nib in the bottle of ink you are using.

As a test, I just pulled my TWBSI mini out of the pen pouch. Haven't used in at least a week and it's not writing right off the bat. Pushing a little ink into the feed fixed it.

As you use your pens, you'll get used to their peculiarities--of the pens and the inks that you use in them. An ink that gives you trouble in one pen might work great in another.

 

[Rhody]

Interesting read. I haven’t used my twbsi piston yet. I’ve also never rinsed out a new pen. Hadn’t heard of that before. I have given a slight twist on a cartridge converter if the flow is slow. That seems to do the trick and I can see that working with a piston type.
I’m reading more about noodlers now. The eel black is considered an ink with added lubricant for pistons and converters. Yet another thing I didn’t know I need but must have. Eel blue! I see the eel black has a lubricant but is a bulletproof ink. This may be the culprit if you left your pen unattended it can dry in the nib.

 

[Basil]

I have eel blue and love it, haven’t noticed any dry starts or skipping since using it. If the black is also bulletproof that could be the issue, my bulletproof black will dry out in my pen after a few days of non use.

 

[KW Driver]

I’ve had no issues with Noodler’s Heart of Darkness in my pistons, other than maybe wetting a nib if it’s been unused for awhile. Just another option for you.

If you’re a fan of blue-blacks, ESS has been my go to ink for years and been continuously loaded in my 530 mini for the better part of 3 years. It’s my daily carry pocket pen and travels well. It’s never had any start up issues, and as an IG, permanent as well.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

This morning I picked up the fountain pen just to jot a note and the ink in the chamber didn’t move when I inverted the pen to write. I figured it had all dried up, but when I started writing, the pen wrote from the first stroke to the last with a consistent flow rate. When I was done, I noticed the ink in the chamber was once again moving around. I’m not sure what all the skipping was about, perhaps the paper I was writing on?

 

[Runnin_Ute]

This morning I picked up the fountain pen just to jot a note and the ink in the chamber didn’t move when I inverted the pen to write. I figured it had all dried up, but when I started writing, the pen wrote from the first stroke to the last with a consistent flow rate. When I was done, I noticed the ink in the chamber was once again moving around. I’m not sure what all the skipping was about, perhaps the paper I was writing on?

If you were using a slick paper like Rhodia as an example, if your pen is writing ok near the top of the page but as you get cloaer to the bottom it starts to skip intermittently what you might be hitting is oils from your hands. A solution is to grab another piece of paper to put between your hand and the paper you are writing on.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Rhody]

I’m having difficulty loading ink in the twbsi piston pen. I’ve watched a video but still can’t seem to make it work.

 

[Snargle]

Interesting read. I haven’t used my twbsi piston yet. I’ve also never rinsed out a new pen. Hadn’t heard of that before. I have given a slight twist on a cartridge converter if the flow is slow. That seems to do the trick and I can see that working with a piston type.
I’m reading more about noodlers now. The eel black is considered an ink with added lubricant for pistons and converters. Yet another thing I didn’t know I need but must have. Eel blue! I see the eel black has a lubricant but is a bulletproof ink. This may be the culprit if you left your pen unattended it can dry in the nib.

Noodler’s Bulletproof” inks don’t dry out any faster than other inks. The bulletproof, permanent properties come from a chemical reaction that binds the ink pigments to the cellulose fibers of the paper. You can’t remove it without grinding off the paper fibers (which would probably wear a hole into the paper.)

 

[Rhody]

Noodler’s Bulletproof” inks don’t dry out any faster than other inks. The bulletproof, permanent properties come from a chemical reaction that binds the ink pigments to the cellulose fibers of the paper. You can’t remove it without grinding off the paper fibers (which would probably wear a hole into the paper.)

Good to know

 

[Doc4]

The bulletproof, permanent properties come from a chemical reaction that binds the ink pigments to the cellulose fibers of the paper. You can’t remove it without grinding off the paper fibers (which would probably wear a hole into the paper.)

IIRC, that's about what is happening. But I'm not Nathan, so I might be wrong.

Noodler’s Bulletproof” inks don’t dry out any faster than other inks.

yes and no.

Each ink has its own drying time on paper, and propensity to dry out in the nib. those can vary. But ... the
"permanency" of the ink tends not to be the deciding factor. (IIRC, the Whaleman's Sepia is a permanent ink that dries out very fast ... and XFeather is a permanent ink that dries out very slowly. Most are somewhere in the middle.)

 

[jj_sharp]

I have had pens write better after a tank of ink has gone through them. I presume the pen cleaned up. Always try the least invasive things first, in general, in my opinion, when trying to fix things.

Best wishes.