I bought these new a couple of years ago and have just taken them out of the box for the first time – they’ve never been used, so I assume they don’t need any specialised cleaning.
I following the instruction for filling the reservoir with the provided ink and I’ve put a drop of water in the cap moisture reservoir.
But they won’t work. No ink flowing at all.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Does this advice on trouble-shooting fountain pens help?
[shrug]
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It might be a good idea to wash the nibs with warm water and a mild detergent in case there’s any oil that might inhibit the smooth flow of ink. Even oil from your fingers can screw things up sometimes.
These are actually drafting/technical pens, right? It doesn’t look like Faber-Castell make them any more. No surprise, very, very little manual drafting is done any more.
What size are they? 0000, 000,00,0,1,2,3,4…etc. The smaller ones, less than 00 can be a little problematic.
It’s been about 15 years since I’ve done any manual drafting, but I’ll give it a shot.
Shake them gently. You should feel the plunger/weight slide back and forth in the barrel. The plunger is attached to a thin wire that travels down to the nib. On a 0000, it’s not much bigger than a hair.
Also, you can buy a little suction bulb that helps get the ink flowing. Or, suck on ‘em. I’ll leave the second option up to you.
And you can take ‘em apart. I used to do that all the time. But, with the smaller ones, you run a real risk of bending the wire. Practice on the larger ones first so until you get the hang of it.
Read: You almost certainly will bend the wire. And you might have a real hard time finding replacement parts these days.
It’s a shame technical drawing pens seem to be disappearing. I’ve always used them for illustration. I prefer them to regular drawing pens. Even in the computer age, I nearly always draw on paper with ink, then scan and clean up.
I’ve replaced most of my “real” technical drawing pens, Rapidograph, Stano, etc. with Staedtler Acid Free, Pigment Liner, Sketch Pens. They come in a four pack of lines widths from 0.1 mm to 0.7 mm. I find 'em in Staples, but they’re getting harder to find, too.
As such they are intended for use with India Ink, aka drafting ink. See if there is a draftsmens or artists house in you city and visit them. IIRC straight household amonnia will be helpful in cleaning the pens. Hopefully they weren’t filled when new and left in a drawer to dehydrate. Can’t imagine buying something like that and not at least trying it out, or perhaps someone else did?
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Yes, they are technical drafting/drawing pens, not regular fountain pens. I bought them new but didn’t try them out for a while – I’m not a professional graphic artist or draughtsman. I just like to fiddle around with writing and drawing instruments. They hadn’t been filled with ink before and I used the ink they came with.
It’s a set of seven with varying widths. I put ink in the 0.18/000 and the 0.50/2. My wife successfully got the 0.50/2 to work by shaking it a lot, but the 0.18/000 is still not working and I don’t feel or hear anything moving when I shake it.
I’m not going to try to take the nib assembly apart myself, but maybe I’ll try soaking it in warm water.
I don’t know if isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol will affect your pens plastic case but it will dissolve ink very effectively. The main issue I’ve run into with cleaning technical pens with clotted, dried ink is that the ink once solidifed is very difficult to remove from all the little interior spaces and soaking often doesn’t do it as it forms these clots. If you have an ultrasonic vibrator cleaner this will sometimes loosen the clots.