Thank you so much! I recieved yesterday my first Kaweco pen, the same one you have, with a M nib. Imidiatly tried it out with the Kaweco ink cartridge and got so disappointed with the skipping and breaking. I really wanted to love the pen, but it was a worse writing experience than with my 2€ old school pen. Since the fingernail-tip didn't do the trick for me, I disasembled the pen and saw that there were small aprticles in that channel. I went through with no pressure with a razor blade and since then the pen writes with 98% reliability. Still a shame those pens don't come out great out of the box...
Glad I could help! Yes, it is a shame that these pens don't write better to begin with. If you spend $25+ on a pen, it should write more reliably than a cheap ballpoint.
@@DowntheBreatherHoleI'm planning on ordering some Kaweco pens for some Christmas presents and I'll definitely do this to them before giving them away since the people that would receive them are liable to just throw them out if they don't write well out of the box.
Thank you sooooo much, you saved my Kaweco Apricot Pearl ( looked lovely, wrote terribly) from living in the drawer to now being in my pocket every day, so Awesome. Thank you 🔆
Thank you, very helpful. I have the same dry flow problem with my kaweco sport, I’ll give this a try. Your demonstration was really easy to follow. I’ve stayed away from kaweco pens since I had the dry writing experience. A pen should really be a serviceable writer straight out of the box. Thank you for the content on your channel, I really enjoy it.
Thanks for watching! Let me know how it goes with your tuning. I agree though. I'm glad I got my Kaweco Sport working, but a $27 pen should never have these issues right out of the box. I can get a $2 ballpoint at Walmart that will be reliable every single time, you know?
About 99.9 percent of Kaweco Sports are fine out of the box. This does not mean that a given owner will like it. Not every pen suits everyone. Some writers prefer dry nibs, some prefer wet, and some like a nib right in the middle. The Sport is an extremely popular pen because the vast majority of buyers like it as it comes.
@@jamesaritchie1 I know they are very popular. I just got a lemon I guess. In addition to a poor ink flow by almost any reasonable standard, mine is also quite scratch. I tuned the nib and feed to where it’s almost an acceptable writing experience. I don’t return to brands that perform poorly, and I don’t mean difference in writing preferences, I mean poor writing instruments by any reasonable standards. I have a bunch of Jinhao pens that are far cheaper than the sport and every one of them were good straight out of the box. I did adjust some because I like a wetter writer, but they were all fine writers. Burned once by Kaweco, so I’ll stick to Pilot, Sailor, Lamy, TWISBI, and the many other brands that have never failed me.
Just clicked on your video about 5pens you’d never buy again-and my Kaweco Sport has similar issues. I use Kaweco ink with it and have been very frustrated that the ink stops flowing at random moments; apparently with a will of its own. I will try this because it makes sense that the channel may have been molded improperly. Thanks so much for such a clear explanation - you probably saved me a trip to the pen repair for a $30 pen😊
2/24/24 Update! I am giving away a luxurious Rhodia Webnotebook in the near future. For more information, follow me on Instagram here: instagram.com/downthebreatherhole/. I'll be posting details soon!
Thank you so much for this video! This is my first fountain pen and I was having the same issue. I may have made the channel a little too deep, but im just happy it actually writes now 😂
I'm glad I could help! If you're looking to try a different fountain pen, I recommend looking at a couple of my recent videos, where I talk about the pens I do and do not recommend.
I'm so glad I found your video! I've tried everything on my BRAND NEW pen: flushing, cleaning, changing inks, cartridge and converter. Nothing worked, until you got to the part where you swipe a sharp tool over the feed line (which was very much non existence on my pen). It worked for me by using a box cutter very gently swiped it to make a deeper channel. Thanks again for this tip!
I'm glad you found my video too! It's too bad so many Kaweco Sports need this kind of help right out of the box. Glad this tip helped your fountain pen write better!
I just got a Kaweco Sport when down in New Haven over the holiday. Got home, and immediately began troubleshooting a lousy dry ink delivery. Before giving up, I gave this method of adding relief to the feed truff, and OMG, it worked wonderfully! Now, i can draw and enjoy my pen!
Thank you for this vid! I messed around with a couple of pens that I’ve never liked because they are not dependable writers. Flushed them both thoroughly. On the Duraflex I pulled out the nib unit and cleaned that area you showed carefully. I figure I have nothing to lose, since it doesn’t write now. It is writing now, which I’m thankful for. It might not ever be my favorite pen,but it least it’s a writing pen.😊
you just saved me. thank you so much. it was already a bad day and i wanted to enjoy my new little pen but couldnt. i just flexed the nib just like you said at the beginning of the video and now the pen writes very nicely. thank you again.
Thank you for this video! I dropped a Kaweco AL Sport that became so disappointedly scratchy. The first one with the nib on the nail did the job and it now writes like a charm. Grateful!
I fixed it THANKS!!!!! Mine was working like a dream the first days. Then I pulled out the nib and put it back (properly) but it imedeatelly begun the hard start and skipping a letter here and there. I changed the ink...same issue, no fix. Pulled it out and flexed the feed tip for better touch, as also run my Victorinox blade 2 to 3 times. Kind of better but still not there. Did the same again, pulled out the feed, cleaned it again with the tip of the knife..and that's how it became PERFECT again as day one!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOY!!!!!!!!!!
@@DowntheBreatherHole It was the cleaning of the feed, with the Victorinox, that fixed my issue completely. Thanks again, I hadn't used it for months because of the issues, and now I write and doodle all day with it, just like a happy kid that got his Christmas present!!
Thank you! That was a really quick and huge improvement, just feeling a bit dissapointed as I expected a most polished product when paying almost 30 dollars. My desk fountain pen from Platinum just costed 7 dollars and it has worked perfectly since the start
@@bogosbinted5862 glad I could help! And you are right. A $30 pen should write flawlessly. Yeah, defects are bound to happen from time to time, but I think they happen too often with Kaweco.
My kaweco sport worked great right out of the box... but I ran into trouble when the cartridge ran dry. I ordered a couple of packs of kaweco cartridges, but I could not get it to flow. The fingernail tip was successful! Flows good as gold now. Thanks so much for the video!
This worked. I used the pocket knife but I did also notice that the tip of the nib needed to be opened up as you described in the beginning of your video so thanks
When I bought a Green/Gold Kaweco Sport along with some Kaweco Palm Green cartridges and a bottle for refilling, I was really disappointed with the dry writing/feed issues - this was going to be my EDC pen when writing/journaling on the go. Following your video, I just took a sharp kitchen knife and lightly scored the bottom section of the feed. It seems to be writing more reliably and looks like it's writing a bit wetter than last time. Thanks for the tip. :)
@@DowntheBreatherHole Thanks for the reply. I did notice the pen started writing dry again after experimenting with it. It annoyed me so much, I rage-slammed the pen against my Pukka Notepad which bend forward a bit causing a slight gap between the feed and the nib. It's better to write with, but the Fine nib is still scratchy in parts and I find my Lamy Safari Terracotta more consistent with an EF nib.
First, thanks for the tips. I knew of the "press" technique to widen the tines, hadn't thought of widening the ink channel but it makes a lot of sense and an Exacto knife would be a lot slimmer for this delicate work. Your experience (and that of commenters below) echoes mine. I find Kaweco's pretty "iffy" on ink flow out of the box, at least for EF or F nibs. I'd probably have a few more Kawecos but that non-attention to detail annoys me. Mind you, I've had some rather high end pens that came with mis-aligned tines, baby bottoms and other correctable annoyances that I find inexcusable in any pen, especially a costlier one (c. $200 and up).
Yes, Kaweco with an EF nib can be tricky, but at least nine times out of ten the problem is with the nib, not the feed. But Kaweco does pay attention to detail. Very close attention. Those who complain seem not to notice that Kaweco pens are one of the most popular out there, or that the vast majority have no problems at all. Chances are that you "iffy" pens are exactly how they're supposed to be, at least where flow is concerned, but you just don't like them. No offense, but I've had at least a hundred people send me expensive pens they thought had misaligned nibs, and almost none of them did. . .unless the owner did the damage, and that's often easy to tell. Out of innumerable high-end pens they thought had baby's bottom, maybe two or three did. Tell me which high-end pens you've had those problems with, and I can probably tell you the actual percentage of those pens where such things are actually a problem. I can guarantee that percentage is going to be so low it almost doesn't exist. It is EXTREMELY rare for even name brand low-end pens to have problems, and far, far, far rarer for high-end pens to have them. But these are fountain pens and expecting one hundred percent of them to be perfect is just really silly. I know some "experts" out there, such as sbrebrown, say it's unacceptable for a single high-end pen to have a bad nib or feed, but that is an incredibly ignorant and naive statement. Bringing high-end pens up to that standard would at least double the cost, and probably triple it because it would mean hand inspection and hand-testing of every single pen, and, of course, inspectors who were also nearly perfect. I seriously doubt it could even be done with production pens. Quality control is never cheap, even when it's far from perfect. Perfect quality control is impossible on standard production pens, but even getting close to perfection would cost so much money that only the rich could afford such fountain pens. Regardless of what sbrebrown knows about fountain pens, and it's probably a lot, he apparently knows nothing at all about manufacturing. Now, in the interest of full honesty, I hardly consider a two-hundred-dollar pen "high-end". I don't really consider a seven-hundred-dollar pen "high-end". I don't really consider seven-hundred-dollar pens high end. You can't judge what is and isn't "high-end" by what your budget says you can afford. There are production pens out there that reach $20,000. Maybe more. I haven't checked in a while. So a seven-hundred-dollar pen isn't anywhere near midstream, let along high-end. I have never had a high pen budget, but I bought a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age, a Pilot Custom 823, and a Platinum 3776 just by saving putting ten dollars per week into a Christmas account for two years. All they really cost me was not drinking coffee, Capuchino, or bottled water when away from home. But that doesn't work with a Namiki Maki-e. I have two Namiki pens, but only one of them cost more than I could possibly afford without a lot of saving, and a loan. It cost $12,000 street price. But even it is not much more than halfway up the production pen ladder, though the Namiki pens really aren't production pens. And that $20,000 mark doesn't begin to touch some of the custom-made pens you can get. Those can easily hit $100,000. A big factor in the cost of pens such as Namiki, and those even more expensive pens, comes from striving to be perfect with quality control. That said, those two hundred and up pens you mention almost certainly all have pretty good quality control, and it's very, very, very rare to get a bad one. It does happen, of course, but on such a low percentage that complaining about it is also silly. Especially since companies who make such pens all stand behind them and will correct problems. So will Kaweco, in my experience. But the Sport is a dirt cheap pen, and the worst thing that can happen if you screw it up is that you'll have to buy another nib/feed unit, which costs about fifteen dollars, if my memory holds up.
I have the hard start problem but also a problem with my EF writing too wide, like a fine to medium. I bent the tines the opposite direction, the reverse side on the paper, and it helped but not enough. I would have it ground down by a pro to a Japanese EF, but it isn't worth it. I just don't think Kaweco is a reliable brand at this point.
Yeah, maybe. There can also be some variability in sizing, nib to nib. I have five Lamy fine nibs, and none of them are exactly the same. Some are true fines, while others are closer to medium.
I am playing around with a Kaweco sport where I swapped one of their 1.1 stub nibs. Wrote a bit dry to my taste, and this method is helping. I am using an exacto knife on that ink channel. Thanks for the video!
My Kaweco Sport was great out of the box, then a co-worker fiddled around with it while I was away from my desk. She had no knowledge of how to use a fountain pen, I think she jammed the nib onto a sheet of paper and it got pushed too far back into the pen, has never worked right since, and I was worried about taking it apart. I'm going to test your method and see if I can get it writing again.
That's a good question. I've always been too scared to do too much with reshaping nibs. If there is some baby's bottom or another problem with the nib shape, then micromesh could definitely help. But only attempt it if you're comfortable with that risk.
@@DowntheBreatherHolesorry for the late reply, I realigned and did the thumbnail press thing you did. I used my swiss army knife to separate the nib and now my pen doesn’t skip nor hardstarts! Thanks :)
I like how you really try to make this product work, but having three kaweco sport fountainpens that are really unreliable I am just frustrated. A pen only has to do one single and simple job, it should write when I take it out of the pocket, it doesn‘t have to sing or dance…
I agree. Even entry level fountain pens cost more than the typical ballpoint, so you would expect them to be consistently better. That's why I admire companies such as Pilot. Have I gotten a bad nib from them? Yes, once, but my other six Pilot fountain pens have been very consistent.
Was gifted a Kaweco at approx 60€. After many months of impeccable writing I started to have inexplicable flow problems which quickly became critical. I stripped the pen down and was apart that the metal nib just fell away, but had no reason to think that abnormal. I’ve just tried your technique of gently redefining the ink flow channel. Reassembled. The pen doesn’t work at all. I was concerned by something you said earlier about choices of ink. I’d assumed that Kaweco cartridges were proprietary. The person who bought me the pen ordered about 20boxew of cartridges. I haven’t tried injecting other ink brand into empty Kaweco cartridges. The pen was easily the best fountain pen I’ve ever used. And I’m really down about it’s sudden failure. If I replace the cap and wait it’ll write a a sentence or two before failings
Sorry to hear about your Kaweco fountain pen struggles. Your pen going dry after several months of reliable writing sounds more like a clogged feed than a defective one. I recommend trying a good flush with distilled water and a little dish soap. If that doesn't work, then I recommend trying a different cartridge. They aren't made to last forever, so you have to swap them out every once in a while, even if you're refilling them yourself. If all else fails, you can buy a new nib unit to replace the one that isn't working.
Great idea by Pens & Tea. That's very poor quality control by Kaweco, these feeds and nibs should have been tested. As far as I know, Lamy test theirs before they leave the factory. If I like using fountain pens, after a while, I'll probably try a TWSBI demonstrator, next.
It looks like I had big luck to buy my first Kaweco pen (an alluminium one with an F nib) that wrote ideally. Then I decided to buy one more - a plastic Toyama Teal with an M nib - and the pen was awful, almost didn't write at all :(((( The pieces of experience I had were so much different. Thanks to your advice, it's at least started to write but still not ideally. The funniest thing: I bought the second pen, because I'd heard a lot how smooth and comfortable an M nib of Kaweco.
I heard the same thing from Figboot on Pens, which is why my second Kaweco I got with a medium nib. The nib is great. I'm pretty sure it's the feed that is to blame for the problems. I hope you can get yours writing better! If you are willing to take a gamble, Kaweco sells replacement nib units. You could also try getting a new one and see if it's any better.
I had some occasional skipping and a dryer writing experience, than I would have loved. A tiny bit of the bending and then a tiny bit of tracing the channel in the feed might have done the trick! I'll give it a couple of days to be sure, but here is for hoping.
I have the same issue with the same exact pen, which is a pity since I really wanted to like it because I love the look and how small it is, but the constant skipping is driving me mad!
I'm curious to know how it wrote before and after. I'm having trouble describing exactly how mine writes. It's like it's dried out. I've tried different inks including an actual kaweco cartridge and it is no different.
Yeah, that sounds like how mine was before I altered the feed. This seems to be a common problem with Kaweco Sport fountain pens. Now, mine still isn't the gushiest pen, but it doesn't skip on me anymore, and I enjoy writing with it quite a bit.
First, the nib housing inside the grip is SUPPOSED to come out. That is the correct way to change nibs. When the buy a new nib, it will come inside a housing like that. You push out the old housing and slide in the new one. Pulling the nib and feed from the housing should be for emergency surgery only. If a pen has good flow and writes as it should out of the box, but then starts having problems later on, something has changed. This does not happen without a reason. One reason is that the nib can be pushed out of line with the ink channel. Or the nib can be bent upwards ever so slightly. Either of these things can cause skipping or hard starts. A second reason is gunk. Many pens arrive with manufacturing gunk inside. Sometimes this causes a problem immediately, but sometimes it takes a while because the gunk often needs time to work its way down to the narrow end of the feed channel. So clean first. Plastic feeds are actually extremely easy to make, and it's very rare to find one that isn't perfect. It's the more costly ebonite feeds that are very difficult to get right because much or all of the work is done by hand. At least ninety percent of the feed problems I've seen were with ebonite feeds. Chances are the plastic feed in you pen is perfectly cut for that pen and the feed that comes with it. Messing with it can certainly make it wetter, but if you're doing anything other than cleaning it, you may have even more problems down the line. You may also make it so wet it simply won't work should you ever want a winder nib on that feed. Spreading the tines should SLWAYS be tried before any work is done on the feed itself. Always. Period. Far too many people who have no training at all mess with ink channels, and much worse, grind their own nibs. They usually think they've done a great job because the pen still writes and may even do what they want it to do. But by any professional standard, they have probably ruined the nib or damaged the feed. And it's usually the next owner who realizes this. I've seen and fixed an awful lot of Kaweco pens, and I've yet to see one with a bad feed, or with a channel that wasn't cut exactly as it should be for the nib on it. Every Sport I've owned with a medium nib was more than wet enough, never skipped or hard started at all, unless I let it sit for much too long with ink in it, which is far and away the most common reason a pen starts skipping or hard starting after it had been writing perfectly. Really, all I'm saying is to be very, very careful when taking advice from someone who isn't a trained professional. It can take a very long time, and hands on instruction from a professional, to learn how to grind a nib properly, and while an ink channel isn't quite as touchy as a nib, you can cause problems without even realizing you've done so, if you do more than scrub it down, or sometimes carefully scrape away manufacturing gunk that has worked its way down to the end of the feed.
I researched the plastic Kaweco sports grips, housing and feed removal. The collar/nib housing is not designed to be removed. You can only remove the nib and feed, on the plastic sports. The black collar remains inside the grip section. It’s too bad because I managed to get ink between the grip and housing and it’s really obvious on my lovely lime sport. Ah well, live and learn! 🙋♀️🤷♀️🖋
Yeah, I watched a video by Jet Pens about the Kaweco Sport Lineup, and they said you can screw out the nib housing on the al-sports, but on the plastic sports you just pull out the nib and feed. I appreciate that the black collar is there because I think it adds to the pens durability, but I certainly feel your pen. Demonstrator and semi-demonstrator pens can be difficult to keep in pristine looking condition due to ink staining and even dust.
You can add a drop of soapy water to your converter to make the ink a lot wetter , glycerin works too and makes it a bit lubricated for those dry annoying inks I use a safety razor blade for the feeds personally :0 also some clothe tags have thin metal sheets inside!
Both very bad ideas. If you want to make ink wetter, then use something designed to do that. Vanness White Lightning is the best solution. Not only will it lubricate the ink properly, it will also help prevent mold. Soapy water is a terrible idea. So is using a razorblade to widen the tines. There are better, easier, much safer ways of widening the times without risking damage.
@@jamesaritchie1 I've been doing this for 10 years. Soap is a surfactant. Just like white lightning. They're mostly the same. If you add some up a big bottle there's a slight chance of mold growing but I only add it to my pens ink reservoir
You could try using some razor blade for the ink feeder channel. You should ( apart from checking if the nib thines are levelled and not too close) also check if the entire nib sits ok on the feeder. Sometimes, the nib only contacts the back and the front of the feeder, leaving a median section with lots of air in between the nib and the feeder. This results in a very poor and dry flow of ink.
And sometime a little too much pressure when writing bends the nib slightly upward so it doesn't touch the nib at the front, or doesn't touch it well enough.
11 minutes to describe that you simply need to clean up feeder channel... oh also, after removing you should water cleaning everything before you do anything to avoid inking hands etc anyway it is recommended time to time water clean up pen feeder and nib, so why not
I don't mind inky hands. It makes me feel like an artist. Also, if you would like to make your own tutorial that is shorter, you are more than welcome to do so.
After 6 minutes, I gave up waiting for the second suggested fix for a dry nib. You talked about everything other than the fix - other pens, inky fingers, dry inks, nib housings, etc., etc., - and I bored waiting for the second remedy. You video would be SO much better if you stuck to the subject, rather than giving us a stream-of-consciousness ramble and never getting to the point. I feel like I've been misled and scammed into watching a time-wasting video.
Hi Dave! I'm sorry my video didn't work for you. If you're having trouble with your Kawedo Sport, I'm willing to bet the last five minutes of the video will be worth your time. Alternatively, you're welcome to message me on Instagram @downthebreatherhole and I'd be happy to try to provide one-on-one support. Have a good one!
Thank you so much! I recieved yesterday my first Kaweco pen, the same one you have, with a M nib. Imidiatly tried it out with the Kaweco ink cartridge and got so disappointed with the skipping and breaking. I really wanted to love the pen, but it was a worse writing experience than with my 2€ old school pen. Since the fingernail-tip didn't do the trick for me, I disasembled the pen and saw that there were small aprticles in that channel. I went through with no pressure with a razor blade and since then the pen writes with 98% reliability. Still a shame those pens don't come out great out of the box...
Glad I could help! Yes, it is a shame that these pens don't write better to begin with. If you spend $25+ on a pen, it should write more reliably than a cheap ballpoint.
@@DowntheBreatherHoleI'm planning on ordering some Kaweco pens for some Christmas presents and I'll definitely do this to them before giving them away since the people that would receive them are liable to just throw them out if they don't write well out of the box.
Just bought one (my first fountain pen) to use in my watercolor paintings. What a disappointment!! Terrible!
Thank you sooooo much, you saved my Kaweco Apricot Pearl ( looked lovely, wrote terribly) from living in the drawer to now being in my pocket every day, so Awesome. Thank you 🔆
The Apricot Pearl Sport is such a pretty pen! I'm glad I could help save it!
Thank you, very helpful. I have the same dry flow problem with my kaweco sport, I’ll give this a try. Your demonstration was really easy to follow. I’ve stayed away from kaweco pens since I had the dry writing experience. A pen should really be a serviceable writer straight out of the box. Thank you for the content on your channel, I really enjoy it.
Thanks for watching! Let me know how it goes with your tuning. I agree though. I'm glad I got my Kaweco Sport working, but a $27 pen should never have these issues right out of the box. I can get a $2 ballpoint at Walmart that will be reliable every single time, you know?
About 99.9 percent of Kaweco Sports are fine out of the box. This does not mean that a given owner will like it. Not every pen suits everyone. Some writers prefer dry nibs, some prefer wet, and some like a nib right in the middle. The Sport is an extremely popular pen because the vast majority of buyers like it as it comes.
@@jamesaritchie1 I know they are very popular. I just got a lemon I guess. In addition to a poor ink flow by almost any reasonable standard, mine is also quite scratch. I tuned the nib and feed to where it’s almost an acceptable writing experience. I don’t return to brands that perform poorly, and I don’t mean difference in writing preferences, I mean poor writing instruments by any reasonable standards. I have a bunch of Jinhao pens that are far cheaper than the sport and every one of them were good straight out of the box. I did adjust some because I like a wetter writer, but they were all fine writers. Burned once by Kaweco, so I’ll stick to Pilot, Sailor, Lamy, TWISBI, and the many other brands that have never failed me.
Just clicked on your video about 5pens you’d never buy again-and my Kaweco Sport has similar issues. I use Kaweco ink with it and have been very frustrated that the ink stops flowing at random moments; apparently with a will of its own. I will try this because it makes sense that the channel may have been molded improperly. Thanks so much for such a clear explanation - you probably saved me a trip to the pen repair for a $30 pen😊
Did it help yours?
@ I sadly have yet to purchase the brass shims. I see to reason why it won’t work! I’ve seen many successful attempts as such here on YT. 😍
Made my EF feel more like a regular F but it's so much better now. Thanks!
Glad I could help! It can make a nib wetter, hopefully not too wet though!
2/24/24 Update! I am giving away a luxurious Rhodia Webnotebook in the near future. For more information, follow me on Instagram here: instagram.com/downthebreatherhole/. I'll be posting details soon!
Thank you so much for this video! This is my first fountain pen and I was having the same issue. I may have made the channel a little too deep, but im just happy it actually writes now 😂
I'm glad I could help! If you're looking to try a different fountain pen, I recommend looking at a couple of my recent videos, where I talk about the pens I do and do not recommend.
I'm so glad I found your video! I've tried everything on my BRAND NEW pen: flushing, cleaning, changing inks, cartridge and converter. Nothing worked, until you got to the part where you swipe a sharp tool over the feed line (which was very much non existence on my pen). It worked for me by using a box cutter very gently swiped it to make a deeper channel. Thanks again for this tip!
I'm glad you found my video too! It's too bad so many Kaweco Sports need this kind of help right out of the box. Glad this tip helped your fountain pen write better!
Thanks for putting this video together, I just bought a new Kawaco Supra and it was hard starting on every word. This video helped greatly...
Glad to hear it! It's a shame you have to troubleshoot such an expensive pen though!
@ lol yup. Thanks again brother 🙏🏽
I just got a Kaweco Sport when down in New Haven over the holiday. Got home, and immediately began troubleshooting a lousy dry ink delivery. Before giving up, I gave this method of adding relief to the feed truff, and OMG, it worked wonderfully! Now, i can draw and enjoy my pen!
So glad it worked! Enjoy!
Hey. Great tips! I really like your videos. Your presentation style is very smooth, relaxed, and informative.
Thanks for watching!
You fixed it for me with the thumbnail trick! Thanks a lot. Now I need help with what to write with it🤔, just jokin' thanks again!
Thank you for this vid! I messed around with a couple of pens that I’ve never liked because they are not dependable writers. Flushed them both thoroughly. On the Duraflex I pulled out the nib unit and cleaned that area you showed carefully. I figure I have nothing to lose, since it doesn’t write now. It is writing now, which I’m thankful for. It might not ever be my favorite pen,but it least it’s a writing pen.😊
Nice! Yeah these tips can be used on other fountain pens too. Glad they were helpful to you!
Cleaning that area should be part of every thorough cleaning, and such cleanings should never be more than two months apart.
you just saved me. thank you so much. it was already a bad day and i wanted to enjoy my new little pen but couldnt. i just flexed the nib just like you said at the beginning of the video and now the pen writes very nicely. thank you again.
I'm glad this video helped fix your fountain pen! Thanks for watching!
total fountain pen noob here and this saved the day, thank you!
Glad to help!
Same problem, used a razor blade to add an almost non existing groove and the pen works great! Perfect tutorial
Awesome! Glad I could help you get your fountain pen writing the way it should!
Thank you for this video! I dropped a Kaweco AL Sport that became so disappointedly scratchy. The first one with the nib on the nail did the job and it now writes like a charm. Grateful!
Glad I could help you get your Kaweco Al Sport working!
Just adjusted my new very dry writer kaweco skyline fox fine with a craft knife and now it writes so wet, smooth and consistent 😀
Thanks for the video
Awesome! Glad I could help you get your Kaweco Sport writing well.
SO helpful. I looked online for help with this exact problem, also with my Kaweco Sport. I’ll try this and see how it goes. Thank you!
So glad this helped! My Kaweco Sport is a lot better than it was, but it still runs a bit dry occasionally. It's a work in progress I guess.
I fixed it THANKS!!!!! Mine was working like a dream the first days. Then I pulled out the nib and put it back (properly) but it imedeatelly begun the hard start and skipping a letter here and there. I changed the ink...same issue, no fix. Pulled it out and flexed the feed tip for better touch, as also run my Victorinox blade 2 to 3 times. Kind of better but still not there. Did the same again, pulled out the feed, cleaned it again with the tip of the knife..and that's how it became PERFECT again as day one!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOY!!!!!!!!!!
Glad to hear your Kaweco fountain pen is writing well again! Thanks for letting me know this fix worked for you too!
@@DowntheBreatherHole It was the cleaning of the feed, with the Victorinox, that fixed my issue completely. Thanks again, I hadn't used it for months because of the issues, and now I write and doodle all day with it, just like a happy kid that got his Christmas present!!
My Iridescent Pearl Sport is the only one I’ve had trouble with. I’ll try these things.
Thank you! That was a really quick and huge improvement, just feeling a bit dissapointed as I expected a most polished product when paying almost 30 dollars. My desk fountain pen from Platinum just costed 7 dollars and it has worked perfectly since the start
@@bogosbinted5862 glad I could help! And you are right. A $30 pen should write flawlessly. Yeah, defects are bound to happen from time to time, but I think they happen too often with Kaweco.
My kaweco sport worked great right out of the box... but I ran into trouble when the cartridge ran dry. I ordered a couple of packs of kaweco cartridges, but I could not get it to flow. The fingernail tip was successful! Flows good as gold now. Thanks so much for the video!
Glad I could help! Did you clean your pen between cartridges? Sometimes a pen needs a good flush to continue flowing properly.
Thanks very much. I was getting frustrated but this method worked very well
Glad I could help!
I had to do this with my first sport. It was driving me crazy, it was just unusably dry. Thankfully my second one worked great out of the box
I am so happy I found this video. My pen is completely unreliable so far. Hopefully it will work out😅
Thanks for watching! I hope my tips help your fountain pen write better. Let me know how it goes!
Did it work out?
This worked. I used the pocket knife but I did also notice that the tip of the nib needed to be opened up as you described in the beginning of your video so thanks
Glad I could help your fountain pen write better! Thanks for commenting!
When I bought a Green/Gold Kaweco Sport along with some Kaweco Palm Green cartridges and a bottle for refilling, I was really disappointed with the dry writing/feed issues - this was going to be my EDC pen when writing/journaling on the go.
Following your video, I just took a sharp kitchen knife and lightly scored the bottom section of the feed. It seems to be writing more reliably and looks like it's writing a bit wetter than last time. Thanks for the tip. :)
Glad I could help! I hope your Kaweco Sport is good to go now!
@@DowntheBreatherHole Thanks for the reply. I did notice the pen started writing dry again after experimenting with it.
It annoyed me so much, I rage-slammed the pen against my Pukka Notepad which bend forward a bit causing a slight gap between the feed and the nib.
It's better to write with, but the Fine nib is still scratchy in parts and I find my Lamy Safari Terracotta more consistent with an EF nib.
First, thanks for the tips. I knew of the "press" technique to widen the tines, hadn't thought of widening the ink channel but it makes a lot of sense and an Exacto knife would be a lot slimmer for this delicate work.
Your experience (and that of commenters below) echoes mine. I find Kaweco's pretty "iffy" on ink flow out of the box, at least for EF or F nibs. I'd probably have a few more Kawecos but that non-attention to detail annoys me. Mind you, I've had some rather high end pens that came with mis-aligned tines, baby bottoms and other correctable annoyances that I find inexcusable in any pen, especially a costlier one (c. $200 and up).
Yeah, its strange that some brands like Kaweco struggled so much in this department, while others in the same price range get it right every time.
Yes, Kaweco with an EF nib can be tricky, but at least nine times out of ten the problem is with the nib, not the feed. But Kaweco does pay attention to detail. Very close attention. Those who complain seem not to notice that Kaweco pens are one of the most popular out there, or that the vast majority have no problems at all. Chances are that you "iffy" pens are exactly how they're supposed to be, at least where flow is concerned, but you just don't like them.
No offense, but I've had at least a hundred people send me expensive pens they thought had misaligned nibs, and almost none of them did. . .unless the owner did the damage, and that's often easy to tell. Out of innumerable high-end pens they thought had baby's bottom, maybe two or three did.
Tell me which high-end pens you've had those problems with, and I can probably tell you the actual percentage of those pens where such things are actually a problem. I can guarantee that percentage is going to be so low it almost doesn't exist. It is EXTREMELY rare for even name brand low-end pens to have problems, and far, far, far rarer for high-end pens to have them.
But these are fountain pens and expecting one hundred percent of them to be perfect is just really silly. I know some "experts" out there, such as
sbrebrown, say it's unacceptable for a single high-end pen to have a bad nib or feed, but that is an incredibly ignorant and naive statement. Bringing high-end pens up to that standard would at least double the cost, and probably triple it because it would mean hand inspection and hand-testing of every single pen, and, of course, inspectors who were also nearly perfect. I seriously doubt it could even be done with production pens.
Quality control is never cheap, even when it's far from perfect. Perfect quality control is impossible on standard production pens, but even getting close to perfection would cost so much money that only the rich could afford such fountain pens. Regardless of what sbrebrown knows about fountain pens, and it's probably a lot, he apparently knows nothing at all about manufacturing.
Now, in the interest of full honesty, I hardly consider a two-hundred-dollar pen "high-end". I don't really consider a seven-hundred-dollar pen "high-end". I don't really consider seven-hundred-dollar pens high end. You can't judge what is and isn't "high-end" by what your budget says you can afford. There are production pens out there that reach $20,000. Maybe more. I haven't checked in a while. So a seven-hundred-dollar pen isn't anywhere near midstream, let along high-end. I have never had a high pen budget, but I bought a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age, a Pilot Custom 823, and a Platinum 3776 just by saving putting ten dollars per week into a Christmas account for two years. All they really cost me was not drinking coffee, Capuchino, or bottled water when away from home. But that doesn't work with a Namiki Maki-e.
I have two Namiki pens, but only one of them cost more than I could possibly afford without a lot of saving, and a loan. It cost $12,000 street price. But even it is not much more than halfway up the production pen ladder, though the Namiki pens really aren't production pens. And that $20,000 mark doesn't begin to touch some of the custom-made pens you can get. Those can easily hit $100,000.
A big factor in the cost of pens such as Namiki, and those even more expensive pens, comes from striving to be perfect with quality control.
That said, those two hundred and up pens you mention almost certainly all have pretty good quality control, and it's very, very, very rare to get a bad one. It does happen, of course, but on such a low percentage that complaining about it is also silly. Especially since companies who make such pens all stand behind them and will correct problems. So will Kaweco, in my experience.
But the Sport is a dirt cheap pen, and the worst thing that can happen if you screw it up is that you'll have to buy another nib/feed unit, which costs about fifteen dollars, if my memory holds up.
I have the hard start problem but also a problem with my EF writing too wide, like a fine to medium. I bent the tines the opposite direction, the reverse side on the paper, and it helped but not enough. I would have it ground down by a pro to a Japanese EF, but it isn't worth it. I just don't think Kaweco is a reliable brand at this point.
Yeah, maybe. There can also be some variability in sizing, nib to nib. I have five Lamy fine nibs, and none of them are exactly the same. Some are true fines, while others are closer to medium.
Thank you so much for the video it worked for me❤❤❤❤
I am playing around with a Kaweco sport where I swapped one of their 1.1 stub nibs. Wrote a bit dry to my taste, and this method is helping. I am using an exacto knife on that ink channel. Thanks for the video!
Glad I could help!
Fingernail tip did the job for me. Thanks for sharing!
Glad I could help you tune your pen!
My Kaweco Sport was great out of the box, then a co-worker fiddled around with it while I was away from my desk. She had no knowledge of how to use a fountain pen, I think she jammed the nib onto a sheet of paper and it got pushed too far back into the pen, has never worked right since, and I was worried about taking it apart. I'm going to test your method and see if I can get it writing again.
Oh no, that's the worst! How is your Kaweco Sport writing now?
Thank you, save my pen, thanks to this video ❤🎉
I followed your tutorial, my pen is much wetter, but it still skips and even hardstarts… should I polish it with micromesh?
That's a good question. I've always been too scared to do too much with reshaping nibs. If there is some baby's bottom or another problem with the nib shape, then micromesh could definitely help. But only attempt it if you're comfortable with that risk.
@@DowntheBreatherHolesorry for the late reply, I realigned and did the thumbnail press thing you did. I used my swiss army knife to separate the nib and now my pen doesn’t skip nor hardstarts! Thanks :)
I like how you really try to make this product work, but having three kaweco sport fountainpens that are really unreliable I am just frustrated. A pen only has to do one single and simple job, it should write when I take it out of the pocket, it doesn‘t have to sing or dance…
I agree. Even entry level fountain pens cost more than the typical ballpoint, so you would expect them to be consistently better. That's why I admire companies such as Pilot. Have I gotten a bad nib from them? Yes, once, but my other six Pilot fountain pens have been very consistent.
Was gifted a Kaweco at approx 60€. After many months of impeccable writing I started to have inexplicable flow problems which quickly became critical. I stripped the pen down and was apart that the metal nib just fell away, but had no reason to think that abnormal. I’ve just tried your technique of gently redefining the ink flow channel. Reassembled. The pen doesn’t work at all. I was concerned by something you said earlier about choices of ink. I’d assumed that Kaweco cartridges were proprietary. The person who bought me the pen ordered about 20boxew of cartridges. I haven’t tried injecting other ink brand into empty Kaweco cartridges. The pen was easily the best fountain pen I’ve ever used. And I’m really down about it’s sudden failure. If I replace the cap and wait it’ll write a a sentence or two before failings
Sorry to hear about your Kaweco fountain pen struggles. Your pen going dry after several months of reliable writing sounds more like a clogged feed than a defective one. I recommend trying a good flush with distilled water and a little dish soap. If that doesn't work, then I recommend trying a different cartridge. They aren't made to last forever, so you have to swap them out every once in a while, even if you're refilling them yourself. If all else fails, you can buy a new nib unit to replace the one that isn't working.
@@DowntheBreatherHole Thanks very much for your reply and advice. I shall try this.
@@DowntheBreatherHole Followed your advice and it’s now right as rain. Fingers crossed 🤞. Thanks again.
@@RalphBrooker-gn9iv Glad to hear it!
Great video, thank you!
Thank you!
Most helpful, thank you!
Great idea by Pens & Tea. That's very poor quality control by Kaweco, these feeds and nibs should have been tested. As far as I know, Lamy test theirs before they leave the factory. If I like using fountain pens, after a while, I'll probably try a TWSBI demonstrator, next.
TWSBI fountain pens are wonderful writers, and the designs are fun. In my experience, they're not always the most durable.
Thank you very much! This video solved my problem
Always glad to help get another Kaweco Sport writing well!
It looks like I had big luck to buy my first Kaweco pen (an alluminium one with an F nib) that wrote ideally. Then I decided to buy one more - a plastic Toyama Teal with an M nib - and the pen was awful, almost didn't write at all :(((( The pieces of experience I had were so much different. Thanks to your advice, it's at least started to write but still not ideally.
The funniest thing: I bought the second pen, because I'd heard a lot how smooth and comfortable an M nib of Kaweco.
I heard the same thing from Figboot on Pens, which is why my second Kaweco I got with a medium nib. The nib is great. I'm pretty sure it's the feed that is to blame for the problems. I hope you can get yours writing better! If you are willing to take a gamble, Kaweco sells replacement nib units. You could also try getting a new one and see if it's any better.
I had some occasional skipping and a dryer writing experience, than I would have loved. A tiny bit of the bending and then a tiny bit of tracing the channel in the feed might have done the trick! I'll give it a couple of days to be sure, but here is for hoping.
I hope you can tune it up nicely!
I have the same issue with the same exact pen, which is a pity since I really wanted to like it because I love the look and how small it is, but the constant skipping is driving me mad!
Yeah, it's an awesome pen design, but Kaweco needs to fix some issues.
I'm curious to know how it wrote before and after. I'm having trouble describing exactly how mine writes. It's like it's dried out. I've tried different inks including an actual kaweco cartridge and it is no different.
Yeah, that sounds like how mine was before I altered the feed. This seems to be a common problem with Kaweco Sport fountain pens. Now, mine still isn't the gushiest pen, but it doesn't skip on me anymore, and I enjoy writing with it quite a bit.
@@DowntheBreatherHoledid you have hardstarts?
@@shellshock10 I don't think so. My problem was Kaweco Sports going dry after writing with them for a minute or two.
@@DowntheBreatherHolesame here, I either get a hardstart or the pen skips when stroking in certain directions and the pen is very scratchy.
First, the nib housing inside the grip is SUPPOSED to come out. That is the correct way to change nibs. When the buy a new nib, it will come inside a housing like that. You push out the old housing and slide in the new one. Pulling the nib and feed from the housing should be for emergency surgery only.
If a pen has good flow and writes as it should out of the box, but then starts having problems later on, something has changed. This does not happen without a reason.
One reason is that the nib can be pushed out of line with the ink channel. Or the nib can be bent upwards ever so slightly. Either of these things can cause skipping or hard starts.
A second reason is gunk. Many pens arrive with manufacturing gunk inside. Sometimes this causes a problem immediately, but sometimes it takes a while because the gunk often needs time to work its way down to the narrow end of the feed channel. So clean first.
Plastic feeds are actually extremely easy to make, and it's very rare to find one that isn't perfect. It's the more costly ebonite feeds that are very difficult to get right because much or all of the work is done by hand. At least ninety percent of the feed problems I've seen were with ebonite feeds. Chances are the plastic feed in you pen is perfectly cut for that pen and the feed that comes with it. Messing with it can certainly make it wetter, but if you're doing anything other than cleaning it, you may have even more problems down the line. You may also make it so wet it simply won't work should you ever want a winder nib on that feed.
Spreading the tines should SLWAYS be tried before any work is done on the feed itself. Always. Period. Far too many people who have no training at all mess with ink channels, and much worse, grind their own nibs. They usually think they've done a great job because the pen still writes and may even do what they want it to do. But by any professional standard, they have probably ruined the nib or damaged the feed. And it's usually the next owner who realizes this.
I've seen and fixed an awful lot of Kaweco pens, and I've yet to see one with a bad feed, or with a channel that wasn't cut exactly as it should be for the nib on it. Every Sport I've owned with a medium nib was more than wet enough, never skipped or hard started at all, unless I let it sit for much too long with ink in it, which is far and away the most common reason a pen starts skipping or hard starting after it had been writing perfectly.
Really, all I'm saying is to be very, very careful when taking advice from someone who isn't a trained professional. It can take a very long time, and hands on instruction from a professional, to learn how to grind a nib properly, and while an ink channel isn't quite as touchy as a nib, you can cause problems without even realizing you've done so, if you do more than scrub it down, or sometimes carefully scrape away manufacturing gunk that has worked its way down to the end of the feed.
I researched the plastic Kaweco sports grips, housing and feed removal. The collar/nib housing is not designed to be removed. You can only remove the nib and feed, on the plastic sports. The black collar remains inside the grip section. It’s too bad because I managed to get ink between the grip and housing and it’s really obvious on my lovely lime sport. Ah well, live and learn! 🙋♀️🤷♀️🖋
Yeah, I watched a video by Jet Pens about the Kaweco Sport Lineup, and they said you can screw out the nib housing on the al-sports, but on the plastic sports you just pull out the nib and feed. I appreciate that the black collar is there because I think it adds to the pens durability, but I certainly feel your pen. Demonstrator and semi-demonstrator pens can be difficult to keep in pristine looking condition due to ink staining and even dust.
So sorry your pearl Sport gave you problems. My pear Sport F worked great out of the box.
You can add a drop of soapy water to your converter to make the ink a lot wetter , glycerin works too and makes it a bit lubricated for those dry annoying inks
I use a safety razor blade for the feeds personally :0 also some clothe tags have thin metal sheets inside!
Good tips! Thanks!
Both very bad ideas. If you want to make ink wetter, then use something designed to do that. Vanness White Lightning is the best solution. Not only will it lubricate the ink properly, it will also help prevent mold. Soapy water is a terrible idea. So is using a razorblade to widen the tines. There are better, easier, much safer ways of widening the times without risking damage.
@@jamesaritchie1 I've been doing this for 10 years. Soap is a surfactant. Just like white lightning. They're mostly the same. If you add some up a big bottle there's a slight chance of mold growing but I only add it to my pens ink reservoir
@@jamesaritchie1 the razor is for that feed channel not the tines
You could try using some razor blade for the ink feeder channel. You should ( apart from checking if the nib thines are levelled and not too close) also check if the entire nib sits ok on the feeder. Sometimes, the nib only contacts the back and the front of the feeder, leaving a median section with lots of air in between the nib and the feeder. This results in a very poor and dry flow of ink.
Good point!
And sometime a little too much pressure when writing bends the nib slightly upward so it doesn't touch the nib at the front, or doesn't touch it well enough.
11 minutes to describe that you simply need to clean up feeder channel... oh
also, after removing you should water cleaning everything before you do anything to avoid inking hands etc
anyway it is recommended time to time water clean up pen feeder and nib, so why not
I don't mind inky hands. It makes me feel like an artist. Also, if you would like to make your own tutorial that is shorter, you are more than welcome to do so.
It’s such a bummer they have such badly made nibs. They are so cute.
They are nice in the hand too. My problem with the Kaweco Sport is the feed. They just can't keep up with ink flow.
@@DowntheBreatherHole yep. It’s unbelievable the company hasn’t bothered to fix that situation.
After 6 minutes, I gave up waiting for the second suggested fix for a dry nib.
You talked about everything other than the fix - other pens, inky fingers, dry inks, nib housings, etc., etc., - and I bored waiting for the second remedy.
You video would be SO much better if you stuck to the subject, rather than giving us a stream-of-consciousness ramble and never getting to the point.
I feel like I've been misled and scammed into watching a time-wasting video.
Hi Dave! I'm sorry my video didn't work for you. If you're having trouble with your Kawedo Sport, I'm willing to bet the last five minutes of the video will be worth your time. Alternatively, you're welcome to message me on Instagram @downthebreatherhole and I'd be happy to try to provide one-on-one support. Have a good one!
It's called fast forward. There, saved you from future tantrum rants.
@@Rob-lu2ns So, you're saying it's OK to skip your videos? I'll do just that.