Is my pen too inky (writing sample inside)

Ever since my FP came, I feel like my writing has been more legible, because I've had to write everything bigger so the ink will not run into each other and cause the words to turn into something illegible.

It is a joy writing with a FP, because I don't have to push the ink onto paper.

Now, if you will kindly refer to the attached writing sample, you can see that my writing in a relaxed manner is very thick as a result of the nib angle.

Is this the way these FPs are supposed to write? Or am I not using the write paper?

Edit: This is my first real experience with a FP. Also, the writing is a lot bigger than how I usually write. I can post an example of my writing with a ballpoint too.

Looks fine to me, just the middle part is a bit "fat". If you want a thinner line, take a finer nib. What nib do you have now?

Looks OK to me - a higher quality paper might reduce the bleeding of ink.

Inks flow differently. Some are thicker and some thinner.
What ink are you using?

Wil Dorenbos said:

Looks fine to me, just the middle part is a bit "fat". If you want a thinner line, take a finer nib. What nib do you have now?

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It's a medium. Looks like I'm a fine nib type of guy.

maxman said:

Inks flow differently. Some are thicker and some thinner.
What ink are you using?

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I am using Private Reserve Ink - American Blue

I've been using the Benton Clay "Shakespeare" pen as my primary writing tool. I keep it loaded with Noodler's Black (Bulletproof) ink and find it performs great on any decent grade of paper with little feathering or bleed-through. I'm suspecting your problem might be the paper you're using. A few that have worked well for me are the AMPAD Gold Fibre notepads, the Black and Red journals, and the Staples "Sustainable Earth" sugar-cane-based notebooks.

I'm using the Shakespeare pen with 5 O'Clock Shadow ink, and my lines are easily half the thickness of yours. Weird.
Maybe it's the paper you're using?

Wow. Nobody suggested a nib adjustment? See Brian's video here. It helped me tremendously.

The video is sort of specific to the Noodler's Flex Nib Piston Fill pens, but the nib adjustment part applies universally (to pens that have removable nibs and feeds). I took the Kaweco that was writing VERY heavily with a medium nib to writing a drier (thinner) line by moving the tip of the feed further away from the tip of the nib. I think YMMV will apply here, but watch the video anyway.

Edit: BTW, thanks, Brian.

I love American Blue. It's my go to ink.
a nib adjustment is a good idea, but wouldn't you think that the variable here would be the ink?
If you adjust it for one type of ink, would it be ok for all inks?

I'm the type that changes ink often unless the pen is difficult to clean (i'm looking at you Parker 51).
I have experienced a wide variety of writing with different inks.

For example, my MB 320 (which i'm using at my desk right now) has Montgrappa ink in it and it writes very well.
When I put J. Herbin ink in it, I am not impressed.

maxman said:

I love American Blue. It's my go to ink.
a nib adjustment is a good idea, but wouldn't you think that the variable here would be the ink?
If you adjust it for one type of ink, would it be ok for all inks?

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According to the video (I think that's where I heard it), you are correct. You would have to adjust your nib differently for different inks. Some inks write wetter, some lubricate, etc. Inks have different properties of their own (however small). So if you wanted consistency of a pen with several different inks, you would have to adjust the nib accordingly. In my case, I have a Kaweco that was writing waaay to wet. Big, broad lines from a medium nib. I made the adjustment and voila! Nice, consistent, medium-sized line.

Pens are referred to as being "wet" or "dry" writers. Your writing is an example of what you would get with say a Montblanc, a notorious wet writer. If you were to write with a Pilot Vanishing Point with a Fine nib or a Pilot M90 with a Fine nib the line would be half the size with the same ink. Pens vary.

Chadtheguru said:

Wow. Nobody suggested a nib adjustment? See Brian's video here. It helped me tremendously.

The video is sort of specific to the Noodler's Flex Nib Piston Fill pens, but the nib adjustment part applies universally (to pens that have removable nibs and feeds). I took the Kaweco that was writing VERY heavily with a medium nib to writing a drier (thinner) line by moving the tip of the feed further away from the tip of the nib. I think YMMV will apply here, but watch the video anyway.

Edit: BTW, thanks, Brian.

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Thanks for the link!!! I flushed the pen out and pulled out the nib, and then put it back in. It writes exactly the way I want it to now. However, the ink sort of seeps out from the feed, and it's leaking out a little. It doesn't affect the way the pen writes, but I can't help but feel like I'm doing something wrong.

verdict said:

Thanks for the link!!! I flushed the pen out and pulled out the nib, and then put it back in. It writes exactly the way I want it to now. However, the ink sort of seeps out from the feed, and it's leaking out a little. It doesn't affect the way the pen writes, but I can't help but feel like I'm doing something wrong.

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I'm not at all sure if this is what you're talking about, but here's what I usually do: I fill the pen completely and then while holding the pen over the ink bottle, squeeze the sac a little or twist the converter a little, or whatever and suck a little air up into the ink compartment. This pulls a little ink back from the feed to keep it from being overly saturated the first couple writing sessions. Then again, I'm still very green at all this FP stuff and it may just be in my mind. FWIW.

It's call "nib creep", and it's completely harmless unless the ink is actually rolling off the nib.

Go West Young Man said:

It's call "nib creep", and it's completely harmless unless the ink is actually rolling off the nib.

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That's exactly what the ink is doing, creeping out from the feed!!

I think I'm a Fine Nib type of person though...and I like heavy pens!

Chadtheguru said:

I'm not at all sure if this is what you're talking about, but here's what I usually do: I fill the pen completely and then while holding the pen over the ink bottle, squeeze the sac a little or twist the converter a little, or whatever and suck a little air up into the ink compartment. This pulls a little ink back from the feed to keep it from being overly saturated the first couple writing sessions. Then again, I'm still very green at all this FP stuff and it may just be in my mind. FWIW.

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Yes, I'm thinking it's an over-saturated feed, too.

Chadtheguru said:

I'm not at all sure if this is what you're talking about, but here's what I usually do: I fill the pen completely and then while holding the pen over the ink bottle, squeeze the sac a little or twist the converter a little, or whatever and suck a little air up into the ink compartment. This pulls a little ink back from the feed to keep it from being overly saturated the first couple writing sessions. Then again, I'm still very green at all this FP stuff and it may just be in my mind. FWIW.

Click to expand...

I would use this technique if I could...but I use cartridges.

EDIT:

What form of handwriting do you think my natural handwriting resembles? Since it's not cursive and it looks like curved print...maybe I should look into Italic?