Troubleshooting poor fountain pen ink flow

A new fountain pen should feel effortless, with ink flowing, nib gliding, and writing without interruption. So when skipping happens, it’s frustrating. The good news is that skipping is usually not a “defect” problem. It’s almost always a setup, ink, or surface interaction issue that can be diagnosed quickly.

Here’s a practical checklist to help you solve it:

1. When does the "skipping occur? Test if it is mainly at the beginning of a word or line, on certain letters only or does it gradually develop as though ink flow weakens.
   
   
2. Try a different paper: Low quality, slick or contaminated paper (hand oils) may cause skipping, where a slightly absorbent paper usually helps pull ink through. 
   
   
3. Try a different ink: Dry inks will exaggerate skipping, especially in a finer nib. Test with a dark coloured Japanese ink, which are usually wetter.
   
   
4. Flush the pen properly: This solves more cases than people realise. Rinse the nib/feed with clear tap water, use pen flush for stubborn cases, and let it dry partially before re-inking.
   
   
5. Check feed priming: It maybe that the ink hasn't fully saturated all the feed channels yet and trapped air is blocking flow. This is more common in plastic feeds, in larger pens. Fill the pen and let it sit nib down for a few minutes or tap the pen barrel to prime the feed to fill with ink. Write a few slow lines to encourage flow.
   
   
6. Writing angle: Are you rotating the pen slightly as you write? This can move the nib sweet spot away from the paper and without proper contact the ink skips.
   
   
7. Nib alignment: If the external factors above are ruled out, the nib may need adjustment. Hard starts suggest an over polished slit tip. Skipping in one direction, especially with scratchiness, suggests tine misalignment. A more sustained flow problem suggests ink starvation from tines that are too tight. 

If you've changed paper and ink, flushed the pen properly, and checked you're not rotating as you write, and the pen still skips, then it's time to refine the nib tuning.

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