In ,
Aaron W. Hsu wrote:

"Brian Ketterling"
writes:
Have you previously mentioned running one through the dryer?

Yep, this is one and the same.

It came through it pretty well. You must have felt sick when you found your
pen in there!

Hrm, do you mean the "capillary" line that ends in the air hole? If
so, that's an actual divide in the pen nib. The nib is not actually
split or cracked though.

Interesting, if it's not a scratch -- I'd expect to find a feature like that
in cast, rather than rolled, metal.

As for writing inverted, I assume that you mean with the top, engraved
part of the nib facing towards the paper?

That's it. It's what I was referring to earlier with my Cross, when I said
that "the top of the pellet is smoothed into an approximate XF".

There isn't as much inkflow that way, and you don't get any sort of
smoothness out of it at all. The "give" in the pen is also all off if
you try to write that way.

I see -- so pretty normal for a modern pen. I think I've noticed before
that Montblancs have the top of the pellet flattened, and wondered whether
they addressed inverted writing while doing the grind. That flat face could
be the start of a sort of needlepoint cursive italic, too. I like
duo-pointed nibs, but they're more characteristic of vintage pens.

Brian
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