The Lumos - How To
A brief guide to get you started with your new pen.
About the Lumos
The pen body of the Pro Single and the Lumos Write is the same, however the Pro comes with a full tip set whereas the Write comes with a writing tip only.
The Lumos Pro Duo allows you to have two different pens in one body, meaning you can easily change between nibs and ink colours on either side. The Lumos Pro Single has one tip and one ink reservoir which is double the Duo's reservoir size.
I designed the Lumos as I found other refillable fineliners frustrating in that they still had quite a lot of unnecessary waste; to refill the Copic requires you to buy a plastic disposable refill, and a replacement nib for the Rotring costs £20+.
I also found that they were restricting in what type of ink could be used with them and were usually tied into their format (much like printer cartridges). I wanted to make an extremely high quality and versatile version of a refillable fineliner, and thus the Lumos was born!
I recommend regularly cleaning your pen in a bowl of warm soapy water to remove any residual ink.
Make sure you thoroughly dry any components before reinserting them into the pen. Don't forget to check that there isn't any ink in the threaded parts of the pen.
To lubricate your pen please use silicone grease, which creates a good seal between the components and will maintain the ink flow nicely.
All About Inks
The Lumos is designed to work with dye-based inks, which flow beautifully through the reservoir and nibs. These inks generally don’t have pigment particles and binders that can clog the pen.
Which inks work? Fountain pen inks (all of which are dye-based) that don’t contain particles (such as shimmer inks) or binders (like acrylic or shellac).
Exception to the rule? Fortunately, we sell a splendid waterproof pigment ink (our own No.60 Fountain Pen Waterproof in Pigment Black). Or, if you want to splash out, Sailor Kiwa-Guro ink is a great option too.
There are two ways:
- Flush out the nib and ink reservoir under a warm running tap. Dry all parts thoroughly and refill with another ink. There may be a small amount of the previous colour but it will quickly blend out.
- Replace the tip and reservoir as needed. Just take out the previous tip and reservoir and store them in a zip lock bag.
If you consistently use the same ink and take proper care of it, the reservoir can last indefinitely.
However, if you frequently change inks and wash out the reservoir each time, the capillary action might be affected, limiting its lifespan to about 4-5 washes. We offer reservoir containers that make it easy to switch between different ink colours while maintaining their condition. Once a reservoir is fully used, we do sell spares.
All about Tips
The writing tip doesn't have such a uniform line width as the fineliner tip. It's a more rounded shape – this gives you less control if you want to create a precise line weight. But it does make the tip feel smoother on the page, it's also made from a slightly more durable material.
Tip sizes are different depending on the manufacturer. Every Lumos pen comes with a full creative tip set so that you can you find the one that works best for you!
Fineliner and writing tips are inserted from inside the tip holder, not through the hole in the top. The brush, chisel and felt tips can be inserted from the top.
The Silicone Grip that came with your Lumos acts as a grip so that you can easily unscrew the plastic tip holder easily and without getting inky fingers. Watch the process in action here.
You can soak them in either Nib Cleaning Solution or warm soapy water for about 30 mins and flush through with water afterwards. You may have a little bit of ink left over in the tip, but once you refill with a different ink it will write out after a few doodles!
The tips are made by the best Japanese technical pen manufacturers, so they will outlive many of their peers. Dulling/flattening of the tip depends on a few factors:
- Smooth paper will decrease friction and in turn wear on the tips.
- Point size of the nib – the smaller the tip, the more pressure is going through a smaller area, which can shorten the tip's life.
- A technique using excess pressure, or a style like a pointillism can shorten the lifetime of the tips.
- Ink used – some inks flow more freely, which decreases the friction.
The beauty is that you can replace these tips at a fraction of the cost and waste of other technical pens.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Again, this all depends on Ink choice and where you store the pen. The beauty is that it's super easy to refresh the pen by recharging the reservoir with the original ink. If your pen is running a wee bit dry you can also dip the tip in water to get it going again.
Sometimes after a refill, if the ink reservoir isn't completely full the ink won't flow up to the tip properly. Try re-dipping and holding it in the ink reservoir for another 10 seconds (up to 20 seconds for a Single reservoir). Make sure that the reservoir is secure when you place it back into the pen.
The black tip holder can be a bit challenging to unscrew because of its fine threading. We recommend using the Silicone Grip for better traction. You'll find this grip included in the pen box.
Simply place it over the tip holder and then attempt to unscrew it. For a visual guide, checkout this helpful video (skip to 0:30 to see the demonstration).
To keep this from happening again, we advise to apply a small amount of any universal silicone grease on the threading for a smoother operation.