Skipping at speed is not normal on a 146. As a rule the cause lies with the nib, the feed, the paper or the way the pen is held.

On the nib the problem shows up as misalignment: the tines do not lie exactly level with one another, one sitting slightly higher, and the film of ink breaks when the pen is moved quickly. A specialist dealer or the factory service will correct this by careful bending; on a newly bought pen an exchange is also worth considering. In the feed, old dried residues slow the flow, and here a thorough flush or a complete clean does the job. Conversely, brand-new feeds need a certain running-in period before the flow becomes even.

As for paper: lightly sized, absorbent paper such as plain copier paper soaks up a great deal of ink and makes the flow look meagre; on better-sized writing papers, Clairefontaine for instance, the impression often disappears. That leaves the writing grip: oblique nibs in the widths OM, OB and OBB write cleanly only at a particular angle and skip if the pen is held differently. Many writers never get on with them, which is why Pelikan, for one, dropped such nibs from its range. Before exchanging a pen, then, it is worth checking which nib designation is stamped on the nib face.