I need some advice about caring for my fountain pens. They’re not expensive or fancy; one is your $1.99 5th grader school model, one is a calligraphy pen and the third came in a pen set my mom got for subscribing to a magazine or some such. My problem is that once I’ve used them for a while they start clogging up and writing either faintly or sporadically. What can I do to keep them in better shape? Should they be stored upright or on their sides, and what’s the best way to clean them?
If you’ve had these inexpensive pens for a while, the nibs may be getting worn or bent. That can cause skipping problems etc. If you really enjoy writing with fountain pens, get yourself a $30.00 medium point Parker/Waterman. That’s enough money to get a decent nib, with replacement program, and not too much for fancy stylings that do nothing to improve the writing experience.
I’m not a fountain pen expert but I can offer a few tidbits of advice. First, it’s best not to let anyone else use your pen for any long period of time. The nib at the head of fountain pen is very malleable and adjusts to match your writting style. It shouldn’t matter how you store your pen, some people keep them upright in a cup others have fancy shmancy cases that store them horizonally. If ink flow becomes inconsistent you can remove of the head and allow it to soak in a basin of warm water for 24 hours. Lastly, if you enjoy fountian pens you might want to upgrade to a more expensive pen. Waterman and Parker make some fine pens in the $40 range. I’m strictly a mechanical pencil person myself, but there is something lovely about a nice foutain pen.
I guess I was wrong about how to store your pen. Hey, I said I wasn’t an expert.
I have a couple of drug-store fountain pens – the plastic kind that uses a cartridge. I find that they write well enough as long as they have ink. If ink is allowed to dry in the nib, it can be washed out with water.
As for my better fountain pens, I’ve never needed to wash them, but I have cleaned one of them before putting it away for a long period. Since it uses a “cartridge converter” (a glass tube with a plunger so that it can be refilled), I emptied the unused ink into the ink bottle and then washed the converter and the pen in warm water. I dried it as well as I can and then allowed it to air-dry before putting it back together.
I have some Esterbrooks from the late-1940s/early-1950s that use a lever to fill the internal bladder. After using them and running them out of ink, I drew warm water into them with the levers and emptied them until the water came out clean. I shook them to get as much water out as possible, dried them with a paper towel, and air-dried them before putting the caps back on.
My latest pen has never been cleaned. All of the pens function quite well – even the cheap ones.
The main thing is to use the right ink. If you’re using a cartridge pen you just use the cartridge; it should be filled with water-soluble ink. If you’re using a dip pen or a refillable fountain pen, be sure not to use India ink or any other ink that can’t be washed out with warm water.
I store my pens slightly nib-up. That is, I’ll try to rest the cap on a watchband wor something when I take off my watch and pen. Since the nib is exposed to air, I think that any ink in it would be likely to clog if it were stored nib-low. Also, my pen box stores the pens with the nibs higher than the other end.
Of course, they will write “faintly or sporadically” when they’re out of ink! Check to see that you have ink in the pen.
Inexpensive pens can write nearly as well as more expensive ones. My drug-store Shaeffers don’t write as well as the others, but not so much worse that you’d really care. My Waterman (an inexpensive pen at under $30) writes very well indeed. My Levenger/Shaeffer “Sea” pen (the different colours are named for different seas – I don’t remember which one my blue one is) writes best of all and is also the most expensive (although still under $100). Does the price of a pen matter? Will an expensive pen clog less than an inexpensive one? Maybe. But even a $6 Shaeffer from Rite-Aid shouldn’t get “scratchy” unless it’s out of ink or there is dried ink in the nib.
If you like fountain pens look into a Waterman. They’re inexpensive, handsome, and you can fill them from a bottle. I find the fine point to be broader than the other finepoints I have, and I write small so I like as fine a line as I can get. But it’s a great pen and I’ve only put it away because I’m using the Levenger for a while.
I don’t know. My “fancy schmancy case” stores them more near the horizontal – but the nib ends are elevated.