Ink on my fingers issue

[MaineYooper]

I am new to fountain pens, although I bought my Metropolitan in 2018. What I notice is that I seem to get ink up on the area above the nib, where your fingers grip. Is this from storing the pen tip down, or me somehow getting ink inside the cap when I put the pen away? Or something else? I really want to start carrying the pen more, especially at work, but the ink on my fingers has me not taking it anywhere.

Let me know what you folks think. As I am so new to this, I will not be offended if you tell me something that should be basic!

 

[Fred D]

I am new to fountain pens, although I bought my Metropolitan in 2018. What I notice is that I seem to get ink up on the area above the nib, where your fingers grip. Is this from storing the pen tip down, or me somehow getting ink inside the cap when I put the pen away? Or something else? I really want to start carrying the pen more, especially at work, but the ink on my fingers has me not taking it anywhere.

Let me know what you folks think. As I am so new to this, I will not be offended if you tell me something that should be basic!

Sounds like you have ink leaking into the cap from storing your pen nib down. You should leave the nib up, or lay your pen. flat (horizontal).

 

[Pressroll]

I have had this problem with mine before even though I store my pen vertically. Take a damp paper towel and clean out the cap and wipe off the grip part. I carry mine 9 hrs a day at work and as long as you do this cleanout periodically you should have no issues.

 

[MaineYooper]

Thanks @Fred D & @Pressroll! I will do both of your suggestions. I did clean out the cap, as mentioned, and it was very inky. Dumb of me to not pay attention to how I was storing the pen, but I will pay more attention now. Just like moving from carts to real razors, so is moving from disposables to fountain pens!

 

[Dog Whiskerer]

I've not seen where just carrying a pen, nib down, will cause leaking. But jarring a pen about, nib down, can cause leakage.

Not sure if it's an issue with the Metro, but sometimes when you pull a slip cap off the pen, the vacuum draws ink out of the pen.

 

[KW Driver]

Temp changes going in and out of AC (home to car to office to car, etc) can cause ink expansion as well as, or exponentially with pressure changes while flying.

those are the biggest factors I’ve seen when carried upright or horizontally, excluding jarring/bumping the pen

 

[dojpros]

While all of the mitigation strategies can work, the filing and using of fountain pens means some ink on the hands from time to time. Simply part of doing business.

 

[Marco63]

I've seen this happening only after flights with a couple of my pens. So after I land I go to he toilet to get some toilet paper and check for any leaks in the cap. More recently it happened with a restored Parker Vacumatic I bought. I told the repairer not to shellack the section. After a few pages my fingers were inked. I used silicon grease on the thread and the leak has stopped. Never had leaks in any other situations.

 

[lak611]

While all of the mitigation strategies can work, the filing and using of fountain pens means some ink on the hands from time to time. Simply part of doing business.

I don't mind having inky fingers. It's never bothered me.

Sent from my SM-P610 using Tapatalk

 

[MaineYooper]

Thanks for the replies, they helped me out. So much so that I have felt confident enough to add a couple more less expensive pens to my pocket!

 

[musicman1951]

While all of the mitigation strategies can work, the filing and using of fountain pens means some ink on the hands from time to time. Simply part of doing business.

The only time I would get any ink on my fingers was refilling time, but I now use latex gloves for that job. But I'm only using Pelikan 600's, so that may be a factor.