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How often do you clean your pen?

I received a Mont Blanc 146 in 1979 as a graduation gift. I used Mont Blanc blue, black, and blue-black inks in it for years. In the early 2000s it sat a lot as I did the technology thing.

In 2011 I found pen and ink forums online and discovered that one should flush and clean one’s pen. So after 30+ years I did my first cleaning of that pen.
 
I received a Mont Blanc 146 in 1979 as a graduation gift. I used Mont Blanc blue, black, and blue-black inks in it for years. In the early 2000s it sat a lot as I did the technology thing.

In 2011 I found pen and ink forums online and discovered that one should flush and clean one’s pen. So after 30+ years I did my first cleaning of that pen.
And how did it go?
 
And how did it go?
After the several years of non-use it was nearly frozen. Maybe 15 minutes of filling and ejecting warm water and it is back to working as well as always. It’s a piston filler and MBs aren’t made for consumers to open. Flushing was all that was available to me at that time with my knowledge
 
I should every time I top off the ink. I only do it when it stops writing well after I have refilled it despite the fact the pen may have sat awhile. This is both less and more of an issue when you have 12-20 pens inked on your primary desk at a given time.

A baby nasal aspirator and 2 repurposed jelly jars are what I use. 2 or 3 oz of warm water thru the pen til the water flows clear.
Gentle pressure with the aspirator-cartridge side thru the tip, just like the ink would flow when writing.

I have a pink one a work and a blue one at home. I like glass because they rinse completely clean of any ink residue relative to some plastics and no plastic trash when I am done v. 2 red solo cups.


 

Rudy Vey

Shaving baby skin and turkey necks
Normally only when changing colors or putting a pen away in storage. There are several FP's always inked up with the same color, and for some I cannot remember when they were flushed the last time.
Most my pens are Pelikans, so when cleaning them, I fill/empty the pen about 8-10 times, or until not any color comes out and the water is clear. Last flush is with distilled water and i leave some inside the tank.
Cartridge/converter inked pens, I use a kind of mini enema bulbs syringe, small one, for babies....
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
I love Goulet Pens and enjoy Brian's videos, but cleaning every 2-4 weeks with the same ink sounds way excessive and more likely to damage the pen than extend its serviceable life. With normal ink, i.e. not shimmer or saturated, I favor the "less is more" approach to pen cleaning and only flush it with water when I change inks, take it out of rotation, or observe odd behavior like skipping. Just writing frequently and filling from a bottle should keep a fountain pen pretty well flushed and running smoothly. I probably keep too many pens inked at once. Sometimes I have a pen dry out from sitting. If I can't get it going again by priming the feed, I just clean it out and put it away since clearly I'm not into that pen right now. Fortunately, I haven't had anything get gunked up enough to need ammonia pen flush or require soaking.

For tools, a bulb syringe (aka snot sucker or whatever you call it in your house) is key. It makes flushing out nib and feed sections a snap. A needle syringe is also very helpful for rinsing out tough to reach areas like converters that don't disassemble or the inside of piston-fillers. A needle syringe is all but required to clean a Pilot Con-70; heck, Pilot should just ship the Con-70 with a syringe included. Life is too short to spend time trying to cycle water pushing that stupid little button over and over.
 
Has anyone seen guides or instruction, pre-1980s, from pen manufacturers, Parker, Sheaffer, Pelican, Mont Blanc, directions people to clean their pens as frequently as urged now? I didn’t ever get anything with the pens I got telling me to flush my pens
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
Has anyone seen guides or instruction, pre-1980s, from pen manufacturers, Parker, Sheaffer, Pelican, Mont Blanc, directions people to clean their pens as frequently as urged now? I didn’t ever get anything with the pens I got telling me to flush my pens
No, I highly doubt it. The frequent cleaning trend is totally a new thing driven by the fountain pen hobby becoming an internet and social media-based phenomenon. I suspect its an overreaction to apocryphal stories about either finding old fountain pens in Gramma's desk drawer gummed up with 30-year old dried ink or how the latest shimmer/sheening/pigmented/permanent/glow-in-dark/whatever ink ruined someone's pen.
 
No, I highly doubt it. The frequent cleaning trend is totally a new thing driven by the fountain pen hobby becoming an internet and social media-based phenomenon. I suspect its an overreaction to apocryphal stories about either finding old fountain pens in Gramma's desk drawer gummed up with 30-year old dried ink or how the latest shimmer/sheening/pigmented/permanent/glow-in-dark/whatever ink ruined someone's pen.
While some of the latest inks are definitely "out there" compared with those produced by mainstream pen manufacturers, some of the inks of yesteryear were hardly benign. Parker's Superchrome and Penman inks spring to mind, for different reasons.

I think part of it was that pen-makers had warranty divisions that would sort misbehaving pens for the dissatisfied owner. Plus pens would get ink put through them, rather than sitting about as part of a rotation.
 
No, I highly doubt it. The frequent cleaning trend is totally a new thing driven by the fountain pen hobby becoming an internet and social media-based phenomenon. I suspect its an overreaction to apocryphal stories about either finding old fountain pens in Gramma's desk drawer gummed up with 30-year old dried ink or how the latest shimmer/sheening/pigmented/permanent/glow-in-dark/whatever ink ruined someone's pen.


It seems like there are a lot more commercially available inks with different properties today than in years past. While recognizing that not all of the older inks were benign, I know there are some **cough**Baystate Blue and R&K Sepia**cough** that don't play well with other inks and come with warnings to not mix them (I have no idea what concentrations of each start to cause problems). I 100% agree that the social media-based phenomenon probably makes people hear more stories of, "I mixed x and y ink and my nib fell off" which makes them more nervous (particularly newer users).

I think part of it was that pen-makers had warranty divisions that would sort misbehaving pens for the dissatisfied owner. Plus pens would get ink put through them, rather than sitting about as part of a rotation.

I think these are two great points. I also think the very nature of shifting pens from a tool to do a job into the realm of hobby (mentioned as well by @tankerjohn) makes people baby them and take better care of them. I can only guess how many pens I lost before caring about them.
 
I'll just add another thought here, about cleaning a pen when keeping it in service but changing inks.

As others have mentioned, I will do this, however, it's generally just a flushing with water followed by giving it a little time to dry out, not my most thorough cleaning. One concern when doing this is contaminating the ink bottle with other inks. For that reason, I keep little plastic vials with my most commonly used inks. I fill those vials with an eyedropper or syringe, and then refill the pens from those, not directly from the bottle.

When refilling a pen with a cartridge (not my usual method), I sometimes don't even bother to clean out the old ink, but watch what happens as the new ink mixes with the old ink that is left in the feed. It can be interesting to see the ink color gradually change over the course of a page or two. This could lead to issues if you injudiciously mixed the wrong inks, but I use my judgment and experience for what's safe, and so far have not had any problem.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
I don't yet know who quickly a FP goes through ink.

As quickly as a car uses gas.

("But ... you don't know how much I drive it, or what the engine size is!" ... Exactly.)

Along similar lines, how do you clean a FP?

The bulb syringe method is generally best for all except the "closed filling system" pens like a Pelikan. Normally plain water is enough, but a particularly dirty pen may need some sort of pen cleaning fluid.
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Good video.

And to get the ink flowing again? Just write a few strokes to get it moving? Put the nib in water? What do you do?

Depends on the pen, ink, and how dry it is. Try a few strokes ... then lick the nib (yummy!) ... then dip the nib in the ink bottle ... then hold the nib under running water ... then ... um ... try a proper cleaning.

Throw it in the dishwasher
Seriously? You can do that?

Yes you can.

You can also get out of your car.

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"Good idea?" might be a better question.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
The bulb syringe method is generally best for all except the "closed filling system" pens like a Pelikan.
I have found that the great advantage of the Pelikan design is that the nib section easily unscrews and, best as I can tell, is actually designed to be unscrewed by users (unlike, say, disassembling a Pilot 823 which voids the warranty). So I pull the nib and flush it with the bulb syringe and then use the bulb syringe to flush out the ink reservoir. Easy peasy. Much faster than drawing in and expelling water with the piston knob, and I imagine less wear and tear on the moving parts. I sure hope I'm not courting disaster cleaning them that way. :a35:
 
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