I have a couple of TWSBI Go pens, and one I completely forgot about. I left it inked for at least a year and a half...maybe a bit more. I found it the day before yesterday while looking for something else. I uncapped it and it wrote perfectly from the first stroke. I don't know about you, but that is pretty amazing to me. That inner cap fits over the nib and feed in an air tight seal, keeping every thing wet.
The Best Pen to Leave Inked
- Thread starter Doc Dan
- Start date
I've never left a pen inked and unused for that long, but for me it is table stakes. A pen must have a good seal, otherwise it is not worth the hassle of dealing with the fallout. I think the longest I have gone is around three months, with a Lamy 2000 inked with Sei-boku: handled it like a champ.
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- #3
I have a a number of pens inked in rotation and though I really like the GO, I haven't used them in a long while. I had completely forgotten one was inked. To my amazement and joy I found it was still perfect. I think I am going to replace my bill signing pen with one of these, ink it up, put it in the pen box on my desk and forget it until I need it.
I've left a few pens inked unintentionally, not as long as you, and some dried up. I remember a Cisele Parker 75 that was really fouled. My vintage Pelikan 140 worked fine after a long spell.
I've got a Danitrio that is a hard-starter in the afternoon with a fresh fill in the morning. Not inspiring, practically unusable.
I've got a Danitrio that is a hard-starter in the afternoon with a fresh fill in the morning. Not inspiring, practically unusable.
Pelikan GO! Good student pen, introduced in the 70s, sadly discontinued.
Rhody
I'm a Lumberjack.
I’ve left pens unattended and when yo do I ding the converter empty. Maybe a trace left but not much if anything. And a crusty nib to clean.
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- #6
My old Waterman used to dry out within a couple of weeks. My Lamy Safaris and Al-Star will make it maybe a month. The TWSBI Go and Diamond 580 have these soft inner caps that seal around the grip section. Even though the Go is a snap on ap it seals so tightly it takes a yank to get it off.
I leave my TWISBI VAC700R inked for months and it's still fine. Same for my Visconti Homo Sapiens. As @silverlifter mentioned, as long as it seals correctly, it should be fine.
For the ones I have which do not seal entirely, if they dry, then I submerge them in water and start to clean them. Sometimes I might even let them soak for a few hours or even a whole day.
For the ones I have which do not seal entirely, if they dry, then I submerge them in water and start to clean them. Sometimes I might even let them soak for a few hours or even a whole day.
The only pen that I leave inked, by design, is a Pilot Varsity, also called V Pen in some parts of the world. Always writes on the first down stroke and is bulletproof, good nib and a massive feed, it can even be refilled. I know that it will write instantly and as well as a Bic or a Fisher Space Pen whenever asked.
How they do it for under $4 or £3 including the dealers mark up is a mystery.
I have a friend who is superkeen on saving the planet and will not throw away any plastic unless it is really unavoidable. I give them a Varsity and suggest they give it back to me when it needs filling.
How they do it for under $4 or £3 including the dealers mark up is a mystery.
I have a friend who is superkeen on saving the planet and will not throw away any plastic unless it is really unavoidable. I give them a Varsity and suggest they give it back to me when it needs filling.
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- #9
I dislike tossing plastic and I don't use plastic multiblade monstrosities of razors for that reason. Pens, my cheapest is a Jinhao 992 I was surprised by it. It stays wet for a few months but not anything like the Go. I want pens to reuse and not toss, where it will end up in the environment.
Platinum line has a special seal in the cap to extend the time you can leave a pen inked.
Just to state the obvious. I have done repairs on pens for years and the classic scenario is that a young person finds his grandfathers pen that was put away and forgotten about 30 years ago, Nine times out of ten it was left full of ink which has gummed up the works, makes my job much harder. If you are leaving the pen for a lengthy period of time it is good advice to empty the pen, whatever the filling system, flush with clean water, dry the nib and then put away, I wrap it up in a kitchen towel and in a good box,
That was a great find with no problems.
I will tap this out quicker i hope.... i was maybe 15 when i got a flea market fp i stopped playing with. 2 years or so later. i "found" it again and after scribbling with it a lot and before i threw it at the brick wall it started to write. And because i needed to write things down that fp was used by me for about 6 more years. I stopped using it because i broke it. I think if my impatient dumb self knew anything about fps i would still have it today.
I will tap this out quicker i hope.... i was maybe 15 when i got a flea market fp i stopped playing with. 2 years or so later. i "found" it again and after scribbling with it a lot and before i threw it at the brick wall it started to write. And because i needed to write things down that fp was used by me for about 6 more years. I stopped using it because i broke it. I think if my impatient dumb self knew anything about fps i would still have it today.
I have way too many pens inked up (around 10 atm). Keeps me getting back to them regularly. I like piston fillers, so a month or two between use is not that of a problem. I try to keep them inked up above 1/2 and clean them each year with a pen cleaning fluid. If the pen is really clogged, like my aunt’s 50 year old Pelikan school pen was, there are special cleaning fluids that work well in a ultrasonic cleaner.
Platinum Preppy
This gave me quite the laugh, as I immediately thought "TWSBI" after reading your title but before reading your post. I inked an ECO a few weeks before moving away from my home state, back in 2018. I found the pen in 2020 when I was visiting the family. Still wrote as if I had filled it the day before. For those wondering, it was filled with Iroshizuku Kon-Peki.
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- #16
That is a long time! I don't know of any pens that stay wet as long without use as a TWSBI. Some of mine will go months without being inked while I use other pens and they still write.
I gave my wife, as a Christmas present two years ago, a TWSBI Eco with stub nib. She didn't like it and put it in her pen cup. A year later I decided to take it back in my possession. The pen still had ink and it wrote immediately. I flushed the ink, cleaned the pen and put it away. No stains inside the barrel. I don't like stubs.
My thoughts exactly! Those pens are truly incredible.
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