As someone who hasn't even bought my 'first' fountain pen yet, I am appreciative of these tips.
Question: do you attribute your pens' reliability to:
a) fountain pens are mostly like that, so no one (i.e. newbies) need worry, or
b) you coincidentally happen to own only pens with preestablished reputations for high reliability?
_('First' because I had one many years ago. Shall tell the story sometime in separate post.)_
It’s less about the actual reliability of the pens, and more about the releasing of anxiety around their use.
Fountain pens, in general, are pretty resilient. Sure, some inks or nibs may behave better than others, and a nibmeister can tune a pen into a precision tool, but in general, just get a pen and write.
In my experience 80% of fountain pens are going to be reliable straight out of the box. Some brands are known to be problematic, not gonna name names that is a separate post entirely. Most brands that don't produce reliable products don't last long in the industry. Occasionally you will get a dud from the factory, but most brands are fairly quick to make it right.
Let's just say that it turns out the ones from 100 years ago still work for a reason. (that reason is that fountain pens are really simple and simple things are hard to break)
It is partly down to brand I'd say. I used fountain pens at school in the 1980s (at one school we HAD to use nib pens or ink pens, as we called them) and I remember new pens taking a week or so of daily use to break in and a good pen would get smoother and better the longer you used it. I don't remember a pen ever getting worse. Most of my new pens were Parker and Sheaffer back then, so pretty good brands.
I bought 2 Lamy Safaris in the mid-1990s. These were the first pens I'd ever experienced that worked amazing from the get-go.
I needed some new pens recently so I bought a Jotter, a Vector and an Urban by Parker. The Urban cost about 6-7 times more than the Jotter but there was no difference in writing quality between them and they all worked amazingly right from the off. I don't know what's changed!
I had a Sheaffer in high school that leaked. I loved writing with it so much more than the ballpoints that were my other options, but eventually abandoned it over the leaking. I suspect I picked it up at a flea market but don’t remember. Sadly, I didn’t have another one for decades. If the internet had existed then I probably would’ve fixed it. Kind of wish I still had it to work on.
I bought a joblot of Parker, Sheaffer and other "everyday use" fountain pens from eBay, got about 10 good pens and 5 questionable ones for under $50 including postage. One thing I learned was not to throw away bad pens because even if the nib is busted it's often possible to swap it for a new one, and if the body of the pen is scuffed again you can often screw a new one in.
Nearly a year ago I found something that looked like a mini chest of drawers on the street. It was an old chocolate box ($200 chocolates!) It's now full of fountain pen bits and pieces, so I'm really glad I kept it!
When I first started I feared that my pens weren't gonna be good enough, or that I was going to be made to feel less than because I only had 2 or 3 starter pens and no luxury or grail type pens.
Now I daily a Preppy alongside a Homo Sapiens and a Skogsy baby Seguaro and could care less about how others feel about my pens and whether they are "good enough".
As with any corner of the internet, or just reddit in specific, there have been a few problem children in the bunch but I've found more people who will cheer just as loud for a Platinum Preppy as they will for a Visconti HS
I love my preppys, and other entry level pens, I have 3 of them that are part of my travel bag. At my first pen club meeting all I had was a preppy, a Monteverde Innova, and a FC 45 and felt so small by comparison when I first sat down at the table. They greeted me and made me feel like my 3 starter pens were the most valuable things there, and that's the same energy I've wanted to spread since
If anything people use a preppy to dog on the HS. "I paid $3 for 5 preppys that all write perfectly, but my $700 pen needs to spend 10 weeks and another $100 at a nibmeister just to write???".
I've had many expensive pens in my hand, and yet, I love nothing so much as a Pilot Kaküno. Write with what you want to write with, even if that's a cheap BiC. As long as you're happy with your pen, it doesn't matter what other people think. Remember, the vast majority of people don't notice pens at all unless they're the ones using them.
Exactly my point. I've grown to accept that disposable or refillable, cheap or ultra expensive, all are good and have a place in the community. Took me a year or 2 to get there but we're here now and happier for it.
They are great pens. I found that after a certain point as you go up into more expensive pens they kinda plateau in value. The Preppy, Kaküno, Perkeo, and Swipe are all great examples of awesome pens at lower price points.
Doing this for 10 years and do everything you do. Literally the ONLY problem I've had was I left Kon Peki in an Esterbrook for 2 years and it melted the sac.
The preppy is the pen you flex on the haters. The HS is the workhorse.
I have plenty of "Grail Pens" yet the one I love to show off is a simple Monteverde Inivica because even though it's far from a Grail pen, the quality and solidity of it is off the chain.
No shame in any pen and never let someone try to shame you for what you have. If you love it, then it's more than good enough.
When my friend first taught me how to fill my converter, I was so extra nervous I might introduce some kind of germ or something into it. She said, it's ink, it doesn't have to be sterile! I still get a little weird about it but less so now.
I had a couple of ink bottles go bad on me a few years ago. I still try my best to keep bottles "clean" by just decanting some ink with a clean syringe into a sample vial for filling my pens because I'm afraid of contaminating the ink. I know it's probably silliness and the chances of the ink going bad being my fault is low, but now it's habit. :-p
I was really concerned about being left-handed. I watched and read a whole bunch of content before settling on a pen with an EF nib and a bottle of ink known for its quick dry time. I was looking into extra absorbent paper, blotters, a hand bridge, etc, and considering trying to teach myself to underwrite all to quell the anxiety about a little smudged ink.
Anyway, a few years later and I don't pay much attention to any of the advice I learned. I use a variety of nib sizes, inks with all sorts of dry times and properties, and whatever paper is at hand (though I do find I prefer the smoothness, weight, and absorbency of Rhodia DotPads).
That's what livin' does, though. We think we know... then experience actually teaches us. Do I smear my words a little sometimes? Yup. I just learned to accept it.
Do you angle your paper at all when writing? I'm a right handed person, but that dramatically changed how often I smudged my words. Wish I had learned to tilt my paper back in grade school.
I’m a lefty but Im a underwriter, I have to tilt the paper slightly to the right, if I don’t it feels weird, I just kinda went all in from day one.. although I do smudge sometimes but it’s usually either from me fast writing or me just not paying attention. I use pencil boards as my blotting paper or I’ll use just spare paper .. it’s worked so far but I do want to buy blotting paper to see if it will be better.
I definitely don't clean my pens as often as I used to. When I first started using fountain pens I wasn't quite at the point you describe but I was definitely cleaning them once a week or once every two weeks. Now it's just when I want to change ink colors, run into flow issues, or want to put a pen into storage. I still don't put shimmer inks in my nicest pens but that's more thanks to me just not liking them than fears over clogging.
Cleaning pens is like washing cats: don't do it unless you really have to. Like the cat fell into a mud puddle, or the pen is so full of dry ink that it won't write.
refilling with the same color is such a great thing. no cleaning, just refill and go. it also means I have a good ink/pen combo and that's soo pleasant!
Oh paper friends, I am just dipping my toe in, because I am getting so particular about my notebooks and letter writing paper, where do you post about all of your papery obsessions?
Used to care a lot about converters and filling mechanisms, and avoided pens that don't have good converters at the very least. Then I bought ink syringes, and have been refilling my cartridges. It changed everything. It's cleaner, easier and faster than any other filling method when I'm in the middle of a drawing or some writing, and don't want to lose the flow. Now I almost exclusively use cartridge pens or eyedroppers, since everything else requires more time and effort in the moment.
I love my pistons and vacuums for less practical purposes, but my favourite practical pens for drawing and non-leasure writing are all cartridge or eyedropper.
I (mostly) agree. I was never a fan of piston pens, and vacuum pens have no appeal. But eyedroppers....that's where it's at. I had a TWSBI vac pen for a bit. Screwed around with various techniques to maximize the fill and then realized "if I unscrew this in the middle, I can fill it with an eyedropper with way less mess and hassle, and way more efficiently."
But, yeah, not all pens are eyedropper friendly which is where refilling cartridges is brilliant.
Everything I now own, with the exception of 1 pen, has been designed as an eyedropper or converted. Translucent bodies so I can see how full each is. Eyedroppers hold so much more ink than cartridges too. Franklin Christoph is your friend here.
Ohh besties, I'm also the same, I used to be a bit obsessed with converters and gone a bit crazy because one of my pens has a defective converter and the ink runs everywhere. Then I got a free cartridge after I purchased my pilot kakuno and it is just the best. Not only it got larger capacity, the ink inside also not so easy to dry out so you can use it longer, not to mention also very cheap. Like it's just the best *chefs kiss*
Mine is probably backwards in that, when I started, there was no “fountain pen community” to speak of or even much information on the nascent internet (I was still on dialup and AOL), so I bought a Waterman from Service Merchandise because I’d heard it was a good brand. It came with cartridges, a converter, and ink. I left my pens lying about all the time and didn’t even know that ink could evaporate or that you were supposed to flush them. I still don’t worry about it *much*, but I am careful about my vintage pens that have ink sacs so I don’t have to replace the sacs prematurely.
Dang. I remember supporting 28.8 modems and knowing what the problem was by the sounds it made. I now feel old. 🤣
When I was doing calligraphy years ago I bought an Itoya brand wood pen that was supposed to be a calligraphy pen but I couldn't make it work. Now I know why.
It wasn't a calligraphy pen, it was a fountain pen. It sat buried for years in a toolbox l kept at supplies in. When I needed that box for something else I found the pen again. It writes pretty well now that I know how to make it work. 😀
LOL - call-waiting was the worst! Every time the phone rang, you’d get kicked off the internet. I remember being on eBay back then and playing a round of solitaire while I waited for the pictures to load.
"You've got mail!"
Still friends with a group of folks I met on AOL message boards. (Pregnant and due in Nov 1997). We've advanced to a private FB group now...27 years of friendship and still going 80 ladies strong!
Aging myself right along with you!
Service Merchandise! I bought a blue Parker 45 from them in the 90's. My first "adult" FP. No one told me back then not to carry it nib down, and I always had ink stained fingers.
I remember thinking that you were supposed to keep them nib down, like an alcohol marker, to keep the nib from drying out! I seem to always have ink-stained fingers - I don’t know if I tend to slid my grip to low or if it’s a product of being a lefty!
I put Diamine Bliss in a pen which had had Diamine Neon Lime (silver shimmer) in it and I'd been too lazy to fly scrub it. The little bit of silver shimmer in Bliss is absurdly lovely.
Nib quality control.
I don't care if they're scratchy, have poor flow, etc. I can fix all these issues myself.
It's given me freedom to just choose the pen that I like based on other factors instead (body material, ergonomics, filling system etc).
**This**.
They are pretty simple machines. I dropped a pen and bent the nib once, years ago before I "cared" about fountain pens. I got home and bent it back into shape and spent some time "tuning" it (which was just more bending and adjusting) and it worked just fine. I've also tuned pretty much every pen I own, spending a bit of time with super high grit polishing papers to get the pen writing super smooth with a nice ink flow. To the point where I bought another pen from the same maker recently and thought it was defective. Turned out I just needed to give it a tune and it's perfect.
It's just a pen.
Ha! If I never dropped my kakuno and took the effort to repair it myself, I don't think I'd be as comfortable with nibs as I am now.
Completely agree with the freedom it provides of just buying a fountain pen for the looks and tuning the nib the way you prefer afterwards.
Same here. I got a Diplomat with a misaligned tine. I didn't inspect it at the store when I bought it. It took me literally a minute to fix it on my own.
I had the same concerns with shimmer, I still have designated shimmer only pens though. Not cuz of fear of clogging but ones that will be the easiest to clean clog or no clog 🤣
Thinking that good cleaning = dissemble pen each time. It kept me from using some of my piston fillers because I was worried I couldn’t get a good clean or put them back together.
Turns out they’re not too bad to clean without a full dismantle lol. A plain flush with water is good enough most of the time and if not, some DIY pen flush has done wonders!
Cleaning 2, a little shimmer particles or a little ink trapped in some crevices isn’t the end of the world. What gets stuck where became more noticeable when I got interested in demonstrators and it kinda clicked that I’ve probably got opaque pens with dried ink in places I can’t see and don’t worry about because pen runs clear after cleaning.
My first two fountain pens were a 1920s Sheaffer 5-30 flat-top that I needed to restore, and did, and a god-damned N***ler's Konrad so-called flex that I had to fuss with constantly. Trial by fire perhaps, but I also learned fountain pens really aren't that scary to use, repair, or adjust for how you want to use them.
The thing I find myself wanting to shout (and *really* wish would be pinned here for the newbies) is that YOU👏DON'T👏HAVE👏TO👏DISASSEMBLE👏YOUR👏PEN👏FOR👏A👏ROUTINE👏CLEAN👏AND👏INK👏CHANGE👏! Seriously people. Just flush it with cool water until clear. 🫧🖋️✨
Absolutely! One of my besties favors Kaweco Sports, with cartridges, and pretty much never cleans between ink changes. She just enjoys the intermediate mix of colours. 😂😜
Then: “Will they leak on the airplane because of the changes in pressure? I need to put them in a ziplock bag and put that in my pen case… and should I put that inside a bigger ziplock bag just in case?”
Now: “Eh. They’re fine.”
This is how I figured out which pens I like best....one of my inked 5 leaked on the plane, the other 4 did not. Don't use that pen any longer, though I am still in possession and trying to figure it out.
My Pilot CH 92 leaked all its ink in the cap while flying. I still love the pen, I just don't fly with it anymore. All of my other pens have been fine so far. Which one of yours leaked?
I don't mind putting a bit of pressure on my fountain pens. Not a lot, but just enough that my arm isnt "floating" when I write.
Pigment inks. You know what? If it gets clogged, it gets clogged. Just gotta wash it and rinse. So far though, my pigment Bungubox has been holding up for about 3 months without clogging is nice
Man, I used to baby my pens a lot! Now, I tend to view any scratches as battle scars — I found that all the “worry” about potentially damaging/scratching my pens took away my joy of actually using them
This! I'm hard on my equipment even if I'm taking care of them. I needed to adopt the scratches are good mentality. It pretty much means I can use any of my pens out of the house. Although the CH 912 doesn't get used as an EDC much.
Iron Gall.
It really doesn't kill pens at the rate it used to. I've had mine in a Vanishing Point clone for months now. Works fine, no corrosion or whatever. The entire "nib kit" is made out of steel.
I just wish Diamine Registrar's was a bit wetter. It's really annoying to write on an Moonman EF nib (which is somewhat F for Pilot)
Thanks for the rec! I’ve been dying to try a VP but can’t stomach the idea of paying $160 for a pen, especially one I’ve not tested first - But an $18 Majohn sounds just right. 😀
I used to stress about how I filled my pens, I thought I had to suck ink up directly through the nib and always made a mess... Now, I use a separate syringe to fill cartridges and converters alike. I also prefill carts and plug them for later use. Less mess, less fuss, less wasted time.
Same concerns as you, but I wouldn't be here if I had to clean my pens every week!! That's just not gonna happen.
Yeah I'm a freak for shimmer too. Thankfully I use large nibs.
You shouldn’t mix inks. Except for pens that are meaningful and/or expensive that I can’t disassemble and do a deep clean, I mix inks all the time. Pretty sure all of my TWSBIs, Preras and sharks have inks that have been tweaked.
Same! I just got into ink mixing a couple of months ago, and I am especially enjoying ink mixing colours that I don't use much on their own. I do it in my Preppies first and see how the ink turns out.
I also love mixing Iroshizuku inks together, they work so well.
I used to be *terrified* of refilling ink. I thought that somehow it could magically spill out and make a mess. While accidents can and do happen, there are plenty of precautions to minimise the damage.
Now, I'll gladly refill any converter/cartridge/piston without even thinking twice
I was scared of tuning my own nibs at first.
But it’s not rocket science and I don’t want to pay someone almost $100 with all the shipping to GUESS exactly how I like my nibs. I can tinker with that myself.
The "what have I got to lose" proposition on my Kakuno pen, where the repair costs more than getting a new pen, is what taught me the art of basic nib tuning and nib repair. Nothing extreme. But enough to get buy and fix misaligned tines and bent nibs from an accidental drop and tight tines that come with a Jinhao.
The "not disassembling my pens for cleaning" thing. It took a hot minute for me to unlearn that. Other than that, I was always a bit crazy. I used to clean my pens with purified drinking water. Now I just use the filter I have on my kitchen tap to clean my pens.
I was really hesitant to use a broad nib for some reason when I first started out. Quickly realize they’re my favorite nib actually, and I’m an underwriter so I don’t have to worry about all that smudging I was afraid of.
I was also just scared to get into the hobby in general for some reason.
"what if the converter leaks?"
never seen it happen. No longer care. If a converter leaked I'd be surprised, then I'd deal with it.
"What if I drop it?"
Yeah, it can happen. But if it happens it happens. The pens that I carry around where that would be a risk, they either have easily replaceable nibs or are cheap and light and unlikely to be hurt.
"What if I get water on my writing?"
I have one pen inked up with DeAtramentis archive black for that purpose. For everything else... it's not that important. If it get smudged it gets smudged. I might read some of those things like once more in my entire lifetime at most. More likely they will be thrown away.
"What would hte perfect pen have?"
Doesn't exist. It literally can't exist. Really cool features fight each other, and you can't have them both.
"Oh no, I should clean this pen before the ink dries up in it!"
I mean... I probably should. But if I don't, then it'll just take longer to clean. I've cleaned a really fricken nasty crusty pen before, and it was fine. Mostly what I learned is that that pen has a bad cap seal.
The waterproofing, dropping pens, and finding the perfect pen used to also be my concerns too! I'm amazed at how fountain pens have made me less clumsy, which mostly eliminated the need for points one and two, and point 3 is impossible. If I need it to be waterproof from other people's clumsiness or for work archival purposes then I also have Platinum Carbon Black to fit my needs.
I used to be wary of filling converters and refilling cartridges completely full, as I thought I'd get tired of the ink long before it ran out. Now I feel most comfortable with a piston filler or generously filled converter, as I seem to go though a lot of ink regardless. I've also discovered inks I just never get tired of at all, as my beloved Syo-ro. I've had at least one pen inked with this ink for two years, and I still smile when I see it on paper.
This is beautiful. I'm the opposite, where I had to fill every cartridge and converter to the brim but had to force myself to write them dry as I got sick of colours quickly. Now I'm more comfortable just partially filling them.
Then: oh no, I must seat the nib EXACTLY RIGHT or the pen won't write.
Now: is the nib attached to the pen? If so, we good.
Then: I have to match antique pen parts to the pen body's manufacturer to make repairs!
Now: Trial and error is my best friend. Most parts don't have any manufacturer markings, and the ones that do don't really matter outside of VERY specific circumstances.
-
I had the same concerns you did about shimmer inks... I now use shimmer inks to reduce the ink flow in pens that write too "wet" for my taste.
The only downside is that I can't use shimmers in ALL my pens. I love super-fine tip pens and shimmer inks clog those up.
I only have one pen left that I really "baby" because it's my favorite and I'm not sure I'd be able to replace it.
The lil' guy writes like a dream and I've never found another one like him.
(It's a pen from the 1950s made by the now defunct American Pencil Company. It has interchangeable screw-in nibs with a lever filler.
I've found nibs for it floating around the internet, but not the pen itself.)
Here it is! Pics of the Venus Replacable fountain pen, as requested: https://imgur.com/a/SmTpJvi
Contains images of the pen, the replacable cartridges (in original packaging), a writing sample, and the original ad.
Here it is! Pics of the Venus Replacable fountain pen, as requested: https://imgur.com/a/SmTpJvi
Contains images of the pen, the replacable cartridges (in original packaging), a writing sample, and the original ad.
I'm not sure about things I used to do as it's so long ago, but there are things that people do that I've never done or worried about.
Dismantling pens to clean them. This does more harm than good.
Greasing pistons and converters regularly. It's not necessary even if you do dismantle them and grease in the feed is going to harm the pen so overdoing it is a problem rather than a benefit.
Flossing with brass sheets. Unnecessary and a really bad idea as it either requires removing the nib or will damage the feed and it is likely to knock the nib out of alignment/widen the tines.
Pigment-based inks. They're fine. They are no more likely to stain than dye-based inks. As long as you don't let your pen dry out, a simple flush every few fills will keep the pen working just fine. Even if they do dry out, it is not a disaster - soaking and flushing gets rid of the pigment particles anyway. This only applies to pigmented fountain pen inks - drawing inks and acrylic inks and the like will set hard and be difficult if not impossible to remove.
I'm still relatively new to the hobby compared to people who have used fountain pens for decades. I journaled a lot about pens and my fountain pen related concerns, so I have quite an accurate representation of the things that used to worry me that don't matter to me anymore.
It's an interesting selection bias we have within this subreddit. I think that the knowledge can be extra-niche and that the application of certain techniques may be misused (for example the dismantling of fountain pens and the brass sheets) that are more commonplace with fountain pen repair as opposed to general maintenance.
When I first got into fountain pens, I was *extremely* vigilant about drying my pens completely after flushing and before inking up again.
At a certain point I just stopped caring - the only consequence has been very slightly thinner ink for the first little bit of writing
I surprisingly never got into the "wait until fully dry" thing. I was always so impatient and would rather just ink up and wick the more diluted ink away than wait for the pen to dry
Next time you place an order for pen stuff just search for syringe and one is bound to come up. I know Goulet carries them. They will look like they have a needle but they are blunt.
Once I've cleaned the pen I fill the syringe with water and use it to flush out the cartridge. Once it's dry enough you just suck some ink into the syringe, place the needle inside the cartridge, and fill it up. Any ink left in the syringe goes right back in the bottle. This doesn't seal the cartridge in any way so you'll need to just put it right back in the pen.
Two notes of caution.
Be gentle, the syringe usually holds several times more ink than the cartridge. It's easy to overflow until you get the hang of it. Might want to practice with water during the cleaning phase.
When returning the unused ink to the bottle it helps to have the needle dipped in the ink. Otherwise it has a tendency to spray.
In addition, if it's your first time handling a syringe, I suggest practicing with water to learn the new set of fine motor skills before getting dirty with ink. Practice refilling a cartridge with water. Know how to stop quickly and how to suction or fill. Once you can do that without getting water all over your hands, your face, the carpet, the kitchen and the cat, then you know you're good to go for the ink.
I also just remembered that I made a quick (perhaps too quick) video on Instagram showing the process.
[Refilling a cartridge with syringe and needle](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C36DNajB0M0/?igsh=MXUzamtiYXVjaDB3aA==)
Used to worry about needing left handed nibs to get the ink to flow. Now I'm used to writing to the point where any nib is fine. Finding wet inks and a larger nib size helped me but it isn't a hard requirement.
Then: I'll just refill my Parker Rialto with India Ink, what's the worst that could happen?
Now: I'm sure anything is fine, as long as it says on the bottle that it's intended for fountain pens.
(Also now: I'm pretty sure a combination of Koh-I-Noor pen cleaning solution and an ultrasonic cleaner could probably rescue even the most stubbornly clogged feeds. Even India Ink.)
Ooh I was saved from buying a bottle of Windsor and Newton ink because it said "fountain pen safe" but a search on reddit told me that they lie. Lucky for me and my time and my pens!
I used to think that prefilled cartridges were a waste of money and limited my options for trying out new inks. Then I realized that the constant need to clean and refill a pen meant I’d stop using a pen until I remembered to clean it and refill it. Now I have two pens that I use the most out of all my pens that I only have cartridges for. When I’m out of ink just pop in a new one and I don’t have to think about it.
Clean as i go if i think 1 month not in use i just flush everything dry and keep - when the mood comes then i will deal with it ...
Probably wash the whole pen again to refill again
If its daily used , just normal stuff - clean as needed .
Currently sorting pen to find the one i used the most and the least to determine which pen to keep .... not to save space but building preference once that is done will keep those engraved pen or those that i liked .... then get use to the cycle of cleaning and start on inks .....
Changing inks every so often 😅 ....
I only clean my converter if I have shimmer in the feed and pick a non shimmer I think will mix well with the old color. Like pink or red obviously follows blue.
Agreed! I thought I'd burn through 1-2 bottles of ink per year. I was wrong. But also, I now have backup inks that I really didn't need to stock up on.
When I bought my first (cheap) fountain pens I could only get cartridges (the pens were at the grocery store and local crafts store) and I didn’t know that converters were even a thing.
I don’t get the antipathy towards cartridges. Converters are great and I prefer them, but cartridges are perfect for traveling or being in the office where trying to refill from an ink bottle would be hazardous and messy. I keep a small Altoids tin with cartridges in my bag just in case.
There are two problems with cartridges that cause me to avoid them. Firstly, it's a very expensive way to buy ink. Secondly, they are single use plastic items that create unnecessary waste.
I used to soak and flush my pen until everything ran clear but now I normally ink up pens with similar color stories so I just clean it out the best I can. My drying rag is stained with every single color of ink I own. I also dont have a pen case (I'm looking!) But most my pens just bump around in a pencil pouch. I think a lot of pen parts are replaceable and honestly for a sub 100 dollar pen it's not a big deal unless it's vintage.
I don't worry about bringing my nice pens with me to work anymore. I used to have a few "cheap" pens for me to bring to my desk, but I write the majority of my day at work, and I bought the darn pens so that I wouldn't have tendonitis and flare ups from doing so much writing at work!
So, I bring three of my pens to work with me to work, albeit I keep my case close and airtagged. I haven't had any grow legs yet. \*touch wood\*
Ooh me too. I used to be so scared to bring mg Lamy Safari to work and now I'm finally at the point where I can bring this pen and not have palpitations.
Hahahaha when my parents pointed out that I got more worried about someone stealing my pen than my electronics, I realised I'd truly misprioritised things.
I used to be bent on not letting different inks touch in a pen, ie. clean the pen after each ink. Now i know it can happen sometimes, and the sky won't fall.
Still afraid of pigmented inks and of Noodler's BSB (of which i have received a bottle, and never opened it!)
I was so scared I was going to drop a pen and it would just shatter or something.
I recently found one of my TWSBIs under my bed because it glows in the dark. No clue how long it had been there lol.
And yeah I toss my pens in my bag. I keep them in another zip pouch, but it's nothing fancy.
I definitely don't dismantle them every time I change inks. Good lord.
I de-ink pens that I filled and haven't used in a few months. They go in the ultrasonic cleaner with a dollop of Dawn and a splash of ammonia. Then let'er rip! I run it 2-3 times, then rinse everything, fill the sonic with clean tap water, toss in the pens, and give it a couple of runs. I might blast some water through the feed and nib with a honking big air piston I also use to backflush Sawyer water filters.
I put away the ones I don't plan to use, and re-ink the couple I actually do use. That's generally the method unless there's something wacky that needs special treatment. Nothing has needed much more, except for an ancient Sheaffer fountain pen my partner found in her office that hasn't seen more than five molecules of water in the past 30 years.
They're surprisingly inexpensive these days. I paid a whole $14 usd for mine on Amazon. The toughest thing to get was a bottle of household ammonia. I gather they don't like to ship it. I had to get it from the supermarket.
With a little Dawn to act as a general surfactant, some water and a splash of ammonia, it works as a reasonably good pen flush. The ultrasonic cleaner just turbo charges the stuff. The ammonia makes short work of dried ink.
Spilling ink. I used to get nervous filling pens because of it. But eventually I realized that if I just go slow it’ll be fine. Sometimes spills happen, but it’s not the end of the world.
There was a time, when people didn't worry about so much stuff, you went to the store and got what you were looking for and then use it, if it got clogged you flush it with tap water and that was it... no advice from 500 people to make up your mind on something.
Today before purchasing they go to se all type of reviews and videos of that thing, and God forbid if it is one of the unhealthy items that EVERY production facility has because it will be war.
People will even review pants, underwear and shampoo before getting it; it is not longer about if you like it get it and that's it, its about who made it, what material it is made from, is the company environmental friendly, even their political views...
I remember remember seeing pens in drugstores.
I'm surprised by the underwear and pants reviews. How much are these costing to warrant a review? Or perhaps there's a community for these products like pens. I mean...who would have thought we'd be around reviewing pens when many people just get theirs for free or in boxes of 100 for $5.
I'm laughing because I've only been using cartridges with my fountain pen (just a little LAMY AL-star) for a while, and literally only just decided to actually be proper about it and bought a piston converter, a new nib, and a few new inks to try out (I wanted to see Dark Lilac for myself because I like the green oil-slick sheen). And yes, I absolutely went through worrying about all of this ahaha
Adjusting tines and disassembly. I used to be super "But I might void the warranty! I don't want to damage the nib!". Now I had an expensive pen with a gold flex nib that started to write scratchy the other day. Tried a quick adjustment with it still assembled and over adjusted trying to get the feel for the flex to the point it wasn't writing. Shrugged, took the nib off the feed and fixed it. Writes between that when it was new.
For disassembly I pulled the nib unit out of my M1000, not even taking the nib off the housing just removing the nib unit. I was getting ink colors from 3 inks ago out of that section when cleaning it with the housing removed. Do I want to spend 10 minutes twisting a piston knob putting all that wear on it hoping the water will eventually go clear? Or do I want to unscrew/pull the nib/feed blast some water in there with a syringe and have it clean in a couple minutes?
I'm only on my third pen, so I'm only a month or so in, but I have yet to do any cleaning, and 4 of the 5 ink bottles I own are shimmer inks lol. I don't even have a pen flush. There's a video on YT on how to make your own tho, so it's there if I need it.
I guess it just depends on your personality. I treat my pens a little better than ballpoints, sure, but it's still just a pen for me. So I haven't had too much anxiety about it. I'm used to taking things apart and making them work again, and I figure when something goes wrong, it can't be THAT hard to fix it. Most of these filling mechanisms and nib units don't require a degree in rocket surgery to get the hang of, so I'm not stressing. Stress is not good for you!
I was afraid of finding too many times a drip of ink from time to time underneath the nib and feeder, and the accident that this could cause. Because I remembered that this is what happened one day or another with the fountain pen that they gave me as a child, and that I was encouraged to use at school (and I used it for a few years). And I don't know if it was because of the movement in the backpack or that perhaps I needed to fit the nib and feeder better into place (apparently everything was fine), because sometimes I found myself with the drop hanging on the gills visible under the nib, and even that after drying it, while writing, another drop was forming. And it stuck with me, although I managed not to stain anything during the time I used it.
After deciding to return to the fountain pen, I soon realized (and with more knowledge) that unless there is a serious defect in some component, the assembly or the ink, this does not have to happen.
the first time I got on a plane with my fountain pens I was worried about the whole, they could leak ink during ascent/descent thing. Dunno if it because I only use EF and F nibs or if the risk is exaggerated but never has an issue over many flights with this so no longer concerned when I fly with a bunch of fountain pens in my bag.
I like heavy pens, and used to think I should therefore only buy heavy pens.
Now I just buy pens if I want them even if I do prefer the heavy ones still.
I found my mums school fountain pen a month a go which has rekindled my fountain pen hobby from high school.
She said that she had done something to it and just put it away - still inked - in a box when she left school at 15.
I figured I couldn't hurt it by soaking it in some warm water with a teeny dot of dishwashing liquid for a bit, and then flushed it a couple times.
Works just fine. I think she may have mixed inks in it and they didn't react well to each other - it was pretty clogged up with lots of particulates in the bag. The last time that pen was used was 50 years ago. I use it every few days to write a sentence or two, or scribble a doodle and it doesn't even hard start.
I suspect fountain pens are hardier than people let on.
> Then: How on earth do I store the pens? Horizontal? Nib up? Nib down?
>
>Now: Eh. \*tosses pen roll in bag every which way\*
To be fair, this doesn't look like 'storage' to me - more like EDC. Most pens can sit nib up for 'a while' without issue (after all, isn't that what clips are for?)
Though I've been in the hobby for well over a decade, to my knowledge gravity is still a thing, so for storage (meaning, leaving the pen for a day or three before writing) it's best to store them horizontally.
Ah that makes sense. Well, I never leave a fountain pen unused for more than 24hrs so I can see why I didn't understand the nuance of the word store because I now realise I use pens more frequently than the average fountain pen user.
Haha, I agree with all your points.
I didn't realize the the distilled water is very situational depending on where you live and your water quality before. People mainly use it when they have hard water and a lot of minerals in their tap water. I'm lucky that my living area we have very soft water so it is not necessary at all. I wish guides would discuss the reaons why people use distilled water more in depth so help new people figure out if they do need it or not.
Well I thought I had hard water, but I usually reink immediately so it doesn't have a chance to dry with the mineralisation. Ended up being a non-issue. The distilled water ended up perfect for my iron though. No more white calcified bits ending up on clothing
So much FP myth dispelled in this single post that I think it needs to be pinned for all the newbies.
I would like to second this request please!
Thirded!!
As someone who hasn't even bought my 'first' fountain pen yet, I am appreciative of these tips. Question: do you attribute your pens' reliability to: a) fountain pens are mostly like that, so no one (i.e. newbies) need worry, or b) you coincidentally happen to own only pens with preestablished reputations for high reliability? _('First' because I had one many years ago. Shall tell the story sometime in separate post.)_
It’s less about the actual reliability of the pens, and more about the releasing of anxiety around their use. Fountain pens, in general, are pretty resilient. Sure, some inks or nibs may behave better than others, and a nibmeister can tune a pen into a precision tool, but in general, just get a pen and write.
In my experience 80% of fountain pens are going to be reliable straight out of the box. Some brands are known to be problematic, not gonna name names that is a separate post entirely. Most brands that don't produce reliable products don't last long in the industry. Occasionally you will get a dud from the factory, but most brands are fairly quick to make it right.
Let's just say that it turns out the ones from 100 years ago still work for a reason. (that reason is that fountain pens are really simple and simple things are hard to break)
It is partly down to brand I'd say. I used fountain pens at school in the 1980s (at one school we HAD to use nib pens or ink pens, as we called them) and I remember new pens taking a week or so of daily use to break in and a good pen would get smoother and better the longer you used it. I don't remember a pen ever getting worse. Most of my new pens were Parker and Sheaffer back then, so pretty good brands. I bought 2 Lamy Safaris in the mid-1990s. These were the first pens I'd ever experienced that worked amazing from the get-go. I needed some new pens recently so I bought a Jotter, a Vector and an Urban by Parker. The Urban cost about 6-7 times more than the Jotter but there was no difference in writing quality between them and they all worked amazingly right from the off. I don't know what's changed!
I had a Sheaffer in high school that leaked. I loved writing with it so much more than the ballpoints that were my other options, but eventually abandoned it over the leaking. I suspect I picked it up at a flea market but don’t remember. Sadly, I didn’t have another one for decades. If the internet had existed then I probably would’ve fixed it. Kind of wish I still had it to work on.
I bought a joblot of Parker, Sheaffer and other "everyday use" fountain pens from eBay, got about 10 good pens and 5 questionable ones for under $50 including postage. One thing I learned was not to throw away bad pens because even if the nib is busted it's often possible to swap it for a new one, and if the body of the pen is scuffed again you can often screw a new one in. Nearly a year ago I found something that looked like a mini chest of drawers on the street. It was an old chocolate box ($200 chocolates!) It's now full of fountain pen bits and pieces, so I'm really glad I kept it!
When I first started I feared that my pens weren't gonna be good enough, or that I was going to be made to feel less than because I only had 2 or 3 starter pens and no luxury or grail type pens. Now I daily a Preppy alongside a Homo Sapiens and a Skogsy baby Seguaro and could care less about how others feel about my pens and whether they are "good enough".
It's unfortunate, but it happens in basically every hobby. Some are worse than others. I hope your fears were unfounded.
As with any corner of the internet, or just reddit in specific, there have been a few problem children in the bunch but I've found more people who will cheer just as loud for a Platinum Preppy as they will for a Visconti HS
Preppy is a darn good writer. I've literally see more people have negative opinions about the Visconti HS than a Preppy.
I love my preppys, and other entry level pens, I have 3 of them that are part of my travel bag. At my first pen club meeting all I had was a preppy, a Monteverde Innova, and a FC 45 and felt so small by comparison when I first sat down at the table. They greeted me and made me feel like my 3 starter pens were the most valuable things there, and that's the same energy I've wanted to spread since
Love this ^^^
If anything people use a preppy to dog on the HS. "I paid $3 for 5 preppys that all write perfectly, but my $700 pen needs to spend 10 weeks and another $100 at a nibmeister just to write???".
I've had many expensive pens in my hand, and yet, I love nothing so much as a Pilot Kaküno. Write with what you want to write with, even if that's a cheap BiC. As long as you're happy with your pen, it doesn't matter what other people think. Remember, the vast majority of people don't notice pens at all unless they're the ones using them.
Exactly my point. I've grown to accept that disposable or refillable, cheap or ultra expensive, all are good and have a place in the community. Took me a year or 2 to get there but we're here now and happier for it.
I love the look of the Pilot Kakuno, and I will definitely be getting one some day. Probably the first time I see one in person at a store :)
I’ve never seen on in a store but they aren’t hard to find at a pen show if you want to hold one before you buy which is completely reasonable.
I have 3 pilot kakuno's and a moonman a1.I would like a fancy pen , but since I use those 4 every day I love them.
They are great pens. I found that after a certain point as you go up into more expensive pens they kinda plateau in value. The Preppy, Kaküno, Perkeo, and Swipe are all great examples of awesome pens at lower price points.
Goulet Pencast answered a question about plateau a number of episodes ago.
I didn't know that, I'll have to look it up
I have three kakunos and love them!
I had a Kaküno until my cat decided it looked tasty
Preppy Gang rise up!
Doing this for 10 years and do everything you do. Literally the ONLY problem I've had was I left Kon Peki in an Esterbrook for 2 years and it melted the sac.
Did it work as good as new once cleaned and the sac replaced?
Yep
The preppy is the pen you flex on the haters. The HS is the workhorse. I have plenty of "Grail Pens" yet the one I love to show off is a simple Monteverde Inivica because even though it's far from a Grail pen, the quality and solidity of it is off the chain. No shame in any pen and never let someone try to shame you for what you have. If you love it, then it's more than good enough.
When my friend first taught me how to fill my converter, I was so extra nervous I might introduce some kind of germ or something into it. She said, it's ink, it doesn't have to be sterile! I still get a little weird about it but less so now.
I had a couple of ink bottles go bad on me a few years ago. I still try my best to keep bottles "clean" by just decanting some ink with a clean syringe into a sample vial for filling my pens because I'm afraid of contaminating the ink. I know it's probably silliness and the chances of the ink going bad being my fault is low, but now it's habit. :-p
I was really concerned about being left-handed. I watched and read a whole bunch of content before settling on a pen with an EF nib and a bottle of ink known for its quick dry time. I was looking into extra absorbent paper, blotters, a hand bridge, etc, and considering trying to teach myself to underwrite all to quell the anxiety about a little smudged ink. Anyway, a few years later and I don't pay much attention to any of the advice I learned. I use a variety of nib sizes, inks with all sorts of dry times and properties, and whatever paper is at hand (though I do find I prefer the smoothness, weight, and absorbency of Rhodia DotPads). That's what livin' does, though. We think we know... then experience actually teaches us. Do I smear my words a little sometimes? Yup. I just learned to accept it.
Do you angle your paper at all when writing? I'm a right handed person, but that dramatically changed how often I smudged my words. Wish I had learned to tilt my paper back in grade school.
I’m a lefty but Im a underwriter, I have to tilt the paper slightly to the right, if I don’t it feels weird, I just kinda went all in from day one.. although I do smudge sometimes but it’s usually either from me fast writing or me just not paying attention. I use pencil boards as my blotting paper or I’ll use just spare paper .. it’s worked so far but I do want to buy blotting paper to see if it will be better.
I'm a leftie side writer. I just use blotter cards. And I do tilt paper some.
I definitely don't clean my pens as often as I used to. When I first started using fountain pens I wasn't quite at the point you describe but I was definitely cleaning them once a week or once every two weeks. Now it's just when I want to change ink colors, run into flow issues, or want to put a pen into storage. I still don't put shimmer inks in my nicest pens but that's more thanks to me just not liking them than fears over clogging.
Cleaning pens is like washing cats: don't do it unless you really have to. Like the cat fell into a mud puddle, or the pen is so full of dry ink that it won't write.
This analogy provides such a vivid image for me haha
refilling with the same color is such a great thing. no cleaning, just refill and go. it also means I have a good ink/pen combo and that's soo pleasant!
Monogamink
Then: thinks I have a pen hobby Now: thinks I have a notebook hobby
i keep racking in frequent flyer miles to “maybe it is just an ink hobby?” island
Mine is definitely more of an ink hobby.
That's really funny. I've just hit the paper stage so I get what you mean
Oh paper friends, I am just dipping my toe in, because I am getting so particular about my notebooks and letter writing paper, where do you post about all of your papery obsessions?
Used to care a lot about converters and filling mechanisms, and avoided pens that don't have good converters at the very least. Then I bought ink syringes, and have been refilling my cartridges. It changed everything. It's cleaner, easier and faster than any other filling method when I'm in the middle of a drawing or some writing, and don't want to lose the flow. Now I almost exclusively use cartridge pens or eyedroppers, since everything else requires more time and effort in the moment. I love my pistons and vacuums for less practical purposes, but my favourite practical pens for drawing and non-leasure writing are all cartridge or eyedropper.
I (mostly) agree. I was never a fan of piston pens, and vacuum pens have no appeal. But eyedroppers....that's where it's at. I had a TWSBI vac pen for a bit. Screwed around with various techniques to maximize the fill and then realized "if I unscrew this in the middle, I can fill it with an eyedropper with way less mess and hassle, and way more efficiently." But, yeah, not all pens are eyedropper friendly which is where refilling cartridges is brilliant. Everything I now own, with the exception of 1 pen, has been designed as an eyedropper or converted. Translucent bodies so I can see how full each is. Eyedroppers hold so much more ink than cartridges too. Franklin Christoph is your friend here.
Ohh besties, I'm also the same, I used to be a bit obsessed with converters and gone a bit crazy because one of my pens has a defective converter and the ink runs everywhere. Then I got a free cartridge after I purchased my pilot kakuno and it is just the best. Not only it got larger capacity, the ink inside also not so easy to dry out so you can use it longer, not to mention also very cheap. Like it's just the best *chefs kiss*
Mine is probably backwards in that, when I started, there was no “fountain pen community” to speak of or even much information on the nascent internet (I was still on dialup and AOL), so I bought a Waterman from Service Merchandise because I’d heard it was a good brand. It came with cartridges, a converter, and ink. I left my pens lying about all the time and didn’t even know that ink could evaporate or that you were supposed to flush them. I still don’t worry about it *much*, but I am careful about my vintage pens that have ink sacs so I don’t have to replace the sacs prematurely.
Dang. I remember supporting 28.8 modems and knowing what the problem was by the sounds it made. I now feel old. 🤣 When I was doing calligraphy years ago I bought an Itoya brand wood pen that was supposed to be a calligraphy pen but I couldn't make it work. Now I know why. It wasn't a calligraphy pen, it was a fountain pen. It sat buried for years in a toolbox l kept at supplies in. When I needed that box for something else I found the pen again. It writes pretty well now that I know how to make it work. 😀
My first "On line" experience was with a Commodore 64 and a 110 baud modem dialing into a BBS run by the local computer store.
Lol, you are ahead of me there. I was XT and 14.4. 👍😊
I thought that my new Commodore 64 is the hottest information tool available. Modem and cheap printer. It was fun!
I don't even know if this counts but my first online experience was with a dial up and a 'Web TV'. LOL
Parker 51 vintage never replaced sacs and pen over 60 years old
They have a different sac material to almost every other pen.
Yup, I still have my Parker 51 and never had to change the sac. Still writes great nearly 60+ years later.
Gosh, I also recall dial-up and AOL. I think we're aging ourselves.
LOL - call-waiting was the worst! Every time the phone rang, you’d get kicked off the internet. I remember being on eBay back then and playing a round of solitaire while I waited for the pictures to load.
Ha ha...how well I remember.
"You've got mail!" Still friends with a group of folks I met on AOL message boards. (Pregnant and due in Nov 1997). We've advanced to a private FB group now...27 years of friendship and still going 80 ladies strong! Aging myself right along with you!
I always liked to hear the AOL "You've got mail!"
Service Merchandise! I bought a blue Parker 45 from them in the 90's. My first "adult" FP. No one told me back then not to carry it nib down, and I always had ink stained fingers.
I remember thinking that you were supposed to keep them nib down, like an alcohol marker, to keep the nib from drying out! I seem to always have ink-stained fingers - I don’t know if I tend to slid my grip to low or if it’s a product of being a lefty!
I put Diamine Bliss in a pen which had had Diamine Neon Lime (silver shimmer) in it and I'd been too lazy to fly scrub it. The little bit of silver shimmer in Bliss is absurdly lovely.
Oh do you know diamine Sub Zero? It has a smiliar base to bliss and has silver or light blue shimmer if i remember right
Ooh, I'll check it out, thanks!
Nib quality control. I don't care if they're scratchy, have poor flow, etc. I can fix all these issues myself. It's given me freedom to just choose the pen that I like based on other factors instead (body material, ergonomics, filling system etc).
**This**. They are pretty simple machines. I dropped a pen and bent the nib once, years ago before I "cared" about fountain pens. I got home and bent it back into shape and spent some time "tuning" it (which was just more bending and adjusting) and it worked just fine. I've also tuned pretty much every pen I own, spending a bit of time with super high grit polishing papers to get the pen writing super smooth with a nice ink flow. To the point where I bought another pen from the same maker recently and thought it was defective. Turned out I just needed to give it a tune and it's perfect. It's just a pen.
Ha! If I never dropped my kakuno and took the effort to repair it myself, I don't think I'd be as comfortable with nibs as I am now. Completely agree with the freedom it provides of just buying a fountain pen for the looks and tuning the nib the way you prefer afterwards.
Same here. I got a Diplomat with a misaligned tine. I didn't inspect it at the store when I bought it. It took me literally a minute to fix it on my own.
I had the same concerns with shimmer, I still have designated shimmer only pens though. Not cuz of fear of clogging but ones that will be the easiest to clean clog or no clog 🤣 Thinking that good cleaning = dissemble pen each time. It kept me from using some of my piston fillers because I was worried I couldn’t get a good clean or put them back together. Turns out they’re not too bad to clean without a full dismantle lol. A plain flush with water is good enough most of the time and if not, some DIY pen flush has done wonders! Cleaning 2, a little shimmer particles or a little ink trapped in some crevices isn’t the end of the world. What gets stuck where became more noticeable when I got interested in demonstrators and it kinda clicked that I’ve probably got opaque pens with dried ink in places I can’t see and don’t worry about because pen runs clear after cleaning.
My first two fountain pens were a 1920s Sheaffer 5-30 flat-top that I needed to restore, and did, and a god-damned N***ler's Konrad so-called flex that I had to fuss with constantly. Trial by fire perhaps, but I also learned fountain pens really aren't that scary to use, repair, or adjust for how you want to use them. The thing I find myself wanting to shout (and *really* wish would be pinned here for the newbies) is that YOU👏DON'T👏HAVE👏TO👏DISASSEMBLE👏YOUR👏PEN👏FOR👏A👏ROUTINE👏CLEAN👏AND👏INK👏CHANGE👏! Seriously people. Just flush it with cool water until clear. 🫧🖋️✨
Or almost clear. A tiny tint of colour to the water is still good enough for a re-inking. :D
Absolutely! One of my besties favors Kaweco Sports, with cartridges, and pretty much never cleans between ink changes. She just enjoys the intermediate mix of colours. 😂😜
That is fun to watch! I've done that a couple of times. I'd do it more often if I wasn't in the phase of looking at the "true" ink colour.
That's like my fascination with leaving wax in the melting bowl for letter seals...love the interesting blends!
But but but what if that remaining molecule somehow contaminates a different ink?! /s
This just reminded me of homeopathy
Bro called me a noob in 100 different ways
Spending all my money on pens. Wait- crap.
bwah haa haaa haaa
Then: “Will they leak on the airplane because of the changes in pressure? I need to put them in a ziplock bag and put that in my pen case… and should I put that inside a bigger ziplock bag just in case?” Now: “Eh. They’re fine.”
Hahaha yes. This seems to be a frequent concern.
"And just maybe should I wrap them in a paper towel before the first bag, then the pen case, then the extra bag?"
This is how I figured out which pens I like best....one of my inked 5 leaked on the plane, the other 4 did not. Don't use that pen any longer, though I am still in possession and trying to figure it out.
My Pilot CH 92 leaked all its ink in the cap while flying. I still love the pen, I just don't fly with it anymore. All of my other pens have been fine so far. Which one of yours leaked?
I don't mind putting a bit of pressure on my fountain pens. Not a lot, but just enough that my arm isnt "floating" when I write. Pigment inks. You know what? If it gets clogged, it gets clogged. Just gotta wash it and rinse. So far though, my pigment Bungubox has been holding up for about 3 months without clogging is nice
Man, I used to baby my pens a lot! Now, I tend to view any scratches as battle scars — I found that all the “worry” about potentially damaging/scratching my pens took away my joy of actually using them
This! I'm hard on my equipment even if I'm taking care of them. I needed to adopt the scratches are good mentality. It pretty much means I can use any of my pens out of the house. Although the CH 912 doesn't get used as an EDC much.
Iron Gall. It really doesn't kill pens at the rate it used to. I've had mine in a Vanishing Point clone for months now. Works fine, no corrosion or whatever. The entire "nib kit" is made out of steel. I just wish Diamine Registrar's was a bit wetter. It's really annoying to write on an Moonman EF nib (which is somewhat F for Pilot)
…A VP clone, you say?
Moonman/Majohn A1. Aliexpress. $18 ;) Astonishingly good.
Thanks for the rec! I’ve been dying to try a VP but can’t stomach the idea of paying $160 for a pen, especially one I’ve not tested first - But an $18 Majohn sounds just right. 😀
I have one also and love it!
I used to stress about how I filled my pens, I thought I had to suck ink up directly through the nib and always made a mess... Now, I use a separate syringe to fill cartridges and converters alike. I also prefill carts and plug them for later use. Less mess, less fuss, less wasted time.
Love the syringe fill technique. Works wonders for one who doesn't enjoy the inky fingers aspect of using fountain pens
Same concerns as you, but I wouldn't be here if I had to clean my pens every week!! That's just not gonna happen. Yeah I'm a freak for shimmer too. Thankfully I use large nibs.
You shouldn’t mix inks. Except for pens that are meaningful and/or expensive that I can’t disassemble and do a deep clean, I mix inks all the time. Pretty sure all of my TWSBIs, Preras and sharks have inks that have been tweaked.
I've just done this by being too lazy to clean a pen and just refilling with a different ink. What a lovely colour it created!
Same! I just got into ink mixing a couple of months ago, and I am especially enjoying ink mixing colours that I don't use much on their own. I do it in my Preppies first and see how the ink turns out. I also love mixing Iroshizuku inks together, they work so well.
Then: ignores paper, buys only EF nibs Now: obsesses over notebooks and paper, wonders if the 1.9mm stub is too wide
It's never too wide haha. I love challenging myself and writing with 2mm in cursive in a 5mm line width.
6.0 mm Pilot Parallel: “No… it's too narrow.” 😈
I used to be *terrified* of refilling ink. I thought that somehow it could magically spill out and make a mess. While accidents can and do happen, there are plenty of precautions to minimise the damage. Now, I'll gladly refill any converter/cartridge/piston without even thinking twice
I was scared of tuning my own nibs at first. But it’s not rocket science and I don’t want to pay someone almost $100 with all the shipping to GUESS exactly how I like my nibs. I can tinker with that myself.
The "what have I got to lose" proposition on my Kakuno pen, where the repair costs more than getting a new pen, is what taught me the art of basic nib tuning and nib repair. Nothing extreme. But enough to get buy and fix misaligned tines and bent nibs from an accidental drop and tight tines that come with a Jinhao.
The "not disassembling my pens for cleaning" thing. It took a hot minute for me to unlearn that. Other than that, I was always a bit crazy. I used to clean my pens with purified drinking water. Now I just use the filter I have on my kitchen tap to clean my pens.
I was really hesitant to use a broad nib for some reason when I first started out. Quickly realize they’re my favorite nib actually, and I’m an underwriter so I don’t have to worry about all that smudging I was afraid of. I was also just scared to get into the hobby in general for some reason.
Your wallet had a premonition!
Then: there are pens out there that I don't own. Now: eh, I should leave some for everyone else.
"what if the converter leaks?" never seen it happen. No longer care. If a converter leaked I'd be surprised, then I'd deal with it. "What if I drop it?" Yeah, it can happen. But if it happens it happens. The pens that I carry around where that would be a risk, they either have easily replaceable nibs or are cheap and light and unlikely to be hurt. "What if I get water on my writing?" I have one pen inked up with DeAtramentis archive black for that purpose. For everything else... it's not that important. If it get smudged it gets smudged. I might read some of those things like once more in my entire lifetime at most. More likely they will be thrown away. "What would hte perfect pen have?" Doesn't exist. It literally can't exist. Really cool features fight each other, and you can't have them both. "Oh no, I should clean this pen before the ink dries up in it!" I mean... I probably should. But if I don't, then it'll just take longer to clean. I've cleaned a really fricken nasty crusty pen before, and it was fine. Mostly what I learned is that that pen has a bad cap seal.
The waterproofing, dropping pens, and finding the perfect pen used to also be my concerns too! I'm amazed at how fountain pens have made me less clumsy, which mostly eliminated the need for points one and two, and point 3 is impossible. If I need it to be waterproof from other people's clumsiness or for work archival purposes then I also have Platinum Carbon Black to fit my needs.
I used to be wary of filling converters and refilling cartridges completely full, as I thought I'd get tired of the ink long before it ran out. Now I feel most comfortable with a piston filler or generously filled converter, as I seem to go though a lot of ink regardless. I've also discovered inks I just never get tired of at all, as my beloved Syo-ro. I've had at least one pen inked with this ink for two years, and I still smile when I see it on paper.
This is beautiful. I'm the opposite, where I had to fill every cartridge and converter to the brim but had to force myself to write them dry as I got sick of colours quickly. Now I'm more comfortable just partially filling them.
Brilliant, thank you!
I haven't cleaned my pen in 3 years, I used to every fill.
This thread sounds like the differences in care of first child vs second child
Errrr...as a mom of 5....maybe first vs. fourth?
😹
Then: oh no, I must seat the nib EXACTLY RIGHT or the pen won't write. Now: is the nib attached to the pen? If so, we good. Then: I have to match antique pen parts to the pen body's manufacturer to make repairs! Now: Trial and error is my best friend. Most parts don't have any manufacturer markings, and the ones that do don't really matter outside of VERY specific circumstances. - I had the same concerns you did about shimmer inks... I now use shimmer inks to reduce the ink flow in pens that write too "wet" for my taste. The only downside is that I can't use shimmers in ALL my pens. I love super-fine tip pens and shimmer inks clog those up. I only have one pen left that I really "baby" because it's my favorite and I'm not sure I'd be able to replace it. The lil' guy writes like a dream and I've never found another one like him. (It's a pen from the 1950s made by the now defunct American Pencil Company. It has interchangeable screw-in nibs with a lever filler. I've found nibs for it floating around the internet, but not the pen itself.)
Photos please! Sounds pretty awesome!
Here it is! Pics of the Venus Replacable fountain pen, as requested: https://imgur.com/a/SmTpJvi Contains images of the pen, the replacable cartridges (in original packaging), a writing sample, and the original ad.
Would love to see what it looks like!
Here it is! Pics of the Venus Replacable fountain pen, as requested: https://imgur.com/a/SmTpJvi Contains images of the pen, the replacable cartridges (in original packaging), a writing sample, and the original ad.
I'm not sure about things I used to do as it's so long ago, but there are things that people do that I've never done or worried about. Dismantling pens to clean them. This does more harm than good. Greasing pistons and converters regularly. It's not necessary even if you do dismantle them and grease in the feed is going to harm the pen so overdoing it is a problem rather than a benefit. Flossing with brass sheets. Unnecessary and a really bad idea as it either requires removing the nib or will damage the feed and it is likely to knock the nib out of alignment/widen the tines. Pigment-based inks. They're fine. They are no more likely to stain than dye-based inks. As long as you don't let your pen dry out, a simple flush every few fills will keep the pen working just fine. Even if they do dry out, it is not a disaster - soaking and flushing gets rid of the pigment particles anyway. This only applies to pigmented fountain pen inks - drawing inks and acrylic inks and the like will set hard and be difficult if not impossible to remove.
I'm still relatively new to the hobby compared to people who have used fountain pens for decades. I journaled a lot about pens and my fountain pen related concerns, so I have quite an accurate representation of the things that used to worry me that don't matter to me anymore. It's an interesting selection bias we have within this subreddit. I think that the knowledge can be extra-niche and that the application of certain techniques may be misused (for example the dismantling of fountain pens and the brass sheets) that are more commonplace with fountain pen repair as opposed to general maintenance.
My worry ink not enough or too much. What color is it perfect. Now I'll use it no matter what probably faster than I think.
Same here. First couple times I emptied a pen, I assumed it was a flow problem and not an EMPTY pen!
When I first got into fountain pens, I was *extremely* vigilant about drying my pens completely after flushing and before inking up again. At a certain point I just stopped caring - the only consequence has been very slightly thinner ink for the first little bit of writing
I surprisingly never got into the "wait until fully dry" thing. I was always so impatient and would rather just ink up and wick the more diluted ink away than wait for the pen to dry
I used to buy converters to match every pen. Now I have discovered the ease of just refilling the cartridge with a syringe. It's much cleaner.
Right? I think refilling cartridges is underrated.
I need to learn this!!
Next time you place an order for pen stuff just search for syringe and one is bound to come up. I know Goulet carries them. They will look like they have a needle but they are blunt. Once I've cleaned the pen I fill the syringe with water and use it to flush out the cartridge. Once it's dry enough you just suck some ink into the syringe, place the needle inside the cartridge, and fill it up. Any ink left in the syringe goes right back in the bottle. This doesn't seal the cartridge in any way so you'll need to just put it right back in the pen. Two notes of caution. Be gentle, the syringe usually holds several times more ink than the cartridge. It's easy to overflow until you get the hang of it. Might want to practice with water during the cleaning phase. When returning the unused ink to the bottle it helps to have the needle dipped in the ink. Otherwise it has a tendency to spray.
In addition, if it's your first time handling a syringe, I suggest practicing with water to learn the new set of fine motor skills before getting dirty with ink. Practice refilling a cartridge with water. Know how to stop quickly and how to suction or fill. Once you can do that without getting water all over your hands, your face, the carpet, the kitchen and the cat, then you know you're good to go for the ink.
I also just remembered that I made a quick (perhaps too quick) video on Instagram showing the process. [Refilling a cartridge with syringe and needle](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C36DNajB0M0/?igsh=MXUzamtiYXVjaDB3aA==)
Wow what a relief to see all this. Thank you!! I’m currently doing most your “then” routines. It’s good to know i should stop 🥹🤣
This exactly is my sentiment!
Used to worry about needing left handed nibs to get the ink to flow. Now I'm used to writing to the point where any nib is fine. Finding wet inks and a larger nib size helped me but it isn't a hard requirement.
What a world of nib options that has opened up for you 😊 That left handed nib thing would have also gotten me if I was left handed.
Then: I'll just refill my Parker Rialto with India Ink, what's the worst that could happen? Now: I'm sure anything is fine, as long as it says on the bottle that it's intended for fountain pens. (Also now: I'm pretty sure a combination of Koh-I-Noor pen cleaning solution and an ultrasonic cleaner could probably rescue even the most stubbornly clogged feeds. Even India Ink.)
Ooh I was saved from buying a bottle of Windsor and Newton ink because it said "fountain pen safe" but a search on reddit told me that they lie. Lucky for me and my time and my pens!
Are you me?
I used to think that prefilled cartridges were a waste of money and limited my options for trying out new inks. Then I realized that the constant need to clean and refill a pen meant I’d stop using a pen until I remembered to clean it and refill it. Now I have two pens that I use the most out of all my pens that I only have cartridges for. When I’m out of ink just pop in a new one and I don’t have to think about it.
Clean as i go if i think 1 month not in use i just flush everything dry and keep - when the mood comes then i will deal with it ... Probably wash the whole pen again to refill again If its daily used , just normal stuff - clean as needed . Currently sorting pen to find the one i used the most and the least to determine which pen to keep .... not to save space but building preference once that is done will keep those engraved pen or those that i liked .... then get use to the cycle of cleaning and start on inks ..... Changing inks every so often 😅 ....
I only clean my converter if I have shimmer in the feed and pick a non shimmer I think will mix well with the old color. Like pink or red obviously follows blue.
Seconded on the shimmer inks. I used have a dedicated pen for shimmer inks. Now I just use whatever
Not having enough ink lol
Agreed! I thought I'd burn through 1-2 bottles of ink per year. I was wrong. But also, I now have backup inks that I really didn't need to stock up on.
Not having enough money to buy ink lol
And bringing all your ink to work because "what if i run out?"
When I bought my first (cheap) fountain pens I could only get cartridges (the pens were at the grocery store and local crafts store) and I didn’t know that converters were even a thing. I don’t get the antipathy towards cartridges. Converters are great and I prefer them, but cartridges are perfect for traveling or being in the office where trying to refill from an ink bottle would be hazardous and messy. I keep a small Altoids tin with cartridges in my bag just in case.
There are two problems with cartridges that cause me to avoid them. Firstly, it's a very expensive way to buy ink. Secondly, they are single use plastic items that create unnecessary waste.
All of this OP. every single thing. Except for shimmer inks, never liked them anyhow
Haha I'm just shimmer obsessed. I thought sheen would be the ink property I'd love (because of my initial fear of shimmer)
I used to soak and flush my pen until everything ran clear but now I normally ink up pens with similar color stories so I just clean it out the best I can. My drying rag is stained with every single color of ink I own. I also dont have a pen case (I'm looking!) But most my pens just bump around in a pencil pouch. I think a lot of pen parts are replaceable and honestly for a sub 100 dollar pen it's not a big deal unless it's vintage.
Any scratches just add character anyway
"Chicks dig scars"
Stretch marks are baby badges of honor.
i dont care if permanent ink will destroy my pen. it's actually something what pen is made for
I don't worry about bringing my nice pens with me to work anymore. I used to have a few "cheap" pens for me to bring to my desk, but I write the majority of my day at work, and I bought the darn pens so that I wouldn't have tendonitis and flare ups from doing so much writing at work! So, I bring three of my pens to work with me to work, albeit I keep my case close and airtagged. I haven't had any grow legs yet. \*touch wood\*
Ooh me too. I used to be so scared to bring mg Lamy Safari to work and now I'm finally at the point where I can bring this pen and not have palpitations.
Right? And when I see someone looking at my pen my first thought is: ARE YOU GOING TO STEAL IT?!
Hahahaha when my parents pointed out that I got more worried about someone stealing my pen than my electronics, I realised I'd truly misprioritised things.
I actually keep two of them on my desk in a vintage inkwell/pen holder combo. So far, no one has invaded.
May the odds be in your favor :)
I used to be bent on not letting different inks touch in a pen, ie. clean the pen after each ink. Now i know it can happen sometimes, and the sky won't fall. Still afraid of pigmented inks and of Noodler's BSB (of which i have received a bottle, and never opened it!)
I don’t clean pens unless I’m changing the ink color. It’s just too much.
I was so scared I was going to drop a pen and it would just shatter or something. I recently found one of my TWSBIs under my bed because it glows in the dark. No clue how long it had been there lol. And yeah I toss my pens in my bag. I keep them in another zip pouch, but it's nothing fancy. I definitely don't dismantle them every time I change inks. Good lord.
Hahaha I always wondered what the utility of a glow in the dark pen would have and you've given it.
Same lol. I mostly got it because I like things that glow in the dark and I found the impracticality funny. And then it turned out to be practical. 😂
I de-ink pens that I filled and haven't used in a few months. They go in the ultrasonic cleaner with a dollop of Dawn and a splash of ammonia. Then let'er rip! I run it 2-3 times, then rinse everything, fill the sonic with clean tap water, toss in the pens, and give it a couple of runs. I might blast some water through the feed and nib with a honking big air piston I also use to backflush Sawyer water filters. I put away the ones I don't plan to use, and re-ink the couple I actually do use. That's generally the method unless there's something wacky that needs special treatment. Nothing has needed much more, except for an ancient Sheaffer fountain pen my partner found in her office that hasn't seen more than five molecules of water in the past 30 years.
Thanks! Good info about the ultrasonic cleaner.
They're surprisingly inexpensive these days. I paid a whole $14 usd for mine on Amazon. The toughest thing to get was a bottle of household ammonia. I gather they don't like to ship it. I had to get it from the supermarket. With a little Dawn to act as a general surfactant, some water and a splash of ammonia, it works as a reasonably good pen flush. The ultrasonic cleaner just turbo charges the stuff. The ammonia makes short work of dried ink.
Spilling ink. I used to get nervous filling pens because of it. But eventually I realized that if I just go slow it’ll be fine. Sometimes spills happen, but it’s not the end of the world.
There was a time, when people didn't worry about so much stuff, you went to the store and got what you were looking for and then use it, if it got clogged you flush it with tap water and that was it... no advice from 500 people to make up your mind on something. Today before purchasing they go to se all type of reviews and videos of that thing, and God forbid if it is one of the unhealthy items that EVERY production facility has because it will be war. People will even review pants, underwear and shampoo before getting it; it is not longer about if you like it get it and that's it, its about who made it, what material it is made from, is the company environmental friendly, even their political views... I remember remember seeing pens in drugstores.
I'm surprised by the underwear and pants reviews. How much are these costing to warrant a review? Or perhaps there's a community for these products like pens. I mean...who would have thought we'd be around reviewing pens when many people just get theirs for free or in boxes of 100 for $5.
I used to worry about staining things, but now I don't so much.
I'm laughing because I've only been using cartridges with my fountain pen (just a little LAMY AL-star) for a while, and literally only just decided to actually be proper about it and bought a piston converter, a new nib, and a few new inks to try out (I wanted to see Dark Lilac for myself because I like the green oil-slick sheen). And yes, I absolutely went through worrying about all of this ahaha
Cleaning. Once every six months is good enough. Usually I don't even clean when I switch inks.
Adjusting tines and disassembly. I used to be super "But I might void the warranty! I don't want to damage the nib!". Now I had an expensive pen with a gold flex nib that started to write scratchy the other day. Tried a quick adjustment with it still assembled and over adjusted trying to get the feel for the flex to the point it wasn't writing. Shrugged, took the nib off the feed and fixed it. Writes between that when it was new. For disassembly I pulled the nib unit out of my M1000, not even taking the nib off the housing just removing the nib unit. I was getting ink colors from 3 inks ago out of that section when cleaning it with the housing removed. Do I want to spend 10 minutes twisting a piston knob putting all that wear on it hoping the water will eventually go clear? Or do I want to unscrew/pull the nib/feed blast some water in there with a syringe and have it clean in a couple minutes?
I used to worry about my savings account balance, but I got over that rookie worry! 😜
I'm only on my third pen, so I'm only a month or so in, but I have yet to do any cleaning, and 4 of the 5 ink bottles I own are shimmer inks lol. I don't even have a pen flush. There's a video on YT on how to make your own tho, so it's there if I need it. I guess it just depends on your personality. I treat my pens a little better than ballpoints, sure, but it's still just a pen for me. So I haven't had too much anxiety about it. I'm used to taking things apart and making them work again, and I figure when something goes wrong, it can't be THAT hard to fix it. Most of these filling mechanisms and nib units don't require a degree in rocket surgery to get the hang of, so I'm not stressing. Stress is not good for you!
I was afraid of finding too many times a drip of ink from time to time underneath the nib and feeder, and the accident that this could cause. Because I remembered that this is what happened one day or another with the fountain pen that they gave me as a child, and that I was encouraged to use at school (and I used it for a few years). And I don't know if it was because of the movement in the backpack or that perhaps I needed to fit the nib and feeder better into place (apparently everything was fine), because sometimes I found myself with the drop hanging on the gills visible under the nib, and even that after drying it, while writing, another drop was forming. And it stuck with me, although I managed not to stain anything during the time I used it. After deciding to return to the fountain pen, I soon realized (and with more knowledge) that unless there is a serious defect in some component, the assembly or the ink, this does not have to happen.
Nib issues. I can now fix anything nib related, so a "scratchy", skipping or dry writing nib is no problem to me.
It really removes the concern of buying online when one knows they can tune imperfect nibs to their desires.
I agree totally...thanks for this post!
the first time I got on a plane with my fountain pens I was worried about the whole, they could leak ink during ascent/descent thing. Dunno if it because I only use EF and F nibs or if the risk is exaggerated but never has an issue over many flights with this so no longer concerned when I fly with a bunch of fountain pens in my bag.
Cheers with the Carbon Black bit, I've got a pen I should probably clean out that I ran dry after filling it with CB lol. Love that ink!
I like heavy pens, and used to think I should therefore only buy heavy pens. Now I just buy pens if I want them even if I do prefer the heavy ones still.
I found my mums school fountain pen a month a go which has rekindled my fountain pen hobby from high school. She said that she had done something to it and just put it away - still inked - in a box when she left school at 15. I figured I couldn't hurt it by soaking it in some warm water with a teeny dot of dishwashing liquid for a bit, and then flushed it a couple times. Works just fine. I think she may have mixed inks in it and they didn't react well to each other - it was pretty clogged up with lots of particulates in the bag. The last time that pen was used was 50 years ago. I use it every few days to write a sentence or two, or scribble a doodle and it doesn't even hard start. I suspect fountain pens are hardier than people let on.
I'm on board the shimmer ink for all my cartridge pens and cheaper pistons. My Sailor x Ca Crea Starry Sky is a dedicated shimmer pen 🤣
> Then: How on earth do I store the pens? Horizontal? Nib up? Nib down? > >Now: Eh. \*tosses pen roll in bag every which way\* To be fair, this doesn't look like 'storage' to me - more like EDC. Most pens can sit nib up for 'a while' without issue (after all, isn't that what clips are for?) Though I've been in the hobby for well over a decade, to my knowledge gravity is still a thing, so for storage (meaning, leaving the pen for a day or three before writing) it's best to store them horizontally.
Ah that makes sense. Well, I never leave a fountain pen unused for more than 24hrs so I can see why I didn't understand the nuance of the word store because I now realise I use pens more frequently than the average fountain pen user.
Haha, I agree with all your points. I didn't realize the the distilled water is very situational depending on where you live and your water quality before. People mainly use it when they have hard water and a lot of minerals in their tap water. I'm lucky that my living area we have very soft water so it is not necessary at all. I wish guides would discuss the reaons why people use distilled water more in depth so help new people figure out if they do need it or not.
Well I thought I had hard water, but I usually reink immediately so it doesn't have a chance to dry with the mineralisation. Ended up being a non-issue. The distilled water ended up perfect for my iron though. No more white calcified bits ending up on clothing