Two of my pens, a Pelikan and an old Conklin Crescent Filler, are giving me fits because they never start right off the bat but have to be prodded by shaking or other manipulations. Not only that, they're prone to die in the middle of a sentence and have to be re-primed. The standard ammonia solution doesn't work and I'm wondering if I might up the ante by using Higgins Pen Cleaner, intended for dip pen nibs, and/or Rapido-Eze, made for technical pens. Can either of these be safely ingested and expelled by a fountain pen without damage? The Rapido-Eze is a gel but I think it's water soluble. I don't know how either of them would affect the hard rubber of the Conklin. I would like to leave them in the pens for a good long time to do their work but don't want to mess with them if they're likely to dissolve the pen parts.

I've used Higgins pen cleaner on my Pelikan M200 after suffering some of the problems you've mentioned.

All I did was unscrew the nib/feed assembly and soak it for about half an hour. Of course I was worried about possible damage, but in this case it cleaned all the gunk out with no problem.

Hope this helps.

I use Rapido-Eze all the time with FPs, I'm on my second 32 oz bottle. (I also use it with technical pens.) It works extremely well on difficult cleaning jobs.

Unless it's a really nasty case (i.e. India ink) I use it diluted - maybe an ounce per 8-10 oz of warm water.

I'm a bit concerned that you refer to it as a "gel" though - I use a liquid version that I thought was the only version. If there's a different gel version, your mileage may vary...

Thank you both for your input. I tried the Higgins in my Conklin and the Rapido-Eze in my Pelikan.

Mmoncur is right that Rapido-Eze isn't properly a gel but it does have a soupy consistency. Throwing caution to the winds, I filled the Pelikan right out of the jar and let the Rapido-Eze sit in it for about an hour and a half, then flushed it half a dozen times with tapwater. The result was a hundred-percent improvement. The pen starts right away and the flow is much denser than before.

The Conklin still tends to dry up if set aside for several hours, but that used to be minutes, so I can say the Higgins did its work as well. I'm very satisfied with the results.