How Long Do You Leave Your Pen Unkapped?

[HCD]

I use FP for work and I'm always writing something so I find da capping and uncapping will only create unnecessary stress on the pen leaving it uncapped for as long as 5 min.

 

 

Is it bad for the feed, and pen in general, in the long run?

 

 

Do you also leave your pen uncapped for long periods ?

 

 

[doggonecarl]

You need a Pilot Vanishing Point, a retractable fountain pen.

[Thunderpants]

When archaeologist Howard Carter broke into Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 he found, among many priceless artefacts, an uncapped Levenger True Writer. Incredibly, the pen - which had been sitting there for roughly 3000 years - delivered a juicy wet line of Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo when rubbed across some nearby papyrus.

 

This is a totally true story, apart from the pen bit.

[jar]

I never leave a pen uncapped and not actively being used.

[dogpoet]

Does it count if you've plunged the pen nib first into somebody's eyeball hard enough to feel and hear the nib tines break on the back of the skull?

(I wouldn't have pulled that one out and used it again, even if I hadn't sprung the nib, so it probably doesn't count anyway...)

[haruka337]

It really depends on the ink one uses.

I have Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo in a TWSBI 580 Diamond that I leave uncapped for 5 minutes or more on my desk and it starts right up when I write with it. If, say, I had MontBlanc Toffee Brown in the pen (wonderful ink, but a tad dry), it would hard-start since some of the ink would have dried on the nib after left uncapped for 30 seconds.

I would agree with doggonecarl above. A Pilot Vanishing Point or a Pilot Decimo (I use this one at work a lot) may be the best option for you.

[tinta]

Though I personally don't like clutch-capped pens (the ones that have caps that "click" on & off), these pens can be useful if you need to re-cap your pen often. I like screw capped pens. If the cap is carefully lined up & screwed onto the pen & not forced, repeated re-capping should not be harmful.

 

In my experience, the pens that are adjusted for a wet ink flow tend to remain "wet" longer. Each ink will also behave differently,... so, you may need to test out different inks to find out which lasts the longest when your pen is not capped.

[dogpoet]

How long can you leave a p51 uncapped without it drying out? I thought that was the point of the hooded nib...

[tinta]

It's the massive feed!

[HCD]

I use a Sheaffer Intensity With Sheaffer Black or a Pilot Mr also with sheaffer black and both start every time as soon as the nib touch the paper

 

I really don't like the look of the VP or any other click FP

[haruka337]

As long as the pens work fine with the inks you have and you give your pens a good cleaning between fills, it will be fine.

[dogpoet]

It's the massive feed!

 

Gotcha. The hood is a matter of modesty, and nothing to do with stopping the nib drying out so fast, then.

[tinta]

So I've been told. Supposed to be the heart of the 51s.

[ac12]

There are certain pen/ink combinations, the nib will dry out rather quickly, so you have to cap the pen. And NO, I don't purposely leave the pen uncapped. I put the desk pen back into the holder, and I soft or hard cap my clip pens.

If you don't want to hard cap your pen, learn to "soft cap" your pen. Do it enough and it becomes second nature.

 

If you are fixed at your desk, then maybe you just need to get a desk pen. Then you just put the pen back into the holder between uses.

 

I have only run into one pen that has the cap latch mechanism "broken," and it still latched, just not as tight. That was a Chinese Baoer 388. All the other pens just work and work and work. So IMHO you are worried about nothing.

Edited February 26, 2016 by ac12

[FOUR X FOUR]

Cap it immediately. You're not gonna wear anything out

[tinta]

.......and I soft or hard cap my clip pens.

If you don't want to hard cap your pen, learn to "soft cap" your pen. Do it enough and it becomes second nature.

 

.

What do you mean by the terms "to soft cap" or to "hard cap"? I may be doing these actions all along, but do not have a name for them.

[Sasha Royale]

When I stop writing, I put the pen back into the cap. If the pause is only a few minutes, I don't complete the "capping". This protects the ink from drying in the nib and feed. It also keeps the pen from rolling away to a fate too horrible to contemplate.

[ac12]

 

What do you mean by the terms "to soft cap" or to "hard cap"? I may be doing these actions all along, but do not have a name for them.

 

 

Soft cap is to put a slip on cap on the pen, but not clicking it home. Pens like the Pilot Metro, Baoer 388, etc.

This is done in meetings so you don't irritate others by the constant clicking as you put the cap on and off.

On screw caps, it is simply putting the cap on, but not screwing it down.

In this way it is easy and fast to remove the cap when you have to continue writing.

 

Hard cap is to click the cap home.

On some pens (Parker 51, Parker 45, etc.), there isn't a CLICK as it is simply a friction fit.

For the screw caps, you screw the cap down.

[Mangrove Jack]

Be aware if you have soft capped a pen. Last week I soft capped my Minty Parker 51, then put it in my pocket, forgetting I had soft capped it. The next time I removed it from my pocket holding it by its cap and whipping it out, it uncapped and the body flew across the room and landed on its nib (as always happens) and now I am awaiting a new nib in the mail.

[tinta]

Yes, at times I have performed the second option of the "soft cap" with my screw-top pens, without actually thinking about doing it. Any time I stop writing I soft cap my pen.

 

Because I've been taught many years ago that I must first carefully line up the cap with a fountain pen's barrel before screwing the two of them together, capping a pen has become a conscious, deliberate act.

We were told to stop screwing the cap on if we felt any resistance, to prevent cross-threading. (Our inexpensive, Soviet-made student pens had notoriously inaccurate threads.) We were also instructed not to reef down on the cap, but just get it tight enough so that it won't unscrew.

This would be my version of the "hard cap".