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Hello everyone, I bought this cross Century II at the flea market and although it writes nicely when disassembling it for cleaning I noticed it had a lot of dried ink and the nib seems to have been corroded on several spots and some of the gold (paint/plating?) Had transfered to the feed. It came with an empty cross cartridge of bb. Is this just product of leaving dried ink on the nib for a long time or are there inks known to do this?

Good Day FPN, I'm finally back to the Fountain Pen club since my first encounter with fountain pens in Middle School. I really like the appearance of demonstrator fountain pens and so I got myself a Pilot CH 92 for the holiday. That said, I inked up my new arrived pen, without flush with water, with Diamine Majestic Purple. Dry ink formed on Day 2, but I've been using my pen everyday! I'm not sure how good my phone camera picks up the dried ink sitting on top of the piston sac (is that how you call it?) I'm worry a simple flush of water will not remove this dried ink and then it will take-up space for already a small barrel ink capacity. What happens if I change color with other brands of ink? Would other ink reacts to the dried ink inside the barrel? How should I approach this issue? I thought ink at this caliber, from Diamine, should be free of issues like this or is it normal? Considering the winter here rarely gets below 50F. I don't see any other way to explain ink dried up inside the barrel.. All helps are appreciated!

OK, I bought the old Speedball Caligraphy Collectors Set, and the Spencerian Penmanship Mott Media about a year ago maybe? And I set it aside after just a couple of uses. Now I am going to give it another go and I was wondering about a few things. The ink is dry, is there a way to fix this or should I just buy new ink and cleaner? It came with the really small bottles anyway. I also read in another thread here where italic was recommended before moving on to Spencerian. I do not have any issues with this if it would be best. At this point handwriting skill is level ZERO. Can/Should I get a fountain pen to practice with? Or just stick with a dip pen? Also is an oblique holder a must for Spencerian and other scripts? I have no problems with learning it. I was just wondering. I am usually a pro lurker... but maybe this place will bring me more out of my shell. Talk to you soon! Michael

Long time no see FPN, I've been very ill in the past few months and was in the hospital until yesterday. As I get back to FPN after a long break (whoa! I can actually write again!), I have a quick question. Since I was not able to write for a long time, my unused pens (Parker Sonnet and Montblanc LeGrand) are not writing well. Actually, it just doesn't function at all! What happened? How do I fix my pens? Thank you. William S. Park

A friend of mine gave me her Parker 21 to try and revive. Someone else gave it to her, all clogged up, and she thinks that person might have used india ink in it. However, I started soaking it first in water (because I have some, and I don't have any pen cleaner), and there is black ink coming out. I am thinking that indicates it is Not india ink, but rather something more conventional, as I wouldn't think water would affect dried india ink. Is that correct? Second question about this. The feed is currently so clogged that it is impossible to draw water up into the sac, which is happily in good shape. I am thinking I will probably need to take the section off to get the feed clean. Does the section come apart similar to a P51? From parkerpens.net this seems to be a mark II version. Thanks for any advice. John Edited for grammar, posting from a smart phone, sorry.