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From top: A wooden kit pen given to me by a beginning penmaker from long ago. Heavy, doesn't post, but writes well. Rotring Core (or KOOR, after my favorite Klingon). Just. Plain. Weird. But it writes really well and I love the nib. Laughably hideous NoNami pen from Walmart or somewhere way back. Weighs as much as a school bus, doesn't post, and doesn't write all that well but I had to have it just because. Little Pentech Mr. Kenshin got me from a drug store. Fond memories and it writes well enough. Diplomat Butterfly, the third fountain pen I ever bought, not counting a Sheaffer school pen and an infomercial one that was hawked as being able to play darts with. Levenger Mach 5, heavy as neutronium and difficult to hold, but it writes beautifully. NoNami pink pen, probably the fifth fountain pen I ever bought. Its pink rubbery plasticky barrel gets sticky after a couple of years, but alcohol revives it. Tombow Zoom. Wonderful writer, comfortable to hold. Apart from the Butterfly, all take standard international cartridges or converters.

I picked up my heretofore reliable Gate City Belmont to do some sketching and as soon as I uncapped it I noticed a big splat of Legal Lapis on my sketchpad. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the cap was full of ink and the reservoir was nearly empty. I checked the position of the plunger and that seemed OK, the nib was securely screwed in place but somehow the ink found its way out of the reservoir and into the cap. I am at a loss for an explanation, It wasn't stored in an excessively hot location, I usually carry and store it cap up but have regularly stored it, inked up, in my pen drawer of left it on my desk top in the horizontal position for several days at a time with no problems. Overall the pen has been extremely reliable, I've never had any starting issues, skipping issues or problems with blobbing in the couple of years I've had it, I was carrying it and using it just a couple of days ago and it was fine. Does anyone have any ideas what could cause this to occur? A front moved through here over night and there may have been a pressure drop but anything severe would usually give me an earache and cause some really nasty popping and whistling in my left ear and that dodn't happen, none of my other pens seems to have been affected either.