How Do You "store" Your *inked* Pens? (Up, Down, Or Sideways)

[Soundsider]

Horizontal if on the desk, chairside table, dresser top, or in trouser pocket. Otherwise nib up in shirt or jacket pocket, briefcase (pen pocket, roll, pr case) or in a padfolio standing vertically on my bookshelf. I've never had a leak, but neither do I tempt fate By storing or carrying nib down.

 

/Soundsider

[comatose5519]

I usually end up inking too many too count, but I try to keep them all nib up, so all the ink doesn't end up in the cap.

[Pepin]

my everyday pen is always inside an ink bottle so it doesn't matter.

[USMCMom]

Pens in rotation rest in an 8-slot, glass top pen box on my desk. The box slightly tilts toward the front and I place them with the nib facing the front of the box, so the nibs are pointing downward toward the front of the box at a slant. Since I have more pens in rotation than the box will hold, my other pens are resting horizontally on my desk. If I have even more pens in rotation, I use a clear plastic type pen stand nib down. So ... all nibs are either pointing down or are on their sides. I never store my pens nib up ... they don't like it and I do what ever it takes to make them happy.

[spotted and speckled]

At home, everyone inked is safely in a coffee cup, ready for use. Non-inked pens are in zippered folders standing on a bookcase. Outside of the house, I have several pen cases which I try to maintain nib-up while in transit. Once I get there (wherever there is), they go horizontal on the writing surface. My work pen (currently an Inoxcrom) stays inked in the work bag horizontal.

[OakIris]

For some reason, I follow the design of the clip. As in, when you have a fountain pen with a clip, the clip was designed to clip onto a pocket, so the nib was always in the upward position. That seemed to be the way fountain pen manufacturers envisioned how the pen should be carried when not in use, so that is the way I store them when they are not in use. Odd, though, ball point pens, etc., and most mechanical pencils have the clip at the top so they get stored with "nib" or lead guide down in my pen and pencil holders. On the other hand, two of my mechanical pencils have removable caps with a clip on them; when the cap is used to secure the pencil when it is not in use, the ends up being stored with the lead guide in the upward position. Guess it is all about the clip for me. :embarrassed_smile:

 

When the pen is in use, and set aside between notes, it is set horizontally on my desk. Guess I am all mixed up.

 

Holly

[Paddler]

I store my desk pens nib down, because that is the way the desk set works. After the ink level inside goes to about half full, they will drip a little ink into their sockets. Atmospheric pressure or temperature changes?

If I happen to have a Parker 21 inked, or a pen without the fins on the bottom surface of the feed, it is stored nib up. Any other orientation is asking for trouble with one of these.

Everything else lies horizontally in a tray on my desk.

[deansellers]

Stored nib up. Horizontal while in use at my desk, or nib up in my shirt pocket. Clipped nib up in my shoulder bag while traveling. Some of my pens, like my Esterbrooks, I have to be careful of when they are horizontal because the feed will fill up to an alarming degree and I've had ink flow into the cap.

[lapis]

For some reason, I follow the design of the clip. As in, when you have a fountain pen with a clip, the clip was designed to clip onto a pocket, so the nib was always in the upward position. That seemed to be the way fountain pen manufacturers envisioned how the pen should be carried when not in use, so that is the way I store them when they are not in use. Odd, though, ball point pens, etc., and most mechanical pencils have the clip at the top so they get stored with "nib" or lead guide down in my pen and pencil holders. On the other hand, two of my mechanical pencils have removable caps with a clip on them; when the cap is used to secure the pencil when it is not in use, the ends up being stored with the lead guide in the upward position. Guess it is all about the clip for me. :embarrassed_smile:

 

When the pen is in use, and set aside between notes, it is set horizontally on my desk. Guess I am all mixed up.

 

Holly

Hey, what a neat reply! I always carry any FP clipperd (that's what the clip is for, IMO) so the nib is pointing up). Never ever had any problems. But with BPs or RBs (which I never carry with me) I always store them (e.g. in the kitchen) with the nib pointing down with or without a clip, with or without any cap. I guess I came to this conclusion a long time ago when I first noticed that if I didn't, I'd have to turn the pen into that position for a day or 2 or just flog the heck out of it to get the ink back into the tip.

 

Whew!

[hiredgun]

I keep mine mostly horizontal in a tray slideout at my desk. I'm afraid if I leave any in a pen holder vertically on my desk someone may "borrow" one and not return it. Perhaps if I tape big flowers on the end of my pens though, that may curtail an inadvertant walk off.

Edited March 22, 2012 by hiredgun

[Kyouju]

I store nearly all of mine in the horizontal position as well, although any pens that are going to be set vertically are always set with the nib up, to avoid leaks. As for the pens that leak even when set horizontally, I store them at the postmaster's office... until the courier comes to bring them to a penmaster who might inspect their bowels and see what has caused their diarrhoea.

[Chi Town]

With the exception of my Large pen storage case, where pens are not inked inside it, all my other pen storage containers are set up to have the pens store nib up up, or down, but I store them up.

[Fun2Sail]

I made the mistake of storing my TWSBI Eco cap side down while inked, after a couple of days, when I opened the cap, a bunch of ink gushed out that had collected there and got all over my carpet.

[Aristosseur]

Instinctively nib up, especially when carrying them. I've noticed that this way there are less drops in the cap. While on desk, horizontally, never had any issues.

[lovemy51]

revived thread...

 

i don't store inked pens anymore.....

[Jerome Tarshis]

I don't think of myself as "storing" pens that are inked and ready to use. For me, anything in storage is not going to be used in the near future. However, I do "carry" inked pens, or put them down when not writing. I used to carry all of them nib up in a shirt or inside jacket pocket. But we now live in an age of cost-cutting, more than we used to, and I now have pens too long to be clipped securely in a too-shallow pocket. Those I carry horizontally in a jacket pocket.

 

Never had trouble with leakage, whether pens were horizontal on desk or in pocket, or vertical in pocket. Also never had trouble with drying out, unless the pen was generally troubled.

[Arkanabar]

I use a little wooden 3-cup pen holder. One cup has an open cell foam rubber insert that holds eight pens, including all those I currently have inked, point up. The second holds all my other writing instruments, generally clip up and sharp exposed point down. The third holds my 3x5 cards, scissors, comb, etc.

When I had an office job, my pens would travel in an eight-pen roll (made by my wife and sold through her etsy shop), which would lay flat on my desk. I also had a glass flower frog, but that didn't work as well for me.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

With most pens, I make no distinction between keeping them nib up or horizontally when I'm not writing with them, whatever is most convenient at the moment. I have a pen cup in my usual writing area, but I often just lay the pens on their sides. That's not counting when I carry them in my shirt pocket, in which case they are nib up.

 

A very small number of pens seem to work better if I keep them nib down. My Stipula Passaporto (not currently inked) is one. So when they are inked, I keep them nib down in a pen cup, or lay them horizontally on something in such a way that the nib is at least angled down.

Edited August 28, 2016 by ISW_Kaputnik

[pajaro]

Horizontally these days.

[WaskiSquirrel]

I don't store inked pens. But, pens currently in use generally lay on their sides or whatever position they end up in the case I carry in my bag to work.