Pens Drying Out

[pajaro]

My P51s, my vintage (20s'/30s') Duofolds as wel 40s'/50s' English NS, AF and aero Duofolds, my 50s' era Pelikans and my vintage MBs do not dry out on me. Generally, I don't use modern C/C pens except for some semi vintage pilots, platinums and Parker 75s/61s/45s.

 

My vintage lever and button filled pens of various brands/makes (Watermans, Sheaffers conklins, Parkers Conway Stewats and some other British brands), as well my Snorkel and Touchdown Sheaffers are near totally free of the nib drying out syndrome.

 

I have had very much the same experience.

[Lon_dubh]

Recently I found a Reform Rekord I had been using a lot during the 90s (up until about year 2000-2001).

 

All these years the pen had been stored in a box at my parents' house. I decided to soak it & flush it before inking it again. At first, I just washed the nib a bit under tap water. To my surprise, what flowed down the drain was quite a flow of ink. It appeared that the pen was sitting in the box with some amount of ink in it. I was able to write a complete page so far, and it's not over yet. I'm talking about 17 years here!...

[bergnerm]

In terms of not drying out, I think my Sheaffer Legacy is my top pen--I've left it idle for years, picked it up, and started writing with it as though it had been used the day before.

 

I always keep a syringe with water in it nearby--usually two drops to the nib and it's ready to go. However, if the ink has dried in the converter/cartridge, I'll add some water there too--if it's a converter, I'll operate the adjustment to shove some of the water/ink mixture through the pen feed. I'm terrible about cleaning out my pens, but have had no disasters yet.

[psimpson130]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Here is what I have done so far.

 

1) All the pens that kept drying out have been cleaned and are in the process of soaking for about a week. Since cleaning the water has been clear. Once that is done, they will most likely be put away.

 

2) I purchased a Pilot Metropolitan fine point and it behaves like a Bic - writes first time, every time, I like it so much, I will be picking up a slightly "dressier" one.

 

3) Been writing with black for so long, forgot that there is more blue than black in the PIlot blu/black ink.

 

Once again, many thanx for all who have provided inputs,

 

Paul

[cattar]

Pilot Metro is a nice line of pens. Look good, write well, durable, reliable, not expensive.
You have to go up considerably in cost to get all those factors in another pen.
Try the different nibs in the Metro, like the cursive italic. (I'm a lefty and I use it.)
And ink colors.

Consider only inking as many pens as you'll empty within two weeks.
If you have trouble with one of the dry-out pens again. Consider soaking the section/feed/nib unit in koh-i-noor's rapid-eze for few days, then rinse. There might be some really old crusty ink in there. Rapido-eze clears out most anything and can be reused.

[DiveDr]

Something that I have found is that at times the distal aspect of the feed does not make appropriate contact with the nib, in situations such as this it will lead to quick-drying and also some skips and hard starts. In a case like this if you're not afraid to remove the feed and nib from the front section a little bit of boiling hot water and some gentle working of the feed to bring the distal aspect slightly up so that it makes contact with the nib can work wonders. After this process with the nib has repeated properly on the feed you can also use some hot water to soak the nib and feed and then press them together while running cool water over the nib and feed to set it properly. This has worked wonders for many a hard start and quick drying pen for me. Of course the usual disclaimer, your mileage may vary and do this at your own risk because it will void the warranty on your pain and you could completely hose the sucker!

[tinta]

For on the desk storage, that would help slow down the drying. However, the pen will dry out if I write, then cap it for say 15-20 minutes and try to write again. Becomes a real hassle if you are sitting in a meeting and trying to take notes.

I would recommend Pelican brand plastic sealed cases.

Never had to use my clear Lexan #1030 or larger yellow #1050 box for the purpose of sealing in moisture for loaded pens, but these boxes have excellent rubber seals to keep moisture out, so I suspect they'd work well keeping moisture inside the box, preventing your pens from drying out.. I bought mine at a camera store.

Like one of these:

 

https://www.pelican.com/us/en/products/cases/micro-cases

Edited January 17, 2020 by tinta

[Parker51]

Based on my experiance with pens I own only.

My suggestions are for vintage: Montblancs, Parkers, Pelikans, Pilots and Sheaffers.

For modern pens: Auroras, Bexleys (old ownership group), Edisons, Kowecos, Pelikans, Pilots and Montblancs.

If you want to spend a little and go vintage to get a bargain, I suggest get a Parker 21 Custom, a Parker 45 with a Gold nib, or a Sheaffer Imperial with a Gold nib. To save more, get any of these pens with steel nibs.

If you want modern and want to save money get a Kaweco Allsport. They are available at different price points, but all are reasonable. If you hunt a bit you can get a new old stock Bexley with a steel nib for under a hundred. And of course some of the more mass production Pelkans and Pilots are available at reasonable prices.

Spending more, obviosely any of these brands have higher priced models with excellent characteristics.

One that makes sense in many ways to consider is a Namiki-Pilot Vanishing point. When not in use with a simple thumb action, the nib and associated assembly retracts behind a door which closes.

All of these pens work well for me, but I do live in a much more humid climate, except sometimes in winter, as the humidity in a home that is tightly sealed for energy efficiency and is centrally heated with a forced air high efficiency furnace such as mine frequently has the humidity at around 10 to 20% for extended periods of time as I don't have a humidifier and I don't experiance dry out with these pens then either.