How often should you clean out a fountain pen?

[nanahcub]

I generally clean my pens when I change to a different ink, or occasionally (happens quite rarely) if it isn't flowing properly. Otherwise, I tend to leave it. I have read somewhere or other (probably on here)  that you should clean pens monthly - that strikes me as too often. My daughter - a student - has one pen, and always uses the same ink. She has had her pen for about 3 years, and uses it constantly, but to the best of my knowledge, has never flushed/cleaned it out. She has  never had any issues with the way the pen works.

 

So  how often should we clean out our pens? Does it depend on the actual pen, the inks you are using? How much or how often you use the pen?  Or is that sort of maintenance part and parcel of the ritual of owning a fountain pen? If a pen is in constant daily use, and always has ink flowing through it (so it doesn't dry out) does it really need cleaning, or does the flow of ink through the pen flush it, as you use it?

Will regular cleaning improve the flow of ink, lengthen the life of a pen, or make little difference in real terms? Can you over clean a pen?

 

What are the rules/guidelines? What is good practice - and most importantly,  why?

[AceNinja]

22 minutes ago, nanahcub said:

 I have read somewhere or other (probably on here)  that you should clean pens monthly - that strikes me as too often.

Ya, I agrees, cleaning pens monthly is just unnecessary.  Let's remember that the cleaning process - as careful as we can be - is also a destructive process.  We disassemble things, cycle the piston / converter repeatedly, risk of dropping nib into sink hole, reassemble things,  all the little things with a little risks.  I would say cleaning as regular as monthly would actually reduce the life of a pen.

 

For me, if using the same ink, i just don't clean the pen, even if up to 1 year or more.  When I change ink, I'll clean the pen, not because i want the pen clean, but more so because I want to see the ink's original colour as much as possible without contaminating / mixing from the previous ink.

 

So, for me, in general:

1. no need to clean pen if using same ink

2. clean pen if change ink

3. if really want to talk about "regular cleaning", the "regular" for me is more like half-yearly or yearly.

 

I think many people will give you many different answer, so find ones that best agrees with you I guess.

[nanahcub]

7 minutes ago, AceNinja said:

When I change ink, I'll clean the pen, not because i want the pen clean, but more so because I want to see the ink's original colour as much as possible without contaminating / mixing from the previous ink.

 

 I absolutely agree with that statement - especially if changing not only ink colours, but inks by different manufacturers. You never know how they might react with each other.

[txomsy]

TL; DR. And mostly, my own opinionated personal view, YMMV, I can be absolutely wrong, and all the usual disclaimers (and some unusual ones) apply. Proceed at your own risk.

 

Back in the old times of one man one pen, most of us assumed pens were designed to write with ink, and rarely thought about cleaning them.

 

Plus, one would fear some body materials might not take well to water --even if only rusting of metallic parts, but also ebonite or casein for instance, which built up a "culture" of only use pens for what they are for, and only with ink.

 

Often we would not "clean" pens even when switching inks (we would take the short mixed-color period as a fact of life).

 

Indeed, it would be typical that you would leave an inked pen unused for a long time and then when picking it up discover it had dried out, refill and expect it to work.

 

Of course, in time it might build up some clogging, but usually, when one saw a pen getting dry writing, one would flush it a couple times with the ink while loading the ink. Or give it a shake (or a lick) when putting in a new cartridge. Or simply use Quink with SolvX -"cleans your pen as it writes"- when you noticed the ink flow start thinning, but you would not otherwise  normally think of "cleaning" a pen (other than to remove dirt spots in the body with a soft cloth, and not even that --those were the times of biting pens' end too while thinking what you were to write).

 

Indeed, I have gotten some vintage pens that had so much dry ink as to have flow issues after one or two pages writing (sometimes less). Nothing that a flush with water would not fix in most cases, or, in rare cases, a good overnight soak (or more rarely, a few). Only once had I to disassemble a pen and run an exact-o-knife carefully and lightly through the ink channel in the feed.

 

The manual of my old/trusty MBs said -if I remember well- it would be nice (recommendable, not "necessary") to give it a flush once every three months. If you flush your pen every time you switch inks or before each loading, you already are probably cleaning it more often. Actually, they say:

 

"To maintain the best condition of your fountain pen, Montblanc recommends cleaning the writing instrument once every three months. This is especially important if the ink has dried out, if the ink flow has become irregular, or if you want to use a different colour ink. "

 

Note that they do not say "must clean whenever ink dries out, color changes or flow becomes irregular", but "recommends once in three months, specially if ink dries out, etc.". They know users expect pens to write and not to have to care for them as a commodity, and they factor "abuse" (or rather, define infrequent cleaning as "normal use") in their design.

 

But that is Montblanc. Other makers may have other philosophies.

 

Where I want to arrive at is that modern marketing relies heavily in FUD to  engage our anguish because that drives up sales. Notwithstanding which, many modern makers have fully embraced the programmed obsolescence credo and make products so they will phase out or clog or otherwise fail after the compulsory (if any) guarantee runs out to force new acquisitions.

 

And it is also true that back then there were not that many brands of ink, each with only a handful of well behaved, thoroughly tested and cleaning-agent-loaded inks; while now we have a huge amount of ink makers, with a huge variety of inks, many oversaturated, and a huge load of new regulations limiting which products and in which quantities can go in an ink, which leads to strained ink designs.

 

Note that FUD is different from programmed obsolescence or phasing out. PO drives up sales by making the product to malfunction (or hampering its funcionality); phasing out works by producing new models and not supporting old ones; FUD works by driving anguish and relying in anguish as a non-specific driver of purchases as a psychological compensation mechanism.

 

In other words, there is a lot of cleaning paranoia going around. I do not question that for some modern models and for some modern oversaturated inks it may be justified, but in my most humble opinion, it is largely exaggerated to drive up anguish and nurture further sales.

 

Giving it a flush when switching inks should be enough, at least with decent, well made pens.

 

Now, we might discuss what is a decent, well made pen, but that is quite a different argument.

 

Let me repeat: this is just my personal opinion, and I may be absolutely, totally, way off, mislead and wrong.

[inkstainedruth]

I ran the Red Shadow Wave Vacumatic (a lower tier model than the Pearls) for something like three years, just refiling it as needed.  That pen REALLY likes Waterman Mysterious Blue....

I've been using Pelikan 4001 Blue Black in the M205 Blue Marbled ever since I got the ink, which is a couple of months ago.  So far I haven't had any issues with the combo (and 4001 Blue Black is an iron gall ink so, there could be more problems than with a "standard" ink).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Penguincollector]

I clean my pens before I store them, and as I use them in rotation,  it’s after they’re written dry. When I was in school, pens were cleaned only if I was changing from a darker color to a lighter one.

[Wahl]

I fill a pen, use it until it runs dry, clean it, store it, and fill up another one.

[Ron Z]

16 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I've been using Pelikan 4001 Blue Black in the M205 Blue Marbled ever since I got the ink,

 

What?  WHAT???       Ruth is using a Pelikan ink on a more or less consistent basis?   Can it be that she has seen the light?

[Ron Z]

I think that many people over think pen maintenance.  They also tend to over clean a pen.  You don't need to, and shouldn't, disassemble a pen to get ink out of every nook and cranny on a regular maintenance schedule, like changing your car's oil. 

 

If you are using cartridges on a regular basis, then regular cleaning is a good idea.  Ink dries out in the pen, and tends to clog it.  I've cleaned pens for many people who used cartridges, and when I hand the pen back to them I suggest that they switch to bottled ink and a converter.  Invariably, the problems go away, never to return when they do.  The reason is that when you fill with bottled ink, you in essence flush the pen every time you fill it. 

 

Standard inks like Pelikan, Waterman, Montblanc etc. rarely cause problems.  Some of the dye saturated, private label/boutique inks tend to dry and harden and clog a pen, so I recommend flushing the pen more frequently. 

 

Always clean out a pen and flush before you put it away so that residual ink doesn't dry and clog the pen.   I use the ammonia/Dawn dilute and then flush when cleaning out a pen before putting it in storage.

[inkstainedruth]

1 hour ago, Ron Z said:

 

What?  WHAT???       Ruth is using a Pelikan ink on a more or less consistent basis?   Can it be that she has seen the light?

Well, it's not 4001 Royal Blue, Ron.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Baka1969]

I think the growth of social media, pen communities and pen blogs/vlogs have vastly increased the amount of pen information available to us. More than ever before. Add that to the literal thousands of ink choice options out there. We have become obsessed with cleaning our pens. Oh yeah, don't forget the proliferation of sheening and shimmering inks that may (or may not) require more pen maintenance. 

 

Your favorite pen broadcaster is constantly changing inks and pens. "Necessitating" the need to perpetually clean your pen. 

 

More and more pens are also demonstrators. Nobody wants to see stains. Gotta clean that clear pen! 

 

The fountain pen community is a tiny boutique segment of overall pen sales. We are also the biggest prima donnas of the pen world. The pen manufacturers and retailers have catered to us well. But have also found ways to extract as much profit and our money as possible. Nothing wrong with that. Just know going in that it behooves them to fester the paranoia about pen care. 

Edited October 21, 2023 by Baka1969
typo

[Runnin_Ute]

My Pelikan 140, which sees a constant diet of Pelikan 4001 Blue Black and has since its arrival in August 2017. Typically, it will get a clear water flush 1-3 times per year. Here we are 10 plus months into the year and I have NOT flushed it yet this year. No issues.

 

I too, believe that many people are a bit too fastidious when it comes to pen cleaning. Especially pen disassembling type cleaning. If I am changing ink in a pen, I will clean more frequently. I often will keep an ink in a pen for two or three fills. Depending on how many are inked (usually 8-12, currently 😎 that might be a couple of months or more. 

 

 

[vicpen123]

I used a Parker 45 for over 15 years in the 70s, 80s and 90s before the advent of word processing.

 

It was always filled from a bottle using the same Parker Quink and was never flushed. It wrote perfectly the whole time.

 

As a non-expert user only, I agree with Ron Z that many people over think pen maintenance  Who heard about this in the days before the internet and FPN?

[txomsy]

Yeah, another factor is the 'prima dona factor' that now proliferates in the social networks, where zillions of wannabee influencers strongly compete to call the attention of readers.

 

It is all too tempting to try to come up with some "interesting and useful" innovation to draw readers to your blog. The overcleaning is a good example: so some guy complains their pen clogged, I will come up with a great "genius" idea claiming that I am smarter to fix it and say, it never happens to me because I do clean my pens thoroughly every fill, how smart is that and how smart makes it me look seeing as how I know about the antics of pen dissasembly and pen maintenance?

 

And then they post that you can live only on water (or without) and that you need maintain your pen every hour (or never, ever), or that doing some arcane or fancy routine will keep you young forever and make you immortal, or that using some poisonous cancerigen twice a day while dancing on one toe looking at the morning star will make you beautiful, or any such.

 

Nothing that hasn't been done for ages with good personal success if done well (witness the wizards that convinced old emperors/pharaohs) to build huge monuments (like pyramids, the Xi'an burial site, or so many others) to vanquish death.

 

And it is all so tempting to fall and feel like your are like those emperors by falling in the same tar pits...

 

[sandy101]

1/ when it stops writing

 

2/ montblanc recommend cleaning it's piston pens out once every 3 months.

 

Apart from that - if it ain't broke - don't fix it 

[Estycollector]

The Esterbrook and other sac type pens that I restored failed due to disuse. The ink dried and later became solid, sometimes rusting the internals of the pen. Once I have used a pen for several weeks and it runs out of ink, I do a thorough cleaning to wash out the sac and feed of ink. 

[inkstainedruth]

For me, part of the issue as to "how much/often" to flush a pen out depends entirely on what ink was previously in it.  Especially if it's a more, um, problematic ink (shimmer ink, IG ink, saturated ink).  Especially after seeing the photos a number of years ago when someone tried to mix Noodler's Black (pH neutral) with Noodler's Bay State Blue (very alkaline) and put the mix in a pen without seeing how the mix behaved in a vial FIRST....  

And let's just say, the results were NOT pretty....  The two inks barely mixed (which meant that part of a line might be black, part might be blue, and occasionally there was a bit of a blend (I don't know if an emulsifier would have helped) -- but then the chemical reaction happened and the mix started coming out of the person's pen in solid chunks!  

So, well, I'm overly cautious about how well I flush a pen out -- especially if it's one I've bought used and don't know what was in the pen before I got it....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[Baka1969]

7 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

For me, part of the issue as to "how much/often" to flush a pen out depends entirely on what ink was previously in it.  Especially if it's a more, um, problematic ink (shimmer ink, IG ink, saturated ink).  Especially after seeing the photos a number of years ago when someone tried to mix Noodler's Black (pH neutral) with Noodler's Bay State Blue (very alkaline) and put the mix in a pen without seeing how the mix behaved in a vial FIRST....  

And let's just say, the results were NOT pretty....  The two inks barely mixed (which meant that part of a line might be black, part might be blue, and occasionally there was a bit of a blend (I don't know if an emulsifier would have helped) -- but then the chemical reaction happened and the mix started coming out of the person's pen in solid chunks!  

So, well, I'm overly cautious about how well I flush a pen out -- especially if it's one I've bought used and don't know what was in the pen before I got it....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

 

The biggest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. Noodler's Baystate Blue is that Devil. It tempts you with it's enticing color yet it's probably the most misbehaving ink on the market. It doesn't play well with others. It stains everything it touches. It feathers on the most fountain pen friendly paper. I don't know how or why it still exists. 

[kestrel]

Allow me to present an analogy.  For 20 years I kept a variety of native venomous snakes.  Some were for research on diet and captive breeding requirements and two were rescues with conditions that made them unreleasable.  Some of the cottonmouths (aka water moccasins) and diamondback rattlesnakes grew to in excess of six feet long.  Dangerous?  Undeniably.  Serious risks to me?  No.  They needed regular feeding and medical care including deworming and, of course, the cages needed cleaning.  Because I followed, without fail, a rigorous set of safety protocols I never came close to an "incident."  I felt far safer working with those animals than I did dealing with some of the neighborhood dogs or driving on some of the local roads.  My safety around the snakes was predicated on following the rules.

 

Using some inks involves risks to pens.  @Ron Zon mentioned the "boutique inks."  @Baka1969 mentioned Baystate Blue.  With due care and diligence they can be used safely.  My daily writer for official correspondence (a Pelikan) has been filled with Bad Belted Kingfisher for almost 20 years.  BBK is a high maintenance ink so I flush the pen every third fill and lube the piston when needed.  Supersaturated inks never interact with my vintage pens, especially the Conklin lever fillers.  Chivor Emerald only goes in pens that can be easily and thoroughly cleaned.  I know my pens and I know the inks I use.  If I'm careful I can usually avoid problems.  When in doubt about an ink Jinhaos are useful.

I like and sometimes use two of the Baystates, Blue and Cranberry.  I like the colors.  I know the Baystates don't play well with others and BSB stains.  I tame the feathering by diluting 4:1 ink:distilled water.  Stains outside the pen can be removed with a dilute bleach solution or a Clorox wipe.  I have a dedicated BSB pen (Noodler's Ahab) that sees no other ink so staining the pen or contamination with residues of other inks is not a problem.

I'm still thinking through what to do with two NOS bottles of Superchrome Turquoise.  It looks gorgeous with a dip pen but I may need to get something supercheap to give it a test drive.

[Baka1969]

3 hours ago, kestrel said:

Allow me to present an analogy.  For 20 years I kept a variety of native venomous snakes.  Some were for research on diet and captive breeding requirements and two were rescues with conditions that made them unreleasable.  Some of the cottonmouths (aka water moccasins) and diamondback rattlesnakes grew to in excess of six feet long.  Dangerous?  Undeniably.  Serious risks to me?  No.  They needed regular feeding and medical care including deworming and, of course, the cages needed cleaning.  Because I followed, without fail, a rigorous set of safety protocols I never came close to an "incident."  I felt far safer working with those animals than I did dealing with some of the neighborhood dogs or driving on some of the local roads.  My safety around the snakes was predicated on following the rules.

 

Using some inks involves risks to pens.  @Ron Zon mentioned the "boutique inks."  @Baka1969 mentioned Baystate Blue.  With due care and diligence they can be used safely.  My daily writer for official correspondence (a Pelikan) has been filled with Bad Belted Kingfisher for almost 20 years.  BBK is a high maintenance ink so I flush the pen every third fill and lube the piston when needed.  Supersaturated inks never interact with my vintage pens, especially the Conklin lever fillers.  Chivor Emerald only goes in pens that can be easily and thoroughly cleaned.  I know my pens and I know the inks I use.  If I'm careful I can usually avoid problems.  When in doubt about an ink Jinhaos are useful.

I like and sometimes use two of the Baystates, Blue and Cranberry.  I like the colors.  I know the Baystates don't play well with others and BSB stains.  I tame the feathering by diluting 4:1 ink:distilled water.  Stains outside the pen can be removed with a dilute bleach solution or a Clorox wipe.  I have a dedicated BSB pen (Noodler's Ahab) that sees no other ink so staining the pen or contamination with residues of other inks is not a problem.

I'm still thinking through what to do with two NOS bottles of Superchrome Turquoise.  It looks gorgeous with a dip pen but I may need to get something supercheap to give it a test drive.

 

I use BSB in my Lamy (Imperial Blue) Studio with a 14k fine nib. It's as well behaved as it can be. The color itself is one of my favorites. It took a lot of pens and nibs to find a pairing that will even work with Baystate Blue. I use the pen/ink combo pretty often. I might try to dilute it with water. I am concerned that it will lighten the color and/or change the water resistance of the ink though.