Cleaning Pen Nibs
When you own a fountain pen, part of your obligations, and satisfaction, is keeping the pen nib clean. Keep the nib clean and your pen delivers a great writing experience. Once it is clogged, however, expect skipping, stalling and other problems.
Even if you have only one pen, it will need cleaning. If you change your inks regularly, if you want to appreciate the true colour of the replacement ink, clean out the pen.
As the number of pens goes up, and the time between use increases, cleaning the pen's nib unit is very important. Luckily for pen owners using writing ink, room temperature water is just about all you need. Lots of it.
If you have a vintage pen, especially those made from hard rubber, I would flush, but not soak. The advise I get is that running water over the pen nib to remove ink is pretty safe. For all pens, avoid chemicals or cleaners as they can have an adverse reaction with glues used to seal the pen parts. Also, don't use hot water thinking that will help as they could break the seals. A number of sources mention using diluted amonia, and I have used that from time to time, but start with regular water first, and see how that goes.
I always start with letting water run over the pen nib. That flushes away most of the ink. Remember not to do this over an open sink drain.
If the nib unit screws out of the pen body, then it can be placed in a glass, and the glass filled with water, continuing to fill and let the water flow out. It will start the run clear, which means the bulk of the ink in the nib unit has been cleared. I left the nib unit sit in the water for at least an hour or so and you can watch small rivers of ink flow from the nib unit as dried ink is released and flows out.
With a pen that is piston filled, just stand the pen in a glass of water and over the next hour or so the ink just streams out of the nib section.
After the cleaning, dry out the nib. Fill the glass with a paper towel. Then stand the pen so that nib sits on the paper. The towel acts like a blotter and will draw out water from the nib.
