Have You Ever Left A Pen In Your Laundry?

[axio]

Have you ever left a pen in your shirt pocket in the laundry?

 

I was doing my laundry today and was collecting dirty clothes. The most spontaneous thing I did was to take off the shirt I was wearing and put it with the dirty clothes.

Then when I looked at the desk, something felt missing. Where is my pen?!

I am glad that I was able to remember I left it in the shirt pocket, and I didn't start the laundry yet. The pen was a Pelikan M300, it is small and light enough to be buried with the clothes without noticing, and was about to be washed.

 

So the question is, has something like this happened to you? Have you accidentally washed your pen in a laundry machine?

[jenna]

I live in fear of this. I try to only carry small, inexpensive pens and I have a strict rule about only keeping them in one of the pockets of my purse rather than pockets on my person. Good job on catching it in the nick of time!

[Emu]

Only once.

[inBOIL]

i found an Esty in with my just-finished-being-washed laundry once.

 

Not even a scratch.

 

 

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I guess I avoided this since I'm not in the habit of using my pockets on my clothes. I've seen a bunch of pens that went through the wash though. Usually the nibs get damaged if the cap comes off. I've also seem change, flashlights, money and other random stuff from other people I know going through the wash.

 

Dillon

[iamchum]

i never carry a pen around in my shirt or pants. they ALWAYS stay inside their warm little leather case.

[mallymal1]

Sadly, yes. A vintage Conway Stewart 58...made from cassein...ruined. It's a while ago now, but I'm still crying.

:crybaby: :crybaby:

Edited November 30, 2012 by mallymal1

[7th Wave]

i never carry a pen around in my shirt or pants. they ALWAYS stay inside their warm little leather case.

 

Same. Lost too many cheap pens that ways, now I use a pen case.

[myn]

Oh I am so glad this post had a happy ending. When I read the title I had visions of Bay State Blue or some other equally delightful ink all over everything in the wash and a Montblanc 149 in shreds.

 

As for your question I have, so far, fortunately avoided such a catastrophe but then I go through every pocket 3x before it lands in the machine. Having washed other things of value has made me overly cautious of pockets and their ability to hide an object, even after a thorough search - enter the dreaded kleenex.

[Miketsheehan]

No but I do happen to be wearing today a pair of jeans stained with Montblanc Alfred Hitchcock special edition red ink from an incident about 2 months ago in which I was carrying my Aurora 88 Nera in my jeans front pocket and while squatting down in the parking garage to pick up a set of keys that I dropped, snapped the pen clean in half, spilling the blood-like ink into my pocket and down my leg. Looked like a CSI murder scene. The Aurora just arrived home and while it is a jeans Friday, the Aurora is snuggled safely away in my Makiardo 3-pen case along with a Pilot Custom Heritage 92 and a Porsche (Faber-Castell made, pre-Pelikan manufacture) P3110 TecFlex.

[Paddler]

i found an Esty in with my just-finished-being-washed laundry once.

 

Not even a scratch.

 

 

+1

 

I have even dropped an Esty J in my garden and turned it under with the tiller. Six months later it resurfaced, still writing.\

[tmenyc]

yep -- my little fake leather Kaweco case with its two Sport Classics. The pens came out of the case, and pens and case were well cleaned. And, best of all, they didn't leak.

 

Tim

[NedC]

Never in a shirt pocket. Pants pockets—yes. Fortunately never a fountain pen, only my Fisher bullet SpacePen, and that more than once. I think one is supposed to launder the SpacePens once in a while anyway;) I also have a green Pentel 205 mechanical pencil which has survived several trips through the was and being run over by a 1975 LTD—a thick layer of snow helped save it that time.

[ethernautrix]

Nope. But I have forgotten to check for a tissue... more than once. I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS!

 

Oy, the mess. Shreds of tissue on everything. When will I learn?

[BrandonA]

No as its bad practice to put puts into pockets in the first place - especially trouser pockets.

[kestrel]

Twice. Same pen both times. It was an Elysee that I carried around the aircraft carrier through two long deployments. Both times it was in a flight suit pocket when said flight suit made a trip through the ship's laundry. We're talking an industrial size washer where clothes are washed in salt water with special soap and then dried in a high heat dryer. I have seen government issue ballpoints melt in that dryer but my Elysee came through without a scratch and without a leak. That is one very tough pen.

[OcalaFlGuy]

i found an Esty in with my just-finished-being-washed laundry once.

 

Not even a scratch.

 

 

+1

 

I have even dropped an Esty J in my garden and turned it under with the tiller. Six months later it resurfaced, still writing.\

 

Where is John Cameron Swayze when you really need him?

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[seffrican]

Truthful answer: not yet.

 

Did wash and spin my mobile phone once. Dried it out for 48 hours and it worked fine.

[tandaina]

Since I'm a gal, I don't have shirt pockets. And none of my pants pockets woud comfortably hold a FP either, especially trying to sit down! Mine live in my purse or work bag, or scattered around the house on little side tables by chairs.

[idragir]

none of my fountain pens have gone through the wash. i accidentally sent my ipods (two separate times two different ipods)in the washing machine about a year before i started with fountain pens so i have been extra careful. surprisingly my ipod started working a year after i declared it broken and bought a new one