Cleaning Fountain Pen With A Converter

[Inferno2Inferno]

I am relatively new to the wonderful world of fountain pens and I have a question regarding doing maintenance for a fountain pen with a converter. My jinhao 188 ran out of ink, so before putting more in I cleaned by rinsing the nib and drawing and dumping water with the converter until it ran clear. While I was able to clean the pen, I do notice a little bit of residual water in the converter. Will this dry out if I just let the pen sit and will it affect the pen at all? If so, what should I do?

 

Thank you for any help you can provide.

[georgeb]

I place the pen on a folded paper towel and let the water get absorbed before I use it.

 

If you leave the water in and fill the pen with ink it will dilute the ink a bit and the pen could be a "wet writer" for awhile. That doesn't bother me much if there is not much water in it.

[Inferno2Inferno]

It is a few small drops. So I should just let it dry out on a paper towel or some such before filling it again?

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Don't worry about the residual water - it won't dilute the ink much at all. If it bothers you, wrap the nib in a paper towel for a few hours and leave the converter out on its own to dry out.

[Sasha Royale]

Residual water WILL dilute the next filling of ink. That is the only consequence. If this matters to you, wrap the pen in a paper towel, enclosing the nib. Hold the thing securely and shake like a medical thermometer. Then, leave the nib in contact with dry paper for a few to 30 minutes, to "wick" dry the nib and feed.

[MKB]

The centrifugal force of your arm swinging swiftly from your shoulder in a big circle might help to get the water down to the nib (works great for ketchup bottles). Keep in mind, you want to be completely clear of light fixtures and other objects. Hang on to the pen well. Note that any residual ink that was missed on the rinse may end up on your ceiling, walls and floor, so this might better done outside. I suppose you could leave the pen capped if you don't mind the moisture ending up in the cap.

[TheRealScubaSteve]

The centrifugal force of your arm swinging swiftly from your shoulder in a big circle might help to get the water down to the nib (works great for ketchup bottles). Keep in mind, you want to be completely clear of light fixtures and other objects. Hang on to the pen well. Note that any residual ink that was missed on the rinse may end up on your ceiling, walls and floor, so this might better done outside. I suppose you could leave the pen capped if you don't mind the moisture ending up in the cap.

 

SBREBrown's got nothin' on you for technique! I'd like to see a video of that with residual Baystate Blue.

[SteveE]

The safest way to do the "thermometer shake" with a pen is to wrap a paper towel or cloth around the nib before you start swinging the pen around. That way, any residual ink/water will wind up in the rag or towel, not on you or your walls, floor, ceiling, etc.

 

Also, just a hair-splitting thought, depending upon the ink you next use, the addition of a few drops of water may make the ink dryer, rather than wetter, as most inks contain surfactants ("wetting agents") and the addition of water to the ink will reduce the concentration of wetting agent in your next fill. This is really nit-picking, and probably won't be noticeable anyway.

 

Back in the 1950's, when I learned Palmer penmanship with an Esterbrook J, if we did rinse out a pen (lever-filler), we didn't bother to try to dry it out. We just filled it and got back to work with it. Never had any issue doing that. Sometimes modern hobbyists get to wrapped up in theoretical differences.

[MKB]

SBREBrown's got nothin' on you for technique! I'd like to see a video of that with residual Baystate Blue.

I can do you one better and send you a sample in an envelope to try at home!

[TheRealScubaSteve]

I can do you one better and send you a sample in an envelope to try at home!

 

Who sends cartridges in an envelope? A couple might look like tie-dye.

[pajaro]

You could use a salad spinner to dry out pens. Safer centrifugal force application.

[Inferno2Inferno]

Thanks for the replies. Will keep this input in mind for sure!

[Postscript]

Wow, I had no idea this hobby/obsession is so complicated.

 

Post Script

[WirsPlm]

Wow, I had no idea this hobby/obsession is so complicated.

 

Post Script

 

It's really not, you don't need to do anything near as complicated as a salad spinner centrifuge, just letting a pen air dry will work fine, or if you really want to be fancy crumpling a towel into a cup and putting the pen in nib down works great. Some people like to make things more complicated than they need to be.