I love fountain pens. They are such a joy to write with.

I have three: a cheapo Parker one I bought over a decade ago, a Waterman I bought about four years ago (and which was basically a going away present to myself when I was leaving Britain), and a Cross which was a wedding gift.

Of these, the Parker is the most reliable, the Cross is the one I enjoy writing with most, and the Waterman... well, we've never really got on. I've always had problems with it drying up in the middle of words, so although I persevered with it for a little while I went back to the Parker because it worked, despite its less satisfying feel to write with.

Unfortunately, for various reasons (mostly running out of ink) I haven't used any of these pens for a long time. I thought I should start using them again because writing with a fountain pen is something which really does give me pleasure. I dug out the last Parker cartridge and one for the Cross and was horrified to discover that both of these formerly reliable pens were now behaving worse than the Waterman!

Maybe they needed cleaning?

I found a few pages on cleaning fountain pens which told me that: (1) you clean them by flushing them through with cold water, and (2) you're supposed to clean pens much more often than I had ever thought (eg every time the ink runs out).

Still, after a good rinse and soak the Parker and the Cross were back to full writing efficiency once again.

"Hang on," I thought to myself. "These pens were behaving like the Waterman when they were dirty. I wonder if the Waterman needs cleaning too?"

Apparently it did, for after I had repeated the cleaning steps on my least favourite pen, it wrote better than it ever had done before. I still have problems with the nib drying if I lift the pen from the page for more than a few seconds, but the ink does at least flow when I am writing continuously. There is still a lingering dstrust of this pen, but at least I can use it now.

I am now minded to buy some more ink for all my pens, and maybe in different colours too. I've recently written exclusively in black, and this will not change, but if I get some (say) blue ink for one pen then I can use that for marking up manuscripts.

Which should lead naturally on to a post about editing stories, but that is for later.

Posted by Dunx at December 16, 2004 09:20 AM