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How to Clean an Old Fountain Pen: A Simple, Step-by-Step Guide A fountain pen is a wonderful tool, but it must be maintained regularly to ensure its longevity and function properly. Achieving peak performance with a fountain pen is only possible when it is cleaned regularly. Below, this article covers how to clean a number of the most standard fountain pens. We have also provided an extraordinary guide for cleaning fountain pen nibs and fountain pen ink issues. At the end of the article, we cover how to clean a few common fountain pen issues that can be resolved by a great cleaning! This article will describe how to clean fountain pens. How to Clean a Fountain Pen After cleaning, you will want to hang your fountain pen up to dry. In order to do this, you will need to fold or put a few sections of paper towel around the ends of your pen. After this step is complete, you should be able to insert the pen and press the writing end of the pen against the paper towel, and the paper towel will snap back against the nib and ink bottle to remove any gunk. This process should take around 10 minutes. After this, you are ready to write! How to Clean a Fountain Pen With a Wet Cloth The wet cloth method is a quick and easy way to clean your fountain pen. After placing your wet cloth on top of the plastic piece that is usually in your fountain pen, place the tip of the wet cloth against the gold part. How to clean the pen body To clean the body of your fountain pen, you should start by removing the cartridge and wad of filler material from the pen. The filler material, which is very similar to the ink, is not designed to be used with the ink. Take out the white cartridge and the nibs that it sits in as well. We recommend using a sharp pointy tool (e.g. a screwdriver) to remove these. Although sometimes the nib is designed to come out of the body on its own, in the majority of cases, it will have to be extracted. If this is the case, try placing the nib in the freezer for a few minutes. Make sure to use the removal tool to keep the nib in place as it should be removed slowly. Once the nib is removed, place it in a clean glass or silicon cleaning tube. How to clean the nib A bit of a different topic, but a vital one. The nib of the fountain pen can be equally as important to the pen as its barrel is. Many of you have probably seen the craze for "gum eraser" nibs. Although they do save some wear and tear from having to use something like sandpaper, they also can harm the nib. First, what is gum eraser nib material? Some "craze" nibs use chewing gum, but generally, it is two sheets of newspaper (1) with a large scoop of eraser material (2) that are ground together on the end of a device. This then becomes what many call a "gum eraser nib". It is often a less expensive way of purchasing gum or inks. What can gum eraser nibs do? How to clean the ink sac The ink sac inside a pen is usually called the nib, and removing it is relatively easy. If you are lucky, the ink sac will have a rubber coating, which will make the process of removing the ink sac much easier and give you much better ink flow. Otherwise, you should definitely follow the guidelines below. It is absolutely essential to clean the ink sac before trying to remove the nib. If you are uncertain how to remove the ink sac, please check our guide: How to Clean a Fountain Pen – Part 2: NIB Pour a small amount of hot water into the pen nib and hold the pen straight down. The ink sac should come out easily, and if it does not, you should let the water cool and try again. Other Issues To Watch Out For A few other problems that can arise when you clean a fountain pen include: Excessive nib splatter Parts of the fountain pen that you can't clean A buildup of dust, grime, and other particles Tips For Cleaning A Fountain Pen Today, we will cover how to clean a number of different fountain pens. Let’s start with a cleaning guide for a Millett Traveler by Robert Oster. Millet Traveler- The Traveler is a nice, small size pen. It is a fine nib that produces good nibs. It also has a nice quality leather case to store and protect your fountain pen. You may also find it a suitable replacement for some of the sketch pens. How to Clean This Fountain Pen There are three main parts to the Millet Traveler that are susceptible to collecting oils and dirt. Bayonet-style clogs Bayonet-style clogs are a fountain pen phenomenon. These clogs are the result of blocking the ink feeding mechanism at the bottom of the barrel. The main cause for this problem is the blocked oxygen intake port and the ink blockage created by the build up of nib sections on the inside of the barrel. The resulting clogs can also occur due to the cap cracking or the ink tube breaking when it is filled to the top of the container. Removing the clog involves separating the ink cap from the ink funnel and pulling the nib section out of the barrel. To release the nib section, just use a small hammer to pry it out of the cap. Once freed, use a cotton ball to wipe out the chalk, remove any residual ink and wipe the nib to get it looking sparkling new again. Liquid seeping from the feed If the ink feed is left dented, this is generally caused by mechanical flaws like the retractor jamming when the feed is opened. This issue is a fairly common with Ball, Parker and Filson pens. Scratched metal at the end of the feed Even though these are relatively inexpensive pens to begin with, they are likely to be of higher quality than their disposable counterparts. Therefore, the manufacturers of these pens are more likely to be aware of the care a pen should be taken with each ink change. If you find ink to be seeping from the feed, try cleaning the feed: Remove the ink cartridge. Turn the pen upside down. Empty the ink cartridge and remove the remaining ink. Wet the feed of the nib with a towel to remove any excess ink. Place the nib onto a clean dry paper towel. Dead spots in your nib's writing Fountain pens rely on a rollerball type inking mechanism to help write. This is different from the ball pen inks you are used to with ball pens. This rollerball inking mechanism uses an inkjet style inkjet print head to print ink into the nib's inkwell. This ink can become clogged and unresponsive, or create dead spots on the nib where ink won't come through. The steps below will help you see how to prevent this from happening to your pen. This will be a 2 part cleaning method that will allow you to remove the entire rollerball inkjet print head. As you can see in the photo below, the inkjet print head can be a challenge to remove. There are usually 2, 6 or even 12 sheets of plastic around the inkjet print head. Conclusion A fresh set of ink and maintenance cleanings will go a long way towards ensuring your pen’s dependable performance. This article is designed to be a succinct, step-by-step guide to cleaning and maintaining a range of fountain pens. We hope you loved learning how to clean a fountain pen.