(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)
Fountain pen cleaning. It’s the part of our hobby that’s more like a chore, right? And who wants chores for a hobby? Cleaning pens is probably one of the main reasons a lot of folks don’t want to use fountain pens at all, and I get it. It’s maintenance. Some of them are high maintenance. But for a lot of us here, it’s worth it. Some of us weirdos probably even enjoy it.
I do not enjoy it. But I recognize it as a necessary evil and a small price to pay for writing with a nice pen. The trouble starts when the definition of “necessary” gets a little fuzzy.
My family jokes that I have no back burners, that I just have 50 front burners going at all times. The same goes for my priorities. I have a lot of top priorities. My priority list has at least five number one spots on a good day. And like just about everyone on the entire planet, my priorities got massively scrambled over the past few years.
In the past year, cleaning my fountain pens got bumped to a low-priority item. Because it is, turns out. And that means it hasn’t gotten done–not since about September 2020. Basically, what I’m saying is let’s pretend 2021 didn’t happen.
Anyway, I often stick my to-be-cleaned pens in a Sinclair case on my desk. A few months ago I realized I could not fit any more pens into this case, and shared a pic on Instagram of my poor Sinclair that looks like it’s drowning in pens. Trouble ensued. Brad threatened to ban me. I was compared to Myke Hurley. The horror! I vowed to clean my pens as soon as I got a chance.
That chance would not come for several months because you know what? It still wasn’t a high priority, not even under the weight of so much scorn. Not in 2021 or 2022, or as long as this panini panorama continues to usurp my priority list.
But I had some free time this week. So I did the thing.
I was pretty surprised to see that I only had 29 pens to clean. I did have a few that were regularly re-inked and reused in that time, like my Wicked Witch Sailor that has been re-inked with Bungubox Witch of the West three or four times and has stayed in rotation pretty much since I got it. Same deal for my Spoke Axle with Robert Oster Fire and Ice, and my Gravitas skulls with Diamine Writer’s Blood. Those three have dedicated inks and a permanent place in my rotation, so that helped keep the cleaning pile from getting worse than it was.
It still took me over four hours, though. Because yes, some of those pens have been sitting since September 2020, and I had a row of cups soaking stubborn nibs and feeds. Everything did come clean, though, and all the pens are now bathed and happy. I put the cats in the basement, put on an audiobook, dragged a chair over to the sink, and knocked it all out.
I left one pen inked–my Schon DSGN Ultem Peek-a-Boo. And I have since inked up two new pens for review purposes. But other than that, everything is put away. It feels good.
I can’t say it won’t happen again. 2022 is not giving me “you will regain control of your life and your priorities” vibes. I think we’re going to stick with survival mode for a bit longer, here. Which means enjoying my pens without worrying about them. Because they’re fine! Everything’s fine. Everything’s. just. fine.
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