My Type of Bouquet

An array of my pens after cleaning

Hello and welcome back dear reader.

I write to you today about fountain pens! My most loved writing tool of all time.

My personal belief is that there is a fountain pen for everyone. If you don’t like fountain pens it means you just haven’t tried enough of them yet. There are simply too many pens, too many nibs, and too many inks for you to not fall in love with one of them and the traditional writing experience. It all started with one pen for me about 5 years ago, the Lamy Safari with a fine nib in the colour yellow. It was love at first write. My collection has only expanded since.

Today for me is cleaning day which takes quite a while because I have a few pens (at this point in time I have 33 total). Generally I recommend storing pens without ink inside them if you aren’t using them everyday because once the ink is dry it becomes a lot harder to clean and you might run the risk of causing damage to the pen longterm (not enough flow, erosion, etc.)

I also like using my bulb syringe for easier flushing and I don’t typically clean any of my pens with anything else but plain water or dedicated fountain pen cleaner. Some people online say dish soap is ok but I just wouldn’t recommend it, especially with pricier pens.

My trusty bulb syringe I picked up from wonder pens that speeds up my cleaning

I typically clean my pens once every 3 weeks or whenever I feel the ink flow not flowing well enough. Which sometimes is more often when using inks with high shimmer, sheen or sparkle as they tend to run on the dryer side.

I love getting a 2ml sample vial from Wonder pens before I commit to a bottle to see if I like it enough. I’m a lot more selective with my purchases now that I know what I like and what I’m looking for... and also that I’m running out of room to hold all my inks.

Overhead shot of my main ink drawer.

My extra ink storage.

I’ve tried so many inks and I absolutely love matching the ink to the pen body. There is something good that happens chemically in my brain when I find a good match.

Believe it or not some inks don’t agree with some pens, so even if its a nice colour fit, it might not write so well.

Thanks again for reading and have a great rest of your week!