Nutritious Blue Spray - Clean Pens (and Further Pen Stories)

One of them (the clear plastic one in the image blow) had gone through the laundry a year or more ago and was still filled with ink. Fortunately, the ink did not escape the cap--that load of laundry remained ink-free! I soaked the cap in hot water but it still has ink trapped inside.

Today I flushed all the nibs with water.  Same for the pen caps, which generally accumulate a lot of ink over time.  I was hesitant to do this at first, but I've read a lot of sites recommending exactly this procedure.  I hope it wasn't a mistake!

I can't remember exactly when I started using Lamy fountain pens, but I've only ever had to throw away one of them. That was my first Lamy Al-Star. The plastic part that holds the nib and screws into the base of the pen broke. That was a medium nib anyway, and since then I have preferred to use only fine nibs.



The two pens on the right are the most recent acquisitions.  One of them is a second blue aluminum Safari pen (they seem to have abandoned the "Al-Star" name) and the last is one of the black plastic Safaris.  I generally use the plastic Safaris as "travel" pens.  Interestingly they still show less wear-and-tear than the aluminum ones do.