I used to clean my old Rapid-o-graph drawing pens with a solution of (non-sudsing) household ammonia and water (1 part ammonia to 5 parts water or so.) That was for India Ink. Your mileage may vary…
I abandoned fountain pens after discovering reed styluses. Sure, they aren’t as modern, useful or as good as fountain pens, but working on wet clay tablets is so much more personal than paper, which is sooo commercial.
Self expression is awesome. You be you.
I just got this image in my head of Jackhammer Jill on a shaking rapidograph. (no need to GIF it, thank you) Pro tip: the WD in WD-40 doesn’t stand for Writing Detergent.
I watched one of those “how they did things in the old days” shows on TV a while back.
They showed how to make a paint brush for fine detail out of a feather.
I remember television.
You’re fortunate if you have access to suitable clay and reeds. Most of us have to settle for using charred sticks on somewhat flat pieces of rock.
Or you could just buy some artisan lighter fluid from Walgreens.
You know you can open a chilled wine bottle with a pair of red hot tongs and a feather dipped in ice water? Sabering is for wimps!
Er, or, so I’ve been told.
Or just a shoe.
When I was growing up, the charred stick people were the 1 percenters. Not me, when I was taught how to write the alphabet, it was by weeing into a snowbank.
Fountain pens can be a pleasure to use, and certainly add a touch of value of personal effort in the era of quickly dashed-off email. I’m often the first to choose the keyboard over handwriting (I’m still irked for being scolded in high-school for daring to hand in a philosophy paper of “the value of technology” printed rather than handwritten!), but I still like to pull out a good pen now and then and enjoy the flow of ink.
But of course, that’s become rare enough that the ink in said fountain pen has dried up between uses.
I just use plain water to rinse it out, though. What does this cleaning solution improve on that?
I’ve had luck with warm water when the ink dries. I’m sufficiently compulsive that I really want to buy this stuff anyway. So I will avert my eyes and pen a missive to one of my correspondents on some fine linen stationery while the kettle boils and th . . . Oh, never mind. I’m going to buy some cleaner. Thanks, @jlw.
Also, euphemism.
I keep it on the shelf, right next to my buggy-whip reconditioner.
Innuendo.
In whose endo?*
- This comment provide by Dad Jokes™.
When do we see some pens?
I have a Pelikan I’ve rotated into regular service. And it’s awesome. I packed it when we moved to be closer to an ill family member. Then I forgot how much I like writing with it.
And, funny story, I never understood why we were taught strokes in cursive before. Or cursive for that matter. But cursive makes more sense with a fountain pen. I’m forever divoting the paper when I write wrong.
Hehheh. @japhroaig and @Mister44. That’s a pun write? I mean, right? I need to start righting wrongs when I’m writing. Writing wrong? Anyone? Okay, then … 
