It had to happen sooner or later: I ruined one of my fountain pens. Just one of my over-the-counter level Parker Vectors, but still … a good learning experience.
Honestly I have never actually CLEANED *any* of my fountain pens in the decades I’ve been using them … until now. With this black Vector I put away a long time ago because it wasn’t working very well (and I was too intimidated to try to sort out the problem … okay, and also too lazy since it wasn’t really necessary given that I had, like, half a dozen of them that *did* work).
When I unearthed it from a hiding place last week, I discovered a pretty big mess (*also* a first for me after decades of fountain pen use): sticky black ink glopping out of it. None of my other pens have ever done that! Okay, none of my *fountain* pens have ever done that before; regular pens have totally done that, though with less fluid loss.
So I did some basic things to clean it out (rinsing it with water for minutes then letting the nib section soak in water for a couple hours, then putting it point down against a paper towel in a glass). Some black watery fluid continued to seep out of it just a little after a couple days like that, but I decided to go ahead and load it with a black ink cartridge anyway and see how it worked …
… not good. Couldn’t get it to write. Did some things to prime it, but could only get a few black ink scratches out of it, and only a good flow from halfway up the slit* when held against a moist paper towel.
So I let it rest overnight against a paper towel with the brand new ink cartridge loaded in it and … the ink spots came out rusty. I think it’s safe to say the writing-part of the pen is ruined.
While the rust is no doubt a result of storing it for years fully loaded with ink, I suspect the pen wasn’t working when I got it, and that’s why I set it aside for so long in the first place.
I love my Parker Vectors so much that I went through a phase of ordering them off of ebay. Most of them I got that way were great, but I think this one was probably a dud, either because it was a knockoff or because it was used and mishandled. There is a sort of small ruffle or warp to the nib I seem to see … could be my imagination, and/or not even related to the clearer issue of there just not seeming to be ANY space between the tines for ink to be pulled through, hence the issue of only getting any significant ink release from very near or at the breather hole.
This little loss/disappointment is a great lesson, and big reason why I will NEVER encourage anyone to buy their first fountain pen from anywhere but one of the established stores online that specialize in fountain pens. Not from Amazon, not off ebay, not off craigslist or at a garage or estate sale.While I don’t regret the pens I’ve acquired that way, I’ve had enough successes with fountain pens to know that if I get one that doesn’t work AND I got it from an unreliable platform, odds are it is the pen (or more specifically, the pen’s seller) that is busted, not me.
*It is funny how I wanted to call it “the slit”, but assumed there was a fancier and less suggestive term for it so I looked it up and LO: DIAGRAMS INDICATE THAT PART IS *INDEED* REFERRED TO AS THE “SLIT”!!!!
