One of the most common problems when dealing with a fountain pen is the well-known <<Skipping>>. A clear sign that your pen is suffering this failure is its delay in starting to write.

What is skipping?

It is said that a pen does “skipping” when the ink flow is not continuous. This may have several causes:

• The feeder does not provide enough ink to the tip of the nib.
• The nib’ tines are not properly aligned.
• The ink is dry.

How to solve Skipping?

Your fountain pen can accumulate waste, such as dust or dry ink residues inside the feeder. Therefore, the first step to solve “skipping” is to fully clean the pen. You can use water or some specific product in this process.

TIPS FOR CLEANING YOUR FOUNTAIN PEN

For getting your pen perfectly clean, follow these simple instructions:

1. Carefully remove the nib from the body.
2. Remove the converter/cartridge from the pen.
3. Inside a glass of warm water, put a drop of liquid soap. You can also use shampoos or specific products for nibs.
4. Put the nib inside the glass of water and let it rest for at least 7 hours.
5. Rinse the nibe as many times as needed, in order to eliminate any soapiness.
6. Put the nib over some kitchen paper so it could soak all the water.
7. Once dry, reassemble the pen by entering the nib, the cartridge/converter and start writing.

You can also check our post on how to clean a fountain pen here.

PREVENTING IS ALWAYS BEST

It is always better to prevent a problem. Here we provide 5 great tips to prevent your pen from skipping.

• Keep the pen properly closed with the nib inside the cap.
• Take off the converter/cartridge and clean the pen if you won’t be using it for a while.
• Try to choose more liquid ink types.
• Make sure you use a nib size Broad (or larger) if you use shimmer ink.
• Never press the tip of the nib to get the ink flow, it may actually worsen the situation

If you notice that ink flow is still poor after cleaning the pen, please, do not force the writing. We strongly suggest contacting the technical service of the brand in order to get the pen analysed, as the cause might be another.

These cleaning tips constitute a great routine for the periodical maintenance of your fountain pen, even if skipping is not present. Some other useful tips for the preservation of your pen are available here.