Cleaning a fountain pen sounds more involved than it is. The basic process — run water through the pen until it runs clear — takes five minutes and requires nothing more than a glass of water and a piece of kitchen roll. If you do it regularly, your pen will write better and last longer. If you neglect it for months, cleaning takes a little more patience but is rarely beyond recovery.
This guide covers when to clean, how to do it, and what to do about stubborn inks that won't shift easily.
When should you clean your fountain pen?
There are three situations that call for cleaning.
Every four to six weeks, even if the pen is writing well and you haven't changed inks. Dust, paper fibres, and dried ink gradually accumulate in the feed and nib, reducing flow and eventually causing skipping and hard starts. Regular light cleaning prevents the problem from developing.
Every time you change inks. Different inks can interact unpredictably when mixed — not often dramatically, but enough to muddy a new colour and occasionally cause a chemical reaction that produces sediment. Always clean before switching. If you're going from one blue to another very similar blue and aren't fussy about perfect colour from the first stroke, you can get away with flushing thoroughly without a full soak; but for any meaningful colour change, clean properly.
Before storing a pen unfilled. Never put a fountain pen away for more than a week with ink in it. Ink left sitting in the feed dries and hardens, which can block the nib slit and require prolonged soaking to resolve. If you're not going to use a pen for a while, clean it and store it dry.
One exception: if the pen is writing perfectly and you're continuing with the same ink, there's no need to clean it on schedule — just keep writing. Regular use is itself the best form of maintenance.
What you need
For a basic clean, you need almost nothing: a glass of clean water, a paper towel or soft cloth, and patience. That's genuinely sufficient for most cleaning situations.
For more thorough cleaning, a bulb syringe (the kind sold for ear cleaning) is useful — the nozzle fits snugly against the feed and lets you push water through quickly. A blunt-tipped ink syringe serves the same purpose with more precision.
Specialist pen flush solutions are available and work well for stubborn inks — a few drops in a glass of water will shift staining that plain water won't. They're worth having in the kit but not essential for routine cleaning.
What not to use: rubbing alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, or bleach should never go near a fountain pen. They will damage the rubber seals, plastics, and metal components. Plain water is almost always sufficient; a small amount of mild washing-up liquid in water is the strongest thing you need for a stubborn case.
How to clean a cartridge or converter pen
This covers the vast majority of fountain pens — Lamy, Kaweco, Pilot Metropolitan, most beginner and intermediate pens.
The quick flush (for routine cleaning)
- Remove the cartridge or converter. Hold the pen nib-up as you do this to reduce dripping.
- Hold the nib section under cool running water for a few seconds, letting water flow through the nib and feed.
- Fill the converter with clean water (or use a syringe), reattach it to the section, and flush water through the nib by operating the piston or squeeze mechanism. Draw water in and expel it. Repeat until the water runs clear.
- Give the nib section a gentle shake to remove excess water, wrap it loosely in kitchen roll, and leave it to dry nib-down on its side for several hours — or overnight if you can wait.
- Once dry, reassemble and fill with new ink. Writing may be slightly dilute for the first few strokes if the pen isn't completely dry; this is normal and clears quickly.
The deep soak (for stubborn ink or colour changes)
Some inks stain. Highly saturated colours — many reds, deep blues, some greens — can leave a tint in the feed and section that won't flush out in one session. This isn't harmful, but it will affect the purity of your next colour. For a thorough clean:
- Flush the pen as above until the water runs mostly clear.
- Fill the section with clean water (via converter or syringe) and leave it to soak for several hours, or overnight. Change the water if it becomes deeply coloured.
- Flush again until the water runs clear.
- For particularly persistent staining — some Diamine inks, iron gall inks, and heavily pigmented colours — add a single drop of mild washing-up liquid to the soaking water. Rinse thoroughly with plain water afterwards to remove all traces of detergent.
- Dry thoroughly before reassembling.
How to clean a piston filler
Piston fillers — TWSBI Eco, TWSBI Diamond, Pelikan Souverän — are cleaned by drawing water through the nib directly into the barrel, using the built-in mechanism. There's no section to remove.
- Empty as much remaining ink as possible by operating the piston.
- Submerge the nib in a glass of clean water and draw water up into the barrel.
- Operate the piston to expel the water — ideally back into a separate container rather than your ink glass.
- Repeat until the expelled water runs clear. This may take six to ten cycles for a well-used pen with a heavily saturated ink.
- Once clean, draw up a final reservoir of water, expel it completely, and leave the pen uncapped to air dry. A few hours is usually sufficient; overnight is better.
TWSBI pens are specifically designed to be user-serviceable and can be fully disassembled for deep cleaning if needed. The pen comes with a small wrench for this purpose. If you ever need to go further than a water flush, TWSBI's own instructions (available on their website) walk through the process clearly — it's straightforward once you've done it once.
How to clean a nib properly
The nib and feed together form the most ink-prone part of the pen, and they deserve specific attention if you're doing a thorough clean.
On most pens, the nib and feed can be gently pulled out of the section by hand — they're held by friction rather than screws. If you can do this, soaking the nib and feed separately in a glass of water for an hour dissolves built-up ink very effectively. Use a soft-bristled interdental brush (the small curved brushes sold for cleaning between teeth) or a damp cotton bud to clean between the feed fins — gently, without forcing anything.
A word of caution: some pens are not designed for nib removal, and forcing the nib out can cause damage. Check before attempting it. If in doubt, flushing through the section is sufficient for routine cleaning.
Dry the nib and feed by pressing them gently onto a paper towel and leaving them in the air. Don't rub the nib — the tines are delicate and can be knocked out of alignment. A gentle press and air dry is all that's needed.
Cleaning the pen cap
The inside of the pen cap collects dried ink over time — particularly the inner cap that fits closely over the nib. This is easily forgotten but worth attending to occasionally.
The simplest method: fill the cap with water, leave it for twenty minutes, then tip it out and wipe the inside with a damp cotton bud. The inner cap on some pens can be removed with a pencil eraser — press the eraser gently into the cap and pull. Rinse the inner cap separately and press it back in when dry.
Drying and storing after cleaning
A pen that isn't fully dry before reassembly will dilute the first fill of new ink. This isn't catastrophic — the first few strokes will be lighter and will correct themselves quickly — but if colour purity matters to you, patience pays off.
The quickest drying method: wrap the nib section loosely in kitchen roll (which draws moisture out by absorption) and leave for two to four hours. For a fully dry pen, leave overnight.
If you're storing the pen empty for more than a week, leave the cap slightly loose or off entirely to allow any residual moisture to evaporate. A sealed cap over a damp nib encourages mould in the ink residue — rare, but unpleasant when it happens.
Common questions
My pen has dried-up ink in it after being left for months — can it be saved? Almost certainly yes. Fill the section with water and leave it to soak for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, changing the water when it becomes deeply coloured. Most dried inks will dissolve fully with enough time. If plain water isn't working after several days, a specialist pen flush solution will usually shift it. True emergencies — pens left for years, or filled with an incompatible ink — may need professional attention, but this is unusual.
There's shimmer or glitter stuck in my pen. Shimmering inks contain fine metal particles that can accumulate in the feed fins. A thorough flush usually clears them, but a prolonged soak and a soft brush to clean between the fins may be needed. Going forward, clean pens with shimmering ink more frequently — every two weeks rather than every month — to prevent build-up.
My pen was filled with iron gall ink. Iron gall inks are safe in fountain pens but require careful cleaning. Flush promptly and thoroughly after use, and don't leave iron gall ink sitting in a pen for extended periods — the acidic nature of the ink can corrode metal components over time if left. Clean thoroughly and switch back to a standard dye-based ink between uses if you're not writing regularly.
Can I use an ultrasonic cleaner? Yes, with appropriate caution. An ultrasonic jewellery cleaner filled with water is excellent for cleaning nib sections and will shift ink from areas that water alone won't reach. Most pens are fine in ultrasonic cleaners. Gold-plated components should be treated with care — there are occasional reports of plating lifting, though this typically indicates that the plating wasn't well adhered to begin with. Don't put the whole assembled pen in, and avoid pens with precious stones or delicate decorative elements.
A well-maintained fountain pen is one of the most durable writing instruments you can own. Clean it, store it correctly, and it will write as well in twenty years as it does today.
Where to start: browse our fountain pens and fountain-pen-friendly notebooks at The Journal Shop.
