I made a Churchill FP with cocobolo for my son for Christmas. I finished it in September It wrote beautifully. Its now dried up. Is there a way to get the nib to work again? Thanks
Often times only a few drops of water on the nib will reactivate the ink enough to get it flowing again. If the ink/nib is really dried/crusty then unscrew it from the pen and soak it in water for awhile (10min, an hour, a day, all depends on how clogged it is).
warm water ... run over the nib
Don't press hard, to try to get it working again -- you might hurt the nib.
You also might want to use the converter pump to suck water in, then back out, the nib.
Fountain pen inks are water based -- so keep the pen cap on, when not in use. Store the pen with nib upwards. If you don't plan on using the pen for a long time, consider cleaning it out and leaving it w/o ink.
Yes, it is a common practice to use only cold water as some pens can be damaged or warped on plastic parts. Our kits may not suffer as bad as the "real" pens, but still why chance it. If the water alone does not fix it you can try 1 table-spoon of ammonia to 1 cup of water and flush that thru the pen. You can also take the nib out and use this solution and a toothbrush to scrub the feeder.(I would get one just for this and not use you own toothbrush)
Do you use a ink punp or just those refills ?? It's a lot harder to flush without the pump.
An eyedropper or one of those rubber bulbs they sell at pharmacies for use with babies is quite handy for flushing out fountain pen feeds and nibs. I use cool water.
The best thing that I have done. Was to take the nib out of the retainer and soke both in water for a while. Make sure the fins of feed are clean. good luck