Top Fountain Pen Hacks, Tips & Tricks | Pure Pens

Whether you are new to fountain pens or have been using them for years, there are always a few tricks worth knowing. Here are some of our favourites.

Filling and Inking

Keep a tissue handy when filling your pen -- useful for wiping up spills and inky fingers.
Use a blunt syringe needle attached to your converter to fill from a nearly empty bottle. This lets you get the last few drops without submerging the nib, keeping it clean.
After filling, expel a few drops of ink from the pen. This ensures a consistent flow from the first stroke.
Re-use empty ink cartridges by refilling them with bottled ink using a blunt syringe -- a great way to use your favourite ink in a pen that only takes cartridges.
Use blu-tack or a small piece of play dough to hold ink vials steady while filling from them.

If you need to write on cheaper paper or sign documents, try turning the pen over and writing with the nib upside down. It produces a drier, thinner line that is less likely to bleed.
Rub a white candle over your writing to make it water-resistant if your ink is not. Particularly useful for addressed envelopes that might get wet in the post.

Use a bulb syringe to flush residual ink from the feed and nib for a thorough clean.
If ink has worked its way between the cap insert and the cap on a demonstrator pen, wrap a rubber band around the end of a pencil, insert it into the cap, and use the friction to pull the insert out for cleaning.
Did you know about ink eradicators? They work like a rubber for fountain pen ink -- effective on most blue inks and ideal for small corrections.

When flying, always fill your pen completely or empty it entirely before boarding. This eliminates the air bubble that causes leaks due to pressure changes. Read our full guide to travelling with fountain pens.