Caring For Your Wood Pen:Your pen is made from real wood and it needs the same care as any fine wood product. Follow these instructions to ensure years of beauty and enjoyment.
1) Keep your pen from extremes of heat and humidity, do not leave it in the car glove box, wood can split under extreme conditions.
2) Do not leave the pen in direct sunlight since this can fade or change the color of many woods.
3) Do not immerse in water. Your pen is sealed and finished with several hard and durable coating layers and then a protective coating of wax. Use a soft cloth to buff up the wax as needed. Occasionally, re-wax your pen with a light coat of a good quality furniture wax only.
4) Do not use any cleaning agents. Never us any kind of abrasive pad to clean your wood or the plating. Never use any cleaning or finishing product that contains abrasives or cleaning agents. Car waxes and many household cleaners have fine abrasives or harsh cleaning solvents and these should not be used.
5) The plating may be cleaned with a damp soft cloth. Do not use any abrasives on the plating as the plating will be removed by the abrasive. Do not use spray-on furniture cleaner-waxes, some of these contain abrasives. Read the label first.
Caring For Your Wood Fountain Pen:Fountain pens are an older style of pen, dating back to the late 1800's. Today's fountain pens use water based ink. Our fountain pens use a disposable ink cartridge that can be obtained through a good office supply store or from us in black, blue, or red colors.
Before Using Your Pen:Before you first use your fountain pen, it must be primed with ink. Ink must be in the feed groove, in the feed wings, and under the nib before the fountain pen will write properly and continuously.
Step 1, Insert the cartridge: Unscrew the tip of the pen and insert the open end of the cartridge into the nipple. Press the cartridge firmly enough to puncture it and allow the ink to flow.
Step 2, Prime the pen: To prime the pen you have two options:
A) Squeeze the cartridge so ink comes out of the tip of the nib. Clean the nib and under the feed with a tissue; write a few words to test the pen. It should write. If not, squeeze again but harder.
B) Screw on the pen, the section, nib and feed assembly and the quickly snap the pen down hard so ink comes out the front of the nib. Clean the ink from the nib and under the feed with a tissue. Test and repeat if the pen does not write.
Using and Maintaining a Fountain Pen Over Time:
Many years ago, before ballpoint pens, people would purchase and use the same fountain pen for many years - sometimes their entire life. The more that you write with your fountain pen, the more it becomes "your" pen. The nib breaks in according to your way of holding the pen and your writing style. If you would write with a new or another person's fountain pen, it would not feel right.
Your fountain pen will occasionally need minor maintenance. If you don't write with it for a few days, the ink may dry at the nib tip. You will notice that the pen will not write or it will skip. To remedy this, run a small stream of warm water over the tip of the nib for a second or two; the pen will now write. If you do not write with your pen for a long period of time you may have to use a stronger stream of water for a longer period. It is also possible that you maybe have to remove the ink container and flush the ink out of the nib entirely and re-prime the pen. Also, flush the tip when replacing the cartridge with a different brand or ink color. When not in use, the best way to store a fountain pen is in the horizontal position.
A Short Trouble Shooting Guide For Fountain Pens:
Pen will not write, skips or writes a few lines and stops:
If this is the first time the pen is used and you are using the cartridge, then the pen has not been properly primed. Prime the pen again by squeezing the cartridge hard; you need to see a lot of ink come out of the tip. If the fountain pen has been in use for a while and has written well in the past, first run a small stream of warm water over the tip of the nib, then test the pen. It should write. If this does not work, try priming the pen again. If this does not work, you may have to flush out the pen entirely.
Fountain pen "glops" ink while writing or a large amount of ink flows onto the paper:
This means the ink holder has lost vacuum. When using a cartridge, this can occur when the ink supply is very low. Change the ink cartridge when the ink gets very low; do not wait until the pen stops writing. Occasionally, a small hair or paper fiber can get caught in the nib slit. Inspect the nib with a magnifying glass and remove the hair or fiber with tweezers.
Never use India ink or similar inks in a fountain pen; these inks have very high solids content and will clog a fountain pen; always use inks made for fountain pens.