The deeper I fall down the fountain pen rabbit hole, the more interested I become in tools that help me maintain them. Micro mesh and brass sheets are two of my go-to items, and J.B.’s Perfect Pen Flush has been added to the list.
You will see bottles of J.B.’s around pen shows, and for good reason. It can clean out some of the oldest and hardest to reach ink in fountain pens of any age. I’ve always told myself I didn’t need it, and truth is, you may not either, but there are many situations when it comes in handy.
Flushing with water
Most modern cartridge and converter pens are easy to clean. Take them apart, run the parts under the faucet, power clean with an aspirator if possible, rinse, dry, repeat. No need for anything special. But as my tastes change toward unique filling systems or older pens bought second and third hand, sometimes a little extra cleaning is needed. That’s where J.B.’s Pen Flush comes in handy.
Flushing with J.B.'s Pen Flush
According to the instructions, you should flush your pen with water until it is as clean as possible. Then, follow the same process with J.B.’s. Finally, flush the pen with water once more. The initial step gets most of the ink out, with the pen flush taking care of any extra ink the original water flush didn’t get. The last step cleans the pen and has it ready to be inked once more.
These steps have worked well for me when cleaning out pens with a vacuum filling mechanism, especially older pens. The only step I don’t follow is that I pour J.B.’s into a small bowl to clean from as opposed to using the bottle directly, which the label recommends. It is usable over and over again, so I make sure I have a good batch of pens to clean so I am not wasteful with it.
Looking good!
One thing I need to try that others have done is to soak finicky parts overnight, like nibs with gunked up feeds. It also works well with a Q-Tip inside demonstrator barrels to make them shine once again.
J.B.’s Perfect Pen Flush is an excellent addition to your pen cleaning arsenal. Keep a bottle with all of the other tools you use on a regular basis. It will come in handy when you need it.
(Anderson Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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