I have a great pen from lamy that I used for a could have years and really enjoyed. I found it a delight to write with and found it more consistent than ball point pens. Then I ran out of the prefilled ink cartridges it came with. I grabbed a refillable cartridge and some waterman ink and it has been downhill from there. I have two pens, not sure what the other one is, but neither seem to be able to write at all with the refills. They leak more often, constantly seem to dry out, and I have ended up going back to sharpie sgels because I need my pens to write when I need to write.
What am I doing wrong? Do I need better refill cartridges and if so can you recommend one, or are the cartridges really so much better? Or is there maintenance I am supposed to preform on the nib that I have neglected that could be causing my issues? Thanks for any advice, I would love to get back to using these pens.
You are supposed to rinse out the nib and feed periodically. There are several ways to do it, but at least rinse the nib and feed until the water that drips out of the nib isn't obviously colored, soak it in some water for an hour or so to get even more gunk out, then put the nib point down on a paper towel or something to suck even more old ink out, and then give it some time to dry.
You don't need to do as much if you're just refilling it with the same color, but since you're running into trouble might as well rinse it out fairly well.
That just might fix the problem if it's built-up dried ink clogging up the pen.
Would isopropyl alcohol be better?
I don't know Lamy pens, and isopropyl alcohol damages some pens. I'd read the care guide before doing that.