How to Store Your Fountain Pens

I get asked a lot about the 'proper' way to store your fountain pens, particularly the orientation of the pen's nib. The honest truth is that you can store them however you want, it's really up to you. There are some loose guidelines I've learned, so I'll pass along what I know.

Generally speaking, there are 3 ways to store your pens:

1. Nib pointing up
2. Nib pointing sideways (horizontal)
3. Nib pointing down

Me personally, I store all my pens horizontally, in leather pen cases or in pen rolls. But that's me. I find storing pens horizontally keeps the nibs wet enough to start writing right away, without leaking into the cap. When I take pens with me in my pocket or laptop case, I'll store them nib up, usually, so that ink doesn't leak down into the cap like it would if they were nib down. I don't store anything nib down, but I would if I had a pen that tended to dry out a lot when left sitting.

You can store your pens in the boxes/cases they come in, but that's usually not practical if you're going to use them often. I like leather cases because they're durable, portable, and can hold a lot of pens. I know some people who have wood cases, though not as many people as I would suspect.

Even after several years in the pen business, I haven't found one particular way that everyone prefers to store their pens, it really varies a lot by individual, and I've seen some really creative ways of storage! See the other Fountain Pen 101 videos here