How often should I clean a fountain pen?

Flush with plain water at every ink change, and give daily writers a rinse every four to eight weeks. That is the whole routine for standard dye inks.

Shorten the cycle for pigment, iron-gall, and shimmer inks — they are the formulas that punish neglect. A pen going into storage should be flushed and dried first; ink left to evaporate in a feed is the source of most "broken" pens we hear about.