There are no two ways about it the Covid 19 virus has affected everybody and everything; it has wrought fundamental changes in all of our lives and it’s true to say that things will never be quite the same.
For instance, where I work, we have moved from a regular daily cleaning schedule to multiple cleans throughout the day. Workstations are no longer shared and are thoroughly cleaned, by the user, at least twice a day and office equipment, especially pens and pencils, are no longer shared; so pen pots that used to live on every desk are nothing but a distant memory.
As a result of these changes I started thinking about the personal office equipment we carry with us as part of our Every Day Carry (EDC) kit, and what our alternatives are.
So, I decided to look at my EDC and reduce it to only the most essential items which left me with a small notebook, with a wipeable cover, and a couple of pens; a Kaweco Brass Sport and a Kaweco Copper Liliput. Not a lot, I grant you, but this exercise was about reducing the EDC to the minimum.
Whilst brass and copper are not generally affected by cleaning materials these are untreated raw metal pens, so I wanted to find out what was most effective way to clean them that was not a polishing cloth. To answer this question, I called upon Google and set off on a trip around the internet only to find my research taking an unexpected turn.
It turns out that to bugs and germs copper and its alloys are the equivalent of The Terminator, killing all manner of nasty viruses, bacteria et cetera before they have time to mutate and develop any degree of resistance, all you have to do, for them to remain effective, is keep them clean i.e. you could wipe them regularly with your preferred anti-bacterial wipe.
It’s a little thing but if you have a brass or copper pen it might be worth putting it into rotation for the duration of the crisis. I have a few of them (see below) and they are already in rotation including my Kaweco Steel Sport, which because it is made of stainless steel can be very thoroughly cleaned with no ill effect, but is coming off rotation this week to make space for one of my full sized brass pens.
If you don’t own a brass or copper pen this could be the best reason you’ll ever have to treat yourself to a new pen because this is the day your pen becomes part of your PPE.
Disclaimer: All of the pens were purchased with my own funds at retail price. The opinions expressed in this review are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.
The picture of The Terminator is the property of their original owners and I hope they will forgive me for borrowing them for this post.
The Indian Marmalade Company 