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View Full Version : How NOT to flush your Souveräns



hamag
December 4th, 2013, 09:33 PM
I'm but a newbie.
My very small collection amounts to only 14 pens.
I don't intend to have a big collection, all I want to have is those pens that I want, whatever that amounts to.
I feel I'm lacking now some pens: a certain Sheaffer, a certain Eversharp and perhaps some Waterman, but that's not the point.
I've got 6 Pelikan Souveräns (I love Souveräns), one M1000, one M800, one M600 and three M400 .
My M400 are black (EF nib + Quink Black ink), red stripes (F nib + Quink Red ink) and blue stripes (M nib + Quink Blue Black ink).
I kept them ready to use for a long while till I decided to give them a rest.
So I flushed them first with tap water.
Then I flushed them with distilled water till I couldn't see any color in the flushing water.
But the blue one was a rather reluctant one.
It seemed to always give away some traces of ink.
I don't have any flush solution, neither did I like to use one.
Just distilled water.
So I told myself "leave them a whole day in distilled water, filled with distilled water, trying to leave out air so water surrounds the nib in and out. Submerged in distilled water up to that part that you would call the section (that part where you grip it) and just a only few millimeters above it, not the entire pen"
Right?
Well, NO.
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

The next day I emptied them, dried them with paper towers and TRIED to cap them.
Oh my god! I couldn't.
I mean, I had no problems with the black one but the barrel of the blue and the red just wouldn't get inside the cap.
They had swollen.
I forced the screwing and miserable me, got a slight albeit faintly visible scratching in the barrels.
That was two days ago.
Now all three go into their caps without problem.
I should have get them have some "rest".
I guess this comes from their being made out of celluloid and celluloid means cellulose which (I suppose) absorbs water.

Now I must face the problem of getting rid of those almost visible scratches in the barrel.
Invisible for any human soul except one like me (and all of you) a pen collector.
This is one of the miseries we must bear.
I'm writing this so no one goes through this agony.
Cheers everybody
Horacio from Buenos Aires

Tony Rex
December 4th, 2013, 09:57 PM
That is normal. This had been reported once or twice on FPN. Thank you for your kind reminder, Horacio. I too am guilty of overdoing stuff, which often do more harm than good. :cheers: Just air dry them for a while, then for the scratches I'd suggest Novus #1 first! on the area, then go up to #2 or #3 as needed, then go back to #1, and lastly selvyt cloth or whatever you fancy for the finishing. They'll be right mate :)

Tony

Ps: Before you start polishing, scotch tape the trim rings to avoid plating loss.

hamag
December 4th, 2013, 10:05 PM
Thanks a lot Tony!
I'll keep that in mind

Mags
December 5th, 2013, 05:09 AM
Very useful advice and cautions you shared for fellow Pelikan users. Thanks.


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KrazyIvan
December 5th, 2013, 10:02 AM
If they are older pens, the feeds are probably ebonite too. Not a good thing to leave the nib units soaking either.

snedwos
December 6th, 2013, 08:16 PM
Unscrewing the nib unit would be an idea. But not If its an ebonite feed (thought it does spend a long time in contact with ink, so I don't really see what the problem would be...)


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85AKbN
December 27th, 2013, 06:42 AM
Thanks for sharing your experience.



eta: i was just reading about this on a cached fpn thread and recalled a picture (1,000 words) - found it, check out aliikizkaya 's post #3:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ln-QA0s9ZGkJ:www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/249432-pelikan-m1000-m800-barrel-expansion/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Pelikan M1000 M800 Barrel Expansion
Started by aliikizkaya , Jul 22 2013 23:26

ethernautrix
December 27th, 2013, 12:20 PM
Eek! I was not aware that swelling could be a problem. I don't soak my Nakayas overnight (or over long, for that matter), but I have soaked other pens overnight (not Pelikans).

This is good to know. Thanks for sharing the information.

And to T. Rex, nice assist with the tip about preventing plating loss.

Jerome Tarshis
December 29th, 2013, 08:49 PM
An idea nobody is addressing in the above thread is if there is any good reason to clean a pen to the standard of the OP. I don't think there is. Storing a pen with full-strength ink is a bad idea. Expelling traces of ink in clear water sounds to me like no problem.

But this is a hobby: the excesses indulged in by great figures of world history can bring about the deaths of millions, but hobbyists being overly zealous about cleaning a pen bring little more than swollen plastic and scratches. With Pelikan pens, go thou and be as zealous as you like.