smelly pen

[stub]

You know what I am talking about.

You buy yerself a vintage goody. It comes in the mail. Looks okay. Seems to fill, a few scribbles to get the ink going, all seems great. Then you sit down to write and that pen, you know, is not that far from your schnozzle. You start to write, sniff a little, scribble a little more.... then you are just like

WHAT IS THAT SMELL?








Not Shellack, & not inky smells like phenol ...

but your pen smells like ... well, it smells funky. Somehow.

is there a cure for smelly pen short of breaking down the pen, cleaning and soaking it and reassembling it?

[Empty_of_Clouds]

Dunno. I got given one one those Indian "Friendship" pens made out of vegetal resin. It smells like vomit, but the smell is fading now (not that I have ever even filled the pen).

On the other hand, a nice ebonite pen is a treat for all the senses, including the nostrils, in my opinion. I have to restrain myself at times from just jamming it up in there. Other times... there is no restraint.


I guess how you clean your pen will depend on what it is made of.

[Chrissy]

I heard that some Noodler's Ahabs suffered from having a bad smell. If I remember correctly, it was only particular colours. We can't get Noodler's Ahab pens here anyway, so I've never smelled one. Nor do I have any smelly pens to my knowledge.

Either that or my sense of smell is shot and they smell but I don't know about it.

[krazyklod]

I heard that some Noodler's Ahabs suffered from having a bad smell. If I remember correctly, it was only particular colours. We can't get Noodler's Ahab pens here anyway, so I've never smelled one. Nor do I have any smelly pens to my knowledge.

Either that or my sense of smell is shot and they smell but I don't know about it.

I can verify that they do indeed smell! But thankfully the smell does go away. It seems that some smells just need time so cleaning out all the ink and leaving it out to get some fresh air might work. Though if the pen is breaking down and that is causing the smell then probably not...

[Deb]

Some vintage pens smell very bad indeed. It must be one of the inks they used way back. Part of the process of restoration is destinkifying those pens. It takes a bit of time and effort.

[Pterodactylus]

Hmmmm, non of my vintage pens smelled/smells really bad.

The only pens That really smelled awful for me were Noodlers Ahabs.
This smell almost made me puke and it lasted many months, this was really bad.

[fountainpenkid]

Some of the vintage Aurora 88s I've owned have been smelly--I think it was the celluloid.

[dneal]

I heard that some Noodler's Ahabs suffered from having a bad smell. If I remember correctly, it was only particular colours. We can't get Noodler's Ahab pens here anyway, so I've never smelled one. Nor do I have any smelly pens to my knowledge.

Either that or my sense of smell is shot and they smell but I don't know about it.

I can verify that they do indeed smell! But thankfully the smell does go away. It seems that some smells just need time so cleaning out all the ink and leaving it out to get some fresh air might work. Though if the pen is breaking down and that is causing the smell then probably not...

The one I had stunk of cheap fishing lures. I threw it out.

[Cob]

I have only old and very old pens here; I am a little concerned about this smelly business; if I have not noticed the stink, what does that tell me about the state of my home?

Must be all the Swan droppings.

Cob

[Lt. Tom]

I have only old and very old pens here; I am a little concerned about this smelly business; if I have not noticed the stink, what does that tell me about the state of my home?

Must be all the Swan droppings.

Cob

I've always wondered about this as well. My nose is more of less functional, but I've got Ahabs in 4 different colors, and I've never smelled that smell that some say is so bad. Just lucky I guess. For the OP I guess I would search "Stinky Ahab" or something similar. Do you know what your pen is made of?

[popcod]

I've had a couple of Esterbrooks that emanated an almost organic je ne sais quoi from their caps and barrel interiors. Given that inks, and especially vintage inks, can suffer from SIB I'm wondering of those moist environments became a breeding ground for bacteria or fungus of some kind. A soak in an ammonia/water solution has always removed the odor for me.

[johniem]

I have two Ahabs and a Konrad. None have ever smelled like anything but a plastic pen.

[Bogon07]

Some of my Ahabs and Creepers had a not very pleasant 'off handcream/body lotion' type smell. It wasn't apparent in the resin Konrad.
Possibly some people can't detect this odour in a similar way to some cannot detect the asparagus-urine scent after eating asparagus Which could "stem from a single genetic mutation, a switched base-pair among a cluster of 50 different genes that code for olfactory receptors"

Some vintage and modern celluloid pens emit a camphor like smell.

Also some inks have distinctive smells.

[dam]

I'm surprised a few people here have Ahabs / Konrads / Creepers that don't smell. All of mine, and I've had a few over the years, did give off a sweet but somewhat sickening smell.
The remark about hand lotion isn't that far off, although it would more precise to say they smell like your freshly lotioned hands would AFTER you barfed in them on the way to the can.

Almost all my Indian mass produced pens have the same smell: Serwex, Camlin, Fellowship and Chelpark. Same fragrance as the Noodlers. With time, the smell tends to weaken. Every time I clean one, I leave it out for a bit.
As for vintage pens, I've never encountered anyting as bad, although one Esterbrook Dollar pen cap was gross. After rinsing it with tap water several times, the stink disappeared.

[Scrawler]

I heard that some Noodler's Ahabs suffered from having a bad smell. If I remember correctly, it was only particular colours. We can't get Noodler's Ahab pens here anyway, so I've never smelled one. Nor do I have any smelly pens to my knowledge.

Either that or my sense of smell is shot and they smell but I don't know about it.

Yes I have experience of this. I did not like it and gave it away.

[jacksterp]

India?

[Runnin_Ute]

I have a Noodler's Konrad that is made of the resin material. I had heard all these things about how horrible they smelled. Yes there was an odor, but I found it somewhat pleasant and not as noxious as others reported. And it faded.

[Scrawler]

I have a Noodler's Konrad that is made of the resin material. I had heard all these things about how horrible they smelled. Yes there was an odor, but I found it somewhat pleasant and not as noxious as others reported. And it faded.

Your experience tends to underscore the variability of human perceptions. If I were asked for one word to describe my experience it would be vomitous.