Noodler's Noob Needs Knowledge!

**Music and Ink** · April 26th, 2016, 12:10 PM

I just got my first Noodler's ink and I have 2 questions. The first is that the directions say to use ammonia to clean the pen if the ink dries, which is a little worrying. Can you walk me through the use of ammonia to clean the pen? And also, how long would it take for the Charlie pen to dry out? And as a second part to that question, does writing with the pen extend the time? Eye droppers hold a lot of ink. It would be hard to write all of it and keep it at over 2 thirds capacity. It seems like drying out is inevitable.

**Lady Onogaro** · April 26th, 2016, 02:20 PM

I received a Charlie from a friend on this list, and I had the same question about burping. What I learned was that burping can be avoided to some extent by warming the filled pen in your hand for a few minutes before using it. At least, it worked for me. Mine is about half-full now. I am experimenting to see how low I can go before it burps on me. But since the pen's barrel is a demonstrator, I will be able to see what the fill to burp ratio is.

As far as cleaning it with ammonia, I would think that what is meant is some 9:1 ratio with water or distilled water, not pure ammonia. I'm sure someone more experienced with them will correct me on this.

Of course, it could depend on the ink. If it's Bay State Blue, I understand it's really tough to clean it out. So you will probably want to edit your post to say which Noodler's Ink you are using.

**Music and Ink** · April 26th, 2016, 02:59 PM

I thought I forgot something. I'm using Heart of Darkness.

**BCDDiggler** · April 26th, 2016, 04:03 PM

Noodler's HOD will most likely flush our with just water. All water based inks will experience some dehydration. Having said that it is a slow process in most pens. Unless you leave your Charlie for several months I wouldn't really expect it to dry up.

As you will be refilling to keep air to ink ratio lower the added fluids should assist with maintaining hydration.

I have HOD and a Charlie pen and while I only used it for a bit I had no issues cleaning with just water after a few weeks usage and using a bulb syringe on the nib/feed section. In other pens HOD has just needed a little water to soak and it cleaned up.

Hope that helps.

**Dreck** · April 26th, 2016, 08:30 PM

Here is a link to Doc Brown's pen flush. This is what I use in my pens. Since we have "sick amounts" (in his words) of minerals in our tap water, I use distilled. If you don't want to listen to the full 8+ minutes of the video, the recipe is 1 part ammonia to 9 parts distilled water, and then 1 drop of Dawn dishsoap per 10ml.
I use a small jelly jar that holds about 200ml, so that's 20ml ammonia, 180ml distilled water, and 20 drops of dishsoap. Pen flush should be used after rinsing your pen with water, and then you should rinse it out with water again. With an eyedropper pen, you can send the flush through the feed just the same as when "priming" it with ink after a fill. I am always circumspect to do this profusely with water after flushing to ensure a very good after-rinse. Although the traces of ammonia and soap that might be left in the feed won't harm the pen, they might water down your ink a bit until they've run their course.