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Thread: Cleaning modern pens

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    Default Cleaning modern pens

    I'm charged with cleaning up a number of modern fountain pens. Some of them are Namiki and Sailor Maki-e pens. The bodies of others are brass, silver and unknown synthetics. All appear to have gold or silver nibs.

    It appears that the original owner would buy a pen, use it for a while, put it away without cleaning it, and then buy a new/different pen. Many of these pens have sat in that condition for perhaps as long as 20 years.

    I've had fairly good luck repeatedly soaking the pieces in distilled water - at least those I am able to disassemble at all. A few are pretty well stuck, but at least one yielded to the water after about a week of soaking and rinsing episodes.

    Those have all been pens with the metal bodies.

    I would like to know if I can continue this practice with the Maki-e and synthetic body pens without risking damage.

    (I realize that no one can speculate on unknown synthetics. I'm looking more for a general sense of how well modern synthetic pens stand up to such treatment.)

    Can I soak the really persistently stuck pens or parts in something like Monteverde Pen Flush?

    What about something stronger like mineral spirits or acetone? (I won't be putting Maki-e pens in the acetone.)

    These are all really nice pens and I'd like to see them cleaned up, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

    Thanks

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    Default Re: Cleaning modern pens

    What do we mean by soaking a pen?

    Note ink is mostly water.

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    Default Re: Cleaning modern pens

    Quote Originally Posted by Farmboy View Post
    What do we mean by soaking a pen?
    Submersing the part in water and leaving it for several hours.

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    FPG Donor ♕ Chrissy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cleaning modern pens

    It's usually safe to put nib sections into water and leave them to soak for a few hours. It's also usually safe to put nib sections through an ultrasonic cleaner.

    I don't use distilled water for cleaning pens. I kept some in a jar and it went mouldy, so since then I use tap water.

    A proprietory pen flush is also useful for cleaning out nib sections where ink has dried in over a long time, and can also be used to clean out an internal piston that may have had dried ink in there for ages.

    Never get any part of any pen anywhere near to acetone. It will remove all adhesive that might have been originally used on a pen and will melt anything plastic whether they are internal parts like the feed or external parts such as the plastic lining of a brass outer barrel. You shouldn't use mineral spirits either.

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    Default Re: Cleaning modern pens

    Hi Smoke,

    Monteverde's pen flush is probably an ammonia solution. I know that J.B.'s Perfect Pen Flush is, from the smell. They both have something else, besides ammonia and water, like detergent, whose residue tends to help with ink flow issues.

    The one product that did the trick with one particularly problematic Parker 75 for me was Rotring's Rapidoeze, which is formulated differently. That, and 2 runs through an ultrasonic cleaner. This product's a bit expensive, so I suggest that you either put it in a zip-lock bag and hang that, so you only need to use a tiny bit (enough to cover the section), or do as I did, and order a graduated cylinder from amazon. I have a 25 cc one, which is wide enough for most sections and yet thin enough that I don't have to use more than 10cc's of anything to cover a section, or, depending on your needs, you could get a 10cc cylinder. They're really cheap and a good addition to your tool chest.

    I'm currently facing a similar situation with another pen whose feed seems glued to the section, but it's a lacquered metal pen and the lacquer is bubbled in some spots and I don't want to risk soaking it for a long time, so it'll probably go into a rapidoeze vial and into the ultrasonic cleaner. We'll see what happens, but I'm hopeful, because ultrasonic cleaning means that I don't have to leave it soaking for such a long time.

    I think that most modern pens will be OK with the rapidoeze or the ammonia-based cleaners, but if you have anything that's from the 1950's or before, I'd ask before dunking it in anything.

    alex

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    Default Re: Cleaning modern pens

    Rapidoeze is very useful when regular pen flushes haven't worked. It was originally designed for drawing pen ink.

    However, regular pen flushes will cope with most cleaning projects. I have JB pen flush that Richard Binder and Ron Zorn both recommend on their web-sites. Goulet's, Monteverde and all of the others are very similar.

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    Default Re: Cleaning modern pens

    Probably obvious, but soak as little of the pen as is necessary. If you soak a whole pen then the ink that comes out can stain the barrel.

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