Just avoid getting the sunshine cloth too close to the tipping. But yea the sunshine cloth works great for gold, silver, and filled material, but I wouldn't recommend it on any thin plating, and be gentle with it, as the silver colored plating of 2 and 3 tone nibs can come off from the sunshine cloth if it's been worn down a while, but it's certainly a much safer route than trying to use any polishing compounds on it.
The 'safer' way in theory would be a non-abrasive method of using an ultrasonic cleaner (which may not do as well if the tarnish is set in hard), but that would also require getting the nib out of the pen which I do not recommend in this case.
The company that makes sunshine cloth also makes a softer version in a blue color. https://sunshinepolishingcloth.com/store_blue.html
PS: I love the sunshine cloth stuff and I use it for pretty much all my gold/silver/etc polishing needs.
penmainiac (February 10th, 2020)
A very light rubbing with it might help, but honestly, I wouldn't get obsessed over it as it is honestly 35+ years old.
But based on the look of some of my nibs that had a light treatment from the sunshine cloth, it did not harm the engravings.
This 1968 14K Falcon nib on my Pilot Super 250 for example is 52 years old, the sunshine cloth does a good job of making it shine, but as you can see it's going to have the micro-scratches (gold is a soft material afterall). Trying to polish every microscratch out over time will course not only wear down the engraving, but it will wear down the silver coloring before that point (which your bi-color nib has), and I already see evidence of that happening on my 2-tone 14K nib of my Sheaffer snorkel from the 50s.
So for micro-scratches on the gold, I say live with it, it shows it's character of age. But far as shining it up with the sunshine cloth, go for it, just don't try to rub it so much in attempt to get rid of micro-scratches.
penmainiac (February 10th, 2020)
Far as what the sunshine cloth can do, here's a before-and-after of what I did on a broken Eversharp Skyline from the 40s, the cap being gold-filled, and the nib being 14K gold.
(I used other stuff for the plastic polishing).
penmainiac (February 10th, 2020)
Yea almost anyone can get a modern "boring" (lol no offense to half the people here) 149 with the standard nail-like 18K nib, just being a matter of money.
But not everyone is going to have a 35+ year old 149 with a classic 14C nib, and superior feed material (ebonite vs plastic). So if anyone going to start talking smack about light marks, just remind them that it survived the test of time, and not everyone has one like yours. A little visual Wabi Sabi never hurt anything, and sets you apart from all the rest in 'perfect' condition.
All of my pens have 'light marks', some more noticeable than others, and that's just a trait of used pens that are used (rather than sitting as mantelpieces).
dae_ls (February 11th, 2020), penmainiac (February 10th, 2020)
Fred: Yes, I'll bring a couple to the Bal'mer Pen Show in just two and a half wks. I thought you had forsaken these giants for your beloved 146s.
Penmaniac: Good call, sir. Leave the 149 at home. Take an inexpensive cartridge-filler to school with you. The superficial scratches from age don't interfere with the pen's performance, but polishing will brighten things up considerably. I agree with the sage Fred Ryder about polishing the nib--cloth only. Some jeweler's pastes can remove the platinum mask, something I learned the hard way years ago.
penmainiac (February 11th, 2020)
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