Clean Between Re-Inkings? Or Between In Changes?

[NewPenMan]

Something I read here made me curious about the effects of ink on rubber gaskets in plungers..

 

should a pen be cleaned before every inking, or only when inks are changed, or only if a pen has been sitting idle for awhile with the same ink?

 

thank you!

 

npm

[Ernst Bitterman]

It's most important if you're changing from one ink to another. If sticking with the same ink and use the pen at least every second day, you don't have to flush as there's no danger of a bad, particulate-provoking reaction.

 

If the pen has been sitting long enough for the ink to concentrate, CLEAN IT. Apart from the effect on the soft parts, it will pit the point if it's made of steel.

[FedericoMedina]

I usually do all of the above. Between inkings to make sure nothing is clogging the feed. When I change inks so there is no ink pollution, and definitely if it has been sitting idle.

[WaskiSquirrel]

I clean if I change inks. I also clean if I have had the pen inked up with the same ink for a while.

 

But, piston pens are not delicate flowers. I would be more concerned if the pen sits for a while and the ink dries up. I did that to a Cross Century that I discovered I didn't like at all. It did eventually write again, but it took multiple soakings.

[KBeezie]

If you're refilling the same ink, and the ink hasn't just been sitting in there for like over a month (ie: enough to evaporate some inks), such as if you were just using it on a daily basis and needed to refill every couple of weeks, then you should be fine.

 

Though I like to fill from a sample vial and not directly from the bottle, it reduces the risk of contaminating the full bottle with mold/spores/fungus or chemically altered inks. Not as fun to set aside a sample vial filled with a syringe rather than just filling it from the bottle, but it's safer in my opinion. Also if the ink has evaporated a little in the pen, with a sample vial filling I have no problems spitting the remainder of the ink out of the pen, shaking up the sample vial, and refilling, just so as long as the ink stays in that sample vial and doesn't go back into the bottle, however some inks like Iron gall, you don't want to do that.

 

If the ink has been sitting around for a while, or you suspect there's been some growth or weird oddities with the ink, do a full cleaning/flush.

 

If you're switching from one ink to the other, YES, Absolutely do a cleaning.

 

Some people just flush until the water kind of comes out sorta clear and don't really try to get it all out, lack of proper pen hygiene when switching inks is probably going to be the primary killer of sacs, feeds, etc in a pen.

Edited September 16, 2014 by KBeezie

[RMN]

Agree with most of the above.

 

it depends on many factors.

1 always when changing to a different ink.

2 when using the same ink for a long time with several refills: every now and then. More often if the inks are highly saturated. Also more often if you are just popping in a new cartridge. If you are filling by piston or lever or so through the nib, that process in itself does some cleaning.

3 when taking a pen out of rotation

 

 

D.ick.

[Hooker56]

Wow! Do you have to clean the pens???? I learn something here every day!

 

Obviously kidding. I've worked to hard on my collection not to clean them as needed!

[NewPenMan]

comparing comments here to my real-world pen usage, sounds like I ought to take all but 1 or 2 pens out of rotation....and when I do that, is a gentle cleaning with warm water and a little soap until no more ink can be seen coming into the water, then a gentle drying of all the parts/reassembly be the way to "rest" them?

 

there is a lot to keep track of with fountain pens..

[KBeezie]

comparing comments here to my real-world pen usage, sounds like I ought to take all but 1 or 2 pens out of rotation....and when I do that, is a gentle cleaning with warm water and a little soap until no more ink can be seen coming into the water, then a gentle drying of all the parts/reassembly be the way to "rest" them?

 

there is a lot to keep track of with fountain pens..

 

Unlike most ballpoints and roller balls, you just toss the refill for the most part (with the small exception of rollerballs that fill the same way as fountain pens). So by comparison of daily usage instruments, they're definitely 'higher' maintenance, especially if you want to keep a dozen or more inked.

 

Right now I got about 6 inked (had bout twice that last week), got some new pens coming (about 6 of them) so wanted to take the time to de-ink the "non-essentials" so to speak, which of course involves rinsing and drying and just storing away either in a case or wrap, so that when the new ones come I can ink em up, play with them for a little bit, and see if they'll either be nice replacements or something I want to put into the rotation. (mostly pocketable pens lately).

 

Some pens of course are a pain to flush completely such as piston fillers that don't have an easily removed section/nib/feed (or something you would not want to make a habit of removing), in which case it's always the same ink, I just may give it the usual flush to get out any evaporated inks before refilling it with the exact same again (which won't matter as much if there's a small residual of the older ink, since they're the same chemically). Such is the case with my Montblanc 225 which is married to Noodler's Black Eel last for-freaking-ever since it puts down like a dry-ish japanese EF line will be a while before I have to refill that because I ran out.

[Ernst Bitterman]

Wow! Do you have to clean the pens???? I learn something here every day!

 

Obviously kidding. I've worked to hard on my collection not to clean them as needed!

 

Hey, when I was in school, my poor Sheaffer cartridge pen got no cleaning from September through May, and had the cartridge left attached through any and all vacations.

 

...wait, I meant "pens". For some reason, they kept losing flow, no matter how hard I pressed.

[Garageboy]

I refill every 2 weeks, and clean every 6 weeks or so - I don't want to cycle my filling mechanisms too often