How (Often) Do You Clean Your Pens?

[FoszFay]

I flush my pens with plain, filtered water every time I refill them, even if I am filling it with the same colour.

 

How often do you flush/clean your pens, and how? Do you use plain water, or some ammonia (or home made) concoction? Do you just flush under a running tap or use a syringe? Or do you strip it down and thoroughly clean it?

 

Also, if you have a piston filler, how often do you lubricate the piston and other seals? I do it every time I clean the pen.

 

Tom.

[Notgatherox]

I clean them out when I switch ink colours. Sometimes when I refill too!

 

Mostly with plain water, ammonia only comes out when water doesn't do the job. Usually a (bulb) syringe if I'm cleaning c&c pens, for piston pens I use the piston mechanism.

 

The thorough clean comes about... once a month.

 

I lubricate my piston when it starts to get stiff...

 

 

~Epic

[Koyote]

If you lube your piston every time you fill the pen, you are wasting a lot of time.

 

Ditto for the flushing each time you refill with the same color ink.

[Norsk24]

Is it bad to use plain tap water by itself when cleaning pens?

[FoszFay]

Is it bad to use plain tap water by itself when cleaning pens?

I think it depends on the quality of the tap water where you live.

 

Tom.

[bullet08]

when i change ink or refill, i clean the pen. mostly just flush with tap water. we have rather soft water here. at first, i used soap water every time, and got my piston stuck in my TWSBI 580. just using tap helps to lengthen the time i have to grease that rubber part. but now days, i mostly use Kaweco AL or CS, so not much cleaning to do.

[Norsk24]

I think it depends on the quality of the tap water where you live.

 

Tom.

 

Ohh, okay. Thanks!

[FoszFay]

If you lube your piston every time you fill the pen, you are wasting a lot of time.

I don't think so. Nearly every time I flush it I remove the piston to dry the barrel. I sometimes just do a few 'flushes' with ink when I fill to avoid diluting the ink in the barrel if I don't dry it.

 

Tom.

[erpe]

when a pen is new, I change ink every refill so in the beginning I clean all the time. After a few weeks, sometimes months, when I have found the best combi(s), I clean maybe once a month or every 3 or 4 fills or when I change ink.

[Koyote]

If you lube your piston every time you fill the pen, you are wasting a lot of time.

 

Ditto for the flushing each time you refill with the same color ink.

 

 

I don't think so. Nearly every time I flush it I remove the piston to dry the barrel. I sometimes just do a few 'flushes' with ink when I fill to avoid diluting the ink in the barrel if I don't dry it.

 

Tom.

 

Do you change the oil every time you drive your car?

 

If you enjoy fiddling with your pens, then get your enjoyment however you wish. But your cleaning/lubing regimen is overkill, and you are more likely to break a pen if you disassemble it so often.

[danieln]

If I change ink I flush the pen with a Pen flush solution. Otherwise I only refill. Piston-fillers let me know when they need some lube, the same goes for converters. But if I disassemble a piston-filler or a converter I almost always use a bit of silicone grease, tough that is not that often.

Edited September 22, 2014 by danieln

[FoszFay]

 

 

 

Do you change the oil every time you drive your car?

 

If you enjoy fiddling with your pens, then get your enjoyment however you wish. But your cleaning/lubing regimen is overkill, and you are more likely to break a pen if you disassemble it so often.

Recommended oil change is 15,000kms. I change oil every 5,000kms. Call it 'overkill' but I have had the same car for 23 years, since new, and it runs just as well, if not better than the first day I drove it.

 

The same with my pens. I think the body will last longer being disassembled than the piston mechanism would without being properly lubed.

 

Tom.

[LamyOne]

Hello Everyone,

 

I have a bit of a hybrid method to flushing my pens. I use cool tap water to do the first flush, (which also gets the bulk of the ink out of the pen). Then I use a bulb syringe with distilled water to do the "final flushing" out, (primarily because our tap water is has a lot of minerals and chlorine in it). I'll also put on the converter and draw distilled water INTO the pen a couple of times - just so the flushing process goes both ways instead of just exiting the pen. After this, I'll use a Kleenex, (paper towels are too stiff), to siphon out as much of the water as I can, then I leave everything disassembled* for a few hours (or overnight) so it can all properly dry out.

 

How often I flush is based on: whenever I change color; every second or third refill, or when I'm putting the pen into "dry dock."

 

I have a bottle of Goulet Pen Flush, but haven't needed to use it yet. Also, I will use soapy water, (dish soap, usually Dawn), to clean out brand new pens; I think the soapy water helps get rid of any manufacturing oils, chemicals or debris better than just plain water.

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

 

* PS: When I say "disassembled," I'm referring to the section, converter and barrel - I DO NOT remove the nib and feed to flush out a pen.

Edited September 22, 2014 by LamyOne

[French]

I tend to fill a pen, use it until empty, clean it and take it out of rotation. So, I clean after each fill (but, the pen goes out of rotation after its use). However, in the case where I refill a pen with the same ink, then, I just refill, no cleaning (has only happened a few times in 10 or so years).

 

French

[LamyOne]

Hello again Everyone,

 

Does anyone here use an ultrasonic cleaner to clean their pens?

 

Any benefits or any risks to using one?

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

[Paddler]

I clean my pens when I change ink colors. As I have lots of pens, that is not very often. Otherwise, my pens get flushed when I notice their feeds visibly accumulating dried ink sludge. I prefer not to wear out my pens by constantly cleaning them.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Paddler

[LamyOne]

I prefer not to wear out my pens by constantly cleaning them.

 

Hello Paddler,

 

I have c/c pens, so I do not have to really disassemble anything to clean a pen out, (other than what you'd do if you were just going to refill it). But how does flushing out a pen with distilled water wear it out?

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

[arcadeflow]

I usually change inks in a refill so I have to flush every fill. If I refill with the same ink I will probably consider how long that ink has stayed in the pen, if it has been there for months I will probably flush it before refilling with the same ink.

 

I noticed a lot of people only flush until water runs clear. I have found that some pens still hold ink in the feed even if you flushed it with bulb syringes. If you wrap the section in paper towel and shake it with quick wrist turns, it will usually drop some color that was inside. That means that flushing when changing inks is a very important matter if you dip the nib when refilling, I don't want to contaminate my bottles in any way. Even if you are going to use the same color after the flush, I don't want that water mixing back with my ink. If you use a refilling method that requires to spit the ink back into the bottle a couple of times, I would be very concerned about spitting back some water drops.

 

I don't know how long should my section be left alone drying, I might try leaving it for a day they removing the nib and feed to check if it is dry, so I can learn how it behaves. I could always disassemble because it would dry faster, but I don't want to damage the friction fit doing this constantly. So, my method for flushing will require overnight soaking until wrist twists stop dropping colored water in the paper towel, and then leave it drying for a day (or more if I notice it is still wet inside), otherwise I will only suck ink once with the converter so it doesn't spit back contaminated ink to the bottle.

[brunico]

Refilling with same colour. Put nib in bottle, fill, wipe excess ink off section with bog roll. No need to remove converter.

 

Refilling with different colour. Rinse under tap until water clear. Removing converter usually speeds things up. Hold nib in bog roll for 30 seconds to wick away excess water, or shake section. The pen will be ready to go in a couple of minutes: no need to dry overnight, and a touch of remaining ink isn't a problem.

 

Refilling with similar or lighter colour. As above, but paying less attention.

 

I know some people enjoy playing about with ultrasonic cleaners and ear syringes and ammonia and distilled water and special pen cleaners and coffee enemas... but this fussing isn't really necessary (and I'm sure puts some people off). If it were necessary, I'd never have used fountain pens all the way through school and college.

[iveyman]

I flush and clean my pens with water each time I refill, even with the same ink. They tend to write better after the flushing and cleaning.