Cleaning Red Ink

[Black Spot]

Long Long ago, in a school far away in the age of ignorance before the Internet, dinosaurs roamed the earth...

I had a lamy 25.

I put a red ink cartridge in it and since that day when I clean out my pen when changing inks no matter how much water I run through the pen you always have a hint of red in it.

how do I get rid of the stubborn red tint ?

[Notgatherox]

Ever tried using a bulb syringe? That usually clears all my old ink out.

 

Alternatively, try using diluted ammonia solution (10:1 ratio with water) to flush the pen out.

 

 

~Epic

[Black Spot]

been using a bulb syringe for days.

[fpnnm]

You might consider a cleaner like Koh-I-Noor Rapido-Eze Pen Cleaner for soaking fountain pen sections (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/153237-koh-i-noor-rapido-eze-pen-cleaner/).

[Notgatherox]

been using a bulb syringe for days.

 

Then you'll probably have to move on to a pen cleaner, or an ultrasonic cleaner!

 

Good luck getting rid of the red ink!

 

 

~Epic

[Lou Erickson]

Are you just flushing the pen, or letting it sit a while?

 

The feed has all sorts of little grooves; if you just flush, you don't get water in all those grooves, and there will be red ink there. Fill the pen, and let it stand, nib down, for several hours or overnight., with the nib submerged in whatever your cleaning with. Just the nib - don't flood the whole pen. (I tend to stand the pen up in a sample vial for this.)

 

In the morning, the fluid will be red.

 

Then flush, and try again, until the fluid stays clean.

 

I'd also suggest some pen flush fluid: 10:1 water to white ammonia. Do the stand/soak with that.

 

Some pens are just a pain to get clean. (I'm looking at you, Parker 51.)

[Black Spot]

what I have been doing is

soaking the pen, then flushing it.

not wanting to drown the pen and uncertain if the inside of the nib feed was not harboring a air pocket I took a cartridge put it into the pen filled a syringe with water and injected the water into the pen via the cartridge.

I let it soak over night and in the morning I push the water in the pen out slowly till clear.

Then I soak it over night again.

[LamyOne]

Hello BS,

 

If you have been soaking it overnight and still having problems; I think your only solution at this stage, (short of professional help), is go to e-bay or Amazon and fetch yourself an ultrasonic cleaner. Don't get one that is too cheap, go with something in the $40-50 range if you can at all swing it. (It will pay off down the road).

 

Once you have the ultrasonic, I would soak the section in a 10:1 CLEAR ammonia solution OVERNIGHT, (that is 10 parts water, one part clear ammonia); then fill the ultrasonic with the same solution and give the section two or three cycles, (at around 2-3 minutes per cycle), in the ultrasonic. Then flush it out it with pure, clear distilled water from a bulb syringe - this will flush out the ammonia solution - and hopefully the residual ink deposits). Give it two full bulb syringe loads of fresh, clear distilled water. Wrap the nib with a Kleenex BETWEEN the two bulb syringe treatments, this will also help draw out any ink residue left behind. If after the second bulb syringe flush, the Kleenex is still discolored... repeat this ENTIRE process one more time.

 

If you're still seeing red, (yes, the pun was intended), then it is probably time to see a pen doctor.

 

I've read where red (and black) is "bad news," that is why I always flush a pen loaded with such colors with EACH refill, (I know that wasn't the case here, I'm just stressing the point).

 

I hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

Edited September 28, 2014 by LamyOne

[ac12]

An USC will not always clean out the old ink. An USC will blast out the dried or goopy ink, but it won't do anything for liquid ink. That is why as Lou said, repeatedly soak and flush, to clean some pens. My worst case (just as Lou said), an eBay Parker 51 with red ink, took me 3 weeks of 2x a day soak and flush, before the red ink traces got close enough to zero for me to stop.

 

@Black Spot

On a cartridge pen, the section can normally be completely submerged in water. That is I what I do to my cartridge pens to soak them clean. Nib down in a narrow shot glass. That way, the heavier ink will drift out from inside the section. You could alternate ammonia solution then plain water.

And yes you did pick a difficult color ink. In my experience, red and purple are the hardest colors to clean out of a pen, and I don't know why.

Edited September 29, 2014 by ac12

[Black Spot]

Than you every one, I will go look for ammonia. Even in school I hated red ink.

[Black Spot]

Been flushing my pen since Sep 2014 with the bulb every morning.

Red tinted ink comes out, and fresh water goes in and sits in the pen soaking.

But ever so slowly the red is getting less and less.

The war will be over by Christmas .

[ac12]

Now you know...no more red ink !!!

Although I read that Sheaffer red is supposedly easier to clean out.

[PS104]

Now that ac12 has brought up the subject, what brand of red ink did you use?

[Black Spot]

I can not tell you what the ink was because some one at school gave me the cartridge.

This was when a pen was a pen and ink was all the same to me.

[Black Spot]

update on the red inkfestation ( Oh that was bad.)

After flushing and flushing the pen via a cartridge and syringe ( are they not illegal ?) I thought that perhaps there might be deposits of dried red Ink stuck in the feed.

I took the Lamy apart and scrubbed the feed with some dish washing soap and a old tooth brush. The in side I cleaned with a Q- tip, there I found deposits of red and blue ink.

The nib had a build up of ink scum that would have been just under the hood. This stuff was stubborn and did not want to go.

I progressively used water, soap, window cleaner, rubbing alcohol, Lighter fluid. A good bit went away but in the end I had to use a razor blade to very gently scrape away the last bits.

The "Lamy" stamp in the nib is still red purple.

Once I get the pen back together and If it still works I will let you know.

 

And I will never put a red ink cartridge of unknown age into my pen.