I read someplace that when using a different ink in a pen, you should clean it first. So, I did what I thought was recommended. I ran the nib under cool water, rinsed till it ran clear and blew out as much moisture as I could. Then, I inserted a new cartridge. However, it's a day later, and then pen is inking a very faint line. It seems that the ink is diluted, although it is getting darker than it was last night. My question is, what is the proper way to clean/rinse a modern pen? Thanks for you assistance.

Jon

From what you described, it sounds like you had water in your pen before inserting the new cartridge. When I clean my pens, I let them air dry at least for twenty four hours before filling them with ink. I also break down the parts (nib section, cap, barrel) and let them air dry separately.

I had a feeling that I should have let it dry out for a while before reinking it. So, either I stick with the same ink in a pen, or it takes a full day to get ready to change colors?

If you don't want to wait, get some of the cannisters of air they use for power dusting electronic equipment and use it to dry the pen parts, its quick easy and safe.

and you can put the section nib down on a paper towel to allow it to pull the water out of the pen.

OR, you can make a salad spinner centriruge. It'll pull all of the water or ink out of a pen very quickly.

Sounds like water to me too. What I used to do with my old Phileas after washing was to touch the nib to a paper towel for a couple seconds a bunch of times until the ink being sucked out turned to a more normal color. It always seemed to work well enough and never caused problems from what I experienced.

I don't think it takes a whole day to dry out, but that probably depends on the pen. I usually flush the ink and water out, then wrap the nib in a paper towel and let it stand upright--usually under my desk lamp which maybe decreases evaporation time. I shoot for between 4 to 8 hours of drying time.

Thanks for all of your excellent suggestions. I'll know what to do better next time. Hopefully, this pen will be back to normal by tomorrow.

In addition to this discussion I was wondering: why is it necessary to clean a pen when using different ink? Is it only because of the colour or is it also harmful for your pen? Does it make any difference when using ink of the same brand? I mean: if I want to change from Noodler's Zhivago to Noodler's Walnut, do I have to clean my pen for another reason than that I don't want the colours to blend?


Annemarie

When I clean and flush a pen with water, I disassemble the converter from the nib section and rinse each separately. If changing to a lighter color, I'll probably dunk the nib section in the ultrasonic bath as well to dislodge the last traces of old ink residue as well, but this is probably not essential. After rinsing, I shake out the converter and touch the bottom to a tissue to draw out as much of the remaining water as possible. I also shake out the nib point up and then grab the nib and collector fins with a tissue until no more water can be drawn out. This may take more tissues and a longer time than you think. When the nib and feed is as dry as I can get it this way, I reassemble the nib/feed and converter and load some ink. Load and reload this ink several times to flush out the remaining traces of water, which will not harm your bottled ink. If using cartridges, this won't be possible, but if you have rinsed and dried out the feed as much as possible, you should get little dilution.

One reason to flush a pen completely between ink changes is to avoid any chemical reaction between different inks that might produce sludge. This may be rare, but there are a couple of PR bottled inks, for example, that will form a sludge if mixed. The other reason, of course, is to maintain color fidelity when the ink is changed.

Cheers.

The quick answer to your question is - no - there is really no reason to flush your pen out between ink color changes if you don't care about the color blending. That is with a couple of exceptions. 1. the aforementioned ink incompatibility problems. I think one of the non-mixers was PR Bubblegum Pink and I can't remember the other, I think it was PR as well. I would guess that as long as you're not using high dye content inks you will have no problem. 2. The other exception is - in my opinion, you need to flush out a pen every six months or so, just for good measure. This will help eliminate any build up of dried ink in your feed/nib and keep the pen writing properly.

It is also my opinion that most of us get a bit anal about how clean our pens must be. Trying to get a pen to absolutely clear water status when flushing is not only time consuming, it's hardly necessary at least from a mechanical point of view. After all, how many vintage pens have you run across that were obviously put away with ink in them and forty years plus later we flush them out a few times and they work fine. Not that I'm advocating that practice, but you risk damaging your pens by over cleaning them; dropping in the sink, flinging against the wall, etc.

My $0.02 worth on the subject.

I had a pen feed cracked in two places becuase I had put it away inked and never looked at it for 15 years. This was simple Pelikan Royal blue ink. So saying that ink in a unused pen for long periods of time doesn't hurt the pen is not neccesarily true.

But that's a good method to introduce clogged ink particles into the bottle... I would not do that.

[quote=lisa,Feb 12 2007, 11:29 PM] [QUOTE=Kelly G,Feb 13 2007, 12:10 AM]
I had a pen feed cracked in two places becuase I had put it away inked and never looked at it for 15 years. This was simple Pelikan Royal blue ink. So saying that ink in a unused pen for long periods of time doesn't hurt the pen is not neccesarily true. [/quote]
I wouldn't want to be argumentative, but how do you know the ink left in the pen was the cause of the cracked feed?

I was left in a pencase that it was in for years when I still used it on a daily basis and that pencase was in a drawer with normal room temperature and humidity. You're right, I can't be 100% sure, but what else could it have been?

Come to think of it, yes there were some hot summers, but does plastic alone crack when the temperature gets up to 30C?

I would think not. This is a mystery. I don't have experience with vintage pens like the pros around here, but I've restored 100+ and have only found one or two with broken feeds and given the condition of those pens, I would attribute the damage to causes other than dried ink. But, again, I'm sure not saying it couldn't happen.
As to the original post, I would be of the opinion that if one flushes a pen two or three times with water, enough of the ink will be removed to prevent the sort of damage you note. Again, not a recommendation, but I still hold to my original notion that we tend to over clean our pens (relative to what the pen actually requires for functionality).

Well, my first FP lasted years and got simulair treatment to AnneM's pen. I didn't change the ink colour very often. I only had pink, black and blue at hand, but I never bothered to flush when changing from blue to black and vise versa. And I only flushed it when it got dirty because a cart got loose and then only when I had time to do it.

So I agree with Kelly G, yes we probably are far too carefull with our pens when it comes to flushing. But I won't leave a pen inked and unused for years anymore. Maybe it was a freak thing that happened to that pen, but I won't risk it again.

Okay, I'm having a situation similar to that of jonro. I noticed that my new Phileas was skipping somewhat, so I took out the cartridge and cleaned it. Shook the remaining water out of the nib/section piece. Sat it upright (cap on, unfortunately) for about ten hours. Loaded in a new cartridge only to find that the ink was extremely diluted.

That was two days ago. The ink concentration has improved, but it is still very dilute. I have been writing with the pen daily, and I have now tried the paper towel trick, but to no avail. Does anyone have any ideas on how to remedy this solution without having to re-clean and re-dry the pen?

Silly as it may seem, the salad spinner is a joy. 20 seconds of spinning is enough to dry out anything I've got. Sure beats throwing out your elbow or shoulder trying to shake it out.

Ahem. Seems my judgment was a tad premature. The old, deep Florida Blue that I know and love is back.

A homemade centrifuge. What a neat idea! Thanks!

I fear, from bitter experience with a current job at work, plastic alone CAN crack at temperatures of 30C. It depends on the residual stresses left in the plastic at the time of moulding. At the moment the company I'm working for is producing a plastic container for the military wich is proving to be a problem. Accelerated shelf life tests are showing that the injection moulded lid will start to crack at about 15 years, and disintegrate at about 20 years. Shame we need a 25 year life.

The residual stresses are the result of mould shape, mould gate positions, and process parameters (mould temperature, melt temperature, cooling rate, injection pressure, injection rate, cycle time and initial post mould conditions). There are millions of ways it can go wrong, and maybe one where it will go right. The best parameters we've found so far seem to give a 20 year life, with a mould density about 20% above our weight limit. The next best gives a density about 60% of the best, and a life approaching 18 years. At the moment even consultants are baffled & come back with helpful comments like 'Well, you never can tell.'.


Regards

Richard.

Hi Richard,
Think I had said earlier I was a time served Patternmaker, at college we did Foundry and Pattern Craft studies to C&G 3. Sounds very much like the same principles, on a much smaller scale, given yourextensive posts before, I think you will have known that though.

BTW, hows the 61 hood manufacture going ?

All the best,
Eric