I just replaced the sac and the crooked plastic strip inside an Eversharp Skyline pen I bought at a flea market. I soaked all the ink out of the feed (this one had blue-black in it) and cleaned it up without any radical disassembly. It fills and writes very well now.

Problem is, there is dried ink on the nib. This dried stuff is thick; I can feel it with my fingernail, so I can't really call it a "stain". I call it ugly mung. Denatured alky, lacquer thinner, naptha, soap and water, and MEK all have no effect on it. How can I remove this stuff without ruining the shine on the gold underneath? I considered using double-ought steel wool and then burnishing the gold back up. I think I will just let it go before I do anything that radical. It is such a great writer, I am loth to mess it up just trying to make it look pretty.

Paddler

First thought: Why bother? It writes well as is. But like you I like my pens to look good and write good

That being the case try 409 and water (1/10 mix) after soaking use an old toothbrush on it for a bit with the mix then use some soap with the toothbrush. The 409 mix should loosen it enough that the toothbrush can gently scrub it off.

If all else fails...perhaps you could ook for someone with an ultrasonic cleaner.

Good luck...

How long did you soak it? A couple of days might soften it up enough to scrape off with a fingernail, or make it more susceptible to ink cleaner or an amonia solution... I've had a few nibs encrusted with stuff like that and water was all I used to clean them up (the feed may be a different story, but if its writing well, no need to bother with it).

I soaked the section/feed/nib assy. for about 18 hours in water with a drop of liquid dish detergent. I changed the solution several times and flushed the feed with an ear syringe until no more ink showed in the water. The stuff on the nib resists everything. Maybe I'll just let it go.

The nib appears to be a stub. I can't tell that by looking at it, but it gives me a line variation of about 1.5 to 1. No way I'm going to try anything rough with this nib. It gives me a perfect medium thickness, wet line. I wondered why my writing looked so good all of a sudden when using this pen. Then I drew a big asterisk with it and the mystery was solved; it has just enough line variation to punch up my chicken scratchin'. I call it a stub; mybe it is a cursive, cursive, cursive italic.

Thanks for the advice.

Paddler