Pen Flush: Buy Or Make Your Own?

[sidthecat]

Perhaps a small amount of vodka. I use it as a personal flush every so often.

[inkstainedruth]

Perhaps a small amount of vodka. I use it as a personal flush every so often.

 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[praxim]

Perhaps a small amount of vodka. I use it as a personal flush every so often.

Oh, potatoes are so fattening. I think it judicious to stick to a little malted barley.

[Vipersdad]

Perhaps a small amount of vodka. I use it as a personal flush every so often.

 

Vodka flush, then personal flush (why waste the booze) = Drinking the bong water..............😋

[Penpulsar]

 

Thanks for explaining and summarizing this for me Piper. If stored in a clean and "air tight" bottle, any idea how long this might last? Could I get 6 months out of it? I ask as sometimes I go 2-4 months between cleaning sessions, and it would be good to know that leftovers can be carried forward for the next time.

 

You probably should not hold an airtight bottle of this solution more than a week. The NH4OH will dissociate quickly, especially if there is airspace in the bottle, to NH3 (ammonia) and H2O (water), leaving you with a weak DAWN solution at best. You'll smell ammonia and THINK it's still useful, when it's not. Best to rinse the bottle with several small volumes of distilled water (e.g., rinse flush bottle with 1/5 of its volume of distilled water three times), and re-mix a new flush solution. Storing in reduced temperature (refrigerator) will probably not lengthen the shelf life.

Edited November 27, 2017 by Penpulsar

[Chi Town]

I have been using my own mix of Pen Flush for the last 8 years or so without an issue. Here is the recipe I use; 10% Ammonia, not the sudsy or bubbly kind. ( I get it at the dollar store), 90% Water, and a few drops of Dawn. NOW, after reading all these post's, I just may start using Distilled water, as I have been using Tap Water with no issues! I then mix up a 1/2 gallon at a time and mainly use it in my Ultra Sonic Cleaner......

 

As a SAFETY measure, I do keep in stock a Bottle of Rapido-Ez, and J.B's. Pen Flush, just in case I get a really stubborn issue that "my mix" won't handle?

Edited November 28, 2017 by Chi Town

[Chrissy]

I never use distilled water for cleaning my pens, nor do I ever use it in my USC. If I'm adding water to ink, then I tend to use distilled by preference.

[praxim]

Is there a particular reason you do not use distilled water, Chrissy, or is it that you find no particular reason to do so?

 

Now that it is readily available, I am using rain water in the USC. Soft water has quite a strong cleaning effect. Rinsing out pens after use is still done using only tap water though. I think it sufficient for routine cleaning of a pen not immediately being refilled.

 

eta: it seems we can not buy ammonia other than its cloudy form in retail outlets here.

Edited November 28, 2017 by praxim

[kestrel]

Is there a particular reason you do not use distilled water, Chrissy, or is it that you find no particular reason to do so?

 

Now that it is readily available, I am using rain water in the USC. Soft water has quite a strong cleaning effect. Rinsing out pens after use is still done using only tap water though. I think it sufficient for routine cleaning of a pen not immediately being refilled.

 

eta: it seems we can not buy ammonia other than its cloudy form in retail outlets here.

Check the source of the rain water and, if you collect your own, give it a quick chemical analysis. The rain that falls on my house has a pH of 5. It's probably not an issue with most pens and inks but I wouldn't want it getting close to the Baystates. I'll stick with distilled.

[Chrissy]

Is there a particular reason you do not use distilled water, Chrissy, or is it that you find no particular reason to do so?

 

Now that it is readily available, I am using rain water in the USC. Soft water has quite a strong cleaning effect. Rinsing out pens after use is still done using only tap water though. I think it sufficient for routine cleaning of a pen not immediately being refilled.

 

eta: it seems we can not buy ammonia other than its cloudy form in retail outlets here.

 

I have to buy it and it's neither cheap nor readily available everywhere. I never had any problem using tap water to clean my pens, especially if I get it from my mother-in-law's house as hers doesn't cause as much scale as ours does.

 

My best friend is a jeweller not far from me, and she always uses tap water in her USC. If it's good enough for her it's good enough for me.

[praxim]

Ah, yes, good point thanks kestrel. Wanting to keep the minerals out, I had forgotten they buffer acidity. I will measure the pH.

[rebcabin]

Most of the time plain water is fine.

 

For general cleaning: 500 ml water (tap is fine, filtered is better, distilled if you prefer), 50 ml ammonia (non foaming/sudzing), 1 drop dish soap (nothing fancy, you don't need to soften your hands).

 

For more thorough cleaning of clogged pens: Koh-I-Noor Rapio-Eze.

 

The pre mixed flushes work fine but as you have found can become pricey. You can make gallons for the price of one small bottle.

ditto on rapid-o-eze. I used to work with rapidograph pens quite a lot and the rapid-o-eze solution was essential gear.

[LWJ2]

ditto on rapid-o-eze. I used to work with rapidograph pens quite a lot and the rapid-o-eze solution was essential gear.

 

Gods, was it ever. I used Pelikan drawing ink, it clogs in a #000 Rapidograph whilst you're filling it, it seems. Lovely dense line, though. We used to soak ours over the weekend.

 

That said, I usually clean betwixt fills, so a whiskey tumbler half-full of warm tap water and a couple of drops of whatever dish liquid I have usually does the trick.

 

Cheers from the wilds of rural Virginia!

[Brianm_14]

Dawn has just started listing ingredients on the back label of at least the concentrated "Ultra" version. I will be curious to compare it to the ingredients used in the standard form of Dawn, if P&G lists them; I couldn't check, as the store was nearly out of all forms of Dawn due to the current nationwide shortage. Let us hope this admirable trend of openess continues.

 

Speaking as a university microbiologist and chemist, I'd recommend using distilled water USP if you are making a solution you plan on keeping. While only freshly distilled water is sterile, distilled water is nonetheless much freer from biological and chemical contamination. (Thus, if using distilled water for diluting ink -a wise idea- cooled freshly-boiled distilled water should be used.). Otherwise, tap water is likely fine for immediate use, unless the water is very hard or very-heavily treated. Call your water company or department. I would not make up any solution for storage, so the type of water to use is beside the point for me (if you must, use distilled). I try not to court trouble!

 

Regular blue Dawn is a fine cleaner as we all know, but a few drops of Kodak's Photo-Flo 200 is also a a nice cleaner. Very clean, simple stuff, too. A pint bottle runs about $16, but one drop of the surfactant will suffice in one or even two ounces of water. There are similar detergents used in biology/biochemistry laboratories.

 

Water is the greatest solvent known, especially when combined with "tincture of time." The next thing to try would seem to be diluted detergent, perhaps with use of the USC if solid deposits are suspected; only then use ammonia in the 1:10 dilution. I don't think it matters if a technical grade (plain household ammonia) or reagent grade ammonium hydroxide solution are used. Higher purity might be best if a solution is to be stored.

 

My grandfather, who was born in 1892 and knew all about fountain pens, lumber-jacking, and doing a final tune on Packard cars as they came off the line at the factory, among so much else, taught me to gently rinse my pen with tap water after every third filling, or if I had to change inks. Twice a year, I was to use a 1:10 dilution of sudsy ammonia solution to clean the pen, and soak just the nib in a greater dilution overnight. This routine seemed to work for me from childhood, through graduate school and for decades more. Likely enough, he'd say we obsess on the wrong thing, and should write more and clean less. He lived to be 96. I still miss him dearly, and wish his wife (my German Nana) could right now cut us both a big slice of her lovely -no, perfect- lemon meringue pie. The Lord rest their souls.

[Bibliophage]

One of my pens, I ended up using alcohol to remove the leftovers of Baystate Concord Grape. (It's a newer pen - immune to alcohol). The first fill with alcohol and letting sit for a few minutes? The converter completely filled with purple. I'll put up a picture in an separate thread later. (This was after several "normal" flushes, and water coming out clean) From now on, I'll stick to using it in a Wing Sung 3008.

[Brianm_14]

I wish pens in general could be cleaned with alcohol. It would so simplify this entire matter.

[txomsy]

Alcohol won't do with Baystate inks, for that it is better to use a water:bleach solution.

[Bibliophage]

Alcohol won't do with Baystate inks, for that it is better to use a water:bleach solution.

It worked great. The slightly dried ring (I'd accidentally forgotten about the pen in the car for two to three weeks. ) left in the converter dissolved completely - normal cleaning solutions didn't touch it. Same with the feed. I wouldn't have tried it in anything made prior to the 80's, though.

[rebcabin]

Water is the greatest solvent known, especially when combined with "tincture of time." The next thing to try would seem to be diluted detergent, perhaps with use of the USC if solid deposits are suspected; only then use ammonia in the 1:10 dilution. I don't think it matters if a technical grade (plain household ammonia) or reagent grade ammonium hydroxide solution are used. Higher purity might be best if a solution is to be stored.

 

Here is a question: one of my Urushi-lacquered Namiki ebonite pens came with a DIRE WARNING: something like this ~"lifetime warranty unless you soak in water. Do not soak the cap in water as it will spoil the finish and void the warranty."~

 

This goes against my intuition and sparse knowledge of the materials. Fortunately, it doesn't go against my experience because I saw the dire warning before doing my usual ritual of soaking

 

I'm really curious about this because the lore on urushi is that it will last 7 million years buried in high-ph soil (negative or positive) whilst exposed to high-intensity gamma radiation. Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit, but isn't it supposed to be almost diamond-tough? And ebonite, too, is supposed to be a very robust material, impervious to things that destroy acrylic, celluloid, bakelite, lesser plastics, resin bodies, etc., isn't it?

 

The only thing I could think of, when I looked in the cap, I saw an exposed screw head for securing the clip. It appears to be brass, Perhaps they're worried about water seeping into the threads of that screw?

[txomsy]

No.

 

What they are worried is that in the presence of water and sunlight ebonite surface oxidises and changes colour. That is what they mean by the finish: humidity will slowly change its deep black to grey, an olive green and later a matte brown colour, thus spoiling the brilliant black finish.

 

That will affect surfaces exposed to humidity, which usually means outer surfaces. The section, being inside the cap and hidden from sunlight will keep black and you'd end up with a multicolour surface, which may look less attractive (within the limits of subjectivity, obviously).

 

For that reason you shouldn't soak it. If you need to, then you should dry it with a clean cloth immediately to reduce the chances of oxidation. The inner parts of the pen (in contact with water-based ink) should, being inside, not be a concern because they very rarely will see the light of day.

 

Your ebonite pen will still be robust, but the sunlight-exposed surface colour will be spoiled.