Is It Advisable To Remove The Nib Unit During Flushing?

[Witsius]

Hello all. I generally don't remove the nib unit on my M205 during flushing, but today flushed my Pelikan, and was tweaking the nib as the tines had gotten slightly out of alignment. During the course of nudging the nib tines back into alignment, the nib unit had worked loose. So I figured since it was loose, I just unscrew it all the way. There was a fair amount of ink at the end of the nib unit that regular flushing did not remove. I took the opportunity to rinse out the end of the nib unit under the faucet.

 

Is it generally advisable to remove the nib unit during flushing?

[savingbirds]

I only do it when changing inks. If using the same ink, I just do a flush with water with the nib intact every five or so fills.

[gregamckinney]

I am of the school that less is more when it comes to dis/reassembly of pens for cleaning purposes.

 

Nine (or more) times out of ten, I just flush the pen thoroughly using the piston mechanism when changing inks. I would rather be patient and cycle the piston a few more times to get more stubborn ink out than risk misaligning the nib/ feed, or [shudder] losing the nib down the drain.

 

Best, greg

[Lam1]

I do it every time I clean a pen. It's so much easier, and if you are careful and don't over tight the nib back I don't foresee any problems.

[fplover01]

I personally only remove nibs if I am changing inks or the pen is going into longterm storage. But I am not looking to remove every single drop of ink from my pens unless I am putting it away for a long time and I use "normal" inks (that means no bulletproof or highly saturated inks). But I do use inks that contain iron gall like Salix.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Being lazy and having old pens where I don't want to work the piston back and forth a lot, I unscrew the nib, use a rubber ear syringe to wash out the pen... the same one I use to clean up C/C pens with. .

I swish the nib section in the bathroom sink....plug in, and even though it don't do much use the rubber syringe on it.

 

Then being lazy, I fill the pen a last time with clean water and screw the nib back on. Finally when I expel the water, it takes less times to move the piston as if I just fiddled with the piston alone.....And it don't take any more time than repeatedly sucking and expelling water with just the piston. Yes, one still has to pump fresh water in and out of the pen, but not near so often.

 

If the nib has not been removed before....soak it in the bottom of a cup for a few hours....

And a good habit to get into ... ...(((if you ever get any of the delicate 50's-65 old 4 comb ebonite feeds,)) take a folded paper towel, place in the crook of your left forefinger first joint, with the thumb on the top of the nib, twist the pen body Towards You, with the right hand.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson

[stephanos]

I don't think it makes much difference either way. I don't usually, but sometimes I do just what Bo Bo does with the bulb syringe.

[sargetalon]

I do remove the nib on modern Pelikans but I don't on vintage ones due to their fragility. Anytime you remove the nib, you take a risk of incurring damage but I find it a benign practice if you're careful Nib removal allows for more thorough and quicker flushing. If I'm not changing inks, I won't go to the trouble but if its for storage, I'll definitely do it. Flushing this way usually results in needing to re-lube the piston sooner, at least in my experience.

[fplover01]

I do remove the nib on modern Pelikans but I don't on vintage ones due to their fragility. Anytime you remove the nib, you take a risk of incurring damage but I find it a benign practice if you're careful Nib removal allows for more thorough and quicker flushing. If I'm not changing inks, I won't go to the trouble but if its for storage, I'll definitely do it. Flushing this way usually results in needing to re-lube the piston sooner, at least in my experience.

This has been my experience as well regarding piston lubrication.

[Nyanzilla]

I don't do this regularly. Usually I'm using the same ink in the same pen, so there's no need for perfect cleaning.

I remove the nib unit only when switching from a black ink to a light coloured or if the pen has been forgotten for a longer time an the ink in it has dried.

[sakayume]

I don't flush my pens if refilling with the same ink. If changing ink, then yes, I do unscrew the nib unit. I tried not doing so once, but even Alt Goldgrün took far more actuations of the piston mechanism than I had patience for and the water still came out green. I'm hardly the most particular when it comes to pen cleaning, but even that was not clean enough for me. I usually stop once the water is only slightly ink tinged and pressing a tissue to the wet nib always returns some ink, but this time, I could see that the barrel was still faintly green. That being said, I've changed inks in my Pelikans all of twice each in the year or so that I've had them. I prefer to choose a suitable ink and stick with it.

 

I wouldn't unscrew the nib of a vintage Pelikan though.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Well if you only use the same ink, my '50's Pelikan instructions agree with my '50's MB instruction paper, a pen should be cleaned every 3 months. There was no separate instruction to clean IG ink more often....and IG ink was common, in both companies made IG and regular inks.

 

Of course that was back in the day of One Man, One Pen, and used hours every day, so refilling flushed the pen.

That was before Supersaturated inks. If you use a supersaturated ink....even if only the same one, I do agree with cleaning the pen every 4-5 refills. There it is much better safe than sorry.

[sakayume]

Hmm, if my pens stop writing, I'll flush them. But so far they've been fine even under my neglectful care (or lack thereof).

[inkstainedruth]

I'll admit that I don't remove the nib unit, even when flushing between ink changes. I tend to do pretty benign flushing -- distilled water, followed (if necessary) by flushing and maybe soaking nib down (I use a plastic clothespin to hold the pen so the nib isn't hitting bottom in the glass votive candle holder), in dilute ammonia solution with a little Dawn dish detergent, then flushing really well with more distilled water. I haven't had any problems with the pistons sticking or needing silicone grease, so I figured that there hasn't been any need to remove the nib unit.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Sasha Royale]

Just because you can take it off, does not mean you should. Any time you do, you risk compromising the seal. Do it when you have to, not because you want to.

[alwayssunnyalwaysreal]

I don't remove the nib unit during flushing every single time. But whenever I feel that it is difficult to clean that particular ink or the pen doesn't write as nicely as before, then I remove the nib unit and flush the pen. So far there has been no issue (only need to occasionally lubricate the piston) on any of the pens.

[Christopher Godfrey]

Just because you can take it off, does not mean you should. Any time you do, you risk compromising the seal. Do it when you have to, not because you want to.

 

What seal, Sasha? I have removed almost all my vintage nib units at one time or another and I place just a dab of pure silicone grease on the nib thread before replacement...seems like good practice to me...?

[stephanos]

What seal, Sasha? I have removed almost all my vintage nib units at one time or another and I place just a dab of pure silicone grease on the nib thread before replacement...seems like good practice to me...?

 

 

Oh. That would be a good idea, I suppose.

I've never really bothered with silicone grease on the threads. Perhaps I've been lucky so far, but I've never yet had a Pelikan leak from the nib unit.

[bwDraco]

I do in fact remove the nib assembly every time I clean my Pelikans. I typically clean them out every 3-6 months (usually closer to 6) and have not had any issues.

 

What I do is rinse the nib, ink reservoir and cap, detach the nib assembly and drop it into a cup of warm water for a few hours (which helps get rid of any stubborn dried ink in it), then reassemble the pen.

[Manalto]

Here's a question I think is appropriate. Weren't vintage pens designed to be refilled when they ran out of ink, and occasionally flushed (once or twice a year)? I have a vague recollection of, when someone changed the ink in his pen, for a while it was a blend of the old and the new, until the second refill when the new ink dominated. Are modern pens designed to withstand the constant flushing that I read about in just about every thread here? It seems like a lot of unnecessary wear and tear on a pen. i understand the fascination with inks and the urge to try them, but flushing a pen, in my experience, takes a LOT of exchanges of water to get it clean.