How Long Do You Guys Spend Flushing Your Pens?

[CivilServant]

I just got a Parker 17 Lady and filled it up with ink but I forgotten to flush it before putting my own ink in! So now I have to flush it. How long does it take you guys usually to flush your pens well?

[blopplop]

I really think it depends on what type of filling system it is. I flush my pens almost between every filling. But that's because I like to switch inks a lot. Sheaffer snorkel's and Balances can take a long time... dozens of fill, empty, fill empty.

Vac fills on the other hand, are usually more efficient and quicker. I've never flushed a Parker 17, so I can't help you there.

 

It also depends on the type of ink. Waterman inks can flush fast. Certain types of saturated inks (like some Noodler's) can take longer. Flushing is a good thing to do to, though. Often IMHO.

 

 

Dave

[Jerome Tarshis]

Less than five minutes, if the pen has just now been filled with ink.

 

If I bought unknown pens at flea markets, or were less lucky on eBay, I might find myself flushing for days if not longer. But I haven't bought pens like that.

 

Incidentally, unless you hate the resulting mixed color, there's no real reason to flush a pen that's run dry just because you're putting in a new ink. This isn't brain surgery. No sterility is needed. I am happy to put up with random color combinations. In a short time the old color will disappear and the new color will dominate. Perfect control is for perfect lives. Or possibly for very imperfect lives.

[CivilServant]

I just got Diamine Claret and the blue was making it all purple. I'm okay with mixed colours but just wanted to see how well Claret writes! But it amazing how easy it is to flush the new ink out but the old blue ink still comes up again and again. It is probably going to take hours.

[praxim]

I flush pens on putting a them away for another, which so far is every time I finish its ink. Purely from observation, I have devised a general rule for cleaning containers where the [former] contents are easily water-soluble or need only good dilution. Three times is sufficient and five is clean. I am simply using normal fill-empty actions with the pen's mechanism, and I do rinse the nib under running water first. I have no experience with any Parker pen.

[Kublai Khan]

I keep my pens writing with the same color ink; mostly anyway. Flushing is once every 5 refills or so (if the pen has a converter) or every 2 refills (if EDs). The time between refills for the EDs is quite a bit since each ED holds a ton of ink. In sum, flushing isn't done much at all, unless I change a nib or converter, which is rarely. A minute of running the nib unit (the whole thing, unscrewed from the barrel) under cool tap water, then dabbing it dry and then leaving it to really dry, has been enough. No issue so far. When I bought a new converter (a couple of times), I've done a more involved flush of the converter before use.

[Chrissy]

I flush my pens until the water runs clear. But mine had scrupulously clean feeds before I filled them with known ink, and the ink hasn't been allowed to dry out in there.

 

For a pen that's had old, unknown ink, in it for a long time, I would flush it out until water runs clean. Then soak it overnight, up to the top of the section, either in a commercial pen flush or in a cup of warm water that has a couple of drops of dish detergent in it.

 

I would keep on doing this until it was perfectly clean. Then leave it, nib down, in wads of kitchen roll, until it's dry.

 

Fixed sac pens (aerometrics, vacs or bar fillers) take longer to flush out than piston or C/C pens.

 

It will probably need some pen flushing liquid in it's sac overnight.

[NinthSphere]

Until it runs pretty damn near clear. It's not a race. The only time I actually took notice of how long it took to flush a pen was a 51 aero that took two days of soaking to flush sufficiently.

[Flounder]

if we're not talking blocked or on first receipt, I just empty the pen, and cycle the filler with the nib in a beaker of clean water.

 

When it's expelling clean looking water, I fill it back up with water, and sit the pen in the empty beaker with paper towel on the bottom overnight. Any ink in the feed is driven out as the paper towel wicks all the water out of the pen. Oddly enough, separating the 2 ply sheet before lining the beaker gets it wicking out like crazy.

 

To paraphrase Scrooge, "Time will erase it, at no further cost to me!"

[jar]

Unless you are having problems with the new pen don't worry. Just use it until it's empty and the do a flush if you want. Historically pens might have gotten flushed once every year or three but most just got refilled and used.

[gryphon1911]

Mixed inks can be an issue if the chemical makeup of the inks interacts in a negative way. You can corrode things inside the pens or create a feed blockage. I talked to the guys over at Bexley pens and they had someone that mixed inks that didn't play well without flushing and it blocked the feed so bad, none of their industrial cleaners could get it working, so they had to replace the feed.

 

If you are using say Waterman Blue and just want to refill with Waterman Blue, you will be fine...but don't neglect a good cleaning regimen. It is recommended that you do a monthly or bi-monthly cleaning regardless by a lot of trusted source(and by that I mean trusted by me). YMMV.

[ENewton]

If I plan to refill a pen immediately with the same ink that was in it before, I do not tend to flush it. This level of insouciance gave me problems only once, when an ink coagulated in the converter of a pen, despite the fact that I had been using the pen on a daily basis.

 

If I plan to change inks to an ink that might react in an undesirable way with the previous ink--for example, if I am switching from an ink I know is acidic to one I know is alkaline--or if I plan to leave the pen empty for a while, I flush with distilled water until the water runs clear, first by drawing water up through the nib and feed and then expelling it, several times, then by using a plastic syringe to run water through the section. After flushing, I soak the section and converter in distilled water overnight and let it dry (on a paper towel, in a small box) for several days. I should say I actually look forward to this process: it's like a little "bedtime ritual" for the pen, and I usually do perform it in the evening.

 

If the pen is a lever filler, I try to use the same ink consistently, because I don't want to soak the whole pen.

[CivilServant]

Is it okay to leave the pen with water inside overnight?

[ENewton]

Is it okay to leave the pen with water inside overnight?

 

Fountain pen ink is largely water, so it's hard to imagine that any pen would be harmed by having water inside it overnight.

 

By contrast, some pens materials can be harmed by being immersed in water. Examples are given here: http://www.vintagepens.com/pen_repair_donts.htm

[tamiya]

Is it okay to leave the pen with water inside overnight?

sure! I've water filled some & forgotten about them for weeks or longer...

[dogpoet]

I flush them when I'm retiring them, but beyond, that tend not to bother.

[FOUR X FOUR]

If you have wonderfully soft water then don't worry about this. If you have hard water, like we do in Florida, finish off your flush with distilled water

[dogpoet]

Now that isn't something I'd ever heard. You can get limescale build up in pens as well as kettles?

[ac12]

Flushing depends on the pen and what is in the pen; dry or liquid ink, and ink color.

- Used Parker 51s with dried red or purple ink, has taken me up to 3 weeks of flushing/soaking to clean out. Changing the water in the pen at least 2x a day. For some reason, dried red and purple ink are just HARD to clean out.

- Liquid ink in a c/c pen maybe 4 hours; flush, soak 3 hrs, spin dry, final flush.

- Surprisingly liquid blue-black ink in a Wahl Doric lever filled sac pen, 1 week of soaking, changing the water sever times a day. Whatever that blue-black ink was, it did not want to get go of the ink sac.

So there is no "usual" time to clean a pen as it can differ significantly.

 

My routine is

- flush until the water comes out clean.

- put the pen nib down into a cup of water, up to the clutch ring for 6 hours. For a cartridge pen I submerge the section completely. To remove the dried and liquid ink in the feed that flushing won't remove. Repeat until no ink flows into the water.

- fill with water and leave flat to soak about 6 hrs (to disssolve the ink inside the sac, n/a for cartridge pens). Repeat until the ejected water is clean.

 

How long this takes is however long it takes to get through the process.

Edited July 16, 2016 by ac12

[Water Ouzel]

Now that isn't something I'd ever heard. You can get limescale build up in pens as well as kettles?

 

And iron. Need a lot of it, though.