Soaking Vintage Pens In Water

[amk]

I never let water near my Watermans and Parkers, Edacotos or Bayards.

 

But I seem to remember being advised to soak Pelikans extensively before attempting any piston removal. Now why is this? Are Pelikans, or German pens in general, the one big exception? Or do they use different materials?

[Ron Z]

The mechanism in 600 and lower models is plastic, and isn't harmed by water. The 800 and 100 have a brass thread, plastic piston shaft, but water doesn't effect it either. Soaking allows the dried ink that is often in the back end of the pen to soften and also gets between the mechanism housing and the barrel wall so that the mechanism comes out more easily.

 

Note that if and when you do soak, it is usually over night, not days. Even so soaking, with a few exceptions, is not part of the repair process. Pelikans are one of the exceptions. Getting a section out of a pen is not.

[Vintagepens]

I too would recommend against removing nib and feed from the section without good reason, for all the reasons cited above.

 

Celluloid -- or, to be precise, some celluloids -- can indeed be harmed by soaking. Celluloid is a relatively permeable material, so it can end up stained if soaked in inky water. Again, the likelihood of this depends on the particular celluloid and the ink involved, as well as the time of exposure.

More seriously, celluloids with metallic pigments (gold or bronze, typically) can have the metallic parts of their patterning turned permanently dull and dead in color from soaking. Water will react badly with these pigments, especially if other cleaning agents such as ammonia are present.

[Inksomnia]

I would also add, that even if the pen body is celluloid, there may be parts that aren't. Like older Osmias may have a hard rubber piston turning knob. I learnt this in hard way, now I have one Osmia with weird olive greenish piston turning knob.

[Fangfarrier]

Hi

New guy question

 

I bought a Parker Victory (mark IV?) and left it overnight to soak. This morning, all the ink has gone off the nib but the case is a brown colour. Will this ever go back to black or have I ruined the pen?

 

Regards

 

F

[siamackz]

Hi

New guy question

 

I bought a Parker Victory (mark IV?) and left it overnight to soak. This morning, all the ink has gone off the nib but the case is a brown colour. Will this ever go back to black or have I ruined the pen?

 

Regards

 

F

Is it made of hard rubber? Can be reversed in this case but implies removing a very thin layer of material from the pen