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Is Liquitex Ink! Pen Cleaner Safe For Fountain Pens?


inkyelbows

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I recently bought some Liquitex Pen Cleaner at a local art store after staff reassured me it was safe for fountain pens, but I wanted to check with you experts to make sure since the official name of the product is Liquitex Professional Acrylic Ink Pen Cleaner, and the "acrylic" part makes me nervous.

 

I found a link to the product on Amazon, in case anyone wants to take a look to verify.

 

is this ok to use in my fountain pens? I don't have any expensive or vintage pens: just Lamy Safaris, Kaweco Sports and some Platinum Preppies. I know water and a bit of dish soap should be sufficient in most cases, but I was thinking of using this to clean the pens in which I'm using Platinum Carbon Black ink.

 

Advice appreciated!

 

Debbie

Debbie Ridpath Ohi - Twitter: @inkyelbows - Instagram: @inkygirl - YouTube: @debbieohi

My FP blog (fountain pen comics and doodles): Debbie Ohi's Inky Journal

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The short answer - unless your pen is pretty gunked up (i.e.: you let ink dry up to a crisp in your pen - don't do that!) rinsing with cool/cold water is likely all you need. Fill/empty a bunch of times.

 

For pens that are gunked up (I would never treat my pen that way, but sometimes I purchase a used pen that someone else did) I usually use some "pure amonia" to clean the pen. Just to explain a little further, ammonia is a gas that's dissolved in water to make a cleaner - a quart bottle is pretty cheap at my local drug store or supermarket. Sometimes its further doctored with detergent (cloudy ammonia) or lemon scent is added. Unless you writing needs some extra tartness, skip the lemon.

 

I dilute about 3 parts water with one part ammonia, and fill/empty a few times, maybe letting the pen sit for a few minutes filled with the mix. As one of my pen friends once said, that stuff eats ink. Rinse with clear water when done.

 

Another cleaner I sometimes use is a very dilute solution of dish washing detergent (not dishwasher detergent.) A few drops in 8oz of water, fill and empty a few times. Then you need to rinse out the detergent, or your writing will foam with bubbles. The problem with too much detergent is not that it will damage the pen, but that it takes forever to rinse out. In the case of carbon particle ink, that might be my first choice.

 

As to the Liquetex cleaner - here is a quote from the Amazon page:

 

Formulated for use with Liquitex Professional INK!

 

Here is the description of Liquitex ink from their web site:


Liquitex Professional Acrylic Ink! is a range of extremely fluid acrylic paints that use super-fine pigments in a state-of-the-art acrylic emulsion. They dry quickly, are permanent, water resistant and non-clogging,

 

In other words, these are dip pen inks, not suitable for fountain pen. So I wouldn't put the cleaner in my pen. Probably wouldn't cause damage, but there are so many better solutions that certainly won't.

 

If you want to buy a fountain pen cleaning solution, I've seen J.B.'s Perfect Pen Flush sold at most of the pen on-line stores. I doubt that this would work better than what I recommended, but it would cost more. In any case, designed for fountain pens.

 

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...

"Bad spelling, like bad grammar, is an offense against society."

- - Good Form Letter Writing, by Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. (Harvard);  © 1890

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When I think of Liquitex I think of acrylic paint -- not ink. Not something I'd feel safe to put in a fountain pen. If I were to have a pen that badly gunked up, I'd be more likely to be reaching for Rapid-o-eze and/or buying an ultrasonic cleaner....

Usually all I need at most is dilute ammonia solution, along with a drop or too of Dawn dish liquid (unless the ink was very acidic, such as an iron gall ink -- then instead of the clear ammonia in distilled water I'd be using white vinegar; in either case I'd be starting with distilled water -- my water has a very high mineral content -- and ending with distilled water).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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To Mark and Ruth:

 

Thanks so much for this advice! Ok, you have both convinced me: I'm going to save the Liquitex ink cleaner for my acrylics paintstuff, NOT my fountain pens.

And thank you also for the great advice re: safer/better cleaning solutions!

 

Debbie

Debbie Ridpath Ohi - Twitter: @inkyelbows - Instagram: @inkygirl - YouTube: @debbieohi

My FP blog (fountain pen comics and doodles): Debbie Ohi's Inky Journal

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