Jump to content

Cleaning S.t Dupont Sterling Silver


kats17

Recommended Posts

I recently aquired this S.T Dupont Sterling silver pen. It is excellent for writing. Infact it is the best i found among the pens i got!

My question is should i clean it? If so how to go about doing it. I cant find much information about this pen type. Please help


post-137763-0-00097600-1500869620_thumb.jpg

post-137763-0-82974900-1500869635_thumb.jpg

post-137763-0-68054400-1500869687_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 12
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • kats17

    4

  • Chrissy

    3

  • Flounder

    2

  • aggoo

    2

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Congratulations. It looks like a Classique. I gather there were a number of variants, about which other people will know more than me. The pen looks dirty enough that I would try a softish brush to remove grit before a silver cloth, or if you are having trouble getting dirt from the grooves then a brush with a polishing paste for silver.

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It looks like one of the earlier Classique models with the semi-hooded nib and longer cap.. The nibs on these are sublime, as I think you have discovered.

 

I'll tell you what I do when I receive a sterling silver pen and I want to remove tarnish without the risk of damaging or scratching it with polish.

 

Line a bowl with aluminium foil and boil the kettle. Place the barrel and cap in the bowl and pour enough boiling water until the pen parts are fully submerged. Then shake liberal amounts of sodium bicarbonate into the water and you'll quickly see bubbles forming on the sterling silver. keep shaking more bicarbonate in to the water until there are no more bubbles forming. The tarnish on the pen will be transferred to the foil, which will have darker marks on it, and your pen should look beautifully shiny again. The pen parts must be touching the foil for the reaction to work. Should take less than a minute to do the whole pen.

 

This will only work if the pen is clean from debris. You'll also need to make sure you then rinse out the pen parts really well when you've finished, otherwise there will be slimy bicarbonate deposits left in the cap or barrel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also tend to use a silver cloth, but am extremely careful to not rub hard and to not over clean where the silver hallmarks are since they could eventually wear away. Montblanc provide silver cloths with their silver pens so they are what users use to clean their pens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you praxim, aggoo and Chrissy for your suggestions. I am still apprehensive cos' I never try to clean my ancient coins except when the details are hidden or when the legends are not clear. And it can be a nightmare sometime!

@ aggoo are there any plastic parts inside the pen cap?

should i use tap water or distilled water? I have sometimes used commercial drain cleaner (i think it contains sodium hydroxide) available in market for removing the muck in copper/ copper alloy coins without causing much damage to the patina. Can this be used for silver as well?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

should i use tap water or distilled water? I have sometimes used commercial drain cleaner (i think it contains sodium hydroxide) available in market for removing the muck in copper/ copper alloy coins without causing much damage to the patina. Can this be used for silver as well?

 

 

Tap water will be fine. Commercial drain cleaner? :yikes: No don't go anywhere near any of your pens with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Tap water will be fine. Commercial drain cleaner? :yikes: No don't go anywhere near any of your pens with that.

ha ha ... got it.. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. I wouldn't risk drain cleaner with this pen. Truth be told, it probably wouldn't damage the silver that much, but it would possibly damage the inner plastic cap liner. It might also induce further tarnishing quicker down the line.

 

There is a plastic liner in these pens, which secures the section/barrel into the cap. You won't do any damage to it using the method I mentioned - just make sure you rinse it thoroughly afterwards to avoid bicarbonate deposits.

 

You can remove the liner if you want to. On the newer Classique pens there is a screw at the top of the inner cap which holds the liner and clip in place. It's pretty straight forward to remove and the liner will pop out. Putting the screw back though can be quite challenging because when you drop it back in to the cap, it tends to turn upside down. If it's a steel screw and you have a magnetic screwdriver it shouldn't be too difficult. My Dupont from the same period as yours does not have a screw holding the liner in place. It looks more like a stud of some sort and I wouldn't have a clue how to remove it. Quite honestly, I wouldn't bother taking the liner out.

 

Would love to see the finished results once you have decided how to clean your pen:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While the aluminium foil + baking soda method has merit in cleaning silver without polishing off a layer, I really can't advocate boiling water where plastic is present.

Latest pen related post @ flounders-mindthots.blogspot.com : vintage Pilot Elite Pocket Pen review

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a few Sterling Silver pens and I simply use the polishing cloth that comes with the pens. If you didn't get the polishing cloth drop ST Dupont a nice email and I bet they can send you one.

 

My Website

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a few Sterling Silver pens and I simply use the polishing cloth that comes with the pens. If you didn't get the polishing cloth drop ST Dupont a nice email and I bet they can send you one.

 

+1 for this. I bet they would too. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I keep my silverpolishing cloth in a ziplock baggie, seems to help keep whatever is impregnated in the cloth from disappearing. Same goes for the gold one :thumbup:

Latest pen related post @ flounders-mindthots.blogspot.com : vintage Pilot Elite Pocket Pen review

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you everyone.. I will meditate for now on the various suggestions given here..hope enlightenment comes soon..

i am thinking of just trying the silverpolish cloth alone

will post the result when time permits

Edited by kats17
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...