Vintage Kaweco Dia Ink Window

[PotatoJesus]

So recently I came into possession of a vintage kaweco dia in pretty good condition, except for the chew marks on the piston nob. An issue, if I could even call it that, that I am having with the pen is that in other pictures I see online for it (granted an older looking model), the ink window is a blue color and is pretty translucent. However this pen, even after flushing it with pen flush and letting it sit in some water to get any dried ink, the ink window is pretty much black unless I put it right next to a bright light. Although its not really much of a big deal to me, I am wondering if there is any way to get ink window more visible or if this is just a feature of the pen and not a bug. Thanks for any input!

[Chrissy]

It's possible that the ink window is permanently stained due to the ink that a previous owner used in the pen. If you've let pen flush sit in there for some hours, and it's still black then I'm not sure there is anything else that might make it return to how it was originally.

[kpong11]

You may try to unscrew the nib unit and use Q-tip to clean out some old ink in ink window area.

[OMASsimo]

This is a typical issue with many vintage piston fillers that have ink windows. Fairly acidic iron gall inks were in widespread use and stained the material making it opaque. A few materials seem to have held up a little better than the majority, among those seems to be the stuff Pelikan used. I haven't seen a stained ink window in a Pelikan yet. Kawecos like most others often have stained ink windows. If it was blue originally, it was from the 1950s onward and in my experience staining is less common. But that observation might correlate with IG inks becoming less common with time.

 

Anyway, if it's IG ink stain, there is little you can do but live with it. It's going to stay unless you physically remove the stained layer. But that would call for a lathe rather than a q-tip.

[PotatoJesus]

Thank you for all your comments! Seeing that it is a permanent it cant be helped. But it does kinda look nice as an all black pen.

[siamackz]

You could also try Rapidoeze solution - suck it up and let it sit in the ink window for 20min. Do this for 2-3 cycles. If anything can possibly help, this will.

 

Also, for a more risky intervention, take out the piston and the nib and use soap and a tiny bottle brush to really get in there and brush the ink window.

 

Last resort, if you really hate the stains (and it is in fact just stains and not serious ambering of the celluloid from within), then you can get some 12000 grit micro mesh into the barell and polish out the window from the inside. This will, however, reduce the amount of material from the inside which means the piston will not suck up ink as it moves through the ink window area any more (effectively reducing your ink capacity by about half or more). I would not do this if I were you. But, Im just saying, technically its a option. I used it on a 149 whose ink window was seriously scratched up from the inside for some reason. The window is beautiful now but the ink capacity has reduced (which is fine for me on a massive capacity pen like the 149, but maybe not on a tiny Dia).