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Cleaning Pens


IndieNote

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Hello guys!

 

This is going to be my first thread here on fpn. I am thinking about getting into this hobby, planning to start with Pilot Metropolitans, TWSBI Ecos and Lamy Al-stars. I have a concern though. I clean and disinfect every inanimate objects I buy and fountain pens will be no exception.
So, I would like to know if I can wash pens thoroughly with dish gel/liquid soap or anything that would form lather. I will just rinse it afterwards the way will do with dishes but with hands only. I will try to avoid anything with alcohol. Can I clean it this way? I am mostly concerned about cleaning the barrels inside and out. Has anyone cleaned these above mentioned pens this way?
Please guide and I hope everyone will be kind.

 

Thanks in advance.

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The normal cleaning process for many pens is a dilute detergent (sometimes adding ammonia) solution. There's more information in the Inky forum as well as the repair forum.

 

You shouldn't have to go nuts with disinfecting them; these aren't like the old horsehair shaving brushes from WW-I that ended up with anthrax spores.

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The inside of a pen doesn't need disinfected only gently cleaned when being refilled. Cleaning more when changing colors or if a pen has sat for months since it was last cleaned.

 

The outside of the pen I don't see an issue cleaning as you feel it requires but I would stay away from areas that have/carry ink. Over cleaning, like removing nibs,feeds,pistons,etc can cause a pen to wear out or break sooner. Also removing something like a piston or taking a converter apart would require you reapply silicon grease to the seals.

 

If you decide to go with fountain pens, I suggest you stick to cartridge/converter pens. Easier to clean and easier to replace a converter than an internal piston or other filling system. I suggest you completely stay away from vintage pens that are going to be more fragile and have internal sacs and metal parts that could get rusted from over cleaning.

 

Start out with a Platinum Preppy for $5 or the next step up Platinum Prefounte for $10 and go nuts. You won't be out much if you over clean and you will get a feel for things.

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I will just rinse it afterwards the way will do with dishes but with hands only. I will try to avoid anything with alcohol. Can I clean it this way? I am mostly concerned about cleaning the barrels inside and out.

 

I've cleaned some pen barrels inside and out, but only with the intent of removing all traces of ink — either from unintended leakage out of converters, or where the barrel serves as the pen's ink reservoir by design, before filling the pen with a different ink — but not potentially infectious organisms or substances.

 

I don't imagine you'll do actual damage to the caps and barrels of Pilot MR and LAMY Al-Star pens, by cleaning in that manner, but to what end? You aren't going to be touching the inside of the barrel, but you will be touching ink cartridges and converters. I second Driften's advice above not to attempt to disinfect the inside of the pen's ink reservoir, such as the cavity of an ink converter; you could inadvertently damage it and render it less than airtight (thus compromising its core function) or make it more prone to staining (if you scratch the surface of its wall), and/or you could fail to then remove all traces of disinfectant from its wall and compromise the qualities of the ink with which you subsequently fill it. If you're going to use bottled ink (which you'll need for piston-fillers, such as the TWSBI Eco), you can't really disinfect the liquid itself, which will most likely already contain biocides, but finding contaminated ink and SITB (stuff-in-the-bottle) as supplied by retail channels is not completely unheard of.

 

Start out with a Platinum Preppy for $5 or the next step up Platinum Prefounte for $10 and go nuts. You won't be out much if you over clean and you will get a feel for things.

Alternatively, get some cheap Chinese piston-fillers that lend themselves to be completely disassembled and thereby give full access to the inside of the ink barrels. If you screw one up, that's a learning experience that only cost a few dollars. The Wing Sung 3008 is very good for that, or even one of these which aren't actually the WS3008.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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There are some good videos on youtube about how to flush/clean a pen. Goulet has a couple I like (also available on their web site). I flush with distilled water and a drop of Dawn. Some folks flush repeatedly until clear. Some pull diluted soapy water up into pen then let it sit nib down in container so gravity pulls ink down and out. If your pens have a removable converter/cartridge, get a bulb syringe (for cleaning baby's ears or camera lenses) and force first soapy then clear distilled water through grip/nib. I never ever use anything but a diluted Dawn solution for cleaning.

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