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I recently got a used blue Parker Reflex with M nib on ebay for $9 (can't resist a deal on a blue pen!). The date code is II N which according to Parkerpen.net means 1989 (and also 1999, which seems a bit odd). But this pen also has the parallelogram emblem on the clip, which that Parkerpen.net also says was only present for one year, in 2002. I sent a contact form to site owner Tony but no response so far. Anyone shed more light on this apparent discrepancy?

The pen has been allowed to dry out twice & I wondered if it is possible to extract the nib & feed to give the assembly a good scrub. If that is not possible. How strong a cleaning agent can I use apart from dish soap? It has not been left with something nasty inside it, like Diamine Registrars Ink, just bog-standard dye-based ink. I did the trick with very dilute Ammonia solution to clean a '51's innards. However... The Reflex is not made of quite such good materials. The pen has some minor sentimental value, but it was only £12.50 back in December 2004. BTW it was made in Newhaven. I really liked it for the grip.

Water resistance tests on Reflex Blue copy paper (ie not white). 1 minute under running tap water. Selection of currently inked pens and personally preferred ink blends written with dip nib. Mostly Noodlers CMYK blends, a few Iroshizuku, one Private Reserve (Ebony Purple), and couple of J Herbins. Interesting outcome for one commercial ink and for a couple of blends. Noodler's Yellow: check out the paper bleaching after 1 minute rinse (third link below). Unexpected. Wouldn't have shown up if I had used white paper. While damp, I held the paper to the light to check it out, and the bleached areas appeared semi-translucent. The other Noodler's colours didn't have this effect and showed the regular type of behaviour I expected to see (Shah's Rose, Navajo Turquoise, and Bulletproof Black). My Noodler's 'random blend' (first link below) with black, navajo turquoise, shah's rose, xanthan, and titanium white luster was also a surprise. This was the dregs of a few xanthan x luster experiments, and had a much higher proportion of Bulletproof Black in it than any of my other CMYK blends shown in these water tests. There was a *lot* of luster in this ink as can be seen on the unrinsed side - the base ink is actually a very dark purple when wet, and it dries up to that very pale purple due to luster coverage. After rinsing, the lustre still adhered quite solidly in some areas; even in the faded areas an equivalent amount of 'faded' luster still adhered. Will post a close up shot later in the xanthan thread. I'm curious about this behaviour. Summer Lustre: Another ink blend with xanthan x titanium white luster, however did not behave in the same way as the 'random blend' with bulletproof - so there appears to be an interaction of some sort that occurred between bulletproof, xanthan, and luster, or maybe just bulletproof and luster in the 'random' blend. (FYI The plain ink version of Summer Lustre is shown just above and is called 'Sunset'.) If a blend interests you let me know and I'll post up the specifics. However as these tests are all on blue paper, they'll look different on white paper. Someday I'll get around to posting examples and ratios on white (ink cards are in the making). These are big image files. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1429165382__image.jpg https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1429165539__image.jpg https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1429165639__image.jpg