Koh-I-Noor Rapido Eze Pen Cleaner

[Strombomboli]

I just cleaned a pen with a stained ink window which, I guess, had twenty years to evolve with a strong solution of water and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). It took two days, but I didn't have to buy anything new and the pen is clean now and doesn't spoil other inks than black anymore.

Edited June 7, 2013 by Strombomboli

[Indy_Pen_Dance]

We use this in our repair shop as well. It is always secondary to the use of JB's pen flush - which takes care of almost all issues we come across. Every now and again this comes in handy though since it does , as Ron said, do away with India ink and usually the remnants of the toughest stains!

 

Linda

[Ron Z]

The most dramatic rescue was a Parker VP in which someone had used India ink and then allowed it to dry in the pen. You know how fragile the filler unit in these pens can be. It took three weeks of soaking in Rapiodo Eze, and gently cleaning with a wire, more soaking and flushing, but I eventually got all of the ink out of the feed and collector in the section AND all of the ink out of the filler unit. Richard now has the pen.

[FPFan]

In the past Rapid-O-Eze was all I ever used aside from tap water to clean my pens. Every pen after awhile lost it's piston fill lubrication, so I stopped using it in any pen I couldn't easily remove the nib from to re-grease the piston. YMMV. Which means I now only use Rapid-o-Eze in my Birds.

 

Great stuff. I buy it in the largest bottle I can get. Latest bottle is 8 fl. oz.

[nweissma]

I keep a bottle of Rapid-0-Eze in the shop at all times. Most of the time I use ammonia in water in my ultrasonic. But there are cases where this is not enough, and the Rapid-0-Eze is brought out. Ammonia will not remove India ink, Rapid-0-Eze will, and it will also very quickly break down the most stubborn dried ink.

 

In many years of use, I have never had it damage a pen, and it has saved many.

It's my understanding that India Ink will harm fp's. Your comment suggests that you do use India Ink in your fp. So how likely is India to injure fp's?

Edited October 9, 2015 by nweissma

[nweissma]

We use this in our repair shop as well. It is always secondary to the use of JB's pen flush - which takes care of almost all issues we come across. Every now and again this comes in handy though since it does , as Ron said, do away with India ink and usually the remnants of the toughest stains!

 

Linda

Please define “JB's pen flush”

[Ron Z]

It's my understanding that India Ink will harm fp's. Your comment suggests that you do use India Ink in your fp. So how likely is India to injure fp's?

You misunderstand the post then. Read it again.

 

I do not use India ink in fountain pens. If a client does, it voids the warranty. India ink will clog a pen so completely that in most cases the only way to clear it is to completely disassemble a pen and clean it in Rapido-Eze, and in extreme cases chase ink channels with shim stock.

 

This was a case where someone HAD used India ink in the pen, and clogged the filler so badly that it took three weeks of soaking in Rapido-Eze and running a wire through the neck of the filler to get all of the India ink out and rescue the pen from the trash bin. You can not take the filler of a VP apart without a very good chance of breaking the clear acrylic end of the filler because it is so brittle. To be able to clean it out completely is what made the rescue so spectacular.

 

 

JB's pen flush is a basic pen cleaner used to flush fountain pens for those who prefer not to mix their own. I understand that it works quite well. It contains water (volume) ammonia (you can smell that) a surfactant.

 

I prefer to make my own with water, clear ammonia (about 10%-20% ammonia) and a few drops of Dawn Dish detergent.

[nweissma]

You misunderstand the post then. Read it again.

 

I do not use India ink in fountain pens. If a client does, it voids the warranty. India ink will clog a pen so completely that in most cases the only way to clear it is to completely disassemble a pen and clean it in Rapido-Eze, and in extreme cases chase ink channels with shim stock.

 

This was a case where someone HAD used India ink in the pen, and clogged the filler so badly that it took three weeks of soaking in Rapido-Eze and running a wire through the neck of the filler to get all of the India ink out and rescue the pen from the trash bin. You can not take the filler of a VP apart without a very good chance of breaking the clear acrylic end of the filler because it is so brittle. To be able to clean it out completely is what made the rescue so spectacular.

 

 

JB's pen flush is a basic pen cleaner used to flush fountain pens for those who prefer not to mix their own. I understand that it works quite well. It contains water (volume) ammonia (you can smell that) a surfactant.

 

I prefer to make my own with water, clear ammonia (about 10%-20% ammonia) and a few drops of Dawn Dish detergent.

I don't know how i could have so grossly misread your post. Apologies.

Edited October 10, 2015 by nweissma

[David0966]

So, most people when using U/S cleaner dilute the Rapido-Eze (RE) 1:4 parts water?   That is what I'm going to do now-the RE is rather viscous, so thinning makes sense.

[inkstainedruth]

Not sure how I missed this thread before now.

I used to use Rapido-Eze to clean out my Koh-i-noor technical pens.  But I also never put India ink in them, using only the Koh-i-noor ink (I used mine for drawing, so I didn't mind that the ink wasn't super black like India ink is).  

India ink was restricted to the Speedball dip pens....

I did get a container of Rapido-Eze recently but have never used it.  Of course, after reading this thread, I may be rethinking that with the Parker 61 I bought yesterday at an estate sale, because so far I've have very little luck in flushing the pen out just with distilled water to get whatever ink is still in the capillary filler to flow (OTOH, I only paid $2 US for the pen...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

[Ron Z]

NO!  Don't use Rapidoeze in a 61.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the heads up, Ron!  I've just been trying to flush the pen out with distilled water, the way I did with my other 61s.  Got it writing last night, but by this morning it had stopped working.  So looks as if I'm going to be doing a LOT more soaking and flushing.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Gloucesterman]

On 8/18/2024 at 3:04 PM, inkstainedruth said:

Not sure how I missed this thread before now.

I used to use Rapido-Eze to clean out my Koh-i-noor technical pens.  But I also never put India ink in them, using only the Koh-i-noor ink (I used mine for drawing, so I didn't mind that the ink wasn't super black like India ink is).  

India ink was restricted to the Speedball dip pens....

I did get a container of Rapido-Eze recently but have never used it.  Of course, after reading this thread, I may be rethinking that with the Parker 61 I bought yesterday at an estate sale, because so far I've have very little luck in flushing the pen out just with distilled water to get whatever ink is still in the capillary filler to flow (OTOH, I only paid $2 US for the pen...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

Use an ultrasonic cleaner with the "61", Ruth.

Just soaking it in distilled water yields a VERY mild response.

 

[inkstainedruth]

That would involve me *buying* an ultrasonic cleaner -- and then finding someplace to STORE it....    

When I got my first 61, the guy I bought it from (don't remember the guy's name but he had a table at DCSS a number of years ago, back when it was in the old site in Tyson's Corners), said to stick it under the faucet after removing the barrel and flush it out that way.  But I have very hard water where I live, and so use a bulb syringe and distilled water instead.  That first 61 I was able to run for something like 3 months, just reconstituting the ink when it became a hard starter, until the ink was so diluted that it was pretty illegible on the page.  A couple of minutes on a regular basis with a bulb syringe and distilled water was all it took to get the ink flowing again.

The advantage to that method of flushing is that I can let the pen(s) soak in either ammonia solution or white vinegar solution and go check on the pens later after doing something else; then flush/soak them in distilled water as needed, and then let them dry (nib down) into paper toweling in another votive candle holder (I think I paid less than ten bucks for the two of them -- don't think I could an ultrasonic for that good a price -- need I remind folks that I'm a consummate cheapskate ), plus they both fit on my bathroom counter with plenty of room to spare as well).

This time though, it took several days of both flushing from behind with a bulb syringe AND soaking it, teflon sponge end down, in the votive candle holder I use for soaking pens.  But last night finally got it to write for more than a minute or two, and was able to use it for doing morning pages today and then later on to sign a couple of non-winning lottery tickets -- the grocery store down the hill from me has a monthly "second chance" kitty for losing tickets and if they draw your ticket you can win a gift card which can be used at any of their locations or or at the (current) affiliated gas stations; some Canadian company is buy all the Get-gos now, but supposedly you can still use your Giant Eagle card in the mini marts (and possibly also at the pumps).  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[grayautumnday]

On 4/30/2010 at 12:55 PM, SamCapote said:

I first heard about this from FPN member, kraz in this thread post here.

 

I had not heard of it being mentioned elsewhere, but having the name, I could then search and find it mentioned frequently on FPN. I decided to check into it a little further. I saw it was being sold at Blick's Art Supply here. A quick call to Nibs.com told me they were somewhat familiar with it, but recommended cleaning dried ink with a 1/2 cap of ammonia in a cup of cool water, drawing up for 20 mins, then ejecting and rinsing. Never use warm/hot water or alcohol which can damage the feed. Ammonia is NH3, and when added to water, becomes Ammonium Hydroxide which is a base (vs. an acid)

 

I clicked on the MSDS link for Koh-I-Noor, they have shown here, it has:

 

 

<1% Potassium Hydroxide

 

5-10% Triethanolamine

 

85-90% Water

 

 

I like to check a bit more than most people when a suggestion is made, and everyone just assumes the person telling them was automatically right, so I looked up the Koh-I-noor company which is based in Czechoslovakia here. I don't speak Czech, so I went back to the MSDS which revealed that it is manufactured by a MA company called Chartpak Inc!, so I called them (1-800-628-1910). They said they bought out Koh-I-noor (maybe worldwide, or maybe just their USA presence?), and they do make the cleaner in their lab. I asked to speak with their technical adviser, whose name was Barb Willard (x460). She confirmed that they mix up the product in their lab, and she works directly with them doing it.

 

She said it was completely safe for use in all fountain pens & feeds, and said it seems to work well even if dilluted with cool water 1:4.

 

Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) (like Ammonia) is also a strong base. Triethanolamine is also a base, but seems to be used as a surfactant/emulsifier agent.

 

So, I can see this may work a little differently than just some Ammonia in water. I wonder if it is similar to adding a few drops of dishwashing liquid to a dilute ammonia solution. I'm not as afraid of using it after doing this research and talking to Barb Weller.

This is so amazingly helpful! I buy Rapid-o-eze, but I happen to keep both KOH and TEA around (for making liquid soap concentrate and for adjusting final ph on diy skin/hair/home care/cleaning mixtures)...

 

... I was recently trying to wrap my head around the concept of buffering rather than adjusting ph in formulations with TEA (I failed chemistry in high school - too much arithmetic - my brain's built for more abstract stuff like algebra & calculus). I'm working on ink formulation using the fiber reactive dyes I already have, and wondering if TEA might be a better way to activate the dyes (which need a base pH to do their thing) to get them to exhaust reactions in their water solutions...

 

... unreacted (still active) dyes will likely cause damage to the various materials in pen parts as they snatch the ions they're missing from the plastics and metals etc they're in contact with. Besides time plus warmer temperatures, they need material to form stable molecules with. Part of that is increasing the pH - with cellulose fabric I use soda ash. In ink, I've been using some of my stash of potassium hydroxide, but I was curious if I could use up some of my TEA.

 

Now I just need to figure out what search terms to use to try to learn enough to weigh the pros and cons of using TEA to substitute for part of the surfactant I'll need to reduce surface tension to get a good wet/dry balance in inks.

 

An idea I'd considered along with TEA was to potentially add a small amount of cellulose to the solution (methylcellulose or rice starch) - I'd have to counter the added risk of microbial growth due to the presence of carbohydrate "food" for fungi type organisms, but then the dye could react with the cellulose in solution, the cellulose could act as an anti-feathering rheology modifier, the cellulose would also probably make the dye ink have some sort of pigment-like behavior, as the cellulose would sort of glom onto the cellulose content in paper (without risk of binding to plastics or rubbers or metals), increasing water resistance after drying...

 

so. many. variables!

[nigelg]

As an interesting aside TEA (Triethanolamine) is also used as the reagent in Palmes-type diffusion tubes as an absorbent for ambient NO2 in air quality monitoring.

[Gloucesterman]

4 hours ago, nigelg said:

As an interesting aside TEA (Triethanolamine) is also used as the reagent in Palmes-type diffusion tubes as an absorbent for ambient NO2 in air quality monitoring.

I never knew that.

Seriously, thank you for the clarification. when I saw the term used, I was going to ask and had not got around to posting the question.