Sailor Black-Blue Ink Requires Frequent Pen Cleaning?

[andrewmaier]

I'm sorry if this is a FAQ, but I am new to the world of FP.

 

I just recently bought my second FP, a Sailor Sapporo, based on what I had read here. That is my second serious pen, after using pens mainly at school, which is quite some time ago.

 

I selected black-blue ink cartridges from Sailor to go with my new pen. The shop assistant told me that if I use this ink I would have to clean my pen regularly and to use the pen on a daily basis. I love this pen, it is smooth and the fine nib I chose really helps me to improve my atrocious handwriting. So using it on a daily basis should be no problem

 

So I would have a few questions:

 

1. I assume this is true, so why do I have to do this? What makes this ink special so that it requires frequent cleaning of my pen?

 

2. How often should I clean my pen? With every new cartridge? More of less frequent?

 

3. Most importantly, how should I clean the pen? (Distilled) water? Are there any nice descriptions of how to optimally clean your pen?

 

4. Finally, what will happen if I do not clean the pen or do not use the pen for an extended period of time?

 

Again, sorry if this are complete newby questions, bare with me.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Andrew

[tanalasta]

Is this the Sailor regular blue-black or the Sei Boku nano blue black.

 

If it is the nano blue black, it is a pigmented ink. This ink does require higher maintainance and doesn't mix well with other inks, with risk of preciptation. I'd flush it with every card and given it a good wipe. Damned Sei-Boku also nib creeps a bit, although otherwise is a fantastic ink that behaves well on paper.

 

Every day is a bit overkill. I've left mine for a week

 

If you don't clean your pen, you'll clog it. And if it's one of the nano inks, it'll be very annoying, irritating and time consuming to unclog. I'm not silly enough to let that happen!

 

If your water is particularly hard, bad, dirty then yes, distilled or filtered. I use tap water now most of the time although if putting away for storage will do the final flush or two in a clean bottle of bottled water.

 

Edited April 14, 2011 by tanalasta

[JMP]

I used to use Sailor Blue-Black on a regular basis. I did not find that my pens required any more frequent cleaning than with other normal inks. In fact, I frequently loaded Sailor Blue-Black in my wife's Pelikan that would often sit for months unused, only to flush it out and re-fill it with more without a problem. There are some Blue-Black inks, however, that contain a substance called iron gall, which helps make the ink more permanent on paper and less likely to run if it gets wet. These blue-black inks DO require more frequent use amd cleaning. Blue-black inks with iron gall content are made by Montblanc, Lamy, Diamine and possibly a few others. I am fairly certain that Sailor's Blue-Black is not an iron gall ink. Perhaps the salesman in the store got your ink confused with one of the iron gall blue-blacks mentioned above?

[andrewmaier]

Is this the Sailor regular blue-black or the Sei Boku nano blue black.

 

If it is the nano blue black, it is a pigmented ink. This ink does require higher maintainance and doesn't mix well with other inks, with risk of preciptation. I'd flush it with every card and given it a good wipe. Damned Sei-Boku also nib creeps a bit, although otherwise is a fantastic ink that behaves well on paper.

 

Every day is a bit overkill. I've left mine for a week

 

If you don't clean your pen, you'll clog it. And if it's one of the nano inks, it'll be very annoying, irritating and time consuming to unclog. I'm not silly enough to let that happen!

 

If your water is particularly hard, bad, dirty then yes, distilled or filtered. I use tap water now most of the time although if putting away for storage will do the final flush or two in a clean bottle of bottled water.

 

 

How do I tell the difference between regular and nano ink? On the box it says:

 

-----------------

Sailor

 

(Unreadable Kanji and some katakana)

 

Jentle Ink

(Some katakana, which if I transcribe this correctly (?) says "jentoru inku")

 

Blue Black

-----------------------

I assume this is regular blue black ink?

 

So I'm sort of safe

 

So what's the best way for pen cleaning then? Screw off the bottom part of the pen and rinse it tap water?

 

 

Thanks again

 

Andrew

[churl]

How do I tell the difference between regular and nano ink? On the box it says:

 

-----------------

Sailor

 

(Unreadable Kanji and some katakana)

 

Jentle Ink

(Some katakana, which if I transcribe this correctly (?) says "jentoru inku")

 

Blue Black

-----------------------

Jentle is the standard line of Sailor ink. The carbon nano ink is not 'jentle' and also would be a ton more expensive. On the website below you can see the packaging for the various lines of Sailor inks (no affil):

http://www.nibs.com/Inks.htm

[PJohnP]

Good "pen hygiene" is always a sound idea. The difficulty comes in describing what is "good" and "bad".

 

Generally speaking, cleaning your fountain pen at regular intervals by flushing with fresh clean water suffices to keep them running reasonably well. Some piston pens require lubrication from time-to-time using a very pure silicone lubricant. Other pens sometimes require more rigorous flushing because ink adheres to or is adsorped onto the sac in the pen.

 

There are a number of questions that swirl around on various inks - and these become quite heated - but the simplest point to note is that some colours of ink such as red, purple, or brown can be harder to clean from a pen. In some cases, converters can stain with ink colours and require stronger cleaning agents than fresh clean water.

 

Some inks do not mix well with other inks and produce ugly colours. Therefore, getting the pen thoroughly cleaned from one ink before starting another entirely different ink is a prudent course of action, Simply put, the colours of the inks don't mix and give you an unexpected result.

 

There are some inks that are chemically distinct, indeed, quite different than other inks, and mixing those inks can result in clogging, sediments, or gooey messes. Again, getting the pen thoroughly cleaned from one ink before starting another entirely different ink is a good practice. There are some inks that are chemically incompatible with some pen materials - search FPN and you can find more discussions on this than you may want to read. Some discussions are more than a little heated and then end up being locked out because of a lack of civility - you are cordially warned that this is not a good idea. Sailor Jentle has not been included in such discussions that I've read, so you're unlikely to have such effects.

 

If you're really concerned about cleaning the pen thoroughly, there are a range of remedies from home cleaning mixtures to commercially available mixtures, through complete disassembly with ultrasound cleaning.

 

However...

 

If you're using one ink colour from one ink company consistently in the pen, periodic cleaning and flushing will usually be adequate. If you leave the pen filled with an ink like Sailor Jentle for a prolonged period, it may be hard to start, could be a bit "clogged", and if extremely prolonged, may even plug. The typical way to address this is to soak the pen in clean fresh water for a day or two, and the clogging is typically dissolved. This is obviously not leaving the pen in a drawer for years, which might require more heroic measures.

 

I typically flush pens using a dedicated ink perhaps every three to four months, but I've even had pens in "one ink service" go much longer without any problems at all. You might want to clean and flush your pen a bit more frequently or not as it works out for your net ink usage. I've personally not found it necessary to clean and flush a pen with each cartridge's use over the years, but I use my pens fairly heavily, so ink moves through them correspondingly fast.

 

Enjoy the pen, load it with the Jentle cartridges, and periodically flush it, and you should have years of smooth successful writing.

 

 

 

John P.

[cubic archon]

I've used the Sailor Sei-Boku (nano) blue black in a number of pens and never had any issues with clogging or drying out from infrequent use. It is definitely very different from the Kiwa-Guro (black nano). As an example, just today I picked up a Safari 1.1mm italic that I'd loaded with Sei-Boku several weeks ago, and not even touched for at least a couple of weeks (I'd forgotten what was in the pen at all) and it wrote perfectly.

 

Sei-Boku is an extremely well-behaved and non-finicky ink in my experience. It's just the colour that I don't quite like, which is something of a "deal breaker" when it comes to ink.

[Joe in Seattle]

Not in my experience, as safe as Waterman's and more evenly pigmented. Never a hint of a problem.

[tanalasta]

I actually love the Sei Boku colour, especially as a work ink. It shades nicely in a wet pen. However, it definitely creeps on my Sailor naginata togi nibbed ProGear and there is just a small bit of precipitate from where the creep is that I've had trouble scrubbing out as it has dried. I haven't bothered with a long dip in the ultrasonic cleaner yet but a gentle wipe and rinse didn't clear it. Cosmetic only and doesn't bother me.

[andrewmaier]

Good "pen hygiene" is always a sound idea. The difficulty comes in describing what is "good" and "bad".

 

[...]

 

John P.

 

Thanks for this summary on pen care. I think I have now a basic understanding of how to take care of my pens. I probably will dedicate my Sailor pen to use blue-black ink. I really like the colour of the Sailor blue black.

 

Andrew

[BiggieD]

I use both Sei boku and kiwa guri in multiple pens. I treatthem no differently than any of my other pens (make sure to use itat least every two or three weks, flush evry two or three months.). I've never had any problems. These are two of my favorite inks!