How Do You Flush A Pen

[CryptoDave]

I have a 2 part question:

1. What is the best method for flushing a Replacable Cartridge Fountain Pen, here I assume it's the nub that you are actually flushing, (please be specific) and how often?

2. What is the best method for flushing a Pistion Fountain Pen (again specifics are much appreciated as I am new to this) and how often?

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[JefferyS]

I use one of those rubber bulb syringes. The tip of it fits very cleanly into the back of the nib. I think I got mine on Amazon.com, but the are probably available in any well-stocked drug stores. After squirting water through the nib, I then force some air through it to clear residual water.

 

On amazon.com, it is called a Bulb Syringe Aspirator, for cleaning out infant nostrils.

Edited November 22, 2012 by Jeffery Smith
added another sentence

[51ISH]

Here's a video to help:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzKVykcNP6M

 

 

 

And another using the bulb syringe recommended by Jeffery Smith

 

 

 

[daTomoT]

With a cartridge, I run cold water through the nib section until it runs clear. Lacking a bulb syringe, I then blow through the feed to dislodge excess water. Finally, I soak the nib for half an hour, or more if ink keeps coming out of the feed. Ten, I leave it to dry.

 

With a piston, I run the nib under cold water until it runs clear. Then, I use the piston to pull water in, and flush it out until this two runs clean. I then remove the nib section from the pen (easily done, in most cases), run the section under the cold tap, then soak the nib section AND the pen body in cold water. When the nib and feed stop pooling out ink, rinse them under running water and let them both dry. The same for the body.

 

My Pelikan nib section always holds ink even after rinsing and flushing, hence the soaking. After a few minutes, ink begins seeping out to lay at the bottom of my sink. Every ten minutes, I change the water, as there is a risk of staining the ceramic of the sink. I nearly stained mine, first time round!

[daTomoT]

PS; before I found this wonderful forum, I used Parker black cartridges in my Parker non stop for two years without flushing it. Empty cartridge, new cartridge in immediately. Never a colour change, never a flush. Now, the pen is in perfect health, but I wouldn't recommend doing this! If you're using same colour cartridges, my advice is flush at least every three fills. If you change colours, you MUST flush between fills. See my post on this thread as to why.

 

Hope it helps!

[lapis]

Don't forget that one of the biggest advantages of Pelikans (IMO) is that you can screw the nib out of the section/barrel yourself. Just do it with a bit of caution and feeling. Then you can rinse both parts under water (either running or standing in a big glass) and/or leave both in water over night. Especially the latter may occasionaly surprise you how much ink has remained adsorbed to the inner parts.

Then... dry everything for a day or two before refilling.

 

Voilà

[Ylvan]

I have a Lamy 2000, do I have to unscrew it to flush it or can I simply use a glass of water and do as I would when I fill it with ink?

[85AKbN]

Is there a way to use a bulb syringe to flush a Lamy 2000?

[lynxcat]

piston-fill pens like the Lamy 2000 typically can't be bulb flushed, because the piston mechanism is usually permanently attached. you'd just have to twist the piston up and down a lot of times, filling and emptying the pen with whatever you're using to flush it.

 

in unusual cases (Noodler's Ahab, for one) the piston mechanism actually unscrews easily. those pens, you can treat like cartridge pens and bulb flush; but that's more of an exception with piston fillers than the rule.

[85AKbN]

piston-fill pens like the Lamy 2000 typically can't be bulb flushed, because the piston mechanism is usually permanently attached. you'd just have to twist the piston up and down a lot of times, filling and emptying the pen with whatever you're using to flush it...

 

That's what i thought. Wouldn't it be great to have an attachement (for the Lamy 2000) that connects to the front nib section that could receive a bulb syringe.

[Sherwood Forester]

The same method can be used for both types.

 

Raise seat lid

 

Drop writing instrument into pan

 

Depress handle or pull chain

 

Pen is quickly and completely flushed.

 

 

This method does not, however, guarantee subsequent faultless writing performance.

 

The pursuit of such may well drive you round the bend

[Vendome]

I rinse all my pens under the cold water tap until the nib runs clear. Then for internal flushing, on my cartridge Parkers, I have a spare push / pull converter that I use to flush water through, again until the water runs clear.

On my twist converter pens and my Reform 1745 piston pen, I just top them up with cold water, (as you would do when filling up form an ink bottle) and then flush them through several times until they run clear.

 

After a brisk shake into the sink, I then let them stand, nib down, in an old cup filled with kitchen roll, whereby the action of the pen with the nib touching the kitchen roll will draw out any remaining drops of water in the pen.

[85AKbN]

The same method can be used for both types.

 

Raise seat lid

 

Drop writing instrument into pan

 

Depress handle or pull chain

 

Pen is quickly and completely flushed.

 

 

This method does not, however, guarantee subsequent faultless writing performance.

 

The pursuit of such may well drive you round the bend

 

 

^ ^ ^ lol

 

flush twice - it's a long way back to china. http://pics3.city-data.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Edited December 8, 2013 by v7ef44

[85AKbN]

I rinse all my pens under the cold water tap until the nib runs clear. Then for internal flushing, on my cartridge Parkers, I have a spare push / pull converter that I use to flush water through, again until the water runs clear.

On my twist converter pens and my Reform 1745 piston pen, I just top them up with cold water, (as you would do when filling up form an ink bottle) and then flush them through several times until they run clear.

 

After a brisk shake into the sink, I then let them stand, nib down, in an old cup filled with kitchen roll, whereby the action of the pen with the nib touching the kitchen roll will draw out any remaining drops of water in the pen.

 

Spare converter for cleaning / flushing. Wow - that only makes sense. If you are sticking with the same ink, why flush out the convertor "and" the feed / nib? Thanks for that great tip.

[Vendome]

 

Spare converter for cleaning / flushing. Wow - that only makes sense. If you are sticking with the same ink, why flush out the convertor "and" the feed / nib? Thanks for that great tip.

 

I keep the Parker push / pull converter as I have a couple of Vectors that I use as cartridge pens.

One for washable blue and the other is my washable black cartridge pen.

[85AKbN]

 

I keep the Parker push / pull converter as I have a couple of Vectors that I use as cartridge pens.

One for washable blue and the other is my washable black cartridge pen.

 

I'll get a couple more Z24 Lamy converters that will remain ink free (except for the small amount during flushing) and will be dedicated to flushing out my Al-Stars. Your idea only makes sense!

[Vendome]

 

I'll get a couple more Z24 Lamy converters that will remain ink free (except for the small amount during flushing) and will be dedicated to flushing out my Al-Stars. Your idea only makes sense!

 

Ta mate.

 

I don't bother faffing about with pen rotation, swapping inks about in different pens to be used at varying times. I have dedicated pens that only ever have one ink in them. (Even my cartridge carry-about Vector pens.)

 

Jason

Edited December 8, 2013 by Vendome

[85AKbN]

Ta mate.

 

I don't bother faffing about with pen rotation, swapping inks about in different pens to be used at varying times. I have dedicated pens that only ever have one ink in them. (Even my cartridge carry-about Vector pens.)

 

Jason

 

That makes total sense also. I could follow that guidance easily.

[ac12]

There is flushing and there is cleaning. The 2 terms are many times mixed up, and flushing is used when the task is cleaning.

 

Depending on the pen and its design, you are flushing the section+feed or just the feed. You are not really flushing the nib, as the nib is only a "cap" on the feed and the feed channels in the feed. OK you are also flushing the slit in the nib.

 

Flushing, as far as I have been able to see how the various uses of that term is, the forced moving of water or a cleaning solution thru the section/feed/nib assembly in order to remove ink from the section/feed.

The 2 common methods are 1) using the ink converter and 2) using a bulb syringe.

I use a bulb syringe to flush my cartridge pens, as it is MUCH more efficient than using the converter to flush the pen.

Flushing however, will only "flush" the ink from the intake and output ink channels in the feed. These are where you can force the water or cleaning solution thru.

 

There is an important next step, that takes you from flushing to cleaning.

 

There is an ink reservoir in the section/feed that in my experience flushing will NOT clean out. It is implemented in different ways, such as the fins on the feed, or the collector in the section. The reservoir will not clean out because the ink reservoir is out of the direct path of the water/cleaner flow when you flush a pen.

To clean the reservoir, I follow up the flush with an overnight SOAK of the section, tip down in a tall shot glass.

In the soak, the ink in the reservoir will liquify (if it is old dry ink) and drift out of the section/feed, and gravity will bring the heavier ink to the bottom of the glass.

If you are changing inks, especially if changing ink colors, you NEED to clean out the ink reservoir of the old ink, or you will have an ink mixture when the 2 inks mix in the reservoir. While this might be fun to some, it is an irritation to others that want the new ink color, not some combo of old+new ink colors.

 

Depending on the pen/ink combo, several soaking draining cycles over many days may be required to get the old ink out of the reservoir.

 

In my experience, using a USC will not replace soaking to clean the the ink reservoir, unless you can take the section/feed/nib assembly apart. With an assembled section/feed/nib, and several cycles thru the USC, I still get ink drifting out after an overnight soak. On pens that are easy to take apart (like a Parker 45), I will disassemble the section, feed and nib and put it into the USC to clean out the old ink. When taken apart, the USC can clean the reservoir more effectively. BTW, the P45 is my favorite pen from the perspective of ease of cleaning.

 

As with Vendome, I have several pens, and keep the same ink in the pen. This eliminates the hassle of cleaning the pen to change inks, then later cleaning to change back. I infrequently change inks in a pen, and so far that has been for specific performance reasons, such as

- The pen/ink combo is too wet or too dry and needs to be replaced with a different ink to get the ink to flow properly.

- Blue ink does not provide enough contrast out of a XF nib, so I switched from blue to black in the XF nib pens.

I can also see having to go thru this process if I change my primary business ink from blue to black.

Edited December 8, 2013 by ac12

[mhosea]

I use a bulb syringe first when I can. There is one important thing that a lot of people apparently don't get right about bulb syringes, though. If you just force water through at a high rate, then you will probably not clean out the periphery of the feed. By all means, start out by forcing water through at a good clip, until it starts clearing out, but then force more water through at a very slow rate, slow enough that the water forms large drops under the feed rather than streaming out. I also vary the orientation of the nib when doing this, but I'm not sure it matters. You can also use the bulb syringe to suck up water as if drawing in ink. These things do help, generally. Why do I think so? Because after I use a bulb syringe, I use an ultrasonic cleaner, and I can tell how much more comes out, or doesn't come out, when I use the ultrasonic with an ammonia and Kodak Photoflo flush. I also sometimes stop the ultrasonic and flush a little to speed things along. With most pens, the bulb syringe can get nearly all the ink except for ink on top of the nib, completely away from capillary paths, that only got there from filling the pen. With some pens the ultrasonic is a requirement, and if you can't be bothered to spend a little on a cheap ultrasonic, then soaking is the standard alternative.

 

For piston pens, I use the piston to fill and empty repeatedly, but then I fill with water as completely as possible and use the ultrasonic with just the nib and section immersed as if filling the pen with ink. Then I empty that and repeat. Sometimes I use an ammonia and photoflo flush solution in the ultrasonic. It's much faster with the ultrasonic than just using the piston alone and faster with the flushing solution in the ultrasonic than with water alone. The only pens I ever need to soak to get completely clean are vintage pens with dried ink deposits.

 

After flushing, I shake out the excess like a thermometer (and be careful with this--keep a tight grip and imagine accidentally throwing your pen the whole time). This will leave variable amounts of water in your feed, depending on the pen type. If I am planning to refill the pen right away, I just suffer the initial dilution. If not, I usually just leave the pen uncapped overnight. It's probably better to put it nib down on a pad of paper towels in a cup to let the rest wick out, but generally I can't be bothered.

 

Despite the long description, it never takes me more than 5-10 minutes from beginning to end. Anything involving soaking, though, is a longer thing, though with the same amount of hands-on time. Spending $40 or so on an ultrasonic is a good move, I think. Just make sure it has a plastic internal bin.