Inky T O D - Do You Use Cleaning Solutions?

[amberleadavis]

Several great companies offer pen flushes. I've tried some. I'm not sure how I feel about them. Sure my pen is cleaner, but shortly there after, my TWSBIs go on strike.

 

So, do you use them? If so why? What do you like or not like? Which ones do you use?

 

If you don't use them, why not?

[ac12]

Not the commercial stuff.

I use a 10% ammonia solution to clean inbound used pens, where plain water is not sufficient to dissolve the decades old ink.

Otherwise I use plain water, sometimes filtered, sometimes right from the tap.

 

I did have one instance that I really wanted the strong stuff. Someone put what I would guess as India ink into an Esterbrook dipless inkwell. It was a complete PiA to clean out. Did not dissolve in water. I had to use my USC and the 10% ammonia solution, and even then it took a long time. I think I even cranked it up to 50:50 ammonia:water. It took a LONG time to clean out the old ink.

 

I plan to get one of the cleaning solutions, as I will be using India ink for my dip pens, so I will need it anyway. I just have to decide which one to get.

Edited June 18, 2014 by ac12

[FountainPages]

I use a home made recipe: One ounce clear, non-sudsing ammonia, Nine ounces distilled water, and One drop Palmolive dish soap. Works very well for me.

[BiggieD]

Bought JB Pen flush 'cause it looked cool. I don't really use it. I just use water and an occasional run in an ultrasonic cleaner with water and a bit of dish soap.

[napalm]

Just warm water. I never ran into any situation requiring more than that.

 

The carpets on the other hand.....

[WC Lee]

Usually use water only, on rare occasion, I will add a drop of dish detergent or add some ammonia.

[alarickc]

Heh, I just have a mug in my bathroom. I fill the bottom up with some amonia and then the rest of the mug with distilled water. Hasn't melted anything yet.

[ttakacs]

Two parts Formula 409 to one part Green Works dishwashing liquid. But only when cool water isn't working.

[Bookman]

Just cold water, unless I'm preparing to use, or I just finished using, a pigmented or iron gall ink. In which case I take the nib and feed out and scrub each with a toothbrush, a drop of liquid handsoap, and cold water.

[colrehogan]

I have used the Goulet pen flush a couple of times, but in general, I flush my pens with water.

[leofoam]

i have a mason jar full of homemade flush. I use it regularly to clean a pen before putting it away for a long time

[Runnin_Ute]

I have only used water - warm but not hot. Usually does the job. Although I have thought about getting some for my technical pens.

[inkstainedruth]

I use a home made recipe: One ounce clear, non-sudsing ammonia, Nine ounces distilled water, and One drop Palmolive dish soap. Works very well for me.

My recipe is similar, only I'm just eyeballing the ratios of water and ammonia, and I use Dawn). If I'm cleaning out an iron gall ink, I'll do a vinegar solution flush, then do a distilled water flush, before the ammonia solution flush. I always use distilled water, even when just flushing with water, because our tap water is very hard, with lots of mineral deposits on the fixtures -- I'd rather not have that stuff in my pens (although I will flush out caps under the tap).

I did pick up a container of RapidoEze for "just in case" but haven't had to use it yet. Although if I ever pull out my old Rapidograph set from college it might come in very handy -- I have no idea what shape they got put away in, because I haven't used them in so long.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Komitadjie]

Water most of the time, although for tough stuff I'll resort to a 10% ammonia solution. I use the ultrasonic quite often, just as a general easy added clean, with no risk of damage to the pen.

[WilsonCQB1911]

Water unless I need more. I have the Goulet flush. The only time I've needed it was when filling my pen with Kung Te-Cheng. That stuff froze up a Metropolitan after a few days sitting idle so solidly that water could not returning it to a working state. The pen flush fixed it in just a few seconds.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Water.

I've used JP once or twice to see how it worked....good.

Went to the pharmacist, got some 25% pure ammonia. If Germany has household ammonia I don't know of it. Dilute it down to 10%...worked.

But mostly I use water for old or new...even old IG. Just takes longer. How ever I've not bought an old pen in a while.

Which I now know, one should use a diluted vinegar for old IG inks.

 

Never used liquid dish soap.

[casualmerlinconstant]

Nah, I don't BSB so not really a problem. Just rinse until clear

[lapis]

Usually use water only, on rare occasion, I will add a drop of dish detergent or add some ammonia.

+3

[PJohnP]

Sure. Some inks are rather tenacious and require more effort than simply flushing with cool fresh water.

 

I've used Koh-i-Noor commercial cleaner on occasion, as it was a stalwart from draughting days as an engineer.

 

I've also made up a home-brew with distilled water, ethanol, and ammonia that works a treat for most of the more stubborn inks. Quite obviously, this isn't a solution for long soaking or filling overnight, but it will pull off strongly pigmented inks or inks with deep dyes that flushing won't budge. It's especially handy if I need to purge a red or purple hue from a pen, as these colours are far more difficult to clean out of a fountain pen. I will caution that the use of such solvent based cleaners will sometimes necessitate lubrication of piston based fountain pens, depending on the specific number of uses and the timeframe of the cleaning.

 

 

 

John P.

[TheModernGent]

I made my own pen flush using the same formulas mentioned above 10:1 water to ammonia solution with a drop of Dawn. Haven't used it yet, but it's nice to have on hand just in case .