What's Your "Cleaner" Ink?

[Intensity]

The pen cleaning solutions in my limited experience with them, appear to have lots of ammonia. You want an ink that is high in detergents. I have also done really well with glycerin water.

 

So in theory I can soak a P51 aerometric sac with with highly diluted Dawn soap?

[amberleadavis]

I think so.

 

Any one tried it?

[Brianm_14]

Others ("wiser heads") may have much more specific knowledge, but in general, diluted Dawn in cool water, followed by a thorough rinsing with cool water, has been a safe go-to for most pens and issues. Repeat if necessary. Kodak Photo-Flo 200 is another great choice if a local photo shop carries it; it is a very simple, clean detergent and should be used in high dilution, if necessary in combination with Dawn. I prefer to use only water I have demineralized, or distilled water. It behaves differently in the pen than my local cruddy tap water. It is something you can observe.

 

I use a Waterman or Skrip ink as safe "cleaner" ink when rehabilitating a pen. Likely any standard ink of relatively low dye saturation would work. Often, I dilute it about 10% or so (don't fret over exact dilutions!) with distilled water. Then clean pen again with detergent. Seems to improve everything, but this is just anecdotal evidence.

[Brianm_14]

Just to lay a few things to rest from various threads:

 

I simply cannot imagine a chemist calling phenol a solvent" in these circumstances. For one, it has peculiar solubility relationships with water. Up to about 5% concentration, phenol crystals will readily dissolve in water. After that, it is a no-go. Phenol is then again miscible with water if liquified phenol is mixed with up to about 5% water (i.e. 95% phenol, 5% water). At that strength it can be used as a cauterizing agent. Nothing inbetween works in terms of aqueous solubility. Lister and others found they had to dissolve phenol in oil to obtain other dilutions.

 

The "solvent" in any of these discussions, if it is not to be destructive to pens, is going to be a surfactant ("wetting agent" or detergent) which might well have biocidal properties complementary to phenol's.

 

Phenol is still available in a number of first aid preparations in the UK and Commonwealth countries, especially where topical antibiotics are not sold over-the-counter as in the USA. Phenol is also available in a few first aid products in the States. Phenol has local anesthetic properties, is bacteriostatic and bacteriocidal depending on the concentration, and can shore up weak points in other antiseptics' spectrum of action when used in combination.

 

Phenolic disinfectants are still among the most highly-effective hospital-grade germicides known. The original Lysol formula, which still can be located in the USA with a little looking, is a phenol-based soap mixture. If phenol were a solvent and cleaner, the soap would be superfluous. It is particularly valuable as it retains it's germicidal activity in the presence of organic matter. That is a big plus! Chlorine, by contrast, does not and requires thorough pre-cleaning if significant organic soil is present. (Phenol derivatives are also used widely in first aid and medicine, but that fascinating discussion takes us too far afield.)

[welch]

It there anything that’s good at de-staining Parker 51 aerometric pli-glass sacs?

 

Aerometric sacs go dark. I opened three P-51's on my desk. All sacs looked black. These pens are 60 or 70 years old...just be glad that you have the all-time best fountain pen, made with a sac that will never wear out!

 

Of course, your 51 probably wants a refill with Quink with Solv-X, which cleans a pen as it writes.

[Flaxmoore]

Dragging this to the front, I have another cleaner ink to propose.

 

Parker Quink Washable Blue. Regular Quink Blue is okay, but the Washable formulation does well at removing crud from the inside of converters- I've been giving it a run through my designated iron gall pens.

[Arkanabar]

I now have three cleaner inks.

 

First is Noodler's Rattler Red Eel.  I remember seeing before and after pics of a converter stained with BSB that was then filled with RRE.  The stains were greatly mitigated.

 

Second is MontBlanc-Simplo Black with SuperCleaner SC21 in the "space capsule" gold bottle.

 

Third is Parker Quink Permanent Black with Solv-X.

 

I rarely have much need for any of them.  I will probably fill my "big red" FPR Jaipur with RRE after Easter.  I don't fill with colored inks when penitential seasons are on the way.

[bone215]

I never believed the Do You cleaning properties till I tried it.  Yes, it cleans out the cartridge or converter stains.

Amazing results.

 

 

[stoen]

Hi,

 

This may be slightly off topic, but I’ve never used “ink for cleaning ink” residue. I can understand it can be useful in some circumstances.

 

I’ve restored quite a few vintage Pelikan piston filler pens. Some of them have been stained seemingly beyond repair.

 

One cannot fully “unstain” a celluloid barrel neglected for fifty years or so, but the following combination has given surprisingly good results to me:

 

1. thorouh rinsing in lukewarm water for days, until all ink is dissolved

 

2. ultrasonic bath in distilled water

 

3. cleaning the residue with cotton swab and ammonia

 

4. cleaning the toughest residue (from IG inks) with cotton swab and citric acid.

 

5. thoroughly rinsing in distilled water and drying.

 

Having put those pens back into use, I’ve always practiced and recommended fully rinsing such a pen with water, between two inkings. This has worked so far.

[amberleadavis]

@stoen  I was really surprised by the efficacy of cleaning inks.    Though it would be best not to abuse our pens. 

[davidtaylorjr]

Is this the same thing as jentle doyou? Sailor Shikiori Doyou - 20ml Bottled Ink (gouletpens.com)

[Karmachanic]

Same one as mentioned in the Lamy  thread, which linked to this thread.

[Audrey T]

36 minutes ago, davidtaylorjr said:

Is this the same thing as jentle doyou? Sailor Shikiori Doyou - 20ml Bottled Ink (gouletpens.com)

Yes, it is.

[stoen]

On 1/21/2022 at 1:46 AM, amberleadavis said:

@stoen  I was really surprised by the efficacy of cleaning inks.    Though it would be best not to abuse our pens. 

Thanks, I’ll take care

🙂

[dftr]

I have a Pelikan 600 who's barrel appears to be slightly stained by Iroshizuku Kon Peki   

I picked up Sailor DoYou ink and filled the pen up.  The ink is fine looks dark brown/black to me.  Am I supposed to let the pen sit for a while and then just dump the ink out?  

Or write it out.  I can still see the stain unfortunately so just filling it hasn't gotten rid of it.  

[amberleadavis]

On 2/27/2022 at 9:07 AM, dftr said:

I have a Pelikan 600 who's barrel appears to be slightly stained by Iroshizuku Kon Peki   

I picked up Sailor DoYou ink and filled the pen up.  The ink is fine looks dark brown/black to me.  Am I supposed to let the pen sit for a while and then just dump the ink out?  

Or write it out.  I can still see the stain unfortunately so just filling it hasn't gotten rid of it.  

 

 

Just use the ink until you are done.  If Do You doesn't work the first round, try a Noodler's eel ink, vintage Sheaffer Blue-Black or a Solv-X ink.

[dftr]

15 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

 

 

Just use the ink until you are done.  If Do You doesn't work the first round, try a Noodler's eel ink, vintage Sheaffer Blue-Black or a Solv-X ink.

Thanks although I may have to buy some more ink if Do You doesn't  work   

[essayfaire]

On 9/29/2015 at 1:42 AM, tinkerteacher said:

believe it is down to whatever, banned in the West, super lubricating chemicals Sailor, and or rather their 'Ink Master', puts in Do You. Do You is by far the easiest flowing (but not watery so) ink I have ever encountered.

I have been led to this thread by the good folks on another, quite late it appears!

 

I love @amberleadavis's idea of glycerin and water; I have that, and it won't make me gag the way ammonia-based cleansers/flushes do.

 

I always thought of Sailor Doyou as black, but it is listed as available in multiple colors.  Does anyone know if it matters which lovely, well-lubricated Sailor ink color one uses?

 

I wish I had seen this thread years ago.  Better now than never!

[amberleadavis]

I do really well with a high glycerin dish soap running it through with a low dye level ink. I know a lot of us have had great success with Dawn dish soap. I personally use Mrs Myers because I like how the lavender smells.

[james3paris]

On 11/16/2021 at 6:37 PM, Arkanabar said:

Parker Quink Permanent Black with Solv-X

Is this in the current Parker quick inks?

 

Also, I was amazed by the  Sailor Shikiori Doyou.   Does anyone know how quickly results happen?  After one fill, two?

 

I have the Visconti Homo Sapiens Dark Crystal.  If I could disassemble it, I would not.  I have used different cleaning methods in an attempt to flush it out.