Treatments For Discolored Pens

[sodul]

I've seen that plastic discoloration is common with ink windows, demonstrators but also some non transparent bodies. The cause is commonly blamed on rubber sacs releasing sulfur and causing oxidation of the plastic.

 

Something similar happens to the ABS plastics in the computer world and a recipe has good success: OxyClean, Oxygen Peroxide and UV light.

See an example below:

http://www.retrofixes.com/2013/10/how-to-clean-whiten-yellowed-plastics.html

 

 

Has anyone tried this on vintage pens? I know that older vintage pens will not use ABS, or bromine, but I was wondering if there was a way to restore a pen closer to its original color.

I have a Gold Bond Stonite in pristine, fully restored, condition and I've seen the same pen suffering from the discoloration. I was wondering of I should open it up and put a Silicon sac instead. The section seems glued, I hope with shellac so I have not checked yet.

 

[MercianScribe]

I don't think anyone would recommend using a peroxide based bleaching agent on pens on this forum or anywhere else, if that's your question.

 

Cleaning early plastics takes a lot more care than more modern ones. Restorers often recommend ammonia solutions, by which I assume they mean ammonium hydroxide. I often use sodium bicarbonate, partly because I'm no chemist and I thought that was the same as 'ammonia solution' and partly because it's a really good but gentle, easy-to-use household cleaning agent.

 

Neither of these solutions ( ) will get rid of oxidization unless used with an abrasive. Again, this is not recommended by pen pros, although they all seem to use some kind of one themselves! The usual proviso is common sense: if you use an abrasive, you are abrading the surface, i.e. removing part of it and thus irreversibly changing the pen.

[FarmBoy]

Isn't the issue pictured above the result of the brominated flame retardant decomposing and depositing bromine on the ABS?

 

Either way, pens (mostly celluloid, hard rubber, and acrylic) do not suffer this problem.

[BrassRatt]

Yikes! Oxygen peroxide?? Is that another name for O₃?

Or, more likely, Hydrogen peroxide?

[sodul]

Yikes! Oxygen peroxide?? Is that another name for O₃?

Or, more likely, Hydrogen peroxide?

 

Yep, I can't name my atoms from drinking too much dihydrogen monoxide I suppose, or most likely me mixing my French and English. Hydrogen Peroxide literally translates to Oxygenated Water in French.

[sodul]

Someone is selling a product that claims to do just that: Deoxidize vintage pens.

 

Has anyone tested the product and confirmed the results? The pictures are impressive as this seems to do wonder on red hard rubber and not just black hard rubber.

 

 

 

 

[Fangfarrier]

Can you say what product and who is selling it please?

 

Fangfarrier

[sodul]

I don't really want to 'advertise' a non confirmed product but here is the link to the instruction page: http://www.lbepen.com/deoxidizer-instructions

 

It seems to be a gel based solution that takes about 20m to take effect on most pen. To clean it off you rub the pen with a cotton shirt and use mineral oil, since water would cause the oxidation to come back.

[siamackz]

Ive tried it, and also tried other methods such as micromesh polishing to remove the oxidised layer, and black dye from Pen Manor too. All three methods have advantages and disadvantages.

 

Regarding the method you are referring to, I have learned:

1. It works with varying degrees of success with different pens.

2. It is messy

3. I have not been able to bring a pen to its fully original colour (like I would be able to do with micromesh)

4. It is my method of choice with pens that have chasing on them (Not smooth) bodies

 

So if I were you, then I would use the micromesh polish method for the mottled red pen in your pictures, while I would use the de-oxidising formula for the black pen in your picture. Though, if youre going to open up a bottle of that liquid anyway then you may as well do both Pens using it (as the liquid is most efficiently utilised on a batch of pens simultaneously)

 

All the best!

Edited June 7, 2018 by siamackz

[JonSzanto]

Someone is selling a product that claims to do just that: Deoxidize vintage pens.

 

I think we need to be a little more specific and a little more careful in this discussion. You originally started talking about ABS plastics and now you are referring to a product that is used on hard rubber (ebonite) pens. When speaking of vintage pens, there are so many materials it is a bit mind-boggling, and you can't transfer methods from one to the other. If you want to examine some of the methods and products, please be more clear as to which type of pen material you are trying to treat.

[sodul]

Yes Jon, pens are made from anything and everything: plastics, rubber, metals, woods, bones and probably stone. I agree with you each material, and even each plastic will age differently and will need different restoration techniques and products. The last I checked about hard rubber was that the only fix was to dye it black, but that's only good for black rubber so I was pretty surprised to see that there is a product that can help red rubber out there.

[siamackz]

 

I think we need to be a little more specific and a little more careful in this discussion. You originally started talking about ABS plastics and now you are referring to a product that is used on hard rubber (ebonite) pens. When speaking of vintage pens, there are so many materials it is a bit mind-boggling, and you can't transfer methods from one to the other. If you want to examine some of the methods and products, please be more clear as to which type of pen material you are trying to treat.

Im glad you brought that up because I did t read the earlier post. My suggestions presumed we are talking about hard rubber - whatever colour

[FarmBoy]

Farmboy and many of the animals are not fans of people treating hard rubber pens to render them black and then selling them as original new old stock. The Farm has also noticed a number of sellers that seem to only sell new old stock hard rubber pens or they sell far to many as a percentage of total sales to be honest.

 

One thing about FarmDog is when he chews your shoes, he admits it.

[AL01]

I've seen that plastic discoloration is common with ink windows, demonstrators but also some non transparent bodies. The cause is commonly blamed on rubber sacs releasing sulfur and causing oxidation of the plastic.

 

Something similar happens to the ABS plastics in the computer world and a recipe has good success: OxyClean, Oxygen Peroxide and UV light.

See an example below:

http://www.retrofixes.com/2013/10/how-to-clean-whiten-yellowed-plastics.html

 

 

Has anyone tried this on vintage pens? I know that older vintage pens will not use ABS, or bromine, but I was wondering if there was a way to restore a pen closer to its original color.

I have a Gold Bond Stonite in pristine, fully restored, condition and I've seen the same pen suffering from the discoloration. I was wondering of I should open it up and put a Silicon sac instead. The section seems glued, I hope with shellac so I have not checked yet.

 

 

NONONONONONOONONONONONOONONONONONO!!!!!

 

NO!!!

 

A Famicom is made out of COMPLETELY DIFFERENT plastic than fountain pens.

 

The only pen that you could guarantee a success for retrobrite would be a Lamy Safari. (Uses ABS plastic, like almost all retro Nintendos did.)

 

I decided to coat my SNES with some Krylon UV protector stuff and that has kept the plastic on it looking the same as it did when I got it in 2013.

 

Yeah, but this doesn't work on pens....

 

Sorry....

 

(I hope I didn't seem angry.)

 

[sodul]

 

 

(I hope I didn't seem angry.)

 

 

Lol, no not at all. Seeing that there seem to be more and more formulations to restore the original colors of materials, such as ABS plastics and now hard rubbers (not just black), I'm pretty hopeful that similar solutions might pop up for other materials, such as celluloid, in the future.

[JonSzanto]

Lol, no not at all. Seeing that there seem to be more and more formulations to restore the original colors of materials, such as ABS plastics and now hard rubbers (not just black), I'm pretty hopeful that similar solutions might pop up for other materials, such as celluloid, in the future.

 

Do realize that there are certain changes that are irreversible. For instance, ambering of transparent celluloidsis not a surface event but a change in the entire material. People often assume a vintage Parker Vac doesn't show the clarity because of ink stains inside the barrel, whereas the reality is that those transparent bands have darkened from the outer surface all the way into the inner surface. You can't change it back to clear.

[AL01]

 

Lol, no not at all. Seeing that there seem to be more and more formulations to restore the original colors of materials, such as ABS plastics and now hard rubbers (not just black), I'm pretty hopeful that similar solutions might pop up for other materials, such as celluloid, in the future.

 

Maybe...

 

But there is always a cache for techniques that chemically alter plastics.

 

I guess Hard Rubber kinda lucked out with that black stain that came out a few years back.

[FarmBoy]

Maybe...

 

But there is always a cache for techniques that chemically alter plastics.

 

I guess Hard Rubber kinda lucked out with that black stain that came out a few years back.

It is not clear that black hard rubber feels lucky.

[AL01]

Oh....

 

If only I could take to rubber....

 

 

Whadif it don't reply?