Platinum 80S/90S Feeds - Clog-Prone?

[BergerDM]

Hello. I've had a bunch of bad experiences with older Platinum pens.

 

Platinum Riviere (not the Daiso one), Stainless Armor with the 14k white gold nib, that striped pocket pen...

 

They all seem to let ink dry on their feeds very easily. It is a flaw in design? Did I just get a batch of bad pens?

 

I tried all I knew how to do to clean them, to no avail. There's just no flow, but a bunch of dired ink in the feed. I don't know how to take them apart.

 

Thanks for the replies.

[stan]

Old dried ink can be difficult to remove. Try soaking the sections in water mixed with something strong like tile cleaner. Let it sit for at least a day or two. Won't harm the pens. If you are fearful do only one.

 

Wash with warm water and blow through the section each way from the cartridge side and nib side. Wash with water and blow more. If you can feel the air going through the section you're doing good.

 

Finally, if not cleared, take a fine wire and insert into the section from the cartridge side. Do this a few times. If there is anything left it will be dislodged.

 

We can get more aggressive with the cleaning agent if needed.

 

By the way, the pens you mentioned are real workhorse models. Doubt if it is the pen itself.

[BergerDM]

You see, I did the soaking in a strong solution thing.

 

Only the pocket pen was truly recovered (nib is scratchy though).

 

Riviere just never let ink pass to the see-through part of the feed at all (the one under the nib), so no ink on the nib at all.

 

Stainless Armor showed ink on the feed, but it never left the nib. Both frustating as hell.

 

I think I ended up getting bad ones.

 

I'm looking for a decent EDC Platinum pen that does not cost an eye and a hand (not preppy/plaisir/prefounte) and is not modern, but I'm almost giving up honestly.

[25_15_3]

If you are fine DIY, you can make a tooling to take apart Platinum pocket pens. I've tried it and it works.

 

 

Video is in Japanese but you should be able to grasp the general idea of how to make the tool.

[awa54]

6mm brass tubing can be filed or sawed to shape to create two lugs, which should firmly engage the inner retaining collar recesses. Most Platinum (and Sailor) pens come apart easily once the collar is out, though some of the older full-length models have gaskets that need lubrication before they'll come out, I use liquid silicone, since it's inert and fairly easy to wash off of the feed afterward. The right hand tool fits Platinum, the leftmost one Pilot (7mm tubing).

 

If you got pens which had carbon ink, or worse still sumi, dried in the feed you'll probably need to get the feed out and either (gently) scrape the residue out of all the capillary slits in the feed (usually two or three, depending on model) using a thin piece of shim stock (.004" or .1mm), and/or run multiple cleaning cycles with an ultrasonic cleaner. Be careful when disassembling, many Platinum pens have a thin metal washer between the retaining collar and the rubber gasket, it's easy to miss or lose if you don't know to look for it!

 

If you can get Rapido-eze cleaner that works well and is totally safe, even full strength. I'm not sure what passes for tile cleaner in different countries around the world, but some might actually be caustic or acidic enough to leach alloy metals out of the gold nib, possibly weakening or embrittling the alloy, also might be able to damage plated surfaces if there's any breach in the plating? ...although some pretty aggressive cleaners can be perfectly safe if sufficiently dilluted.

Edited March 8, 2020 by awa54