Parker Vacumatics - transparency cleaning

[MarcoA63]

Good evening everyone, I got myself the Parker Repair Manual N. 5115 and I read that in order to remove stains from the inside of a Transparent Vacumatic pen you can flush the pen with vinegar. The barrell is made of Pyroxylin, out of curiosity, of which I know nothing and will have to investigate online.

Cheers

[FarmBoy]

It’s a trade name for celluloid. 

[Mr.Rene]

Vinegar woks partially. A lost transparency is hard to recover completly.

[JonSzanto]

Very few pens with loss of transparency are in this condition from staining, and cleaning won't accomplish much. The primary cause is ambering of the transparent portions of the celluloid, which is a change throughout the material (i.e. from inside to outer portion) and once the material has changed color nothing on Earth or in Heaven can restore it. Just part of the way of the world.

[MarcoA63]

As a matter of fact, I was thinking the same thing. My Vacumatic transparency has gone 'amber-ish' so vinegar might not change this. So what staining do they refer to? I've always flushed my pens after use and only have one Vacumatic plus a couple of transparent TWSBI

[lionelc]

Perhaps to get rid of iron gall ink residue - a dilute acid solution can be very handy for this.  have tried it out using vitamin c solution to remove kwz iron gall residue - good effect

Edited December 29, 2020 by lionelc

[es9]

I've been using Koh-I-Noor Rapido-Eze (diluted with water) as cleaner of last resort.  It seems to work when nothing else will. It's not cheap, though...