My TWSBI smells like an old sponge

[mouse2cat]

I'm afraid I might have a mold issue in my TWSBI eco. 

 

There is no visible mold or anything but when I uncap the pen it smells like an old kitchen sponge. (like the one you throw out) I'm pretty sensitive to this specific smell. I thought I could continue writing with it but it just made me feel gross. 

 

I emptied the pen, flushed it with soapy water. I have fully dismantled the pen and left it open for a complete air dry. 

 

Hopefully I haven't contaminated my bottle of Zhivago but I will set it aside in quarantine to keep an eye on it. 

 

Is there anything else I should do? Sheesh. 

[A Smug Dill]

Soak in vinegar for a few hours?

 

Or perhaps aqueous ammonia?

 

Both substances will kill mold, and both have been recommended by fellow hobbyists for cleaning ink out of pens, so I guess should be safe enough.

[mouse2cat]

13 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

Soak in vinegar for a few hours?

 

Or perhaps aqueous ammonia?

 

Both substances will kill mold, and both have been recommended by fellow hobbyists for cleaning ink out of pens, so I guess should be safe enough.

 

Thanks Dill, I will look into the vinegar. Maybe I should give it a garlic soak too. LOL Really get rid of the demons in this twisbi

[mizgeorge]

White vinegar is fine for modern pens - just not for old hard rubber or for ebonite feeds. It's much more effective at killing mould than ammonia.

[Ergative]

wow--I've literally just finished rinsing vinegar (couple hours soak in 50/50 vinegar/water) out of my 580 for this identical problem. It's not the first time it's happened; you can see a post of mine from 2016 or so when I compared the smell to old sweat socks. As I recall, dismantling + soap + air dry didn't fix it, but the following several weeks of dismantled exposure to direct sunlight did.

 

In my climate, the sunlight is not really a reliable resource, hence the vinegar this time round. It'll take a few days before I know if the problem is fixed for good.