What Pen did you clean out today?

[InkyProf]

Black stripe Pilot Myu, which had been filled with Laban Ares Red, a very persistent ink.

[irrigger]

Pelikan M101N Grey-Blue that was filled with Montblanc Oyster grey for the last week.

[boilermaker1975]

Pelikan green/black M800 and Onoto Faraday.

[Penguincollector]

 Pilot Custom 743 Verdegris <FA> nib. 

[inkstainedruth]

@thx1138 What's the marbled red and blue pen?  It's pretty!  And is the silver one on the right a Parker 75 Ciselé?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[thx1138]

On the far right is a Sonnet cisele.  The other (multicolour pen) is a Narwhal. 

 

[Amberjack]

Bath day for this veteran member of the pen cabinet, along with a sac replacement.

Imprinted with 'R.A. Shannon'.

The three-dimensional beauty of Marine Green cannot be accurately depicted by my modest photo skills.

 

[InkyProf]

Cleaned out four pens this morning: Bayard mottled red hard rubber lever-filler (Herbin Perle Noire), Esterbrook AT&T transitional "skunk" (Aurora Black), Wahl rosewood hard rubber pen (Waterman Brown), Parker 51 demi aero in plum (Waterman Mysterious Blue).

[A Smug Dill]

A much-neglected Wing Sung 699 (because it turned out I have no love for the model at all, in spite of having bought a few of them and not even all at once, so I just don't reach for them ever) that has held the same fill of Noodler's (Bulletproof) Black ink for almost three years. Cleaning it out without disassembling the barrel and pulling out the vacuum-filling mechanism was fun… not.

[Misfit]

I’m cleaning my Regal Alice 77 pen. It’s a retro turquoise shade. 💚🩵

[InkyProf]

Add to the above, from yesterday, a Pilot Custom 74, a Lamy 26p, and a Waterman Man 100 that I filled with Platinum Citrus Black and then emptied and cleaned almost immediately. I don't know whether I will find a pen, or perhaps more importantly a context, in which that ink makes sense (fun as it is as a novelty item), but that wasn't it.

[inkstainedruth]

Last night started flushing out a Diplomat c/c pen that I'd picked up a while back and finally got a converter for it at B/W over the weekend.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize how much dried ink was in the feed, and the Schmidt converter for it seems to have a problem with ink leaking behind the piston head.  

Anyone know offhand if I can take the converter apart to replace the o-ring around the piston head (the way I can with Noodler's pens)?  Or am I gonna have to send the converter back to the seller for a replacement (or just toss it in the trash and order a replacement)?  

And of course the weather isn't helping -- earlier this morning a rumble of thunder literally shook the house, and a couple of minutes ago we had another rumble which came literally a couple of seconds after the lightning flash (which means that the storm is right on top of us...).  So not overly thrilled with the idea of running water at the moment, until the storm cell passes (at least I'm using distilled water in bottles on the pen's nib & feed, and for the converter).  And just looked at weather.gov (the NOAA website) -- and we have a chance of thunder until this evening, and then a slight chance until 10 PM.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[A Smug Dill]

17 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Anyone know offhand if I can take the converter apart to replace the o-ring around the piston head (the way I can with Noodler's pens)?

 

I was going to (attempt to) answer your question, but then I realised you asked it in a way that I cannot accurately and confidently answer.

 

You can take apart Diplomat part number D10221059. I have no idea whether that's the one you have, because you wrote,

 

22 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Last night started flushing out a Diplomat c/c pen that I'd picked up a while back and finally got a converter for it at B/W over the weekend.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize how much dried ink was in the feed, and the Schmidt converter for it seems to have a problem with ink leaking behind the piston head.  

 

A Schmidt converter that would fit a Diplomat cartridge/converter-filled pen that is not a Viper could be a model K1, K2, K5, or even K6. The answer would not be the same for all of those Schmidt converter models. Diplomat part number D10221059 is, in all likelihood, manufactured by Schmidt and just rebranded Diplomat on the converter's tube; but I seriously doubt you meant ⑴ you got Diplomat's official converter for your pen in question ⑵ knowing full well it was made by Schmidt despite Schmidt branding being absent on the article.

 

Then there is the qualification of, “the way I can with Noodler's pens.” That's not a frame of reference I can relate to, and I think it's a poor one to use when discussing European pens and pen parts. I'm not aware that the piston plug/head as a replaceable O-ring in either a Diplomat converter or Schmidt K5 converter, and certainly have not ever heard of Diplomat, Schmidt, or anyone else selling replacement O-rings designed to fit such converters (or even the Pelikan C499, which is another Schmidt K5 clone).

 

In all likelihood, you can take your converter apart. The best way to find out is to try it; if it can be done, then it won't take much force, and if a little force is not enough to do it, then stop. Once disassembled, you can then easily answer the other aspect of your question first-hand when you can just inspect the piston head close up.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the info.  It is in fact a Schmidt converter.  As for the o-ring, I was assuming that I'd have to get that someplace like a hardware store (Noodler's pens tend to be piston fillers -- except for the Charlie pens, which are eye-droppers -- and I have replaced the o-ring on the piston in at least one of them without a lot of trouble).  

I don't even remember when or where I got the pen, which I believe is a Diplomat Magnum (or how much it cost to begin with).  

For six bucks US for the converter, it might be simpler to just toss it and get another one.  But it would have been nice if the converter had worked to begin with (I'm blaming Schmidt -- NOT the vendor -- for this).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Amberjack]

The Cisele’.

It’s one of my favorites, but there are so many…

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

Well, I brought the Diplomat Magnum with me to the monthly pen club meeting.  And was told that the liquid behind the piston head was probably just water, and that there is a hole in the piston knob to drain the liquid out from behind the piston head.  

So now, trying to decide what ink to inaugurate the pen with.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Shandy]

Edison Collier

[welch]

My favorite Parker 51 aerometric, Midnight Blue, US medium point, tuned about twenty years ago by the great Greg Minuskin. 

[thx1138]

I finally got stuck into my box of pens for cleaning. Thank the gods for ultrasonic cleaners. 

 

[inkstainedruth]

I keep thinking about getting an ultrasonic cleaner, but find that since I'm generally not flushing more than one pen at a time, it's just as easy to soak them in a votive candle holder with straight sides, and then go do other stuff and then check back later as to whether the nib and feed need more flushing or not).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth