What Pen did you clean out today?

[Bo Bo Olson]

I use the bathroom sink, less water than a kitchen sink.

[inkstainedruth]

I do too, but I put a plastic tub (basically like one for washing dishes in) into the basin first, and discharge reconstituted or diluted ink into the tub, as well as any of the flushing solution or stained water from soaking the nib or feed, before dumping the contents of the tub down the drain, then rinse the tub under the sink to get the worst of the gunk out of it.  

For actually soaking/flushing, I use a clear votive candle holder with straight sides, and use a plastic clothespin to hold the pen in place, nib down, in either distilled water or flushing solution mix (depending on what stage of the process I'm in).  The remainder gets dumped into the plastic tub, because I can pour that down the drain from one of the corners, and then flush any residue out of it under the faucet and down the drain.  

I wouldn't want to do any pen cleaning at the kitchen sink because I don't want any sort of nasty-ish chemicals from the inks themselves near where I prepare food or wash dishes (I used to have a Serv-Saf card for when I worked for my husband's sideline business, and between when I first took the course and test and when I took the refresher course and test a few years later, some things had actually changed -- but pretty sure cleaning ink out of pens into a sink where you do food prep would be a serious "No-No" to begin with....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[MarcoA63]

I cleaned a Pelikan Souveran M600 😊

[A Smug Dill]

These two Jinhao 82 pens, last filled mid December 2022 as shown. Apparently my wife was still able to get them to write earlier this week, and only after she was satisfied that she used up all the ink did she throw them into the pile of pens I have to clean for her. I can't say whether there was a sufficient degree of ink dry-out that she may have needed to rehydrate the contents of their converters to get them to write before that; but I doubt it.

[inkstainedruth]

Yesterday it was the Lady Sheaffer 620.  I have a bad feeling, though, that the sac has gone on the converter I was able to get for it (or else the converter wasn't firmly on the back of the feed, or both... ).

I still have Skrip Blue on my thumbprint.... Even after repeated scrubbings....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Arkanabar]

I had to clean out a Jinhao 82 that I'd filled with FPR Blue-Black, which had goop on the feed after I filled it from a sample vial.  It is to be hoped that dropping the section in a vial of estimated 2% solution of sodium hypochlorite (which is certainly stronger than Dakin's solution) and gently shaking it back and forth for some sixty seconds is enough to kill all the microbes that colonized the vial, and perforce the pen (fortunately, the bottle does not seem to be contaminated).  Amazingly enough, it wrote fairly well even with goopy ink.  Oddly enough, the colonies of whatever had almost no smell. 

 

Truth be told, given the minimal investments all around, I'm inclined to discard the entire pen, the ink, the vial, and the pipette.

[RedPie]

Cleaned out my Pelikan 400 KF filled with Noodler's Hunter Green. I had no issues. Lucky me.

[Arkanabar]

I decided to keep the ink bottle (which is currently soaking in a 3% or so solution of sodium hypochlorite) and the pen, which has already provided its finial to another Jinhao 82 that had lost its own.  Maybe after (if, let's be honest) I knock it to bits and soak them in some suitable biocide, I'll be willing to put it back into service.

 

I also cleaned out the Decimo I'd given to my wife (that happens a lot with pens I don't like).  Given how little she writes, it would seem that Diamine Sherwood isn't the right ink for that pen.  Rehydrating it after it dried out did not get the ink to flow.

[RedPie]

Cleaned out TWSBI Eco. For about a year I had Kon-Peki Iroshizuku in it. It was clean with no problems in a very short amount of time. The pen looks like it was not even used!

[inkstainedruth]

Currently in the process of soaking the Pelikan M205 Blue Marbled, flushing out the dregs of diluted 4001 Blue Black.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[bohemio666]

Cleaned out a couple of my Kanwrites yesterday - the Emperor Divine Ganesha and the Desire Demonstrator. Also cleaned a Sheaffer School Pen V2 day before.

[Misfit]

I found a topic on keeping too many pens inked. @Estycollector mentioned knowing what ink left in a pen can do. That made me decide to get five pens, and clean them yesterday. I added a sixth pen. Today, I’ve selected five more, and started with one. I hope to keep this up. So I’ll go from too many pens needing cleaning to too many clean pens needing storage. 

[PAKMAN]

Cleaned out my Asvine P36 pen today. 

[Misfit]

I got seven pens cleaned. I’ve noticed the Nemosine Singularity pens clean out quickly. Such a pity Nemosine is gone. I liked their pens and inks. But I understand what happened with the two brothers, and concentrating on Birmingham Pens. 
 

Edit:

Now there are 15 cleaned pens.

[Misfit]

So far, I’ve cleaned six pens, with a couple nibs units in the ultrasonic cleaner, while I take a coffee break. 

[AmandaW]

I cleaned a Majohn Q1 after drawing with it for just a couple of hours. The fude nib on it was good, which is why I inked it,  but that crazy short, very fat shape is not for me.

[Misfit]

I cleaned six more, for a total of twelve today. That’s it for today, except to check the ultrasonic cleaner, and to rotate the draw filler Edison Menlo. That pen taught me the lesson that if you buy a unique filler, you have to clean it the same way you fill it. 
 

I now know I prefer cartridge/converter pens, and piston fillers like Pelikan and the old Delta.  
 

Edit:

That brings the total to 27 cleaned pens. 

Edited February 22, 2024 by Misfit

[Misfit]

I cleaned one pen today. The ten to twelve pens cleaned was a bit much. The lucky pen today is a Wancai mini in mint swirl. It is an eyedropper filler, so unscrewing the nib got the pen body clean quickly. The nib got to soak in the ultrasonic cleaner. 

[A Smug Dill]

• This no-name Fireblue pocket pen (and, yes, with what that particular fill of ink left behind in the reservoir and the feed)
• A purple Wing Sung 3013 vacuum-filler, being the last remaining of my three pens of that design, that didn't have to be thrown out on account of a corroded metal piston rod
• The yellow and purple Platinum Preppy pens among this set, in which the respective Sailor STORiA pigment inks have completely dried out

 

 

Edited February 25, 2024 by A Smug Dill
fixed incorrect links

[N1003U]

I after a couple of months, I finally ran my brown/black stripe M600 dry out of its fill of Smoky Quartz, so I flushed it, dried it, and put it at the back of the rotation. I like that pen. I hope to get back to it again by sometime in the autumn months.