What Pen did you clean out today?

[RedPie]

Cleaned my Monte Rosa and it was surprisingly easy. It was filled with Sailor Jentle Blue Black.

[Penguincollector]

  MontBlanc 144R, Platinum BelAge, Sheaffer Fineline, Parker 45 Deluxe, Salz Peter Pan ring top. 

[RedPie]

Cleaned out my Pelikan M250.

[inkstainedruth]

Yesterday I think I've finally got all the residual ink out of the most recently acquired Parker 61.  And today I'm in the process of flushing out the Medieval Lapis Noodler's Konrad of (by this point diluted) Noodler's Luxury Blue.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Inky_Ben]

Eversharp.

And over the last week a motley collection of modern Conklins, Platinums, Rangas, and some Fountain Pen Revolution pens with Indian converters that seem to rely on a bit too much silicone grease to keep the ink in.

[Mark from Yorkshire]

My CS Dinkie, unfortunately it is deceased, an ex fountain pen, no longer writing, it has burped its last. The thing is dead. The pen has managed to empty all its last fill of ink into the cap. That has dried round the nib and feed and try as I might I can’t get it to fill. Add to that the body and section have parted company again. I have given up on it as a lost cause. You live and learn

[MarcoA63]

A Montblanc 030 piston filler bought at an auction a month ago and a 149 bought at an auction this morning

[thx1138]

Cleaned a few new arrivals, a sonnet and three slimfolds.

 

[ParramattaPaul]

I haven't yet, but I'm about to clean the FPUK22 Gravitas LE pen that is now empty.

[thx1138]

Continuing in a fit of enthusiasm i added a few more to the cleaned tally. A couple of the 17's appear to have only been dipped. The sacs are still unstained.

 

[palimpsesto]

Moore L-82 of Diamine Umber; Eversharp Skyline of Sailor Studio 143; The Wahl Pen (1920s BCHR) of Pilot Kiri Same; and a Sheaffer Silver Pearl Balance, Vacuum filled, of Diamine Grey. I downsized my currently-inked section quite a bit today and I’m probably going to retire another Skyline tomorrow.

[Bo Bo Olson]

In the glass covered wooden box in the middle. Took me forever to get around to taking a couple of hours to clean them.

Three are old push button pens that of course new sac's, and lubing of the button.

Two were cartridge pens, and my wife just added an Aurora ball point to her ball point collection.

A black metal Diplomat, with a Maltese cross marked steel, gold plated semi-nail nib.

A.W. Faber-Castel 5005 sterling silver 18K semi-nail.

 

Those two ended up with some old mystery Diamine cartridges that I was given well over a decade ago, and were re-hydrated.

.............................................

These two were half cleaned today, and put in a cup wrapped with a paper towel, so that some of the ink remains drain out. As normal, at least for me, they will have to be cleaned again tomorrow. Often, by me, it takes two days to clean out a piston pen completely.  

 

An Aurora Dipenna....Serbatoio, ??? just says it's a fountain pen. 14K B semi-flex....barely semi-flex, a real surprise it wasn't solidly in the middle of semi-flex.

 

Another Osmia, BCHR 76 missing the Omsia brand mark on the top of the finial, marked M. Will have to put a bit of tape in the hole in the final, until it can be shipped to have either the Osmia diamond made, or some other sealing plug. Don't want the pen drying out on me.

But it has a Morton nib, (a great US made nib so good that German Kaweco used them (as the best nib in Germany) from 1900 to 1914, when Kaweco bought from Morton, machinery and trainers from the States in April of 1914. The American trainers had to go home when WW1 started in August. A GRAND NIB, Weak Kneed Wet Noodle...............1920 Morton ceases production.

A nib I never dreamed of having in my wildest dreams. And worth a dream.

 

 

 

[InkyProf]

Just finishing up cleaning an Esterbrook J in copper, and my dad’s Parker 51 aero, which was consistently drying out overnight last time I used it, leading me to suspect it would benefit from a 36-hour soak and flush.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have an adjustable round stool that I can put before the bathroom sink, taking away back pain.

I have mostly piston pens, which take longer to clean than C/C pens. A day more. I get it down to barely any...and that stage can last a long time. Then I wrap them with a paper towel and come back the next day to do the finishing touches... Again, 12-24 hours getting the final draining in the paper towel.

 

The idea is to test thinner vintage '50-60's MB pens vs my once and perhaps still second place finisher for balance in a 20 semi-flex pen test done a 12-13 years ago. My medium-long, thin Geha 725 is the pen to beat.

With permission of Penboard.de

Rolled gold trim.

.................... All pens are semi-flex.

My 1948-59 medium-large 146 has great balance, much more than the stately Large 1970-now 146. That medium-large 146, was such a beater, besides needing a new gasket it was hard to screw on the cap, had no cap rings and was a dull matt. Francis did wonder with it. Telescopic piston. One can't tell the difference in size between the First model 146 and the Second model Large 146 by a picture.  I was hoping for serviceable only, not fully restored. I'd put that maxi-semi-flex nib on one of my large 146's if need be. Having a Geha, Pelikan in maxi, needed an MB in that flex rate.

 

It had a maxi-semi-flex nib, which I 'needed' for my MB collection....at the time just 4 or 5, and I thought my MB days well behind me....until that 32 crossed my path, and suddenly thinner 2 and 3 X, pens kept picking my pocket. 

The medium-long 146, with telescopic piston. I have three of those, a 234 1/2 Deluxe ('52-54 only), a 742 rolled gold, and this 146.

 

I don't expect it to be quite as nimble as my MB 14....(nothing else). The 14 is a tad thinner than the old medium-large 146, and a tad thicker than the MB 32  and is a large thinner pen... thinner than the old and newer 146. The bottom of the two pens is the 14. The top is a MB 22 that was a clone of the rough Lamy 2000 (needs repair, stuck piston.). There were other 22's that are not rough.

Not marked anywhere, is my MB 264, A good well-balanced pen. From the won the auction, get the picture. Same as above. And many of 'my' pictures are won. The etui, is also MB branded on the other side.

I expect the nimble well-balanced, medium-long, thin MB 32 to be the pen that gives that Geha 725 the most problems. I find the 32 to be a pretty modern looking fountain pen.

 I'm glad I have it, wish I'd had it earlier.

......................

I have been positively surprised by the late '50'-70 2X, 264, 3X pens, plus that MB 14...............Those are affordable pens...here in Germany or on German Ebay. I get mine in live auctions.

Someone's picture of an MB 32. In I didn't have one, and the nib is semi-flex, which surprised me.

[Penguincollector]

  I cleaned out my modern Conklin Word Gauge stub and my Eversharp Symphony Luxury Set (EF or F, not sure) today. Sheen inks look lovely in the stub, but boy are they a pain to clean, especially when the pen holds so much ink. The Symphony is also a bit of a pain, the long collector doesn’t like to let go of ink easily. I bet there’s some left from the original owner in there. 

[mhguda]

I cleaned out my Noodler's Boston Safety pen that was a present from our own @amberleadavis. I had filled it with a new experimental ink mix, and somehow it started leaking at the back of the barrel...

After disassembling and soaking in soapy water, then reassembling, it's clean again, and, having applied some silicone grease to the threads, hopefully leakfree. I will put the same experimental ink mix back in...

[InkyProf]

An Edison Comet and an amber Kaweco Dia 2. Finally bringing the number of inked pens down under the number of slots in the desk tray (11). 

[ruby.monkey]

A Sheaffer Compact II (earlier model with ink view windows). A neat little pen but badly in need of a flush.

[Bo Bo Olson]

 

I am very glad I only did my top 5 balanced pens, back when I was a noobie doing my then 20 pen balance test. That way, I can keep sliding pens into my top ten without worrying my top ten is 20 or more long.

 

Balance test. All pens were very good to great.

The Geha 725 won over the MB 14. And is still my second best balanced pen. Both are medium-large, though the 14 appears bigger.

 

3rd and 4th of my old test best balanced pens could have been moved down a notch or two, but I'm not going to drag them two pens (silverP-75&400nn) into the new test. Great is great. I have enough pens inked.

 

The medium-large thin 725 was lighter and more nimble, but the medium large MB 14 slightly thicker but still thinner large-feeling pen...lots thinner than the 146's. A very, very nicely balanced pen. It did not feel Large in the hand. Sort of to me looked like a large pen which it wasn't being a medium-large pen.

 

The Standard sized 264 was not all that much behind the MB 14

There was almost a tie for third, with the standard but hair thicker MB264 barely beating out the tad, too light, and more nimble standard sized MB 32.

.......

There's not really that much difference between a medium-long and a standard sized pen. Girth helps bring the 14 up so close to the 725. The 725 is thinner than the 32.

The 14 and 264 are very much the same girth, but the taper of the medium-large pen's flat tipped body, lets the shorter rounder end of the 264 look wider. It's really not. Hairs split wholesale.

.............

I was very happy with the 32, and will be again.

...................

Weight in the hand with balance. ... I foolishly did not weigh the pens before inking them.

The 725 beat the 14 though balance & nimbleness, the 14 was that bit more solid in the hand.

The 264, had that bit more sturdiness, while nimble, that the 32 lacked. The 32 was the most nimble of the pens, but it being the lightest subtracted from its balance.

Inks 

The Geha 725 has, for me, a newer ink Diamine Ultra Green, a real good shading green-green ink.

MB 14, a not used in a long time, Diamine Tobacco Sunburst.

MB 264 M the way, way too seldom used, R&K Alt Gold Green.

MB 32, some long discontinued MB Sepia. A favorite ink of mine.

..................................................

So much for my only goal of 7 pens inked. 16 inked.

 

 

................

Oh, my apologies for dis'ing Diamine Sherwood Green by comparing it to the new Pelikan 4001, dull, and non shading, muddy green. I found an old 15-year-old cartridge sent to me by the passed poster Piembi.

It shades, well from dark to light on CT 90g. An interesting ink on CT, shades on common 90g copy paper.

Regular 90g copy paper, paper is not quite up to the snuff I wanted with a 90g paper. Ah, for the good old days of half a decade ago, when 90g was good paper for shading inks.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

cleaned out 4 of my 5 inked pens

All black Parker "51" Aeros