Mold in Sailor Souboku Cartridges?

[WRBNYC]

A little while back I picked up one of these little Sailor Shikiori Pro Gears. For the first month or so I had it I was syringe filling the cartridge it came with with different inks to see how they complemented the nib. But eventually I figured that since I finally had a pen that takes the stock cartridges of my favorite ink line—the Sailor nanopigments—I’d just get a box of Souboku cartridges and commit to using those for awhile. 

 

Shortly thereafter the pen started writing really dryly. It would skip or put down faint lines, and no amount of shaking, shimming, or rinsing seemed to resolve the problem. Figuring there must’ve been some malign chemical reaction between the Souboku and the residue of one of the previous inks I’d had in there, I put the disassembled pieces in a cup of water with a few drops of dish detergent and left it soaking on a high shelf while I went out of town for a few days to visit family. 

 

When I returned to New York, I found that the nib was shedding into the water a gunky substance that I, an incorrigible and reckless ink-mixer, had never seen before, and that the cup now had a weird earthy smell. I figured my roommate had thought the cup was trash, thrown it in the garbage alongside some gnarly food scraps, realized her mistake, and then put it all back on the shelf hoping I wouldn’t notice. (She aggressively denied my suspicions, but as Marx used to say, "De omnibus dubitandum…”). 

 

So anyway, I washed the hell out of it (i.e. the pen components) under the tap with some anti-bacterial dish detergent, put it all back together, stuck in a new Souboku cartridge, and found that it performed brilliantly—this pen had never written so well.

 

…Until a few days later when I not only noticed that it had begun to skip and flow dryly again, but that the funky smell had returned. 

 

Then today I took it out, held it up under the light, and, well, see for yourself: 

 

 

Now, I’m no mycologist, and I assume there are other ways this pen could have been infected with mold, but since none of the other pens I fill with ill-advised ink concoctions and carry around this dirty city evince the slightest hint of fungus, it seems the Sailor Souboku cartridges might be culprit. But my impression was that moldy ink results from ink (usually bottled) being exposed to contaminants in the environment after it’s been opened. Is it possible live spores from the factory have survived for years in these sealed cartridges? Or that the spores came from the box/packaging and were on the cartridge’s exterior? 

 

In case it matters, this batch appears to be from 2018: 

 

[LizEF]

19 minutes ago, WRBNYC said:

anti-bacterial

Mold is not a bacteria, it's a fungi.  This would likely have had little to no effect on mold.  (And those pictures are definitely mold.)

 

21 minutes ago, WRBNYC said:

I assume there are other ways this pen could have been infected with mold

Unless you saw mold before your days-long soak in water, I suspect it was this - the water without fungicide made a nice place for spores to get hold and start growing.  The "weird earthy smell" was surely mold.  Washing likely removed any mold and most growth, but spores cannot be seen and were likely in the feed channels - such nice dark and cozy places for a fungus to make its home.  The ink then made a nice food for the mold and it began to grow faster.

 

As for the previous clogging, again, unless you saw evidence of mold, it was more likely the fact that it's a pigment ink which needs both an air-tight seal to prevent evaporation and a more rigorous cleaning between fills.  (FWIW, my Sailor Pro Gear Slim cap does not appear to be air tight.)  Even minute evaporation can leave little deposits behind which build up over time.

 

23 minutes ago, WRBNYC said:

Is it possible live spores from the factory have survived for years in these sealed cartridges? Or that the spores came from the box/packaging and were on the cartridge’s exterior? 

In theory, either is possible.  I think the open water soak is more likely.  Sailor are known for having a fungicide in their inks, though I can't say for certain it's true, nor how strong it may be.  And they don't have a reputation like some ink makers for contamination.

 

FWIW, in theory, either a sonicator (to speed up what the soak was meant to accomplish) or exposure to direct sunlight (which apparently kills mold, but might encourage other growth, so this is iffy) would likely have been better than your high shelf...

 

IMPORTANT: Use an ammonia-based pen flush / homemade solution on that pen and anything else exposed to mold.  For non-porous surfaces, ammonia is the best mold-killer.

[arcfide]

Good golly Miss Molly! Those pictures stand my hair on end.

[WRBNYC]

22 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Mold is not a bacteria, it's a fungi.  This would likely have had little to no effect on mold. 

I know, but at the time it hadn’t occurred to me that mold might be the/a problem. 

 

23 minutes ago, LizEF said:

(And those pictures are definitely mold.)

Well, my other theory was that the grip section had become residence for the world’s most tenacious spider, so in a way that’s good news. 

 

25 minutes ago, LizEF said:

IMPORTANT: Use an ammonia-based pen flush / homemade solution on that pen and anything else exposed to mold.  For non-porous surfaces, ammonia is the best mold-killer.

Thanks for the tip! I will definitely try this. 

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, arcfide said:

Good golly Miss Molly! Those pictures stand my hair on end.

Yours and the mold's both!

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, WRBNYC said:

Well, my other theory was that the grip section had become residence for the world’s most tenacious spider, so in a way that’s good news. 

😱

 

1 hour ago, WRBNYC said:

Thanks for the tip! I will definitely try this. 

Best wishes to you and your pen.  Death wishes (sorry) to the mold!

[JulieParadise]

It does look awful and gross, but a modern Sailor is one of the "best" pens you could "choose" for this, as all components (except maybe a screw or anything inside the cap, but I doubt there is one, at least my clear Sailors have none visible) can easily be torn apart and cleaned. It is all plastic or gold (or metal).

 

Grab the nib and feed and pull those out, also grab the grip section and the metal junction between the grip and the barrel, onto which you normally screw the barrel. These also screw out. The modern Sailor pens are all built like this (pic shows the grip section of a Sailor Nagasawa Kobe Proske = Profit Skeleton/Demonstrator = 1911s):

 

Now you can easily soak everything in lukewarm water with dish detergent or pen cleaner fluid, maybe repeat that and rinse inbetween, an ultrasonic clean might also help get some of the mold out of your pen, and let it all completely dry afterwards.

[A Smug Dill]

59 minutes ago, JulieParadise said:

These also screw out. The modern Sailor pens are all built like this (pic shows the grip section of a Sailor Nagasawa Kobe Proske = Profit Skeleton/Demonstrator = 1911s):

 

In my experience, while they're all built using that scheme, some Sailor gripping sections are further secured with some sort of glue on the threads while others aren't. Nothing a long soak in warm water, a couple of cycles in an ultrasonic cleaner, and application of a bit of bloody-minded torque after all that wouldn't break, though.

[JulieParadise]

14 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

In my experience, while they're all built using that scheme, some Sailor gripping sections are further secured with some sort of glue on the threads while others aren't. Nothing a long soak in warm water, a couple of cycles in an ultrasonic cleaner, and application of a bit of bloody-minded torque after all that wouldn't break, though.

Yes, you are right, when I first screwed this and my other Proske's grip section apart, there was a wee bit of glue-like stuff around the threads of the black inner collar that houses nib+feed, but it had apparently already been broken by flushing.

 

All in all one probably should not take apart the grip section like that for every cleaning and/or refill of the pen, but when there is such a "deep" problem with mold, one should make sure that nothing of this stuff is left, no sphores in no nook or cranny, which is why I think that the thread starter was "lucky in his bad luck", as these Sailor models are really easy to take apart and clean. Had this happened in another pen, the problem (or resolving the problem and reaching all parts to clean them properly) would be far worse.