How do I clean a stained ink window?

[berkeleyshanghai]

Dear All,

 

I have a wonderful Pelikan 400 tortoise, minus the ink stained window near the section. I've tried, wenol, novus, amodex, no use. I am comfortable with removing the piston and using something from the back, power tool with a light sanding attachment. If you guys have any success doing this, let me know. My pen(s) thank you.

 

Jim

Edited February 11, 2009 by berkeleyshanghai

[fjf]

I would try diluted bleach first. If that doesn't work, hydrogen peroxide might. Both are water soluble, so they shouldn't harm the pen. Careful with organic solvents (acetone...), they may eat the plastic.

 

Dear All,

 

I have a wonderful Pelikan 400 tortoise, minus the ink stained window near the section. I've tried, wenol, novus, amodex, no use. I am comfortable with removing the piston and using something from the back, power tool with a light sanding attachment. If you guys have any success doing this, let me know. My pen(s) thank you.

 

Jim

 

[RevAaron]

Before you break out bleach or an abrasive... Have you tried ammonia? I'd be mighty careful with a dremel and sandpaper- you could end up with a pen that doesn't fill. Doesn't take that much.

[berkeleyshanghai]

Before you break out bleach or an abrasive... Have you tried ammonia? I'd be mighty careful with a dremel and sandpaper- you could end up with a pen that doesn't fill. Doesn't take that much.

 

Gentlemen, tonight I tried with Drano, sodium hydroxide, on another 400 that is junk quality. I wasn't too such if 400 was celluloid or plastic, my bet is plastic and drano is safe on plastic. It withstood ok and some ink was cleaned. 30 more minutes of soaking didn't remove any more ink. It took out brown ink and there is some blue ink stains left. I will try hydrogen peroxide next. And ammonia after that.

 

Note to people: please please do not mix bleach with ammonia, it produces a poisonous gas. And always always wear gloves and do all operations in the sink.

[einv]

i wish you had posted BEFORE you tried the things you did try, all of which are harmful to pens. suffice it to note that all the alternatives suggested to you above are equally bad for vintage celluloids and plastics.

 

by far the safest, if time intensive method of removing stains from demonstrators and piston windows is to use a very concentrated solution of shaklee's basic H. soaking proceeds over several days, if not weeks. at the end of each day of soaking, use q-tips that are moistened and squeezed almost dry to clear out the area. then repeat.

 

the process takes about a month for stubborn cases, but there is not a single instance where this has not worked for me.

 

another safe agent to use is murphy's oil soap, applied neat between cap and section: this gets rid of external stains over a period of several weeks or a month.

 

methods that cry for impatience are bound to destroy the pen.

[berkeleyshanghai]

 

I use Wenol and Novus all the time on pens. I believe Richard Binder uses Simichrome regular to polish his pens. Plastics are hardy stuff and I can personally testify wenol is safe on celluloids. And Pelikan 400s I believe is plastic, so perfectly safe.

 

Of course, I am not doing this on 111T Toledos but on Pelikan 400s. Personal experience of destroying one 100 barrel with alcohol. Don't do it people, celluloid and alcohol don't mix.

 

 

 

i wish you had posted BEFORE you tried the things you did try, all of which are harmful to pens. suffice it to note that all the alternatives suggested to you above are equally bad for vintage celluloids and plastics.

 

by far the safest, if time intensive method of removing stains from demonstrators and piston windows is to use a very concentrated solution of shaklee's basic H. soaking proceeds over several days, if not weeks. at the end of each day of soaking, use q-tips that are moistened and squeezed almost dry to clear out the area. then repeat.

 

the process takes about a month for stubborn cases, but there is not a single instance where this has not worked for me.

 

another safe agent to use is murphy's oil soap, applied neat between cap and section: this gets rid of external stains over a period of several weeks or a month.

 

methods that cry for impatience are bound to destroy the pen.

 

[berkeleyshanghai]

I would try diluted bleach first. If that doesn't work, hydrogen peroxide might. Both are water soluble, so they shouldn't harm the pen. Careful with organic solvents (acetone...), they may eat the plastic.

 

Dear All,

 

I have a wonderful Pelikan 400 tortoise, minus the ink stained window near the section. I've tried, wenol, novus, amodex, no use. I am comfortable with removing the piston and using something from the back, power tool with a light sanding attachment. If you guys have any success doing this, let me know. My pen(s) thank you.

 

Jim

 

Hydrogen Peroxide worked great for removing regular ink. Great for cleaning feeds. I tried it on my stuck on ink window and it didn't take any off. No where close to drano. I am soaking it with drano for an hour now and will report back what happens. Drano sounds scary, but it's really sodium hydroxide. No more scarier than ammonia and bleach. (which do not mix!)

 

If Drano fails, I will try ammonia tomorrow. And that fails dremelling. I will make it clear. It's personal now.

 

[einv]

again, there is a difference between applying wenol etc to the outside of the pen, where nothing but appearance would be affected, and the interior of the pen where functionality, namely in this case piston excursion and sealing ability might be compromised. i would advise using abrasive polish material on the exterior of pens, not in their interiors.

[berkeleyshanghai]

Drano cleared up some, but still some stuck. The only solvent option left I can think of is ammonia. Acetone melts plastic, so that's out. Alcohol is no no to as I know it's bad on celluloid and certain kinds of plastics, don't know what kind of plastic this is. I will report back with Ammonia on the plastic.

[einv]

i reiterate that while ammonia is excellent for disinfecting pens, it will not act as a stain remover. you need a surfactant based method for that. i continue to recommend my methods which have even worked for pens stained by bay state blue ink.

[publius]

I saw a post in the "Inky thoughts" area in which a member said that he had used blue ink, I think it was the very cheap Chinese product "Hero Washable Blue", in a pen with a stained window, & when he flushed the ink out (after having it filled for a month or so) the window wasn't stained anymore.

Edited February 14, 2009 by publius

[gregkoos]

Thanks for the tip. I used an oil soap to soak an Esterbrook nib assembly and a barrel tip that had become quite stained form a Bay State type of ink years ago. It worked in two days.

i wish you had posted BEFORE you tried the things you did try, all of which are harmful to pens. suffice it to note that all the alternatives suggested to you above are equally bad for vintage celluloids and plastics.

 

by far the safest, if time intensive method of removing stains from demonstrators and piston windows is to use a very concentrated solution of shaklee's basic H. soaking proceeds over several days, if not weeks. at the end of each day of soaking, use q-tips that are moistened and squeezed almost dry to clear out the area. then repeat.

 

the process takes about a month for stubborn cases, but there is not a single instance where this has not worked for me.

 

another safe agent to use is murphy's oil soap, applied neat between cap and section: this gets rid of external stains over a period of several weeks or a month.

 

methods that cry for impatience are bound to destroy the pen.

 

[Nabster]

Perhaps I'm wrong here, but wouldn't dremeling this to remove the stained plastic only expose unfinished plastic which would be even more susceptible to staining than originally?

[Ron Z]

I have to tell you guys, I've just been sitting back watching this thread, just seeing where it went, and some of the stuff that you have come up with is just frightening. Drano???

 

Let me point out that you may get away with some of these things with modern materials like acrylic, and hard rubber. But don't even think about it with vintage pens, and celluloid pens, vintage or modern.

 

Wenol is often used with hard rubber, as is Simicrome. I don't have any evidence of damage from Simicrome. Inknix works on removing some ink stains, as will Rapidoease. But really, avoid solvents, and even alcohol on celluloid.

 

The first rule should be "do no harm" - if not sure how something will effect your pen, don't use it. If I may be permitted an editorial comment (warning - personal opinion here!) the better route would have been to avoid using an ink that is known to stain pens in the first place.

[sumgaikid]

On pens that I've acquired with ink staining the inside of the barrel,I always use Dawn

dishwashing soap w/cold water and a small scrub brush for the barrel that I bought from

Tryphon Enterprises. With a little bit of elbow grease(in some cases)the pens always come clean.

 

John