How to keep ink from staining a pen's wooden section?

[bald1]

And how to remove exisiting stains?

My Waterman Le Man 100 Light Briarwood ST nib pen is pictured below showing the minor staining it currently has. I have become reticent to use it for fear of staining it worse. I've seen some terrible looking stains like this one TinyURL.com - shorten that long URL into a tiny URL

I do keep a light coating of S-100 caranuba wax on the vulnerable section but....

So does anyone have any suggestions about both preventing and removing such ink stains?

Here's my pen:

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

You could always stain the rest of the pen to even things out! Truthfully, I'm not sure what would get the stain out. I have no idea, but I wonder if paint stripper might do the trick (!!!please, do not try this until you're sure that it'll work!!!).

 

[nemo]

It's probably just going to happen with use so I'd personally use a washable ink to minimize the obtrusiveness.

 

[bald1]

Doug,
Your point is valid as every used Le Man 100 in real wood I've seen has been stained. When you say washable ink, I guess I'm a bit lost as I'm not sure how to determine which are and which aren't. Any help would be appreciated.
Just did some searching and found a few but they're all blue inks like Waterman Florida. I'm a big brown ink fan.

 

[nemo]

Good question, I guess it's the opposite of permanent. With vintage inks (from my past) it was always clearly marked as such. Now it seems only permanent is marked, I hadn't thought of that until now.

Nowadays, I would consider modern Waterman and Pelikan browns to be washable from clothing and paper -- although wood stains, not sure after it penetrates but you'd likely get less stain than an ink labeled permanent or bulletproof which (I think) bonds to cellulose.

 

[tetraodon]

maybe tape up the section with some electrical tape,

 

[nortac]

I would use more wax. Not sure about removing existing stains, anything likely to remove the ink would remove the finish as well. You might consider using a little clear polyurethane or varnish to seal the section only.

 

[bald1]

I appreciate all the contributions here. Thank you.

Bought it NIB back in November 2001 but as said hasn't seen a lot of use. The stains I have are miniscule compared to the ones in the picture I linked in the opening post. Looks like I'll continue to use the S-100 caranuba wax and not carry this particular pen as it seems that the staining occurs when small amounts of ink are "tossed" from the nib/feed into the cap and then onto the section. Jostling when carrying capped just isn't good for this type (read wood) of pen. It will become an OB nib (not ST... I errored in my opening post) desk pen only with non-permanent inks.

Poly sealing or varnishing just the section would change the color compared to the rest of the pen. Better to simply stick with quality wax and the original factory finish.

As for any suggestions about tapes, those are definately NOT a good idea as the adhesive can penetrate the wood pores and cause its own kind of damage.

 

[nortac]

Poly was just a thought of the top of the head, but I agree, using a liberal amount of wax would be best so that the pen had a consistent look to it and just accept the minimal staining that occurred, but a sufficient amount of wax should be able to be built up over time so as to minimize staining.