I left a Shaeffer in a storage box with green ink in the piston fill for 10 years. I've been trying for a week to get it going again with black ink. It still skips after about a meter of use after filling. I've rinsed the black out and refilled twice but still when I've soaked it for a couple of days it still runs traces of green instead of clear.
How often do you clean your pen?
- Thread starter Dominic
- Start date
I'd fill it with a solution on water and ammonia (1:1) and just let it sit like that for several days. Then repeatedly flush with water till it runs clear.
Definitely soak it for a while; maybe several times. Is it a cartridge converter? If so you can use one of the baby earwax cleaners to shoot water through the nib and feed from the converter side. That will, after soaking, push some of the ink out.
What is probably happening is that you have a build up of dried ink and each time you soak it you liquify the top of the ink and that comes out but there are still some layers left in the pen. So the next wetting liquifies some more and it comes out. After a bit you get it all
What is probably happening is that you have a build up of dried ink and each time you soak it you liquify the top of the ink and that comes out but there are still some layers left in the pen. So the next wetting liquifies some more and it comes out. After a bit you get it all
Obviously not often enough!!! I taking the next few weeks to go through all of my pens to make sure that they are not dried out!!!
Tom
Tom
Thanks for the help here. I will get some ammonia. I've been soaking the nib for a week and drying it twice a day and there's obviously still dried ink coming out each time. Thanks for the tips @silverlifter and @Ted A .
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
Maintenance day.
The feeds were gumming up in two of my Parker IMs and my Sheaffer VFM. Some skipping, and writing drier than I know they should, so they needed fully stripping down, including pulling the nib and feed. I do seem to have to do that periodically with my pens, despite my best efforts to flush well between ink and pen swaps.
It might be my preference for slip on caps that's leading to partial drying internally. That won't change my preferences though. The ergonomics of a pen in use is far more important to me than how often I have to clean it. Even if it ends up shortening a pens life, by causing wear in the feed. I don't get along well with threaded stepped grip sections.
Only one of those three has been refilled, and it's back to working as it should. I am certain the others will be the same.
The feeds were gumming up in two of my Parker IMs and my Sheaffer VFM. Some skipping, and writing drier than I know they should, so they needed fully stripping down, including pulling the nib and feed. I do seem to have to do that periodically with my pens, despite my best efforts to flush well between ink and pen swaps.
It might be my preference for slip on caps that's leading to partial drying internally. That won't change my preferences though. The ergonomics of a pen in use is far more important to me than how often I have to clean it. Even if it ends up shortening a pens life, by causing wear in the feed. I don't get along well with threaded stepped grip sections.
Only one of those three has been refilled, and it's back to working as it should. I am certain the others will be the same.
Rhody
I'm a Lumberjack.
I cleaned out 3 pens this week. Full flush with water and pen wash 
I don’t do it enough and it felt good to do it. Even the mental activity felt zen like.
I don’t do it enough and it felt good to do it. Even the mental activity felt zen like.
Each day, I empty my pen and fill the cartridge about halfway. This keeps it flowing smoothly. I never flush it with water. If I change colors, I just empty the little bit of old color into a bottle of black ink and fill it with the new color. It seems to work."
Life got in the way the last time I allowed myself to become interested in writing with a fountain pen, and my Lamy Al-Star Sat for a few years with ink in it. I flushed it out a few days ago, inked it back up... didn't even dry it out...and it seems to be doing fine.
Never. I use them often enough so they never dry out.
I had to clean my TWSBI Go, today. I know many advise cleaning a new pen before using. I didn't listen. I had written many pages and was getting low on ink, but no where near out. Last night the pen sudden had less ink flow and then stopped altogether. I tried washing the nib and it worked a little and I tried lightly pressing the plunger, but the ink was very light colored. So, today I simply pressed the plunger all the way and rid the pen of its ink. Then, into a glass of water with a couple of drops of soap the nib went. I pushed the plunger and released it, getting a full pen of water that I then sprayed out into the sink. I did this a few times. Then, I repeated with plain filtered water. I set the pen nib down in a glass with tissue paper in the bottom for a half hour to dry out. Then, I took the pen, put it into the bottle of ink, pressed the plunger, and filled it partially with ink. I screwed on the body/plunger cover and took it to paper. Viola! It is writing again. It purrs along like a contented kitten.
I clean my pens if I change ink, which is almost every time.
