Possible that I’ve posted this here before, but since views seem to be trending upwards and it also might have been on the other instance that’s gone now…
…I positively love these pens, but is there any practical way to disassemble them, or am I stuck with the ink color I chose for them?
Just not quite sure what to do beyond running water through it, that seems to be ineffective at actually cleaning anything below where the cartridge attaches - though I may well be the dummy here, 99% of what I know (which isn’t all that much) is either via experimentation or the internet.
If I have really recalcitrant ink in there, I use my Flushing Syringe of Doom which is a normal syringe glued to a cartridge with a hole in the end of it. This can plug directly in where the cartridge would go, and you can thus use it to very thoroughly flush out any crud or old ink in the comb or elsewhere on the writing end.
At present I have an International Short cartridge stuck on the end, which hooks up pretty well even to pens that don’t take that type, at least just long enough to blast them out.
For pen bodies and other parts, invest in a cheap ultrasonic cleaner. Just filling it with water is fine. It will vibrate out dried ink from anything that can be submerged and make it ready for rinsing.
Love the “Flushing Syringe of Doom” - going to steal that, for the ones that are difficult. Ultrasonic hasn’t thrilled me with sections of Preppies, but otherwise it’s great for bodies like that Perkeo I managed to go a little crazy with a converter in…
What is your normal routine for flushing the pen when changing inks?
I usually rinse the nib, then remove the converter (I almost never use cartridges). Then I stick the nib into a container of water, and suck water up and push it back out. I have to repeat this dozens of times to get the water to run clear and usually I change the water occasionally while doing this.
For certain pens designed for disassembly with threaded nib units, like my Pelikan M205 or Parker 45, if it is being stubborn or has sat a while I will remove the nib and soak it for a few hours.and also rinse out the rest of the pen. On the 45 it becomes a hollow tube. On the M205 I just put a little water in the reservoir and shake it. Repeat a few times.
Sometimes, if the pen is still not clean after flushing a dozen or two times, I will fill it with water and then leave the pen nib down in a small jar of water (narrow neck, so the pen is mostly upright). Over a few hours the ink reside flows out. And then a final few flushes usually does it.
Can’t really soak hard rubber parts or they discolor, I am told, so I don’t soak those pens.
Occasionally, pen flush (e.g. from Koh-I-Noor) speeds the process a little. And an ultrasonic cleaner can knock the dye residue loose pretty effectively but I rarely use that method anymore.
Hope this helps.
That helps a ton - mostly, I disassemble to the extent possible, rinse individual parts until they run clear, and let dry. The ones that don’t disassemble are the ones that invariably give me trouble.
Upright in a small jar makes perfect sense - the downside to sharing this hobby mostly over the internet is that sometimes I miss obvious stuff like that.
Cool. Yeah I miss stuff too. I’m glad we finally have a FP community here. I really missed that from the other site. Anyway… I have quite a few vintage pens that don’t take kindly to disassembly and I am lazy so I guess that’s why I did the soaking thing. Having to flush by using a lever or button filler is less than fun lol.