Jim is our resident pen guru. Jim is
a "fountain" of
knowledge when it comes to all things pens!
A lesson learned, the hard way.
I recently received a beautiful blue Aurora Optima in
for repair. The first thing I noticed was a reddish
crust on the nib; this by itself is not abnormal if the
pen has been sitting for a period of time. In fact it
had not been. In the letter that accompanied the
pen the customer stated the pen had poor ink flow. I
also noticed the piston was very stiff.
At this point I dissembled the pen to discover the
nightmare within. The pen was filled and badly
stained with a coral like material that would not
dissolve with any of the pen cleaning solutions I
normally use. In addition to this, the nipple on the
back of the nib section was soft to the touch almost
in a gel type form; this piece is made out of a rock
hard plastic. I chipped away at the dried ink with a
sharpened stick for hours and eventually I was able
to get 98% of the dried ink out. The clear section of
the pen was stained and I mean stained a lovely pink
color and air would not pass through the nib section
after three hours of ultra sound cleaning.
So what the heck is going on here. I called the
customer and questioned him about what inks he
used. I was thinking India ink, and guess what? I
was wrong. He had been using several colors of
Herbin ink in the reddish family. He had also used
Private Reserve and Waterman inks. Now he had not
used them at the same time but he had not cleaned
the pen thoroughly between brand and color
changes. Talk about your chemical reactions! In
order for this customer to repair his $495.00 Aurora
he will need a feed, nib holder, body and piston head.
One final note... Herbin Ink says on the bottle not to
mix colors.
Please heed this expensive lesson.
1) Use red, green and yellow inks only in a dedicated
pen for each color. These inks will stain.
2) Do not mix brands or colors, unless the
manufactures says you can, i.e. Private Reserve.
3) Clean your pen thoroughly and allow it to
completely dry, any time you change colors or brands
of ink
4) When in doubt, do nothing and ask a professional
or the manufacture.
5) Clean your pen thoroughly at least once a month
and allow it to completely dry.
6) Read and print the cleaning suggestions on the
Bertram’s Inkwell web site titled Write thinking for fountain pens.
Jim
