Over a dozen years ago, when I was married, I bought a Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pen in the “stealth” color — all matte black, including the nib, which is an extra-fine.
It’s a very nice pen. Back then I had a habit of putting my pens away without cleaning them. This weekend it came back to bite me on the butt.
I started on Friday with some warm water, and then a normal pen flush (Goulet brand, but I don’t buy from them anymore for moral reasons). Nothing was coming out, and it was obvious the feed was clogged. I let it soak in water overnight. Some blue ink came out. I wrote with it a little, but it stopped working after a few paragraphs. I tried more water. More flush. Blue ink came out, but the feed was still clogged. (When you flush a pen with a bulb full of water, it should stream out of the hole in the nib. No water was getting through.)
Sunday I tried the ultrasonic cleaner. Again, some blue ink came out, but no clog. Someone on a pen Discord suggested Koh-i-Noor Rapido-Eze, which is the “cleaner of last resort” — it was invented to get India ink out of pens, and will get acrylic ink out too. If anything could unclog my pen, it was this.
The Rapido-Eze came in yesterday afternoon. It took hours of soaking, alternating between the cleaner and warm water, but eventually tons of purple ink started coming out. It was Noodler’s North African Violet, which was my favorite purple ink a dozen years ago. (The owner of Noodler’s was outed as an anti-Semite a few years ago, so I don’t use their products anymore either.) The Noodler’s was waterproof, and this pen’s feed was full of it. It came out of the feed slowly, a thick gritty sludge. It took hours to get it fully clean. The clog finally came out when I bulb-flushed again, this huge drop of gritty ooze splattering into the sink. And then the water flowed free and clear through the nib like it should. Finally, the pen was clean.
Lessons:
- Don’t put your pens away dirty.
- Noodler’s isn’t really healthy for pens.
- Rapido-Eze is magic.
The pen is now my planner pen, as it writes very fine and is capless/retractable, so it’s easier to use one-handed. I have De Atramentis Document Ink in it, in a dark blue. I’m so glad I was able to get this sucker clean!
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