How to make Pen Flush
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- čas přidán 29. 10. 2013
- Here's my personal pen flush recipe, for those of you who don't want to buy any.
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Another helpful video Mr. Brown! One word of caution if I may. It's generally safer to add the ammonia to the water and not the water to the ammonia. Diluting concentrated chemicals can cause a bit of splashing and you would rather have the small amount of ammonia more quickly diluted by adding it to the larger volume of water in one pour. Sorry, it's the dorky and safety conscious chemist in me. Thanks again for the great videos.
Thank you for suggestion 👍
I soaked the nib in your solution overnight, rinse it thoroughly, inserted the ink cartridge and for the first time in many months, my MB Starwalker started to write again! This is brilliant! Thank you so much!
Good, I'm glad!
Was looking for flushes to buy, now that I’m getting into fountain pens again at 70 years old......you just saved my money! Thanks Lad. Enjoy your videos.
Thanks for posting the video. I was hoping to find something like this as a new fountain pen enthusiast.
Be aware that ammonia will pit chrome. Learned this with an expensive airbrush.
Good to know, thanks for the suggestion.
I had never heard that ammonia could be used for flushing. When I was a kid (ball pens were forbidden in school) we used to clean our pens with a mixture of bleach and tap water. Pelikan sold a set of two little bottles (I still have one) with rubber stoppers with a glass applicator. It was used to erase any mistake you had made in your notebook! The liquid you applied first had a strong odor of bleach, the other was odorless.
I watched this video and then went to the dollar store to find mini jars. They had expired food in them. I convinced management to give them to me for free since they couldn't sell them. I didnt count but it looks like 30 to 40 jars. This video brought me good luck. And they also had ammonia for sale!
Yay, the gift that keeps on giving. Thank you.
This is great! I need to flush one of my pens which has registrar's ink in it, I clean it regularly but I want to flush it too.
But I live in the UK, and ammonia isn't widely available here. Does anyone know where I could get some? :) Thanks!
Thank you for another informative video. I see you have a jar of Renaissance on your desk. As a part time woodworker, I use it on my chisels and plane irons to keep them from oxidizing. Does it have a FP application? I've been told it has many uses, including museums using it to archive paper documents.
Thank you very much for the advice.
Perfect! I was looking for this.
thank you. useful indeed . love the lilt of your speech.
What's the pen grease "oleum" in the little bottle? Great video, thanks.
Can you use pen flush on vintage fountain pens ?
Thank you very much! I was trying to find this pen flush in Brazil, I found only some really expensive things.
Thanks for that Stephen. I've been wanting to make my own pen flush. The commercial stuff is crazy expensive delivered to Australia. The only ammonia I can get here is for household cleaning and is labelled "cloudy ammonia". I know it is a more dilute ammonia solution, but it appears to have some additives too. Do you know anything about this? Does the ammonia you buy have anything added or is it pure?
Thanks a lot for this simple solution!!!
good money saving tip Stephen - I use just water & ammonia, as do most old-timers. The reason: soapy water enhances steel corrosion by increasing the conductivity of the solution & thus the redox potential. Also soapy residue may form over time. Also soap can break down the lubricants you apply to threads as I notice you like to do. Cleans the pen faster, but at a potential long-term cost. Not a problem if you flush out the solution thoroughly.
Would this get rid of ink stains inside the converter? After using purple inks it leaves stains on the converter and the feed, and am looking for something to get rid of them.
Thanks for the informative video!
Great video! Thanks for providing a low-cost way to keep pens clean when a straight water flush just isn't quite enough.
Glad you liked it!
I'm new at this and was just thinking, what about using Break-Clean or Carb cleaner? Or a solvent or WD-40?
Hey Stephen, I was looking to replace my Shrade, which you did a video on, (i have had it for a couple years tho before seeing your review) and I purchase the pen for its advertised purposes. I would like something that looks alot classier and less vicious. I was looking at some Jinhao's, the Monteverde Invincia, the Kaweco Allrounder, Nemosine Fission, and Platignum Time, All Fully metal, and all of a substantial size with secure caps. Do any live up to the standards of the shrade build wise?
Thanks for this!!
Simple. Practical. Thank you.
How about the Jinhao 159, or x750, im not apposed to spending more on a pen but the these are so affordable it seems very convenient
Since ammonia dissolves grease, why use the dish washing detergent? Don't they effectively do the same thing?
Stephen-
I recently bought new ink for my Visconti Michelangelo, and had to flush out the old ink. The problem is, is that I was able to get all of the old ink out, but a few drops of water stayed in the converter that I couldn't get out. This led to a really poor fill of the new ink, with tons of bubbles, which resulted in poor feed for writing. Is there any way to get this water out? Can I let it air dry, or do I need a new converter, or what?
Thank you for this
Very helpful--thanks!
It's a very cheap "solution" indeed...
punTASTIC
Great video! Thanks
Very useful indeed. My wife and I are away from home, and like most normal-ish people, we didn’t bring any pen flush with us. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I promised to clean a few of her pens this weekend. What to do??? Why, search for a video by SBRE Brown, of course! Marriage saved!
Stephen, is het aangewezen om de piston (in dit geval van m'n Pelikan 140) opnieuw in te vetten nadat ik hem (haar?) gespoeld heb met dit magisch brouwsel van je? De nib verwijderen is niet iets waar ik echt vertrouwd mee ben, of toch niet bij zo'n oude pen. Alvast bedankt!
Stevemeister, I just purchased a 45ml bottle of Aurora blank ink, per your recommendation. I paid $14.50US. Would you say that's a good price?
I have a couple of questions about pens. The first is about pen flush. I’ve used your recipe several times and it's been quite helpful on several pens. My question is how long a nib, feed and the section may soak in this mixture. I have been rinsing it through with a syringe and cartridge, but I’d like to try just soaking it overnight. Second, I have several pens that have essentially the same problem. They skip on the first letter that I write when I first use it, but generally work nicely after that. I've tried pen flush, flossing with brass sheets, nib adjustments etc, but it's still a problem. Do you have any ideas? They generally work well when I first prime them, but seem to dry out overnight.
I sometimes put my pens in the flush all night, but, for legal reasons, I must emphasize that you'd do so at your own risk. As to the skipping pens, it's hard to diagnose the problem without seeing the pens, but your pens may suffer from baby's bottoms syndrome: I have a video on that here How to get rid of baby's bottoms on a nib
Many thanks Mr Brown for the secret solution, I am now soaking my MB pen nib and see if I could get it working again tomorrow, I have tried everything else! Love your videos.
For those living in UK, I got my ammonia from Robert Dyas.
Thank you, I hope this will work!
Very good recipe. Stephen, do you get a Windex glass cleaner (Johnson & Johnson), it has Ammonia in it, and may be it has surfactants in it. I wonder if you have tried it.
Hi Steve Brown. Can I use powder ammonia? I cant fine liquid one. Please reply
I have never tried that, so I cannot comment on it.
Just mixed up some of this using an old baby food jar (about 150mL). I did get quite a bit of suds, perhaps I used too much dish washing fluid. Either way the solution works well. Thanks Mr. Brown! Definitely more cost-effective than buying the pre-made stuff. =)
Glad this was useful!
Interesting, I normally use just a few drops of washing up liquid in water, then if need I a bit more cleaning power, add the ammonia too. I don't use much as it's quite difficult to find in the UK, and as you said it's not too good to breathe either.
I have also learned, with a new, unknown pen, to give it this treatment first, before inking, as I can't be sure what's been done, or hasn't, before I got it. New pens and converters often don't want to write in my experience ! Mike59 FPN
I use the same recipe - probably got it from you in the first place. :-) As Michael said, getting ammonia in the UK is becoming difficult, so it's probably going to be a matter of mail order.
One caveat: ammonia and iron gall is *not* a happy mixture. 10% white vinegar with water is safe with IG inks: afterwards you can flush with water and then use the ammonia recipe to clear out any remaining dye ... but don't use it first!
Hey how about a video of how to develop your writing style
For some reason, I could not find ammonia in any American stores, and most people looked at me funny when I asked. I finally found it today at some new food place called "ruler food". I knew it would smell, but it really surprised me just how badly it smelled, so a word of warning there for anyone new to the stuff.
Anyway, this stuff is AMAZING. I just tried your formula. I had a really clogged up pen because (I thought) I had left orange ink in there for too long. For the last week, I had been soaking a pen nib unit in detergent+water and changing that water daily (from a sample vial), and it was still making the water orange. This was after I had already flushed it out very thoroughly many times. Then, I put the pen flush through just now, and it came out BLUE! What?!? I still have no idea how this happened or how long that blue ink has been in there.
I'm glad you succeeded in finding ammonia and that you found the pen flush useful!
Hey thanks I was just wondering how to do that. We all need to save money for sure. We are all thinking "more money for ink-pens" am I write ;-)
Exactly!
Nice !! ...
btw.. dishwasher powder/tablets are great to remove inkstains from fingers and clothing ..
will this work even if the pen has been neglected for a couple years? I have a pilot falcon that has caked on ink that dried up and it's very hard to remove.
I've tried keeping it in hot water, but i can see that there's a lot of dried ink stuck between the feed and the nib.
It should work, yes.
sbrebrown
thank you. Now i just need to find someplace that sells ammonia.
On got.No light?
is pen flush safe to use on Twsbi plastic?
CHANTAL DOWLING yes
I` made this with ammonia and it`s great but I would love to make a version without ammonia. I wonder if using citrus juice in the ingredients would work as citrus juice is an excellent cleaning agent. My only concern is that citrus juice is acidic and might harm the pen, nib converter etc. Do you have any thoughts on this idea Stephen?
I wonder if it's more acidic than ammonia. You can always try it on a cheap pen. I think that if you flush well afterwards, it would be safe.
sbrebrown Thanks Stephen, I`ll give it a try. I hope that all is well with you.
Vegan Minimalist Mark so how was it?
Ammonia will also attack latex. That's why it's good for removing floor wax. Caution should be used with certain bladder pens or converters. (I thought bladders were made of silicone but have heard that some are latex)
Citrus juice also has sugar in it, so a tiny amount in water may spoil. It also contains oil(s) which can affect some plastics and rubbers. "Test on an inconspicuous area..."
Yah! let's make some good old moonshine!
Good to know info... Thank you.
Just a FYI majority of "City" water in the United States is so overly treated with chlorine that I would think that perhaps is not all that good for certain metal parts.
Andrew Arndts let the water sit. The chlorine will slowly go from dissolved Cl ion to Cl2 and gas.
Could Borax be an alternative to Ammonia?
Katie Sykes I am not a chemist but I would not do it without the information of an expert, but just in case don't do it. Idk what that does to metal or plastic and I don't want to find out, especially on pens. So I would wait till someone who knows more about that stuff answers.
I'd say no. They are unrelated chemicals.
I would be cautious using an ammonia flush on a vintage celluloid pen, vinegar flush better.
I'm guessing you have to be careful if your dish soap has extra stuff in it, like aloe.
Are there any alternatives to ammonia? Could I only use the Water and Dish Soap mixture for the pen flush?
Katie Sykes If you want to, yes
Q. How do you make a pen flush?
A. Tell it the one about the traveling salesman and the two nuns.
I live in that place with sick amounts of calcium:(
YES Distilled! for less than a $1.50 a gallon. (roughly 1.09 euro's) that is really more of an insurance policy than anything.
Well, it's like yours, but minus the ammonia :) I've never had much trouble with ink-clogging but I might just buy some ammonia to make your recipe.
Well, now you've done it...you've revealed the secret pen-flush recipe! If you hear a knock on your door tonight, it's the NSA and the Goulets.
Very nice video, although very biased. You clearly advertise Brown industries. That's a disgrace :-D Ok, enough with mocking the channel-haters. This is one of the most helpful videos you've made. Sooner or later every fountain pen user will have to face a stubborn ink or a pen that needs that extra help and this is a great solution (excuse the pun).
Cheap solution! Word play!
I make mine in 6oz mustard jars.
Can we use 99% ethyl alcohol with a few drops of liquid dish washing soap as pen flushing solution as ethyl alcohol in my place is US$2 for 500 ml (16 oz.) ? .
Thanks for this video. I personally would rather save my money for ink rather than buy pen flush.
Thanks should go to Pharmacist at FPN. I don't think that advice has been widely circulated (I found it tucked away on page 10 of comments on one of Sandy's reviews ...) so thought it was worth passing on.
Actually, it's a bit horrifying. If you put a little water in a sample vial, add a drop of IG ink and a drop of ammonia some sludge will precipitate out instantly. Yuk. Apparently that's the IG component; the dye stays in suspension.
8 & half minutes that could be said I one minute !
But this is more fun.
@@bonniegeiger2882 - B.S. Bonnie
Dude, did you seriously just say, "I'm slightly retarted'? That's gross.
Amy Boone Yes, that was before I knew Americans considered that term highly offensive. My apologies.
Thanks for the response and the apology. Out of cultural interest , using this word isn't offensive in the Netherlands?
Amy Boone We don't speak English, so no :-).
achterlijk then?
Amy Boone No. It's considered on par with something like stupid.