removing ink

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builtbybill

builtbybill

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2014
Messages
283
Location
Clayton, NC
Hello,

Need a little help, my wife sent one of my pens, bolt action tec pen, through the washer and the ink exploded all inside the pen. The good news is that the pen is fine, but the bad news is that I have no idea what the best way is to get all of the ink out of the pen. So my question is - what is the best way to remove all of the ink without damaging the finish of the pen?

Thanks,

Bill
 
builtbybill said:
Hello,

Need a little help, my wife sent one of my pens, bolt action tec pen, through the washer and the ink exploded all inside the pen. The good news is that the pen is fine, but the bad news is that I have no idea what the best way is to get all of the ink out of the pen. So my question is - what is the best way to remove all of the ink without damaging the finish of the pen?

Thanks,

Bill
Click to expand...
Well, that's a good one. I spent 30 years in the printing ink business and what you are going to have to do is.
Find out what the ink is made of, specifically what solvents are in it so you can dissolve the resin. Now whatever solvent does that may or may not damage you finish, you will have to determine that. I make pens, but I have never made ink for a pen and have never even checked into what ink in pen refills is made of. If it is alcohol based, I would think it would be ok for CA (maybe) but not for shellac based finishes. If it has a lacquer base then you would need lacquer thinner or acetone, and neither would be good for CA or shellac finishes I would think. If the ink is water based, this would be a good thing because you would be able to use ammonia or ammonia & alcohol. I keep talking about dissolving the resin because that is the most important thing you can do, without doing that, you can't get the ink out. Trust me, after 30 years and so many shirts and pants you can't imagine, that is what you have to do. Now for the pigment. That is a different story. If it hasn't dyed whatever it is on, when you dissolve the resin the pigment will dissolve too and your good to go. However, pigments do stain things, so if it has stained the pen or any of its parts, you are in trouble there. You might be able to use a solvent to get it off the metal parts, but someone with more experience in plating will have to help you there. Now one thing to consider is when you use whatever solvent to dissolve the resin, this will dissolve the pigment and make it more able to stain anything it touches, so if the solvent you use even softens the finish (even for a short time until it dries) it will stain the finish.
There are commercial non solvent products that claim to remove ink, I don't know if those work, but they are also an option.
Good luck and I hope this helps. I know it's long winded but there is a lot actually going on in the ink process.

Curt
 
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