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TL:DR There are wires in the ink channel of a Conway Stewart 75: 1) are these original, 2) can they be removed for the cleaning/restoring process? Longer version A friend has an inherited Conway Stewart 75, which he wants to restore to working order. Inevitably, there is a lot of dried ink in the channel and feed that doesn't come out (4 days of soaking only loosened up a little of it). The obvious thing to do would be to knock out the nib and feed and clean it manually. However, there are several wires stuck down the ink channel. We have removed one (it came out easily) and it runs the length of the channel. I've not seen anything like it before. My guess is that the previous owner inserted the wires to reduce the flow, and that they can be removed without any concern as part of the cleaning process. But given that it is an heirloom, we're being quite conservative and don't want to simply proceed without advice. Any ideas? Also, what size sac would a 75 take? Pictures follow: Picture 1 shows one of the wires; you can see the ends of the other wires sticking out. Picture 2 shows the wires sticking out of the ink channel.