What Dissolves Silicon Grease?

[Chopper88]

The solvent to use is: Denatured Alcohol. AKA Rubbing Alcohol. It is safe on most pen materials.

No, it's not!

 

Alcohol attacks all sorts of plastic!

[aawhite]

Diluted dish liquid detergent.

 

You can easily clean a smear of silicon grease from your hand with a very small amount of dish liquid detergent and washed/rinsed off with water. Using luke warm water would be better.

Edited August 3, 2013 by aawhite

[Vintagepens]

The solvent to use is: Denatured Alcohol. AKA Rubbing Alcohol. It is safe on most pen materials.

 

Multiple wrongnesses.

Denatured alcohol is not the same as rubbing alcohol.

Neither can remotely be described as "safe on most pen materials".

[Mickey]

This may seem hair-brained (nothing new from me) but applying a dry, absorbent material (something for which silicon grease has a greater affinity than the surface it is on) might be a good first step before resorting to strong detergents and solvents: e.g., rubbing something like cornstarch on to the 'contaminated' surface, then brushing off the cornstarch.

 

I worked in garages when I was in school, and we routinely used sawdust (and sawdust mixed with various additives) to remove grease and oil from floors. Perhaps something similar might be a gentler way to go about cleaning up silicon grease than just solvents and detergents.

[Scrawler]

Some materials, yes it will cause damage.

 

Try lighter fluid if you can't find Octane or Hexanes.

How come no one ever mentions pentane in this context?

[Venemo]

What do you guys think about isopropyl? Maybe worth a try?

[mhosea]

What do you guys think about isopropyl? Maybe worth a try?

Isopropyl is otherwise known as "rubbing alcohol" here. It will harm celluloid and cellulose acetate, among other plastics.