Pocket Clip Plating Loss

[tonybelding]

Check this...

 

http://zobeid.zapto.org/image/pens/bexley_clip.jpg

 

That's what the pocket clip on my Bexley "America the Beautiful" looks like now. It sure didn't look like that when it was new! I understand that thin platings do wear off, and supposedly "brassing adds character", but... This pen isn't all that many years old, hasn't been used all that hard, nor polished excessively. It almost seems as though the plating is just... evaporating? What gives?

 

BTW, this was the model with "rose gold" plated trim, which also includes the cap bands.

 

[pajaro]

That's stupefying. It looks like the finish is crazing.

[lightless]

Between this and your Vac 700 I think you should get your fortune read, or something.

[hari317]

I found to my dismay that the lining in one of my pen storage folders was not upto the mark and corroded the plating of some pens, some others remained intact, maybe a chemical interaction with the storage environment...

 

Anyway Waterman's blue black took some of the plating away from the steel nib of my Bexley: link

[tonybelding]

UPDATE: I think I have figured it out.

 

I don't specifically remember putting this pen in the sonic cleaner, and I certainly don't remember putting the cap in the sonic cleaner (there's little reason to do so), but it sure could have happened, and it would explain this. If you've ever seen what a sonic cleaner can do to aluminum foil, then it becomes apparent how this type of damage could occur.

 

Lesson learned. Don't put plated parts in the sonic cleaner!

 

[Ron Z]

 

 

Lesson learned. Don't put plated parts in the sonic cleaner!

 

Maybe. I won't say it's impossible, but I have not seen this kind of damage to trim from an ultrasonic. But then I am not in the habit of throwing caps into the tank to clean them. But I have seen this kind of damage from environmental interactions. An example is the corrosion on the metal parts of nib units from outgassing of celluloid sections stored in the same closed parts bins.

[OcalaFlGuy]

It is my contention that this (thin) plating loss in the sonicator is due to the plated part minutely moving at thousands of times per second (from the sound waves) AGAINST whatever the pen part is Sitting On Inside the sonicator.

 

I suspect one reason the pros don't see this same damage is they are using some sort of holder to keep the pen part just in

solution inside the cleaner such that it contacts no other part of the cleaner while sonicating.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl