How to best remove tarnish from 18K nib?

[Penman57]

Dear Forum,

 

I am in the process of rejuvenating my Watermina’s 18K nib, but after gentle overnight soaking in water there is some tarnish remaining on the nib where it meets the section, als well as on the underside of the nib point. Probably not an issue for writing, but I like for the nibs to be nice and clean. They are an element of beauty in the pen. I have thought about using a cotton tip with Twinkle silver cleaner, but think Twinkle leaves an anti-tarnish surfactant, which is great for shine, but probably not for ink flow.

 

There are many threads about cleaning out ink residues, some more scary than others, so not sure where to start. Soaking in diluted ammonia? Gentle rubbing with something non-abrasive?

 

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions. 

[Penman57]

This the whole pen. 

[Ron Z]

Use a Sunshine cloth, which is what I use.  Be gentle. Other jewelers cloth may be use too. Do not use any paste or cream polishes which could get into the slit, heart of the nib, or down to the feed and then screw up the flow.

[thx1138]

10 minutes ago, Ron Z said:

Use a Sunshine cloth, which is what I use.  Be gentle. Other jewelers cloth may be use too. Do not use any paste or cream polishes which could get into the slit, heart of the nib, or down to the feed and then screw up the flow.

 

I've always been hesitant to use a Sunshine cloth on nibs because of my fear that whatever the cloth is impregnated with might affect ink flow.

 

For barrels and caps i have used sunshine cloths with great success. If they can be used on nibs that is great news.  

 

[Ron Z]

I use a Sunshine cloth on nibs and have for about 15+ years.  I also use it on hard rubber.  It doesn't remove oxidation, but it does help bring up some luster.

[thx1138]

9 hours ago, Ron Z said:

I use a Sunshine cloth on nibs and have for about 15+ years.  I also use it on hard rubber.  It doesn't remove oxidation, but it does help bring up some luster.

Great to know. Thanks. 

[pen lady]

That tip about using one on HBR is a "keeper", thanks Ron.  BTW I have a musical instrument store close to me, I buy my polishing cloths from them, brass players use them too.

[Penman57]

Update: after previous overnight soaking of the nib section and copious flushing there appeared to be no more ink coming out, with some remaining tarnish on the nib as described above.

 

As a follow up, I cleaned the nib with a cotton tip and mild solution of tepid water with a drop of Dawn (Dreft here in EU) and that seemed to work, with quite a bit of ink still showing on the cotton….more that just the tarnish. 

 

So as a next step, decided to do another soak in a tepid water solution with a drop of Dawn and now more old ink comes oozing out of the nib. Beautiful to see and a lovely color, wish I knew what the old ink was!

[VacNut]

If you are trying to remove the ink from the section and feed, you may consider buying a bulb filler and flush the pen from the back end of the section by squirting water into the section. 
I personally try not to soak pen parts for long periods.

[Penman57]

Thank you VacNut, good advice and much appreciated. Can you perhaps say a bit more about your concern with soaking? Assuming a plastic or resin section with a metal nib, what could go wrong with an overnight soak?

[thx1138]

On 2/26/2025 at 2:42 AM, Penman57 said:

Thank you VacNut, good advice and much appreciated. Can you perhaps say a bit more about your concern with soaking? Assuming a plastic or resin section with a metal nib, what could go wrong with an overnight soak?

 

I'm not sure about Waterman but some Parker sections can go milky if soaked for too long. 75's in particular. I think some pens like celluloid (I'm not sure because I don't have any) strongly resent soaking.

 

If you want easy and very efficient cleaning, buy a small ultrasonic cleaner, maybe $40 and they will remove ancient ink that doesn't show for repeated flushing or soaking.

[Penman57]

Thank you for clarifying somewhat thx1138. Also made me research this a bit more on FPN, FPGeeks and Reddit and it appears to have two opposing and strong voiced camps, “soaking versus no soaking”. Fascinating reading, with occasional flaring of tempers. A lot of good advice, especially when it comes to better not soaking (for long periods) older vintage pens (celluloid & hard rubber) and rare/expensive pens, where exercising caution to avoid damage is the main point. For young-timer and newer acrylic/plastic pens, moderate soaking of the nib section (not the whole pen of course) to remove dried out ink appears to work in most cases. It certainly did for my Watermina nib, which now is shiny again. 

[Ron Z]

There are times when soaking is the only answer.  Even an ultrasonic is often not as effective as an overnight soak, and  I use an ultrasonic on a regular basis.  Never soak Casein.   Sometimes you have to soak a 75 section.  Over night in water is not a problem.  An over night soak of a Vac cap to get the jewel loose is not a problem.  I never soak the whole pen. 

 

When you buy an ultrasonic, the power should be under 50W.  The big units can be too powerful.   Use cool water, keep it cool and the tank full to dissipate the heat generated by the transducer.  I use a pudding cup or a yogurt cup in the water to hold the cleaning solution so that you don't have to use a lot, covering the work piece by an inch or so.  Use a couple of short cycles, under 5 minutes.  Long cycles will heat the water.

 

[VacNut]

For celluloid particularly Vacumatics, I soak the parts in Naphtha for longer periods to loosen parts, if a quick dip in water doesn’t loosen the parts. On a vacumatic the cap and end caps are not such a worry for me in water since transparency is not a major issue, like the barrel. 
 

I cannot speak to more modern pens, but I would think the modern plastics are less susceptible to water than the vintage pen parts (although a Parker 21 hood shrank considerably after I left it soaking in water). That said, some of the plating on more modern Italian pens aren’t as robust as vintage pens, so I would be hesitant to soak them for longer periods or run them through an ultrasonic cleaner.

[thx1138]

One thing with ultrasonic cleaners, never put NOS 61 sections in them. Bad karma. Don't ask why or i will be retraumatised.

[thx1138]

Another dreaded double post.

[Ron Z]

Here's the thing about the not soaking celluloid in water argument....   All but the last generation of Sheaffer plunger fillers,  and all Vacumatics were made out of celluloid.  All held the ink in direct contact with the barrel.  All of them.  Ink is mostly...... water.  They've done it for about 9 decades now, and are  still around.  Therefore it's reasonable to say that soaking celluloid is a not problem unless there is something added to the water that might harm the material.  Now, I  don't know that I would do it for a long time, but there are cases where a pen was left in water for an extended period without problems and cleaned up easily.  Hot water would be a problem, but cool or room temperature no.

 

They made piston fillers that are made out of hard rubber.  Waterman safety fillers are hard rubber, are the early Onoto pen.  The problem with some of the early hard rubber pens is that they discolor,  but later hard rubber parts aren't effected in quite the same way.

[Beechwood]

Shows how little I know, I thought that gold did not tarnish, at least 9+ct.

[thx1138]

3 hours ago, Beechwood said:

Shows how little I know, I thought that gold did not tarnish, at least 9+ct.

I think it is more that stuff adheres to the surface and looks like tarnish. Perhaps scale or plaque would be a more accurate term.

 

Under most circumstances gold will not corrode. The higher the purity the less likely any corrosion will be.

 

Aqua regia and hot cyanide will dissolve gold quite efficiently but these are seldom found outside of laboratories or gold processing plants.