Cleaning Esterbrook Fountain Pen Nibs

When I get an old Esterbrook fountain pen from an antique store or eBay, one of the first things I do is dismantle the pen and get it ready for restoration. Cleaning the nib (which unscrews in Esterbrook pens) is one step in this process.

I usually clean the nibs one at a time, but I had a growing pile of nibs that needed to be cleaned, so I thought it would be fun to clean them all at once and make a little video.

The major steps include:

1) Soak the nibs in water

2) Rinse the nibs in clean water

3) Soak again, change out water as needed, and let sit over night

4) Rinse again

5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 until water starts to become clear after over night soaking

For mild to moderate amounts of dried ink, steps 1 through 5 will often be all you need to do. Finishing steps 10,11, and 12 below will also be helpful. Some situations will require more work though (steps 6 and 7).

6) (optional, if above steps not making enough progress) Use a little ammonia (about 10 parts water to 1 part ammonia) to help remove some more ink. Rinse.

7) (optional, if you have the equipment) Use ultrasonic cleaning machine to remove even more ink.

8) Rinse

9) At this point I inspect each nib individually and repeat steps 7 and 8 as needed for each one while also doing the following:

10) Brush the parts with a soft toothbrush

11) Run a thin guitar string through the feed channels if they seem clogged

12) Push water through the feed channels with an ear bulb (cut off the tip such that a nib will fit snugly in the opening).

After all this, the nibs should be ready to test with ink! These steps should get most nibs clean and ready to use. Unfortunately, if the pen had been previously used with non-fountain pen ink, the nib and feed might still be clogged with ink. There are further steps to fix that, but if the nib isn't very valuable, it might be worth giving up at that point!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Esterbrook
• Renew Point
• Fountain Pen
• Nib
• Cleaning
• Ultrasonic
• iPhone 4
• iMovie App

[LottieSue]

Two water soak rinses,

1 diluted ammonia in water and washed out immediately adding more diluted water at a time,

Soak in clear water? Is that a sonic machine?

Rinse

Dry on towel, flush out the bulb thingie and use tooth brush?

Am I getting it right?

[Microshrimp]

@LottieSue You can do any or all of the above depending on how messy they are. Sometimes one soak in water is enough, and other times you have to soak them many times and then move on to the other methods such as the dilute ammonia or the ultrasonic cleaner. (If you have anything with plated metals though, be careful with the ultrasonic or scrubbing real hard in general.)

[jorgecampuzano1]

Hey do you know if i can buy a parker sonnet fountain fine nib?

[Microshrimp]

@jorgecampuzano1 Try contacting a Parker dealer or find someone trying to get rid of one or willing to trade. If the nib you already have is in good shape, you may be able to have Parker trade it out for a Fine nib. Contact Parker directly. Be careful if you start looking on eBay though-- the Parker Sonnet for some reason is very frequently counterfeited and it's easy to buy a fake one on eBay and not realize it. Some of the fakes are VERY difficult to spot.

[zero00tolerance]

hello can you please tell me how to fix..

i got this new fountain pen and its making scratchy noise when i write .. and the ink its no consistent how should i fix it thanksss

[Microshrimp]

@zero00tolerance The tines of the nib may not be aligned properly. The quick answer when that happens is that you can use your thumbs/thumbnails to realign them (checking your progress with magnification such as a loupe), but this process should be studied in detail (more so than what I've just said) before attempting it or any other type of nib tine adjustment. If you're not sure what you're doing or what to look for, you may make the problem worse.

[dinasaur2]

Great video.

[zero00tolerance]

NOW that cleaning pen by PRO ! respect !!!!!!

[orioncheung]

Why so many Nibs.. O_o..