Leaking Parker ball pen

[michael adams]

Er no. That comes to £13.18 per litre

Something costing £12.98 per litre ?

michael adams

...

[The Daring Dufas]

Hey feller! Can I borrow your pen for a minute?

TDD

[gfretwell]

Sounds like a piece of overpriced junk. A 49 cent "promo" pen from my auto parts store is still going strong and it doesn't leak.

[DA]

Could have been a bad OEM cartridge i.e. Parker-compatible instead of Parker. That or you can no longer trust anyone's quality [sigh] Toyota's recent debacle comes to mind.

Pen itself should clean nicely with alcohol, as others suggested. But if you are trying to clean a fabric it stained rather than the pen itself - alcohol will make even a bigger mess than it already is. The alcohol will make the stain just larger albeit less dense in color. Might as well just throw the item out.

------------------------------------- /\_/\ ((@v@)) NIGHT ():::() OWL VV-VV

[Spamlet]

Whilst not wishing to spoil the enthusiastic discussion of the properties and prices of IPA - which is less flammable than meths, and to me used to be cheaper than chips as I used to pump it into 25L drums, as a general cleaner in the print trade - I should point out that, as ballpoint ink is *oil based*, readers probably already have a cheaper cleaner in their cupboard already: white spirit. I think the preference for IPA in 'the trade' is as much for its quick evaporation as anything. It does dissolve both polar and non polar substances, but I doubt if it is as effective, for an oil based (non-polar) ink, as a non polar solvent (white spirit, paraffin, petrol etc) would be. As I've noted before, every DIYer should keep a selection of the various types of solvent to hand, so you can always find the right 'tool' for the job.

S

[Frank Erskine]

I believe Parker 'ink' pens are now made in France 8-(((

I don't know about their cartridges since I use a refillable (from an ink bottle!) insert-thing, but Quink is also French, according a quick glance under the bottle.

[geoff]

In message , Frank Erskine writes

Le sabotage

[Spamlet]

If, like most people nowadays, you are doing most of your writing via a keyboard, and adopt a pen only for cards and signatures, you will probably find your fountain pen, and even good old Rotring, need cleaning out every time you want to use them. You may find, as I have, that good old fashioned dip pens with a good selection of nibs, and a range of small bottles of coloured inks, are actually more convenient and fun to write with. They only need a wipe with a tissue between uses. A dip mapping pen is still excellent for fine lines too.

S

[Frank Erskine]

I think I do more writing with an 'ink' pen, and real Cumberland 3H pencils... I try not to be like "most people".

I have to admit that I haven't used a 'dip' pen for a wee while. Or my Rotring - probably since college days...

[Rod Speed]

Nope, thats metho.

[Shawn Hirn]

Contact Parker's customer service. They might send you some free ink cartridges.

[Spamlet]

Try it: you will like it. Sadly, I used to use Rotring and similar pens all the time, as I never could find a biro that wrote fine enough and where the ink didn't stay tacky and leave blobs everywhere. As the fine writing problem is now mostly resolved via Excel and Word tables and diagrams, my Rotrings are always dried up solid when I would like to use them, and the little wires inside tend to break off in the cleaning. The dip mapping pen is a fair substitute. S