I tested Diamine Imperial Purple in a reused Sailor cartridge before putting it in a demonstrator, and the result was a stained cartridge. I love the color, but I haven’t had any luck getting it out of my cartridge with water, soap, a little bit of ammonia, and time.
I don’t write much, so a pen could stay inked up for months on end.
Is there a way to get this color out of plastic? Is it safe to use in converters and demonstrators without staining them too?
My go-to in cases like this it to just step up the solvent-molecular-weight scale until you either A) get the desired result, or B) destroy whatever polymer the thing is made out of.
I don’t know about ammonia, but isopropyl alcohol seems to dissolve all the constituents of every dye based ink I’ve ever tried it on, which ought to encompass all fountain pen inks – and also inkjet printer inks, for what it’s worth.
@Shihali have you let the ammonia sit inside the cartridge overnight? Or how did you use it?
I forget how long I let the diluted ammonia (about 10% household ammonia, 90% water) sit in the cartridge. I don’t think it was overnight.
@Shihali so, other than aesthetics, staining the cartridge is basically harmless. It stains because the cartridges are made of polypropylene. You could just put another ink there despite the stain and it would be fine, you probably wouldn’t notice if it were an ink that was in about the same color range like a blue.
The converters do not stain as easily and you can take them apart and clean them with a pipe cleaner if that’s what you prefer.
That’s reassuring. I took staining the cartridge as a sign of things to come.
