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Mold! and the cure (I hope)

About a week ago, I came home from a business trip, uncapped my Lamy 2000, and backed away in fear! Ugly white hairy mold growing out of the nib and section :angry: I had put it away two weeks before, partly filled with Lamy blue/black, and it looked like either the ink, or the pen itself, was contaminated :sad:

I have flushed it with tap water, disassembled the pen (the section easily unscrews, and rinsed everything clean. Afterwards, I flushed it a few times with household vinegar, and let the nib and section soak in that for 15 minutes. The cap got the same treatment, just to be sure. A few more straight water flushes, and then I have put it in the sun to dry.

Sadly I had to decide to discard the ink ... not safe to take the risk, even if I could not see any mold :sad:

Anyway, that was a week ago, and nothing has grown back (yet). I'll let the pen rest for a few more days, and then I'll put it into rotation again. Probably with one ink only, for the time being.
 

nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
That's a shame, glad your pen recovered. I haven't had that happen yet.

I probably would have kept the ink and tried again in another pen, I've got a couple great Sheaffer lever-fillers I use for testing iffy inks. My Lamy blue-black is the old formula iron gall which I would be loathe to toss if it still looked OK. You did the safe move though.
 
My Lamy blue-black was the old formula as well. But I still have another bottle (also old formula), and I have the splendid Akkerman #10 iron gall ink.
 
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