It’s rather simple really. When the ink refill leaks and you have to wash it out, use Methylated Spirits. A few days sitting in metho to soften the old ink will result in the pictures below. Note, it wasn’t my pen, but I did supply the metho. Nothing on the web I have found so far indicates the special Mont Blanc resin they use is not alcohol stable. Not a bad effort for a several hundred $ pen. I’ll stick to my Fisher Space Pen.
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Wow.
I thought my little incident with a 149 and a spilt glass of whisky was bad. It cost me $150, but Mont Blanc was able to fix it.
I’m not sure there’s much to be done with that one, except to post it as a warning!
The problem is that you let it sit for a few days and it sounds like you used pure spirits. A good pure rubbing alcohol and a very short few minutes should do it. Remember how to wash your hair? It’s the same with pens. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Um, wow! I’m a huge fan of Montblanc pens and I’ve never seen or heard of this before. I guess precious resin is less so when it encounters other substances. I’m linking to this as a, ‘how not to clean your pen” post. Thanks for sharing.
MB will fix it. I brought in a RB, missing the cap and broken barrel, they replaced everything, total cost was about 1/4 of what a new pen would of cost. They left the old refill, which was the only piece left over from the old pen.
Tragedy here: Just wiped off the barrel of my beloved 149 with a cloth dampened using 90% isopropyl alcohol. Rubbed it dry and then put the cap back on. Guess What ?? The residual solvent dissolved resin surface including the threads, and the cap is now frozen onto the barrel. In an effort to twist cap loose, broke off the end of the 149. Ruined. Over. Kaput.
Do not EVER wipe a Mont Blanc pen with anything other than water.