How to Revive Dried Up Sharpie Markers

How many Sharpies do you think you have in your house?  And how many of those Sharpies are dried out?  If you’re like us, most of them.  And what do we usually do?  Either throw them away or keep them so the dried-up Sharpies taunt us when we most need them.  Luckily, there’s another option: a way to revive dried up markers to their previous inky past.

Disclaimer: This will work for most Sharpies, but not all.

Materials to Revive Dried-Up Sharpies

• Old Sharpie that no longer works
• Rubbing alcohol
• Small container

How to Revive Dried-Up Sharpies

First, test out your markers.  As you can see, the marker I used was pretty much useless for writing.

Pour a small amount of rubbing alcohol into a container. (You can also use the cap for the rubbing alcohol, but mine didn’t have a removable cap.)  You only need enough rubbing alcohol to submerge the nib of the marker.

Prop or tape the pencil up against something so the tip of the marker is submerged in the rubbing alcohol.  You’ll want the whole nib to be submerged, so that the rubbing alcohol can soak into the tip.

Let the dried-up Sharpie soak in the rubbing alcohol until ink begins to flow from the nib.  Once the ink flows, take the marker out.

Put the cap on the marker and put it in a place where it can stand with the marker tip down.  This will draw the ink down into the nib.

Make sure you actually put the cap on. This picture was for illustrative purposes and because I can’t cap a marker and take a picture at the same time.

Let the marker sit nib-down for at least 20 minutes.

Uncap the marker and test it out!  The marker might look like it is still dried out when you first start to write, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t work.  Keep writing and if the rubbing alcohol worked, then the ink will gradually get darker and darker.

If the ink doesn’t begin to work, you can try repeating the process again.

Hopefully this process worked for you.  I haven’t tried this process with oil-based Sharpies, so I’m not sure if it will work.  I’ve heard that you can do the same process with water-based markers and water, but I have yet to test that.

If you’re interested in some Sharpie crafts, check out Dotted Sharpie Mugs, DIY Polka Dot Wrapping Paper, and How to Transfer a Design to Mugs.  You can also use Sharpies to create beautiful fake calligraphy.