"frothy" Ink?

[yogalarva]

Howdy! I have just taken my first foray into iron gall inks with R&K's Scabiosa. I'm totally in love with it, and convinced this is is my color. However, I do have a question about it... The ink I got is a sample from Goulet, and when it got to me it was a bit... frothy? I figured the vial had just gotten a bit shaken up while I was excitedly taking it out of the envelope and was no big deal. However, now it still looks that way, inside my converter. It writes fine and seems to be fine in every other regard, so I'm wondering if this is just normal for IG inks? Below is a photo of how it looks in my converter, in case that explains it better:

 

 

Btw, that is my manfriend in the background, being silly. I warned him that this picture would be going online, and still he persisted...

[Abner C. Kemp]

Looks like little air bubbles. Since you drew the ink up out of a vial you probably drew up some extra air. Try pushing a little ink through the feed and they should go away.

[Paddler]

As you write, air passes up one of the feed channels and takes the place of the ink in the converter (or cartridge). The air takes the form of little bubbles. The ink you are using lets the bubbles persist for a while. They will probably disappear after a while, until you start writing again. This may be normal for that ink.

[wallylynn]

You didn't put the pen/nib deep enough into the ink vial. You have to dip and submerge the entire nib, all the way down to the section (the grip). Otherwise you suck up air.

 

That little round breather hole in the nib isn't really a breather hole. The real breather hole is the square notch on the underside.

[amberleadavis]

Good advice, I end up having the same problems and forget that 'tis the little notch I should look for not the little circle. Thanks

[Inkling13]

Looks like air bubbles from being sucked up through the feed. Absolutely normal. Doesn't look like foam from say a biomass, like pond scum or anything like that.

[yogalarva]

Thanks everyone! I think I just didn't have the nib down in far enough, as suggested. Normally I take the converter out and fill it directly from the sample vials to avoid this, but this time I didn't so I was confused. Haha, something new learned today I guess. :-)