Ick Factor

[bmillicent]

I can't stop shivering. The mere mention of filling, emptying, and refilling ink from/into the same bottle makes me cringe.

 

Yeah, I know ink isn't like some precious sterile medication. But it still seems like contamination. No doubt I am fortunate to have a fairly unlimited supply of syringes because I have too many diabetic friends and the animal feed stores are nearby. Apparently, syringes are a scarce commodity in some locations

 

Even inverting to allow the air bubbles to "burp" doesn't totally solve the issue. How do you balance waste vs. backwash? It seems unlikely that I am the only person with a visceral reaction to all this.

 

Sign me OCD . . .

 

 

 

[penswordnoassemblyrequired]

Thank you very much for giving me something else to obsess about.

;-)

[Runnin_Ute]

I try to use up most (if not all) of a fill so I limit if not eliminate the "waste" factor. Sometimes if it something that is a little harder to get or I don't have much I will risk it. So far no problems.

[Paddler]

Your ink should contain microbe growth inhibitors. If there is anything biological in the backflush, the ink in the bottle should inhibit its growth. Just dipping your pen into the ink will contaminate it; the microscopic beasts are everywhere that is not either sterilized or red hot. The ink is probably not sterile when you buy it. Don't worry about the little critters too much; many of them are beneficial and most are harmless.

[tinta]

To ensure that my feed system is fully filled & that I get a greatest amount of ink into my converters, I usually cycle the piston three times. Initially I had some concern about contaminating the bottles. Now I just rely on the "bug" inhibitors that the makers put into their inks.

Because I mostly work with ferrogallic inks, I follow quite a strict pen hygiene.

My supply of inks have been steadily growing, with no bottle going bad,...yet.

I may be just lucky.

[______Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

Waste? Backwash?

 

I must fill my pens different because I have no waste and I do not even know what backwash is.

 

When my pen is empty, I just stick my nib into the ink bottle and turn the knob to fill the pen. Done.

 

That is the simple description anyway, no waste, no backwash.

[Paddler]

Waste? Backwash?

 

I must fill my pens different because I have no waste and I do not even know what backwash is.

 

When my pen is empty, I just stick my nib into the ink bottle and turn the knob to fill the pen. Done.

 

That is the simple description anyway, no waste, no backwash.

You have the idea.

[jmccarty3]

There are two issues here: fungal or bacterial contamination and contamination of an ink bottle by the remaining ink in the pen (assuming the two inks are different). These are not the concerns of people who have only one pen and who keep the same ink in it all the time, using a bottle up fairly quickly.

 

For those of us who keep multiple pens inked and who like to change inks with every fill to enjoy our collections, things are more problematic. The issue of contamination by microorganisms has been addressed. To me, the more worrisome issue is: how do you remove most (all is impossible) of the old ink from a pen before filling it with a new ink. Some pens and some inks are more difficult to clean thoroughly than others, e.g., Parker 61s and BSB, respectively. We just have to do the best we can do reasonably, using pen flushing solutions, bulb syringes, and soaking, until we have as much old ink out of the pen as possible. Some people dedicate a particular pen to BSB or some other tenacious ink. Others will remove some ink from the bottle with a syringe, put it in a sample bottle, and fill from that bottle--this wastes more ink, but doesn't cross-contaminate the bottle. I try not to worry about filling the pen completely when filling from a bottle, but I don't write so much that I worry about running out of ink before I'm ready to switch to a different pen anyway.

 

The point is to take reasonable care. This isn't a microbiology lab, or one of those TV commercials that try to make you think you can sterilize your bathroom, your kitchen, or your skin. We aren't working in a quantitative analysis lab either. So just relax, take deep breaths, and remember that there are good medications for OCD.

[Medsen Fey]

Frankly I'd worry more about the nasty germs on the outside surface of the pen.

[lapis]

One more reason to collect inks. I.e. so that I always have another bottle or ten I've not yet ever opened.

 

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu264/peli46/1_ani.gif

[mirosc]

you could always have one spare bottle for spits and vomits.

Whatever you don't want to put into the normal bottle goes in there - either you get a funny color or some glibbery blob (which is funny as well).

 

We all know Cinderella: the good ones go into the pot, the bad ones...

[jasonchickerson]

I can't tell if the OP is concerned with color contamination or biological contamination.

 

I have no problem emptying unused ink back into the original bottle if the pen was well-cleaned before filling. The worst that could happen is that a tiny amount of previous ink left in the pen after flushing makes its way into the bottle. However, the amount would be so small that you could never see the color change in the real world. I would be much more zealous when using a yellow ink (low tinting strength) after a blue or green (high tinting strength) and returning that to the bottle. A tiny amount of blue will turn a whole bottle of yellow ink green.

 

Biological contamination is another matter. The ink has additives to slow/stop growth. I would rather find that some fungus was growing in my ink bottle than to find it was growing in my pen.

[Sasha Royale]

My fountain pens will write without being filled completely. I don't mind refilling a pen.

Ink is cheap.

[bone215]

 

Sasha +1

[martinbir]

I have one everyday pen which is used most of the time and only changes inks occasionally (Lamy 2000 + Diamine Eau de Nil at the moment). The other half dozen-ish are really for playing and they change inks every time. These are only ever filled about 1/4 or 1/3 full - if I want more of the same then it takes only a moment to refill, but usually I swap inks/pens.

 

This way I get more playing and no concerns about putting contaminated ink back into the bottle; or even into the wrong bottle . More fun, less worry seems good to me.

[Oldane]

I happily refill half empty pens from the same bottle. Also, If I want to switch pens before a pen is written empty, I don't hesitate to empty the unused amount of ink back into the bottle. It hat has worked for me without problems for 50 years (I started using fountain pens as a 10 year old and have used them ever since).

 

I suspect the tendency to fungal growth is very much a matter of the climate in which one lives - that is, hot and humid is problematic, cool and dry is fine. In hot and humid climates, there are often lots of fungus spores around everywhere. Some fungus reportedly also comes from the ink manufacturers though I have never experienced that myself. I live in a temperate Scandinavian climate and, like I wrote, have never had any fungus or other contamination problems. The only solid matter I have ever had in ink is the sediment setting of "heavy duty" iron-gall inks (like DiamineRI and ESSRI) - but that's the nature of that kind of ink, not contamination.

[brunico]

I suspect the tendency to fungal growth is very much a matter of the climate in which one lives - that is, hot and humid is problematic, cool and dry is fine.

 

I've often suspected the same. From threads about camera lenses, I've read about many instances from people in the US - especially in places like Florida - and hardly any from people in the UK. Like you, I don't worry about my ink.