It's odd - the pen is a super writer, and instant favorite. But when I take the cap off, the top of the nib along the length of the slit is always covered in a thin layer of ink. What's up with that? I can actually watch it happen while holding the pen nib up. Spooky!

I looked up "Nib Creep" (apperantly the term for this phenomenon - thanks to Richard Binders' web site!) and I found that Noodlers eternal inks seem to do this with some nibs.

Guess what kind of ink is in the pen?

It's not a big deal, since the blue on the nib doesn't bother me and it sure doesn't affect how the pen writes, but it's weird and if anyone has an explanation, I'd be fascinated to read it!

I'm going to create and maintain my own thread!

So, I dumped the Noodlers Glacier blue, and rinsed the pen out. I then put Private Reserve American Blue in it.

Viola - no nib creep.

What the heck? I'd *love* to know why a particular ink does that! Strange and wonderful are the ways of fountain pens!

Something in the noodlers ethernals does that. They are different to other inks. Normal inks are solutions of dye in water with some preservatives. Noodlers are more complicated, because they have a milky appearance: they seem to be suspensions, and seem to have lower superficial tension than others.

Although some inks are more prone to creep than others, the root cause is not the ink at all. It's a nib slit that is either damaged or manufactured with insufficient attention to finishing; nicks, scratches, etc., can create a capillary path across the edge between the slit wall and the top surface. I've just added this additional info my glossary entry.

I am shure this is true, but Noodlers are more likely to produce the creep in many pens than other inks. They must have some physical property facilitating that. In addition, it seems that most of the nibs produced today suffer this creep, meaning they are all poorly manufactured

When I get home, I am going to ink up my Waterman with Noodlers and see what happens. I've had the Waterman for several months now, and it does not creep with either Waterman blue-black or Private Reserve American Blue.

This is pretty interesting. Richard is right, of course - there HAS to be a capillary path for the ink to get to the surface - if it were perfectly smooth, this probably wouldn't happen. I wonder what an electron micrograph of the nib surface would look like? Anyone have a SEM laying around?

I've noticed that Legal Lapis would creep on every pen I put it in. One of my non-Noodler's inks crept but I can't remember which one it was.

I recall discussion on this and maybe it's been in the thread you found earlier, Mike. The thought being that the surfactants in Noodlers (and some other brands) are "better" at doing what they do - flow across metal surfaces. I'm sure that nib design has something to do with it (or flaws) but like FJF said, Noodlers is more prone than most. And the nib metal seems to impact it to some degree. It *looks* like Noodler's likes to creep on my gold nibs more than my steel nibs - but i haven't done a scientific study. i just recall that a couple of my gold nibs with Legal Lapis (Pelikan, VP) were almost entirely covered by the ink after sitting for a period of time where a steel nib would have only the seepage around the slit.

OK, I put the Noodlers ink in the Waterman Phileas - no nib creep! So it looks like it was the *combination* of Noodlers ink and the Pelikan 250 nib that was the problem. I'm glad to have a pen that can use the Noodlers - it's a nice blue! I'm also glad that the Pelikan will behave itself with the Private Reserve ink!

So, to recap;

Pelikan 250 + Noodlers Glacier Blue ink = nib creep.
Pelikan 250 + Private Reserve American Blue - *No* nib creep.

Waterman Phileas with Waterman blue-black, Private Reserve American Blue OR Noodlers Glacier Blue - *No* nib creep.