Im curious - so can someone please explain why my Noodlers L/ Lapis creeps evenly over the surface of my nib (Sailor in the current instance, but applies to other nibs) to leave an even film.

Its not unsightly and its not causing a problem - I just cant understand the gravity-defying physics behind it. It doesnt seem to have any surface tension that might cause it to form blobs and surely capillary action requires 2 parallel surfaces to work? Is this a form of room tempreature superfluidity?

It only seems to happen with Noodlers to the extent that prompted the question, are there other inks that do the same?

Someone's got to know!


Regards

David

My understanding is that Noodler's eternal/bulletproof inks contain a lot more surfactants than normal inks, and this changes their surface tension significantly. Instead of forming blobs, it likes to spread over surfaces.

With fluids, you basically have two kinds of "sticky:" the liquid sticking to itself, and the liquid sticking to something it is in contact with.

When a liquid sticks to itself more than to what it sits on, it beads up. Or, in the case of fountain pens, it stays in its "proper" channels.

When a liquid sticks to an object more than it sticks to itself, it spreads around. In pens you get nib creep.

Scott

P.S. Each solid substance and fluid combination has its own properties. You can have a fluid that spreads out over one substance, but stops when it reaches another which it doesn't like so well. For example: water sticks to glass, but murcury does not.

P.P.S. I misspoke above. All fountain pen inks will sticks to their feed and nib materials. Otherwise the capillary action would not work. But some fluids will stick to a given solid substance better than others, and some fluids will sticks to themselves less well than others. This will provide a better explanation than the one I am currently butchering. Also look up adhesion, cohesion, surfactant, and capillary action.

Yup, thats cohesive and adhesive forces.

A fluid that has more cohesive force than adhesive will try to form a ball. eg mercury. Thats the perfect example.
The reverse of that will have a fluid that spreads like thin film, most of the paints, kerosene, turpentine etc .

I guess thin filming fluids are better suited for inks/paints etc.

This is a liquid with serious adhesion properties:


Noodlers Ink Photo

Except for the problem of Noodlers ink occasionally getting stuck up in the top of converters, I think this characteristic is perfect for fountain pens. The ink stays stuck firmly inside the feed and to the nib until contact is made with paper and then the flow is vigorous with the ink that's leaving the pen helping to pull more ink out of the feed and into the nib. This property probably also helps prevent leaks.

It's an interesting liquid to play with in a dish. It reminds me a lot of mercury in the way it "wiggles" and moves.

Utterly off topic...



Vero? Eugape!

I've had that same issue before.

What seems to help is flicking the pen gently, immediately after filling it - to break the bubbles and adhesions.

In the rare event that it happens again - this time at the top of the converter - flick the pen again a couple times in a non-upright position.

(Never had it splatter. The stuff's like tempermental glue.)

---

As far as the dish play thing - I suppose it's a lot safer than mercury; though, I reckon it's a bit messier, as well.

Parker sometimes puts a steel spring in a convertor...Parker convertors also sometimes contained a steel bearing. As the spring or bearing would move through the meniscus of the ink, the cohesion would break and the ink would flow to where gravity told it to. I was guilty of adding steel bearings to covertors of other manufacturers (non-parker) while in high school. It always worked.

Hey, that's a great idea! With the pen in the photo, an eyedropper filled school pen, it's more an amusement than a problem. I can only get it to stick like that 1 out of 5 tries, and that's when I am trying to make it stick. The slightest jiggle breaks it loose. But in my Waterman converter it sometimes really gets stuck where snapping my finger hard against the bare converter won't even break it loose. A tiny ball bearing would fix that problem for sure. About a 1mm bearing ought to do the trick.

How about lead shot or might lead react with the ink?

I have bottles of Noodler's sitting with dust on them....just waiting for the ink to react to aluminum foil, brass foil, copper foil, and tin foil that is crumpled up in the bottles for testing (it has been YEARS)..... I don't think anything will happen to the lead shot - except a stained oxidation after a long while...

Of course, if it were ink that had a pH of less than 2 - that would be completely different. Those inks eat aluminum and brass foil in a matter of hours.

Thank you. Here in West Virginia, I think I can come upon a 1 mm lead sphere more easily than a steel one.

Maybe there would be some poetic justice in sacrificing an eight-cent ballpoint and salvaging the ball for this purpose. Thanks to the enablers on this site, I'm sure not writing with the things much any more....

Sorry for butting in; my lead phobia must be acting up.