When I flush a pen with Lamy Blue ink in a cup of water, the water is clear after a while. Of course, if you add enough water, this phenomenon ceases, but I am surprised how blue the water can get and still clear itself up.

can you clarify this? I don't understand what you mean

If James means what I think he does, I've noticed it too.

When you flush a pen that has been filled with Lamy Blue into a cup of water, the water (obviously) turns blue. The longer you leave the water sitting, though, it starts to turn back toward clear. It's actually a little fascinating to watch.

~~King

Hmm, does it also happen in distilled water?

I'm wondering whether the trace of chlorine left in to keep public tap/drinking water bacteria-free is having a bleaching effect.

Regards, Myles.

King is right.

It is odd. I have not tried it in distilled water.

It has to do with the evenness of the dispersion.. in 5th grade we did that experiment... the longer those molecules run around and get spread out the less light is reflected ..thus it gets clearer over time... Greg

Love that!

ABC

So it should happen with any ink, right?

Under that rationale, yes.

But it does not!

LOL, Well, we know it happens with TWO inks.... the one we had in 5th grade....and this Blue Lamy....
If you Google 'ink dispersion' some site may say what is necessary to an ink's colloidal nature to either produce this effect or not... Greg

Wow...you don't hear that too often! I'll have to tell my wife I was right (once) today.

I think we can rule out the chlorine trace, as I have seen it occur with well-filtered bottled (drinking) water, as well as distilled. Admittedly, I wasn't looking to see if it was to a greater or lesser degree than with tap water, though.

Ink dispersion, eh? Now I'm curious as to what inks will/won't exhibit this phenomenon. You know, this is a fine excuse to clean all my pens and change colors. For the sake of science...of course!

~~King

If it is correct that only dispersion causes the phenomenon, i.e., that other chemical properties are not involved, then the reason that some inks show it and some do not is probably due to the inks having different specific gravities. As an ink's specific gravity approaches that of water, it disperses more. When I clean my pens, some inks pool up beautifully at the bottom of the glass in which the nib are soaking; presumably, those inks have heavier specific gravities than water. (OTOH, all of this is just speculation.)

Ahhh... I see.

So:

heavier ink sinks
lighter ink floats
really light ink disappears

I am not qualified to play expert here...but I think I can identify some exclusions to the general concept...
If you make an ink with some substance which is not " like" water.... remember that ' likes dissolve likes' ( don't remember where I got that... ) ... then clearly something like a lacquer could be added which negates my original description...
and I do not think that specific density by itself will stop this effect. Things that can go into suspension tend to go ahead and do that.... it may take more time for the heavier... but the action of the molecules wins out.. ( honey in water for instance... remember that we are not taking supersatured experiment here.... lets say 2 oz of ink into a quart of water. )

Here is something to keep in mind.... ( from PBS...LOL ) there are more molecules in a cup of water than there are cups of water in the ocean. So if your ink goes into a cup of water bunched up... then moves out evenly to hook up with those molecules at its smallest individual particle size... it just can't reflect as much light as it did when first dumped into the glass.

That is my story and I am sticking to it... unless proven wrong , at which time I will try to erase any evidence of me having been wrong.... LOL

I'm in the process of coming up with a device consisting of a board with several eyedroppers attached. Below such will be clear glasses of water.

My goal? If everything is equal (equal amounts of ink, equal water temps, equal ink temps, equal height/size/number of ink drops, ink added at the same time, etc.), which inks will disperse faster and which (if any) will stay suspended. Don't ask how I'm going to do it. I really don't know. It (honestly) came to me in a dream last night. LOL. In Dreamland, it seemed like a good idea, so now I've got the graph paper out.

Do you see what you've done to me, James?

~~King

Lamy Blue has a disturbing (well, to me anyway) tendency to fade quickly on paper. It's also extremely washable. Could these properties be responsible for the fading of the ink in water?