I was using the MB Starwalker with BSB on shipping forms today. At the post office, I marked the date sent, went home, and about 1/2 hour later, started writing the auction info. I was fascinated that this had, in essence, triggered a thermal reaction in the paper. I wrote the info in the upper left 15 minutes before taking the pic; the partial auction # in the center I wrote just before taking the picture.

At this point, they all look equally feathered with the "thermal" grey, but the blue remains clear.

Hmmm. thermally similar to concrete.

It also looks kind of cool...


Cheers,
Tom

Doesn't it look cool?

It's sort of like it's a little blue caterpillar with black fuzz around it.

Yeah, I noticed it doing that too and was going to post a photo when I got around to it. My experiences duplicate yours exactly. I think it's neat.

Very cool!

By the way, I've discovered that a Pilot 78g with 2B nib is a great italic to use with BSB. It has a really dry feed that makes perfect lines on everything that previously bled and feathered.

Looks really cool. Interesting. What does make that reaction, I mean. Any explanation, you chemist out here? I just love that blue... too bad I cannot get a hold of Noodler's even in dreams over this side of the pond.

I have just ordered a load from Swisher.

I'm afraid Derdre's observation that it was quirky as well as being retina-meltingly blue pushed me over the edge...

While it may look cool I have to wonder what's happening there.

Will the writing be legible over the course of time? Will a chemical reaction essentially dissolve the entire receipt? Or discolor it to illegibility? That's not going to be good for record keeping. Is the Bay State Blue ink losing its bulletproof-ness due to the chemical reaction? Or maybe I'm just being a worrywart about this.

What if my dog explodes?

Looks like there is some solvent in BSB that reacts with the paper. Then again it might not be a reaction just that the coating on the paper is sucking out something from the ink.

Do you have a pic of something written on standard slick receipt paper- it might show the same.


Kurt

Well, you can get another. But there is no other ink like this one, the first blue I really like, and we must buy it to keep it in production. If your dog crooks, get a frog!. I would send you one, but your customs wont let it pass!. No edibles allowed!

BSB has never been referred to as a bulletproof ink. It is alleged to be water-proof if their is no bleach in the water.

Are the shipping forms thermal paper, like credit card receipts? Hard to tell from the photo. As stunning as the color is (and the "fresh" writing sample is stunning), the ink wouldn't be very useful if this sort of reaction happened very often.

Yes, it's a USPS receipt on thermal paper, not the shipping forms I normally use, which are printed on normal printer paper.

Ah, well, I guess BSB is out for signing credit-card recipts, then. (Not that I go out of my way to use a FP for those. But I've found that Bulletproof Black and Lexington Gray work well on that kind of paper, although can be kind of slow-drying.)

I noticed this phenomenon right away. I always test my pens and inks on thermal paper - I want to know what will write well - if at all - on this cursed paper. It "bled" its ghost, and stayed that way. It didn't "ruin" the receipt or destroy it, just had that little ghost slick around the writing. I don't usually use it for this reason, but I did use it without thinking once or twice. Eh, if they don't like it, they'll let me know. Besides, thermal paper does not last long on it's own (the ink printed by the printers fades over not so long a time), and I do believe most of these receipts are purposely destroyed within a short time after payment, anyway.

I believe I've seen this sort of thing happen even with some ballpoint inks, though over a much longer time-scale. I use thermal paper in my research and I've gone back to data I recorded a few years ago (with BP) and some of the pens caused this, other pens didn't.

Other than maybe signing on a credit card reciept, who is really going to be doing a lot of writing on thermal paper, the stuff is (Potty Mouth) to start with.

I think it's a combination of the ink and paper. Ever buy something at Circuit City? Their thermal receipts fade fast and ballpoint ink will bleed ghosts on it, too. I went looking for one not too long ago, and all the printed purchase data had faded to almost gone, and the ballpoint ink did have the ink ghost. Other thermals used at other places aren't quite so bad for fade. The only good thing about Circuit City thermal receipts is that their paper is wide enough to actually put my signature on, instead of being a whole inch and a half if I'm lucky. I guess thermal papers will vary by composition, too, just like all the rest.

If this is happening over a period of minutes, I wonder if there is something in the ink that causes a mild exothermic reaction, thus triggering the thermal paper to darken.

Way cool... Like IANAN I was sorta borderline on this ink, but this is just too much! I definitely NEED it now.

It could just be the slight alkalinity causes a reaction with a neighboring acid, and that causes the ghosting even without there being any exothermic reaction. One would have to know what the coating on the thermal paper consisted of and what the ink consisted of to figure out why it reacts, though.

The paper might be more variable than I'd have thought, or it's not a simple matter of pH. After reading the original post, I tried a drop of ammonia, and a drop of vinegar for good measure, on a thermal receipt (not from the P.O. though). Nothing happened other than two wet spots.

-- Brian

Then you'll know not to feed the next one a steady diet of beans.

Just preparing an expense report, and I noticed the exothermic "ghost" reaction from something I'd written on a piece of regular paper on top of the thermal paper. Thermal paper is really sensitive to whatever's going on with BSB.

My bank ATM receipts are printed in thermal paper, and just for the heck of it I gave it a try. Writing on the front of the paper with BSB duplicated Deidre's observation; however, writing on the back of the paper did not produce the "ghost" effects. The writing on the back of the paper did bleed through more than that on the front. It almost seems like the front of it is coated with something that the back is not?

I have a couple bottles on their way now... I can't wait to start using it to sign receipts.

Hmm, let's look at this development. If I were an executive in a company that sold shoddy product and wanted to avoid warranty payouts, I'd think this form of receipt could have desirable benefits for my bottom line. I'd just say that all returns must be accompanied by the sales receipt; if my return department cannot read them, sorry Charlie.

A company provides you with a permanent record of your transaction, but that record is printed with disappearing text. Is there something rather peculiar about this?


Ooh, I love it when you speak techie like that!

The companies aren't trying to print things that gradually decay. It's a property of the ink used in these thermal papers. Basically, the paper is coated with an ink and a solid-state matrix. When the printing head heats up, it melts the matrix causing a reaction with the ink, switching it over to a visible state. The ink probably just decays after a while, possibly by switching back to its' original shape (and thus going invisible again) or decaying to another (also invisible) state. Maybe the paper is still readable outside of the visible spectrum?

Wikipedia says a common thermal paper coating is a combination of fluoran leuco dye and an octadecylphosphonic acid, for anyone interested. The increased alkalinity of BSB is probably reacting to the acids on the paper.

The thermal papers I have used are poor for their archival qualities -- I've seen the printouts I've made that were pasted in a lab notebook disappear after less than 10 years. Sales receipts are also prone to this after a year or two.

If you want to really destroy what's on thermal paper, dump a little acetone on it (works on either the black or blue "ink" papers I've seen).