Hi Fellow Forum Members'
I have read many forum entries regarding the safety of using saturated inks like Private Reserve and Noodler's. I have some Private Reserve inks (Tanzanite, DC Supershow Blue and Green, and American Blue). I enjoy the colors, intensity, flow, and the glide one gets from the nib. My question is this: If I want to continue the use of such inks, how can I minimize or negate entirely the risk of damage to the pens such as clogging, staining, and swollen seals?
Thanks,
Ron C.

Flush out your pens with water on a regular basis and you should be fine. I use PR and Noodler's regularly and have never had any trouble.

Flush now and then as fuddmain said. Also, if you're going to ink a pen but not use it for two or three weeks, that can be an issue with some inks. I don't always practice what I preach and the only problems I've had were with a very dark red-browns. I've gone months without flushing some of these inks out of my pens BUT the pens were used on a regular basis (every other day at least.) The biggest problem is when they are left to sit in the pen for long periods of time without use.

Some of the saturated modern inks are a little TOO saturated for some nib/feed combos . A good idea in those cases is to dilute the ink with some distilled water. I don't know if those too-saturated inks are actually harmful to any pens, though.

Good point on the dilution. Many seem to take some dilution without much affect to the color at all. Which makes me often wonder just how much dye is really needed. You can dilute too much of course and impact not only color but flow and "lubricity" as we're calling it now.

It's happened many times that I've left saturated ink (Noodler's or PR) in a pen that sits unused for many months. Typically it's a cc-fill pen, like the Core, that I use to try out an ink and then forget about. I've never had to do anything more than soak the nib unit in water for a day or two to get these pens back to normal working order.

Of course, depending on the pen's filling system, dried-up ink can be more of an ordeal. Piston-fillers with nibs that aren't removable can take longer to clear. Aerometric fillers are even more of a pain; you've really got to remember not to forget those -- or be ready to do a lot of squeezing and releasing if you do.

Gimme a piston filler with a nib that unscrews, any day. Zip zip zip, and you're done.

Triton X-100.

Someone needs to find the proper dilution to make a "water ink" that flows like Tanzanite, and what flows like Noodler's, and post that. Then you can dilute with the proper surfactant to keep the flow the same or to adjust it up or down.

I'll trade KCat vials of pure Triton X-100 (makes about a gallon of "water ink", I would guess) just like ink samples.

--John