Hello everyone,

I was just thinking. If Noodler's Bulletproof inks permanently bond to the cellulose in paper, would it also do so in a celluloid pen?

Just to allay any concerns, I haven't even touched a celluloid pen, much less owned one, or inked one.

Though I would like to. Especially a Blue Diamond Vacumatic. I can't afford one; I'm only an unemployed high school student!

Cellulose isn't "in" celluloid. Celluloid is plasticized nitrocellulose. The reactive properties of cellulose, celluloid, and nitrocellulose are all quite different. I'd have to know some more about the dyes in Noodler's cellulose binding inks to say for sure if they could bind to celluloid or nitrocellulose in the same fashion. That said, Noodler's inks can stain for the same reason that Private Reserve inks can- they're very, very saturated.

That said, you can buy some cheaper celluloid pens- the Sheaffer Balance is an awesome pen, and you can often pick one up in the for sale forum here for $20-50, the lower end of that being the smaller varieties with some sort of defect. I got a brown striated Balance from the FS forum here for $25 shipped IIRC. Warped cap, but fully restored, and it works quite well. $25 isn't chump change for a high schooler, but it's a reasonable target.

Not to knock the desire for a Vacumatic- I'd like one of those someday as well- very attractive pens. But expensive ones, unless you have the know-how to restore one, and they seem to be on the harder end of that curve. Mind you, a finding a $40 Vac in need of restoration can be the the impetus behind developing that skill- and purchasing the tools, uff.

Aaron

I also am an unemployed High School Student, and I have acquired a small amount of vintage pens via eBay, flea markets, and pen shows.(Including two now fully restored Vacumatics.) It turns out that if you search hard enough, you can find some decent vintage pens for less than $20.

That's how I came to vintage pens back then: was a poor student with not enough money for my dream pen Pelikan M400

With ebay it became much easier to find a good deal. I am a fan of vintage Pelikan 400s (celluloid pens) and have some of them. If I am lucky I get them for less than 40 Euros. They are wonderful pens that perform as good as the modern M400. The vintage nibs are even better!

Because they are celluloid I run only "safe" blue or blueblack inks in my 400s (I have used Lamy, Waterman, Quink, Pelikan, Diamine, Visconti, Sailor). So I cannot comment on Noodlers with celluloid pens. There had been warnings not to fill Noodlers into celluloid pens because it may react with the pen and I am not willing to take a chance. Noddlers goes into easily replaceable pens. Period. But this is only my personal safety-first policy of ink usage .....

To my knowledge, warnings of celluloid-Noodler's reactivity have been made largely out of ignorance, and because "celluloid" and "cellulose" sound like the same thing. They aren't. Sometimes, this gets confused with matters of pH to make things even more muddled.

That said, Noodler's can stain celluloid pens- but in the same way that Private Reserve and other very saturated inks can. Celluloid is pretty, but it's a crappy plastic. It absorbs color. Whether its Noodler's or vintage red ink, highly saturated inks can stain celluloid. For those who are paranoid about this, but want to retain some waterproof qualities, I recommend mixing some permanent Noodler's with another "safer" ink, like Skrip or Waterman. One part Noodler's Black in ten parts some other black will still leave you some legible gray behind.

I've been using Noodler's Polar Blue in a Pelikan 400NN and it's worked wonderfully. Very, very smooth. No staining inside out or out.

Aaron
P.S. I sure wish I could get Pelikan 400-series for under 40 Euros!