For quite some time, I have preferred to sign letters or write on stationery with gel inks or FP's but address the outside envelope with a ballpoint pen. Today, I wrote a note with my Esterbrook and vintage Skrip, and (for the first time) addressed the envelope with the same. I thought it was time to be consistent, and also time to "confess."

My rationale for the previous ballpoint use is that I don't want the ink to run if exposed to moisture. Ink in ballpoint pens seems to be much more resistant to running or smudging. Was I silly for using different pens?

Now that I have Noodler's Walnut nearly bullet proof ink, I don't worry about it

I have shared your worry about addressing envelopes with fountain pen and ink. I now often will use Noodlers Ellis Island or Old Manhattan blacks for envelopes, although I have started to use the same ink as in the the letter more often. /Craig

Funny I just got Noodlers bullet proof just for the same reason. I used to use a ball point for addressing also

If I don't use a Noodlers permanent ink for the envelope, then I just run a plain wax candle over the address to keep it from bleeding if it gets wet.

Ordinary FP ink, if it gets wet, will run all over the place. It could be enough to keep the PO from making the delivery.

Andy

I learned the candle trick from an earlier thread here at FPN. I'm surprised how well it works.

What is this wax trick? Please elaborate. I haven't heard it before.

As for addressing envelopes, I use only Noodler's Bulletproof Black because I know it can stand up to moisture and still preserve the message. It may bleed a little, but I think that the address should remain intact.

Yikes - I think until I get some bulletproof ink, I'd better stick to using ballpoints for the outside envelopes. Glad I asked!

Save the leftover stub of a candle, preferably a white one.

After you have addressed the envelope, rub it (easiest to use the side) over the address area. It deposits a thin layer of wax, basically invisible, over the ink and gives some water protection. It will protect against drops or a slight mist, not a soaking.

But even a bulletproof ink may not hold up to a good soaking. And, how about the letter itself? Wouldn't it run and be ruined if that much water hit the envelope?

Oh having soaked bulletproof ink for a good while, more than five minutes under a full blast facet I can say that bulletproof ink wont budge, as for destroying the letter inside, it probably would be with an ordinary ink, or the paper just water damaged with bulletproof ink!!

As far as what ink I use for envelopes, I have used Diamine Woodland Green, Golden Brown, Pelikan and Lamy Black and maybe once or twice Noodler's black and have never had a problem with my letter arriving to it's destination. I do not protect the conventional ink in anyway, and have no fear of it not reaching it's destination in the least. Maybe some here may think it's risky, but I honestly think the amount of time an envelope is exposed to the elements, the sweat of a mailman's hands, or a mailman's spilled coffee in this day in age is very little at best.

The wax rubbing trick works well. I've never heard anyone here report a wax-rubbed address not arriving at the destination. For a list of waterproof and strongly water-resistant inks, look under the pinned "NOTEWORTHY INK TOPICS" at the top of this subforum.

A light rubbing of wax does work very well. I regularly send mail to Vancouver(where it's very rainy) and have had no problems at all. Instead of using a candle, I melted parafin and molded into a small square shape. Just one or two swipes off the flat edge does the job. Best of all container I used for the mold has a lid so I can just pop the block of wax back inside, seal with the lid, and store. No messy wax bits to get on the floors of carpets. As for the letter inside getting damp, the paper I use for making my own envelopes is slick and therefore does not soak up raindrops readily.

When I use a fountain pen to address envelopes, or packages I am mailing, I cover the address with clear package sealing tape. It is NOT paranoia if they ARE out to get you.

Donnie

I like the ideas of tape and wax. When using FP ink, I will remember them.

I got Bulletproofs precisely for addressing envelopes and lab notebooks, both of which are potentially prone to water damage at my locations. Our mailbox will allow spray around the door in some conditions, and the carrier is reaching out of a car to retrieve it. I've gotten damp mail more than once. Lab notebooks are close to water all the time, and I have in fact fumbled one into a "catch bucket" containing several inches of water, not once but three times in my haste to retrieve it. Nothing lost except my cool -- all the entries were either Bulletproof Black or one of the near-bulletproofs (and one or two in Manuscript Brown), and all survived the dunking in high pH wastewater.

It would take quite a soaking to get the letter inside an envelope completely wet though.

Peter

The tape idea is very good. I will start using that.
Thanks for the idea.

I once received a letter inside an envelope addressed with regular fountain pen ink. The envelope had traces of ink on the front, but both the address and return address were completely washed away. I lived in an apartment building at the time, and I think the postal workers pre-sorted the mail before reaching the building. My theory is that my pile of mail got soaked somehow and the fountain pen ink washed away, but because it was wedged in between my other mail, it was delivered despite the absence of any readable address.

I usually use a ballpoint pen, or water-resistant fountain pen ink. I've used the candle wax method, but I also have a jar of Micro Glaze, which is a sort of waxy paste that is easier to buff to a barely noticeable finish.

So am I the only one who prints the address, along with the metered postage, on the computer?

--John

Don't forget hairspray.

I use Noodler's bulletproofs, but I have also received envelopes with "candled" addresses. Can't really notice unless you look for it. Also worth mentioning, is that I received a postcard written in Diamine Claret, which is a very nice ink, and not waterproof. I found out later that it was protected by Micro Glaze All Purpose Paper Protector, which is stuff you can rub onto paper to make the ink (or paint or what have you) water resistant.

Doug

Candle wax works well. I also use it for postcards. Why use a ball point?
PMS

I use hairspray to fix charcoal paintings. Works a treat.
The candle idea is new to me, I like that though.

As for addressing... I like to live dangerously lol.
Diamine Washable Blue is maybe *not* the ink to use for an envelope, but alas...

Silke

clear tapes a good idea thanks for that one...... will have a go at the wax thing too

I keep a pen inked with a waterproof Noodlers ink at all times, but have also used the wax candle technique.

Yes, I like Micro Glaze, too. I address my envelope with whatever ink I've used to write the letter. When the ink is thoroughly dry, I rub it with a tiny bit of Micro Glaze. It's virtually invisible on white or ivory envelopes. It doesn't work so well on darker colored envelopes - it makes the paper look sort of - well, greasy.

You can order Micro Glaze here: http://www.microglaze.com/microglaze_ordering.htm#ORDERING

or here: http://www.stampstampstamp.com/Merchant2/m...duct_Code=GT026

Don't be put off by the price. I ordered a 1 oz. jar 2 years ago and still have about half of it. I've used it a lot. In fact, I not only use it on envelopes, I use it on the message and address on all the post cards I send.

Judybug

This cracks me up. I thought for sure I was the only one in the world who had arrived at clear tape over a handwritten address. Use to print labels but numbers written by hand with a great pen evoke a romance my printer cannot attend. (Geesh!)

Marvin

I noticed a while back that Pendemonium sells Microglaze, too (under "Ink Accessories"). Same price as the other sites, but you might save on combined shipping.

-- Brian

I have a friend in Quebec who assures me that it doesn't actually snow every day. But snow is a real problem in handling mail, since the envelopes DO get wet.

I use either Noodler's bulletproof inks or the candle trick. You probably already have a stack of emergency candles in the drawer, anyway. I can soak an envelope protected by the candle rubbing trick in the sink for several minutes, and the protected ink looks as good as the Noodler's bulletproof.

I haven't tried the microglaze, but it couldn't work better than either the wax or tape.

BTW, if you print return address labels on your inkjet, you need to swipe the candle over them, too!

If you really want your mail to get where it's going, do one (or more) of the following:

1.) Use a bulletproof ink.
2.) Use a ballpoint.
3.) Print addies from the computer.
4.) Cover addies with tape.

For all my outgoing packages, I use the computer, which is generally easier for the amount of packages I send. Otherwise, a decent ballpoint is the order of the day. No crime in that. Nine times out of ten, unless sending a standard letter, I also cover the addy with packing tape, regardless of what was used to print it.

Most people could give a hoot about what's on the outside of an envelope/package.

I've used the tape trick ever since childhood to ensure runny inks don't. Haven't tried wax yet, but it works OK too, it seems.

But I always and address letters with bulletproof ink nowadays, whether iron gall, Noodlers, ball point, roller ball.

As JDlugosz and Silke mentioned here earlier,
hairspray just did a fine job in my ad-hoc trial.

I used 3 pieces of paper; 1st untreated, 2nd sprayed before and 3rd sprayed after
writing with Private Reserve Blue Suede,
then wiping with moist sponge after several minutes.

The area that got the wettest when I sprayed before writing
showed remarkably improved staying power over untreated.

Letters sprayed after writing remained substantially full color,
even rubbing until paper became soaked!

What a wonderful thing forums like this are.
Today I was thinking that my pens not doing well with Noodler's Aircorps
can't be written with often; water based ink too limited to be used much.

Disappointing when I'm looking for more reasons
to pull out a pen and lay some ink on paper!

What an easy fix this seems to be!
I got recyclable plastic pump (not disposable metal aerosol) of hairspray
from the dollar store that will make square yards of words water resistant!

Thanks to you two and many other members
for bringing up suggestions for solutions.

I'm wondering if lip balm will work as well as candle wax. I will test it and report back.
Gigi

I'm always buying Burts Bees balm, so this would be a natural fit for me. Eagerly awaiting results...

Be careful with printing from a computer unless its a laser jet. Ink jet ink is not much better than fountain pen ink. I use either a noodlers bullet proof or my Montblanc blue-black an iron-gall ink, and pretty bullet proof.

This is the test I carried out by using candle wax and lip balm on various inks to see what would work better under wet conditions.

I found out that candle wax works better than lip balm. It also shows much less when the envelope is dry. Also, I noticed that there is a huge difference between inks that are not bullet proof, even from the same manufacturer. As you can see in the pictures below (I hope I'm able to figure out how to post them), Levenger's Gemstone green and J. Herbin Bleu Myosotis run horribly and became completely illegible while the other inks behaved very well.

I used six inks for this test, including Noodler's bullet proof Manhattan Black. But I DID NOT apply wax or lip balm to this ink, only to the other five.

This test also showed me how good Noodler's bullet proof black is. It didn't run at all even when it was not protected like the other inks.

Just in case you are not able to read my handwriting, from top to bottom these are the inks used:

Diamine Presidential Blue

J. Herbin Violette Pensee

Noodler's Old Manhattan black (bullet proof)

Levenger's Gemstone green

J. Herbin Bleu Myosotis

Private Reserve Black Cherry


Picture 1 - Lip balm tests on the left and candle wax to the right. This is how the sample looked just before getting it wet:


By vitralgigi, shot with Canon PowerShot SD200 at 2008-08-18

Picture 2 - I put the envelope under running water and got it soaked from the outside. This is how it looked after this:


By vitralgigi, shot with Canon PowerShot SD200 at 2008-08-18

Picture 3 - Well, at this time I just opened the envelope an poured water in it, directly from the faucet, and let it get completely soaked in and out! This is how it looked:


By vitralgigi, shot with Canon PowerShot SD200 at 2008-08-18

Picture 4 - By now I realized that in real life the envelope will not only get wet but that it will also stay wet for a long time. So I left the envelope alone for 1 hour and then took this picture:


By vitralgigi, shot with Canon PowerShot SD200 at 2008-08-18


Hoping this info is helpful to some of you, Gigi

From my days of adding random and often insulting pencil sketches to envelopes and postcards, I've gotten in the habit of just hitting *everything* I send through the mail with either Matte Finish or Workable Fixatif which you can get at any craft/art supply store. The Matte works a bit better, and has waterproofed *watercolors* so, can't ask for much better than that.

Though, I *am* eyeing my candles now...I *gotta* try that!

HK

Wouldn't hairspray make the envelope sticky? I'd worry that the letter would end up stuck to another one and get lost.

Thanks for the balm/wax experiments. Definitely leaning toward the wax for when I don't use a Noodler's BP.

I've been using all sorts of inks in my life to address envelopes and I have send them all over the world. Never have I had one not find it's destination because the letter had gotten so wet that the address washed away. Most postal services keep their customers letters dry. PARANOYA WILL DISTROY YA


.......................Stani

The paper was not sticky with hairspray. It wasn't necessary to drench the paper in hairspray for it to work, just a light spray was enough coating.

Too much wax, lip balm or hairspray could make it sticky as you asked.