I'm sorry I don't remember who gave me this tip last night in chat - but I am soooo happy!

The tip was to dilute Private reserve ink to eliminate smearing. This is my all time favorite ink color and I have been sad that I can't use it because I hate the mess of smearing. It also has a tendency to leak out of any possible place in a pen. My tipster said that even with a 50/50 ink/water mix the color remains great. Wow, he was right. No smearing, no mess. I guess I'll have to wait a few days to see if the pen starts leaking (crossing my fingers and toes).



I still won't use it in an kind of visualated pen, but that's no problem.

I know a read a post about this recently. Was it here or on another forum?

Edit: The scan doesn't show the true beauty of this color. On the screen it just looks like another purple.

So you diluted to 50/50 or less? An added bonus with 50/50 is that you now have twice the amount of ink you orignally had Is the color saturation exactly the same or is it slightly less but still very good?

Interesting! So the color is the same?

What is a visualated pen?

I think it's a clear pen that lets you see the insides.

Visualated pens are pens that have either an "ink view" window (M200s for example) or who have transparent areas of the body through which one can see the ink level (striped Pelikans, MB 146/149, many vintage pens).

Completely clear pens are usually called "demonstrators" though technically demonstrators of ages past were often non-functional or had cut-aways. So most of the pens made these days and called "demonstrators" are stretching the definition slightly. (not quoting this from a faithful memory but a discussion had some time ago so the experts may feel free to correct me.)

Is it because it might stain the window?

Exactly. It's not just windows. Pens like the Vacumatic and many Pelikans (ie striped or translucent) have pen bodies that when you hold them up to the light you can see the ink. I won't be putting plum in any of those!

Actually I was a bit timid and did 60% ink 40% water. I think I could easily go 50/50.

Again, what is showing on the screen from my scanner doesn't do the color justice, you can see the comparison. Both samples were done with a dip pen and then a Q-tip. The bottom one is the 60/40 mix.

Wow that is one seriously saturated ink! I can't see a difference with the diluted version. I wonder how well Noodler's inks stand up to dilution?


Kurt H

As you clearly stated on your first sample Sometimes I just look at samples without reading what's written on them

I can't tell any difference on my monitor except for the Q-tip line. The diluted one looks ever so slightly more limpid, actually making it a little more pleasant.

Think of all the excess dye (and money) PR is wasting in this ink

I wonder whether the difference will remain mostly imperceptible if you used a nib that didn't lay down too much ink. Dip pens ususally lay down a very thick line, so that almost any black ink, for instance, looks very black. But once you use a fountain pen that doesn't write like a hose, you can see obvious differences in the degree of saturation among various black inks. I wonder if the same is true here. You could do yet another test with this PR

That's really interesting! It flowed well even at full strength?

Now that I think of it , what is really surprising to me is that the full strength sample isn't smearing. Hmmm. Maybe the ink needed to age a bit? Maybe I had to keep the ink and wish real real hard that it would be ok.

Elaine: Have you done any more experimenting with diluting PR inks since these posts from two years ago? If so, we'd be interested in hearing about the results.

REPAINT . . . and thin no more!



Paddler

I've abandoned using the PR plum again. Even diluted it was a messy ink. I think it's like PR Tanzinite which has been known as the laxative of inks.

I wonder how well Noodler's inks stand up to dilution?


Kurt H
[/quote]


In my experience, very well; as a matter of course I dilute almost all the PR and Noodler inks I use c. 3:1 ink:water. The colours look much the same, they don't end up looking watery like so many Diamine and Herbin inks (for instance), they dry faster and, if anything, shade better.

Simon

GROAN!!!!!!! That one really HURT!


I guess this ink/water mixing is really...

Dew or Dye!!!

Hmmm, very interesting to know. I just picked up a couple bottles of private reserve midnight blues, and will have to try my hand at diluting some.

Okay, Stupid question of the day award candidate...

Do you dilute with distilled water? Or what? I don't guess my 40 years supply of water purification tablets will help me in this mixing endeavor..

Dave

Don't tell anyone, but I use ordinary tap water (or whatever it is that comes out of the tap in Philadelphia). I dare say one should use distilled water, but so far I've not noticed any ill effects (I've been doing this for about a year and even my oldest mixes seem as good as new).

Of course, if one lives somewhere where one can't drink the water, adding it to Tanzanite might be asking for trouble....

Simon

I just tried the 60% ink 40% water solution on my PR DC Supershow blue, and it's drying very quickly now. Great tip!
However, in my Duofold with XF nib it writes more like a medium. So I think I will cut back on the water part a bit, maybe to 50/50.

It doesn't seem to harm the colour balance, to my eyes it still looks every bit as blue, just a tiny shade less saturated.

I do have another tip for the folks around here, Fuji fotoroll canisters do not make for great ink containers. My fingers are literally covered in ink, it's under some of nails as well. So, I might try to find something with a screw top.

I'll let you know how it behaves after a full day of note taking tomorrow.

Best regards,

Jarno Verhoeven.

If diluting the PR blue inks causes them to dry faster without sacrificing vividness of color, then the only real downside would be increased feathering or bleeding. Has anyone noticed increased feathering or bleeding?

Hello Charlie,

I tried on premium laserjet paper last night, and it bled significantly (my XF-nib turned into a M-line). On the Clairefontaine paper I use at work the effect is much less pronounced, but still present. From just a couple hours of note taking I would say that it turns my XF-nib into an F. I don't experience issues with smearing yet, which is great. I was thinking of switching to different (cheaper) paper because I suspected the smoothness of the Clairefontaine to be the cause of the long drying times, and smearing. But adding a bit of water does the trick, I think.
Last night I mentioned that 60% ink 40% water is perhaps too much water, so I think I'll try 70/30 (and not 50/50 which means more water) next.

On the clairefontaine paper, there is a very slight shift in colour balance of my PR DC Blue.

Hope this is useful.

Best regards,

Jarno Verhoeven.

Elaine,
I don't know if this will help, but with PR Plum, Tanzanite and the more "runny" but saturated Noodler's inks, I always use them in pens with hooded nibs -- preferably the cheaper Hero 329s with F nibs. I've not used PR or Noodler's in any of my Parker "51"s but I've heard from others on the board that they've had much success doing so. It's been my experience that these free-flowing, saturated inks behave better cheaper, hooded nib pens. Go figure...

You could adjust the flow a bit by closing the gap between the tines, I've done this on my Duofold and it works great, no tools necessary.
Opening the gap however, I am not sure how to do this (local nibmeister's got some sort of vertical graduated knife edge).

Regards,

Jarno.