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Biocide Shootout Tests


SamCapote

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Cool. I asked Sean to comment on how he mixed his for the inks when he made them just to make sure everyone had a "tried and true" method of safely using Dowicil. Have not heard back from him by PM in a good while.

With the new FPN rules, now I REALLY don't know what to put in my signature.

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When you hear back about the instructions, we'd love to know. Thank you.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It takes so little to reach the Dow-recommended concentration of 0.2% to 0.27% by weight for ink that I don't think most people have any way of measuring it precisely. Fortunately, the stuff is fantastically water soluble. I doubt there's any need to be very precise.

I know my id is "mhosea", but you can call me Mike. It's an old Unix thing.

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Good to know.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I read this and other similar threads a couple of years ago with interest. Like other people I really missed the smell of phenol in ink- and Dettol was mentioned, kind of half jokingly, I think. I bought some and was disappointed that it didn't smell like phenol.

 

Then my bottle of Diamine Hope Pink became full of slimey threads. Ewwww.

 

So I took the full bottle of ink and put in a cc of the Dettol. I expected nothing. About a week later, I picked up the bottle. It was clear and fully liquid, except for thin sediment of tiny white flakes. I took the stuff and ran it through a paper cone coffee filter. I tried it in a dip pen- no problems. Then I ran it through a few cheap Chinese pens- no problems. The flow and consistency are fine. I now use it like any other ink.

 

Since then I have been adding Dettol to any suspicious inks, and all inks from PR. There seems to be no deterioration in performance at all.

 

I found some old style plain Lysol, which does smell like phenol, and tried adding that to some Poussiere de Lune. It turned the ink into a gusher. I don't recommend it.

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Oh, that too is good to know. Lysol + Ink = Bad

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Since then I have been adding Dettol to any suspicious inks, and all inks from PR. There seems to be no deterioration in performance at all.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dettol , dettol = pine oil, isopropanol, castor oil, soap, and water. I've never used pine oil on a pen before, so I don't know about that one. Castor oil is often used in rosin thread sealant preparations. It's the isopropanol that raises the brow, since it is a solvent for a lot of vintage pen plastics. Maybe the concentration is low enough in the final analysis, but I'd sure want to know about that before using it in a vintage pen.

I know my id is "mhosea", but you can call me Mike. It's an old Unix thing.

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Well, I am using a 1:50. Dilution of the Dettol, so the alcohol content will be even less than that. Pretty low proof, I think. The manufacturer says the oils emulsify and remain in fluid, which seems to be the case. The castor oil isn't in oils form, but is a soap, having nothing to do with rosin thread sealants. It's actually a pretty gentle soap. The germ killing ingredients are chloroxylenol- which is closely related to phenol, and the pine oil.

 

Phenol, aka carbolic acid, was the first antiseptic used way back in the day by Joseph Lister. It worked to kill things, but also chewed up human tissue pretty badly. So you didn't get infected,which was a huge advance, but you didn't heal all that well either. Better than gangrene though.

 

The chloroxylenol still kills bacteria and fungus very nicely, but is much easier on human tissues. Dettol seems to be intended for use in open cuts and scrapes, as well as on surfaces. Obviously I can't vouch for its safety, not having done big trials, but I have had no damage to my pens, all of which are 1980 or later. I haven't put it in anything really vintage.

 

Dettol's ability to clear moldy slime out of ink is quite impressive, though. It feels like a magic trick. And the smell is interesting. At the time Natural pigments was all out of their phenol spray and I wasn't prepared to reconstitute the pure phenol, which was all I could get hold of. Now I have the phenol spray, and am happily adding that instead. Maybe the extra soap in the Dettol is all to the good- kind of like Solv-X.

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The castor oil isn't in oils form, but is a soap, having nothing to do with rosin thread sealants. It's actually a pretty gentle soap.

 

 

My point was simply that I wasn't worried about that particular ingredient being deleterious to vintage pen plastics because it is often used in preparations that are in contact with vintage pen plastics. The MSDS I found online for what must be the simplest form of Dettol only has pine oil, isopropanol, and chloroxylenol, anyway.

I know my id is "mhosea", but you can call me Mike. It's an old Unix thing.

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  • 4 weeks later...

So, 34 years ago, what did they say about phenol in the water supply?

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This is an amazing resource. Thanks for the work and time put into this, everyone.

"Do you know the legend about cicadas? They say they are the souls of poets who cannot keep quiet because, when they were alive, they never wrote the poems they wanted to."

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  • 1 month later...

Is this the Sporicidin product being discussed please? Trying to track down an Australian supplier. Sporicidin seem to have a couple of different products.

http://www.ccwonline.com.au/prod1209.htm

Noodler's Konrad Acrylics (normal+Da Luz custom flex) ~ Lamy AL-Stars/Vista F/M/1.1 ~ Handmade Barry Roberts Dayacom M ~ Waterman 32 1/2, F semi-flex nib ~ Conklin crescent, EF super-flex ~ Aikin Lambert dip pen EEF super-flex ~ Aikin Lambert dip pen semi-flex M ~ Jinhao X450s ~ Pilot Custom Heritage 912 Posting Nib ~ Sailor 1911 Profit 21k Rhodium F. Favourite inks: Iroshizuku blends, Noodler's CMYK blends.

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I've tracked down the MSDS and it appears it is not the same product.

Noodler's Konrad Acrylics (normal+Da Luz custom flex) ~ Lamy AL-Stars/Vista F/M/1.1 ~ Handmade Barry Roberts Dayacom M ~ Waterman 32 1/2, F semi-flex nib ~ Conklin crescent, EF super-flex ~ Aikin Lambert dip pen EEF super-flex ~ Aikin Lambert dip pen semi-flex M ~ Jinhao X450s ~ Pilot Custom Heritage 912 Posting Nib ~ Sailor 1911 Profit 21k Rhodium F. Favourite inks: Iroshizuku blends, Noodler's CMYK blends.

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  • 1 year later...

Learned a lot with you all.

Thanks for this impressive amount of information.

 

¡De nada!

With the new FPN rules, now I REALLY don't know what to put in my signature.

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  • 2 years later...

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dettol , dettol = pine oil, isopropanol, castor oil, soap, and water. I've never used pine oil on a pen before, so I don't know about that one. Castor oil is often used in rosin thread sealant preparations. It's the isopropanol that raises the brow, since it is a solvent for a lot of vintage pen plastics. Maybe the concentration is low enough in the final analysis, but I'd sure want to know about that before using it in a vintage pen.

No, no, No!

 

You missed the most important active ingredient, Chloroxylenol. It a pretty good germicide, but it's entire and specific spectrum of action remain to be seen. We use it a lot in microbiology labs, as a pre-activity wash, and also before leaving the lab. I keep a bottle of surgical scrub as the main active ingredient, at home and wash well up the forearms.

Brian

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  • 4 years later...
On 6/27/2011 at 6:39 PM, SamCapote said:

Let me finalize my testing results that was prompted by the recent question about Tryphon's product, which I do not believe works as a biocide.

 

There are many choices that can be used for an ink biocide. If you read back through this thread, a number of suggestions were given. Many of them have significant safety, and/or availability, and/or measuring/mixing requirements. Most of them have unproven track records with a variety of fountain pen inks and valuable pen components.

 

When considering various choices, I looked at biocides that are relatively safe to use, available to the ordinary consumer, pre-mixed, affordable, has a track record of being used safely for decades by all the major ink manufacturers with a wide variety of colors and pens. The only thing that fit all those concerns is phenol. The best place to get it already mixed in a 4% water solution is from Natural Pigments here ($8.50 + shipping).

 

To reach an effective preventive biocide level for long term storage, you need 1 part of this 4% phenol solution added to 40 parts ink (or 1 ml in a 40 ml bottle).

 

Small print details for those interested:

 

 

  • Phenol does not work as well in these "standard" doses when the ink has a higher ("basic") pH--especially
    . The other biocides that work in the higher pH range are not easy for consumers to obtain, mix/use safely, know which degrade inks and pen components, etc.

 

 

  • This small volume dilution did not affect the appearance of any ink I tested.

 

 

  • If you have an active infection, after filtering with a coffee filter, use 1 part per 10-15 parts of ink. Observe treated sample in a small (gouletpens.com) plastic vial for several weeks before using. Shine a light behind it and look for any SITB re-forming.

 

 

  • Use latex/nitrile gloves and eye protection to avoid accidental splashing contact. You may want to have a gentle fan blowing the fumes away from your nose while working with it. Despite this Natural Pigments bottle coming with a sprayer, I personally would not recommend spraying it. For reassurance, I remind you that Chloraseptic throat spray has 1.5% phenol in it.

 

 

This is the new product link to that 4% Phenol still available at Natural Pigments.  https://www.naturalpigments.com/phenol-carbolic-acid.html

With the new FPN rules, now I REALLY don't know what to put in my signature.

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On 6/27/2011 at 6:39 PM, SamCapote said:

Let me finalize my testing results that was prompted by the recent question about Tryphon's product, which I do not believe works as a biocide.

 

There are many choices that can be used for an ink biocide. If you read back through this thread, a number of suggestions were given. Many of them have significant safety, and/or availability, and/or measuring/mixing requirements. Most of them have unproven track records with a variety of fountain pen inks and valuable pen components.

 

When considering various choices, I looked at biocides that are relatively safe to use, available to the ordinary consumer, pre-mixed, affordable, has a track record of being used safely for decades by all the major ink manufacturers with a wide variety of colors and pens. The only thing that fit all those concerns is phenol. The best place to get it already mixed in a 4% water solution is from Natural Pigments here ($8.50 + shipping).

 

To reach an effective preventive biocide level for long term storage, you need 1 part of this 4% phenol solution added to 40 parts ink (or 1 ml in a 40 ml bottle).

 

Small print details for those interested:

 

 

  • Phenol does not work as well in these "standard" doses when the ink has a higher ("basic") pH--especially
    . The other biocides that work in the higher pH range are not easy for consumers to obtain, mix/use safely, know which degrade inks and pen components, etc.

 

 

  • This small volume dilution did not affect the appearance of any ink I tested.

 

 

  • If you have an active infection, after filtering with a coffee filter, use 1 part per 10-15 parts of ink. Observe treated sample in a small (gouletpens.com) plastic vial for several weeks before using. Shine a light behind it and look for any SITB re-forming.

 

 

  • Use latex/nitrile gloves and eye protection to avoid accidental splashing contact. You may want to have a gentle fan blowing the fumes away from your nose while working with it. Despite this Natural Pigments bottle coming with a sprayer, I personally would not recommend spraying it. For reassurance, I remind you that Chloraseptic throat spray has 1.5% phenol in it.

 

 

Bumping this post which has the exact Phenol dosing I found.

 

With the new FPN rules, now I REALLY don't know what to put in my signature.

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