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How Can I Reliably Replicate Slightly-Dried-Out Ink?


beanbag

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Hello folks,

 

I had a pleasant surprise today. You know how I am always complaining about flex writing being too wet, or leaving a big blob of ink when unflexing? So I was writing with Iroshizuku Kon-Peki ink, and I thought it was pretty good, if a bit on the wet side. I happened to leave the pen uncapped for several minutes, and when starting up again, the first letter was dark and hard to start. But the next few words were great. The ink flow was on the dry side, yet still saturated. Most importantly, 1) it still was able to cling between the tines to allow flex, and 2) it did not leave blobs of ink at the unflexing points. I know that the letters now don't have shading, but Kon-Peki looks nice even without shading.

 

post-122123-0-74088900-1432629390.jpg

 

Is there some way to reliable replicate this effect? (I mean, besides "leave out the ink for a while next time before loading it into the pen".) It seems like not all inks respond the same way. Tsuki-yo ink, for example, seems to get thicker and writes wetter when it gets slightly dried out, making all the words much darker.

 

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Not sure, but might try a pen that is a bit drier.

 

Best of luck,

Yours,
Randal

From a person's actions, we may infer attitudes, beliefs, --- and values. We do not know these characteristics outright. The human dichotomies of trust and distrust, honor and duplicity, love and hate --- all depend on internal states we cannot directly experience. Isn't this what adds zest to our life?

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The only way to replicate is experiment. Evaporation in ink will concentrate any flow additives and make the ink even more wet. While counter-intuitive, adding water is generally a good way of drying an ink. If K-P behaves better for you, add a small amount to a sample vial and let it evaporate. Test it again in the pen.

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Sure. Transfer 10ml of ink to a sample vial and leave it open and unattended for a day or two. It should evaporate sufficiently to be both more saturated and better behaved for flexed writing.

Edited by jasonchickerson
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I've never had good luck with adding distilled water. It doesn't make the ink appreciably drier, but does make is so that it doesn't stick as well between the tines, leading to more railroading.

 

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