Would You Dedicate A Vintage Pen To An Ink You Know Will Cling?

[eharriett]

I have a dilemma:

 

My favorite pen for work has been my recently restored Sheaffer Snorkel. Love the way it feels and writes. It has my work ink in it: Noodler's Air Corp Blue Black -- cleans easily and doesn't harm the pens.

 

However, when I am not working, I reach for one of two inks: Kung te Cheng, which is in a great Sheaffer School pen. And Noodler's Revolution Blue, which is in a Noodler's Ahab. And I find I love writing with Rev Blue the most, but I don't love pulling out that Ahab. I realized I really want to put it in another Snorkel like the Snorkel I use for work. It is perfectly proportioned for my hand (one day I'll figure out which Snorkel model I have). Only problem is Revolution Blue doesn't clean out well and clings to pens fairly heavily. So if I go out and buy a second Snorkel, it will have that ink in it, and I'd probably never be able to change it out if I wanted to without sending it to a pro to fix. And Snorkels aren't exactly priced like Metropolitans anyway. Saying this pen will have this ink in it only for a pen that's going to cost in the area of $100 seems hard for me to swallow. I can handle the price, but it seems like I'm deliberately breaking an expensive tool.

 

I guess I'm thinking about this like I would if someone told me to write in a book. I am having trouble bringing myself to do it. Seems improper to marry a vintage pen to an ink because the ink is clingy. Is this a strange mental thing I need to get over? Does it permanently damage a vintage pen? Am I overthinking it?

[FOUR X FOUR]

I haven't but I would

[FarmBoy]

You can't fathom the number of Snorkels I have seen in the last 18 months. Put any ink in it you want and be done with it. You might want to avoid the more unusual and expensive variants but you should easily find a Snorkel restored for well under 100. More like 75 should be doable.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I believe it was Ron Zorn that said, some or many of the supersaturated, high maintenance modern inks, eat rubber sacks. Sacks that lasted 30-40 years in the old days; that 'should' last up to 10 years now are being destroyed in weeks & months....by the supersaturated inks.

 

Not talking about the feed eating certain of the Noodler inks use to do....

 

I'd not put any supersaturated inks in any rubber sack pen now, and a Snorkel which is a grand balanced pen is a sack pen....and a shock to me to find out it was a Large one, saved from clumsiness by being thin....and grandly balanced.

 

The better balanced a pen was ....a posted pen, the better it sold, back in the days when pens had guts....and were standard or medium large in size....not the clunky large bling pen of today.

 

As far as it goes for me....a Vintage pen should be posted, even my Large Waterman 52 balances better posted. They balance better.

(Not talking of the 149)

 

Back when I was a 20 pen 'noobie' and still a bit OCD, I found I had three perfectly balanced pens, the standard sized thicker girthed back weighted MB 234 1/2 Deluxe, the medium-long thin classic Geha 725 and the standard silver P-75. All different, all great. That was from before I got my Snorkel.

Mine is Australian and has a BB factory stub in maxi-semi-flex....in it and the British ones had to compete with Swan pens.

Some of Parker's British pens semi-flex. I have a Jr. Duofold that is.

 

Back in the day of One Man, One Pen, Dad's Snorkel became the Family Snorkel after he went over to free government issued ball points, which wrote better on greasy engine tags.

I'd promised my self an Adult pen like a Snorkel (or a P-51)when I got old enough for a job. Fountain pen adds on TV in the better magazines near Christmas.

Then I became a ball point barbarian.

 

@ 1970, going over to buy a very expensive Cross matt black and gold BP for @$8.00-10.00, when a Jotter went for $3.75....I stopped and drooled over a black and gold Snorkel, and was mugged by the P-75 brothers....FP& BP with MP cartridges.

Only took 43 years to get that Snorkel.

[rwilsonedn]

A number of restorers who see large numbers of vintage pens seem to advise against inks that do not come from a real pen manufacturer. My much more limited experience tends to support that. Especially with a Snorkel, which is one of the more complex and elegant pens out there, I would only use Sheaffer, Parker, Waterman, or perhaps Pelikan or MB inks. Waterman is my go-to for any pen I am concerned about. If I want really bright colors I will use Iroshizuku inks in modern Pilot pens. They have never given me problems as long as I clean them out thoroughly, but I would hesitate to use such saturated ink in a vintage pen.

ron

[ac12]

My opinion.

• It is YOUR pen, so do what YOU want to do.
• Don't plan on changing inks. IOW, that ink will stay in that pen LONG TERM. That way you don't worry that you did not get ALL the ink out of the pen during a pen clean.
• Periodically clean the pen, to minimize the build up of ink .
• Do NOT NOT NOT let the ink dry out in the pen.
  • If you are going on a long vacation, empty and clean the pen, then fill with water.
• Expect the ink sac to need to be replaced sooner than with "safe" inks. So rather than 10+ years, you might get 5 years of use out of a sac.

As for me, I have PR DCSS blue in a Parker 51. I don't worry about it,

1. Because the P51 is known for being robust to stand up to the nasty Parker inks of the past.
2. I do not plan to change inks, so I do not worry about cleaning out ALL the old ink.

My other vintage pens, NO.

Edited March 30, 2017 by ac12

[Bo Bo Olson]

Advice is only taken by those ready to do so.

Do find the names of local Snorkel repair men.

[Freddy]

 

Would You Dedicate A Vintage Pen To An Ink You Know Will Cling?

Hell No!

Fred

there's only men and boys, and we'll weed out the boys........

 

[sirgilbert357]

Surely you can use this as an excuse to buy another pen? LOL. You "need" to find a pen that you can dedicate to that one ink -- but a pen that won't be harmed by the ink and one that fits your hand. Am I missing something? I'd be buying another pen!!

[Bo Bo Olson]

A P-45 is a vintage pen....comes apart real easy to clean....good for sticky inks.

Are they also slow drying.....

[inkstainedruth]

I ran Noodler's Walnut (which is a pretty water resistant ink *and* in the red/brown/purple family) through an older model Pelikan M400 for several months. I currently have vintage Strip Peacock (an ink which took a couple of DAYS to clean off my hands -- and that with repeated applications of Ink Nix cleanser) in a restored Snorkel with a Palladium stub nib, just because it looks so good coming out of that nib. And I've put a variety of pink and purple inks (including De Atramentis Red Roses -- a scented ink) -- into a 1941 Parker Laidtone Duofold button filler.

OTOH, Noodler's Kung Te Cheng gets restricted to a Noodler's Konrad, which can be completely disassembled for thorough cleaning, because that ink (much as I love the color) can be a problem child. I have no experience with Revolution Blue, so I can't say about that ink.

It's your pen -- YMMV (with the caveat of be alert for problems and expect to flush more often). And, like Bo Bo Olsen said, know how to contact someone that does Snorkel repair....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for formatting

Edited March 30, 2017 by inkstainedruth

[eharriett]

Thanks all. I am probably going to see about getting another Snorkel and making it a Rev. Blue pen and just go into it knowing I'll need to get it resacced every few years. The more I think about it, the more I realize that no matter how much I love the ink color, if I don't enjoy holding the pen in my hands, then I won't carry the color as much.

 

Been thinking about it. As I've finally learned which pens I really love and which ones I hate (love the snorkel, hate the 51 -- go figure; love every Waterman new and old I've ever held, love the Estie LJ hate the SJ), I'm probably ready to begin thinning this all out and have a significantly smaller collection. So my next pen show I'll probably start doing some trades for more of what I like, trading away less expensive pens for fewer high quality examples of what I want to carry with me. Been a fascinating experiment.

[Sasha Royale]

I will not use an ink that I believe will harm my fountain pen. Your fountain pen is another matter. Then, I might take the risk. If an ink stain does not wash out, with a good flushing, it is unlikely to leech into ink of a subsequent filling.

 

Example: If I liked BSB enough to use it, I would use it. Did it stain the inside of my Parker ? Why would anyone look inside my Parker ?

 

Am I sincere ? Send me a bottle of BSB, and I will load it in my TWSBI 540, without hesitation.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Sasha Royale

[Runnin_Ute]

I just resacced an Esterbrook LJ that I have had for about 2.5 years. Supposedly it was resacced not long before I got it. I ran a variety of inks in it from Waterman to Noodler's to Levenger to Blackstone and Diamine. The sac was short and kind of shriveled at the end. Did the ink do it? Can't prove it either way, but it is possible. It may have been poorly sacced as well. Either way I had to replace it.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Runnin_Ute