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I Want To Stop Cleaning My Pens...

Alzyx

By Alzyx
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Alzyx Dipped Only

Alzyx

Posted
Posted

I use my pens 80% to draw and 20% to write, and during the years I collected a few different inks, mostly from Noodler, some Herbin...

Up to now I've always been good, carefully cleaning my pens when changing the ink.

But I like surprises! ... and, since my Kaweco Fireblue just emptied its Noodler Dark Brown charge, I thought - what's wrong in filling it with Herbin's Vert Empire without any cleaning? I imagine I will get slow, sometimes strongly irregular color variations - and after a while a stabilization in the full green state.....

 

... or am I just risking clogging my pen???

 

 

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eyesa Mint

eyesa

Posted
Posted (edited)

Even though I love Noodler's, I too would be cautious, especially if you're using expensive pens that you care about. Chemicals don't always play well together...

Personally, I wouldn't risk it without fully experimenting in vial and cheap pen first.

 

I use my pens 80% to draw and 20% to write, and during the years I collected a few different inks, mostly from Noodler, some Herbin...

Up to now I've always been good, carefully cleaning my pens when changing the ink.

But I like surprises! ... and, since my Kaweco Fireblue just emptied its Noodler Dark Brown charge, I thought - what's wrong in filling it with Herbin's Vert Empire without any cleaning? I imagine I will get slow, sometimes strongly irregular color variations - and after a while a stabilization in the full green state.....

 

... or am I just risking clogging my pen???

Edited by eyesa
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Brandywine Mint

Brandywine

Posted
Posted

Most ink manufacturers warn to mix inks, especially their own ink with inks from others!

This is not only just marketing, as they cannot know or control what other manufacturers put into their inks.

 

Any ink can contain ingrediences that may react with other inks even from the same manufacturer!

Some manufacturers allow their inks to be mixed with others of the same line

but no one will guarantee for foreign inks -naturally ;) .

 

This being said:

I have changed inks without flushing the pen more than once and - so far -

nothing horrible has happened! :D

Well, I've seen some horrible colours, to be honest ..... :lticaptd:

 

But I am aware, that anything could have happend and still might happen in future!

As I'm using only cheap pens, the risk is limited after all ... :P

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inkstainedruth Ancient Artifact

inkstainedruth

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Even all Noodler's inks don't play well with each other. Several years ago, someone decided to mix up the "ideal" blue-black ink and mixed Noodler's Black (standard line) with Bay State Blue (very different formulation, and even Noodler's says to *only* mix the Bay State inks with each other).

I saw the photos. The results? Let's just say they weren't pretty.

If you're going to mix inks, it is much safer to mix them in a sample vial and let the result sit a day or two to see how the inks interact. In the previous case, the person put the mix right into a pen; the two never really mixed, so the person's writing would be mostly black on part of a line, and mostly blue on another (think "oil mixed with water" -- it doesn't really work unless there's an emulsifier involved). And then when the inks really did start to react together, they solidified, and came out of the pen in solid chunks.... Like I said before: not pretty. (And probably was a major PITA to flush out -- even more so than what you're complaining about.

I'm betting that the person who did this probably hates the fact that I bring up this story over and over -- but I see it as a cautionary tale, and one that bears repeating.

Me, the only mixing I do in pens (especially if I'm being lazy about flushing) is if I refill a pen with distilled water (which makes saturated inks a bit easier to flush out later, and also is useful for controlling feathering; I know, I know -- adding water to make an ink drier sounds counterintuitive...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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mhguda Antique

mhguda

Posted
Posted

The main risk I see of this practice is contaminating your bottled ink. So if you do this, you'd be safest if you decant your possible mixing inks into small vials and fill from there. This, of course, does not apply to eyedroppers; here you could take your pipette and make whatever mix right in the pen barrel - and if the mix is immediately problematic, as in, bubbling in the barrel, your nib and feed are still safe as long as you haven't put the mixture through the assembly yet. You only have to remember to use a clean pipette to do the fill.

So, happy experimenting!

a fountain pen is physics in action... Proud member of the SuperPinks

fpn_1425200643__fpn_1425160066__super_pi

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white_lotus Collectors Item

white_lotus

Posted
Posted

I personally do not mix inks, and I minimize potential mixing of inks in my pens. Even mixing inks of different pH can produce unwanted chemical reactions. Especially these days there are so many chemicals, biocides, surfactants, etc. that can interact in unexpected and undesirable ways. You're playing chemical roulette. The most difficult place to clean is the feed, and residues will build up there in the small little channels.

 

So take extra care to clean your pens and know that that is part of our burden of having this vast cornucopia of inks available to us today.

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amberleadavis Pen Dust

amberleadavis

Posted
Posted

When I plan on being bad - I mix in a vial and then fill from the vial.

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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Inkling13 Vintage

Inkling13

Posted
Posted

I got it! We are all so uptight about cleaning our pens, that we dont know what happens. Do it. Do it for us. Do it for science!

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inkstainedruth Ancient Artifact

inkstainedruth

Posted
Posted

I got it! We are all so uptight about cleaning our pens, that we dont know what happens. Do it. Do it for us. Do it for science!

 

And do it with your OWN pens....

But don't come crying to us if there is a problem, because we'll just say "We told you so...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Sholom Rare

Sholom

Posted
Posted

As an example (that I think I have mentioned on this forum before), I mixed Private Reserve DCSS and a bit of Noodlers Green Marine (in a vial) to make a very nice color in between say Noodlers Ottoman Azure and Turquoise. No precipitate and the mix ran fine in a pen. Come time to clean out the vial, I discover that there is a blackish film on the glass. Being cheap, I tried to clean the film off with a wide range of detergents, alkalis, acids, and solvents (I'm a chemist so had access to things i wouldn't allow in my house). I never did get the last traces of black out and ended up tossing the vial. I have no idea what the inside of that pen looks like now, but I hope the black film formed and stuck to the vial rapidly so it never made it into the pen. Be warned.

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ReadyFireAim Extremely Rare

ReadyFireAim

Posted
Posted

....I hope the black film formed and stuck to the vial rapidly so it never made it into the pen. Be warned.

 

So I have this new pen that's running wet & I'm wondering how to gunk it up really fast...?

Humm :huh: .... ;)

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