Permanent

[Charles Skinner]

A problem with not solution ----- I really wish I had used "permanent" inks all of the many, many years I have been writing in my journals! No way to go back and change it! Your thoughts, please.

 

C. Skinner (Odril and Agnes's little boy)

[Candlejackstraw]

Following, im just getting into inks and have been looking for fadeproof UV resistant inks.

[wallylynn]

Thought : how many years?

Thought : what misfortune befell the journals?

[FlyFast]

How many years, what ink(s) do you use, and in what way are they failing?

I've only been using fountain pens regularly for about 25 years but none of my old writing has deteriorated significantly.

[Arkanabar]

Digitize them, and convert them to FITS files, like the Vatican is doing.

[A Smug Dill]

A problem with not solution ----- I really wish I had used "permanent" inks all of the many, many years I have been writing in my journals! No way to go back and change it!

What exactly is the problem, Charles? Using permanent inks sounds like a specific solution (out of possibly many solutions) to an unspecified problem. If you want the legibility of the contents of your journals to last at least as long as your eyesight (or your lifetime), and the lack of that "permanence" is the problem, have you seen any evidence that the writing has faded (and/or is fading) at a rate that calls the desired longevity into doubt?

 

You can always make a copy of the contents that are still legible today, if the contents (as opposed to your handwriting as it was umpteen years or even decades ago) are what is important and not the media. That holds true even if you want your descendants or other interested parties to read those contents long after you're gone; handling the original journals and touching the aged paper is not then a requirement. You could digitise what's there, or you can copy the contents out by hand now if you strongly feel that it has to be in a physical artefact 'produced' by your own hand to make it count.

 

Permanent inks are not immune to deterioration or destruction of the actual media, so either digitising images of the pages or creating physical copies that you store securely elsewhere away from the original is 'necessary', if preserving the contents is at the heart of the problem. Unless, of course, somehow it's not OK for the writing to fade (or be ruined by contact with moisture) into illegibility, but total loss of the journals by misplacement or physical destruction is acceptable.

 

You can't rewrite history. You may think you made a mistake in not choosing to use permanent inks, and that's fine; it's an error you have to live with psychologically, with or without regret, but that does not mean there is now a problem with real impacts or unacceptable risks, much less one that your "if only I could do it all over again" solution would have completely eliminated or prevented.

[amberleadavis]

Following, im just getting into inks and have been looking for fadeproof UV resistant inks.

 

Check out the fade tests.

They are linked in the "Start Here" post of Inky Thoughts.

 

Charles, you can take your old journals and digitize, and you can also take your old books and seal them with clear wax.

[welch]

Don't worry, Charles. Your journal writing should last a loooong time. I have papers I wrote in 1962 or '61, written in Sheaffer Skrip Washable Black. Yes, a "washable" ink that has lasted almost sixty years and shows no hint that it will fade. Imagine if I had used permanent Skrip or Quink!

 

Use the ink you like. More likely, though, your paper will dry out and crackle away before the ink you used.

[fiberdrunk]

I'd digitally scan in the journals you have, to save them.

 

In the future, you can use any of the Noodler's eternal or bulletproof inks. Noodler's Kung Te-cheng (royal purple) is probably the most permanent ink on the planet... after all my "sunshine tests" on various inks, that one has never faded even a little. The only downside to using permanent inks is that you will have to be diligent with writing with the pen almost daily and/or flushing the pen regularly to keep it from clogging. I'm into genealogy and always go for permanence, too-- I never use dye-based inks. The inks I use regularly are Noodler's Te-cheng, Noodler's Heart of Darkness (black) and Noodler's Bad Blue Heron (blue). They serve me very well.

 

See my "sunshine test" here for various inks that held up well, and which ones had serious fading.

[amper]

Use a pigmented ink designed for archival permanence. Write on buffered 100% cotton rag paper designed for archival permanence, like thesis paper. Keep your inks out of the light and keep them clean and dry. Problem solved.

[BaronWulfraed]

And don't store them in cheap cardboard boxes unless the boxes are explicitly labeled as archival -- otherwise the acid outgassing will turn the paper brown and brittle.