My Snorkel Had Blocked. After Clearing, Which Ink Best

[WilsonLaidaw]

My snorkel tube had blocked and after a long soak in warm water and using an 0.50mm drill bit, rolled between my fingers to probe the snorkel tube very gently, I have cleared all the dried ink and all is now filling and emptying properly. I would like to prevent this re-occurring. I do not have any Sheaffer ink with me in France but have a choice of other inks in my preferred colour: Mont Blanc, Graf von Faber-Castell, Waterman and Pelikan. Sadly I no longer have the pens for these inks, as they were all stolen from my French house during a burglary in June. I will probably only replace the Graf von Faber-Castell, which had quickly become my favourite and maybe the Pelikan. Which of the inks I have, do folks think might be the best to minimise ink drying in the snorkel tube?

 

Wilson

[adyf]

I think you would be ok with either MB, Pelikan or Waterman. I have no experience with GvFC.

[WilsonLaidaw]

Having splashed them around in the bottle, the Waterman ink seems the thinnest (and least intense colour by a substantial margin - a bit watery) but of course this does not mean it is least likely to dry in the pen. I have a feeling I was using Pelikan ink, when it went blocked. I will therefore decide between G v F-C and Mont-Blanc.

 

Wilson

[inkstainedruth]

I would not discount the Waterman ink. I've run Waterman Mysterious Blue through a 1937 Parker Vacumatic for roughly 4 years without flushing the pen or flossing the nib once.

I have no experience with GvFC ink. Pelikan inks tend to run dry (which is the reason that Pelikan pens tend to write wet). My experience with MB inks are hit and miss (mostly miss) -- I like Lavender Purple and a couple of their LE inks but for the most part have found them underwhelming for the price.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[WilsonLaidaw]

I have filled the pen with violet G v F-C ink. The Waterman violet ink is possibly the least blocking but with the quite low ink flow through the Snorkel, it is just too faint. The pen is in good condition having been serviced from a NOS pen, still with the UK sale price visible on chalk marks on the barrel (£5 17/6d), by Dr. Laurence Oldfield. Looking at the colour of the ink that was in the pen compared with the colour now, I am sure that it was Pelikan ink in it previously, which I will now avoid for the Snorkel. I have put a bid in for a S/H Flexy OB nib Pelikan 400 with matching rollerball (so it cannot be pre-historic) and I will reserve the Pelikan ink mainly for that. I was also using it in my sadly now stolen OBB nibbed Graf von Faber-Castell Classic Pernambuco wood and platinum pen, as I was getting rather excessive ink flow with the original ink.

 

Wilson

Edited August 7, 2019 by WilsonLaidaw

[Leftytoo]

Per an old Richard Binder post the best most fool-proof inks are Waterman and Diamine

Next come Quink, Pelikan, J Herbin, Lamy, Omas, Aurora

To be avoided are highly saturated and pigmented designer inks such as Private Reserve and Noodlers.

 

My experience is the same. If a pen will not perform well with Waterman, it is the pen's fault. Diamine inks are very free flowing and many have saturated, intense colors. Waterman ink is more middle of the road.

 

I have heard that some of the expensive Japanese inks will destroy rubber parts in older pens. I have bought 3 Private Reserve inks and all performed badly. In my opinion, if an ink needs stirring, it is a bad ink. On 2 occasions I have had bladders in vintage pens turn to a gummy mess. I don't remember what ink I was using and the sacs may have been bad quality.

 

At the moment I'm using Diamine Presidential Blue which is actually pale and not intense. Pilot Blue Black, which is closer to blue than black, medium intensity. Rohrer & Klingner Silex, and iron gall ink, classic blue-black and quite dry. I use it in a modern Opus 88 pen which otherwise would be too wet, dark, and lack subtilty for my taste.

[tamiya]

My snorkel tube had blocked and after a long soak in warm water and using an 0.50mm drill bit, rolled between my fingers to probe the snorkel tube very gently, I have cleared all the dried ink and all is now filling and emptying properly. I would like to prevent this re-occurring.

My Snorkels got fed Quink pretty much exclusively the first 50+ yrs of their life; only now in my posession they might see the insides of some Waterman or Sheaffer bottles.

 

Standard Operating Procedure has been to fill them up, use them a bit, forget about them until next tried weeks/months later & find them dried... then they'd either get refilled from a plain water shotglass or bottle of blue ink - whichever nearest to hand. Washing them out happens few & far between, for sure they cannot be soaked with the rest of the "wash bucket".

 

Have never had snorkel tube block with dried ink. Even pens that even sat dried out for 40yrs since getting shipped back home after finishing their Malvern school years.

 

Hope you're aware the snorkel tube isn't hollow all the way thru, there's a slit insert at the nib end? Hope you didn't go drilling that out.

 

This bung imho keeps the ink path wet, to feed from tube into the feed & nib. Without it you'll be causing a big leak in the capillary along the feed path, nib will write dry. None of my Snorkels write dry, the feed is decently generous and keeps up with the thicker nibs just gone.

 

ps: nice M3W

[RICARDOBORBA]

I use Pelikan Edelstein, Rohrer & Klinger and J Herbin without problems. I use these ink since 2012.

I had problems with pilot iroshizuku, avoid it, unless your snorkel has silicone ink sac.

Today I'm using J Herbin Éclat de Saphir and Pelikan Tanzanite in my green PFM III and Snorkel Crest. I wish you luck and success with your pen.

 

Best regards

 

Ricardo

[Southerngent]

Has anyone had any experience with Jacques Herbin inks? This is a old, revered French company started in 1670 when King Louis XIV was 32 years old! I love the historical connection I feel when using their products and so far have not had any problems with the inks in my Shearer snorkel pens.