Adding Water To Ink?

[corgicoupe]

Is there a Rule of Thumb about how much water one can add to an almost-empty bottle of ink and still have a usable ink? Is it brand dependent? Color dependent?

[Tas]

Yep. All of those apply.

Start slowly drip drip drip 💧 and dip a nib in to test regularly. 1 or 2 mls should do it.

[sansenri]

if you go too far, leave the bottle open a while to evaporate until the ink density goes back to normal ...

[Olya]

I have read that Noodler's inks can be diluted with water to double (!!!!) the amount of ink, which comes in bottles without affecting colour (or performance).

That is the only brand wide suggestion I know of.

 

But I have only read that, I have no experience at all with any Noodler's ink.

 

Otherwise it is saturation dependant, I'd say.

 

Eg washable blue ink is pretty unsaturated, so dilution is difficult, unless a pale colour is desired.

Saturated inks can handle more dilution (I have diluted Diamine Majestic Blue once).

 

As Tas said, start slowly.

And sansenri is also right, of course. But keep an eye on ink you let evaporate, I did that once and was surprised how quickly it reduced.

[Karmachanic]

To add. I have several inks that I regularly dilute in sample vials, 4:1, 3:1, 3;2, 5:3, 1:1. Lots of fun!

If you're out and about and run out of ink, a half fill of water should see you through.

[corgicoupe]

This is a bottle of Visconti blue that I bought several years ago and was just about gone. The bottle is so unstable by design that I figured I wouldn't be losing much if it didn't work. Why make a top-heavy plastic bottle? I may wrap some solder around the narrow base to increase the stability. It is a nice ink though.

[inkstainedruth]

I have read that Noodler's inks can be diluted with water to double (!!!!) the amount of ink, which comes in bottles without affecting colour (or performance).

That is the only brand wide suggestion I know of.

Well, I just refilled a pen with distilled water after using Noodler's Purple Mountain Majesties, and the color was definitely affected. It's still a nice color, but is a lot less saturated. I didn't completely refill, maybe only about 2/3 of the converter.

I do dilute Bay State Blue about 20% due the the bad feathering I had with my bottle of it, and that doesn't seem to affect the color too much. I now use a Noodler's Charlie as a dedicated BSB pen; I can eyeball how much ink to put into the barrel, then top off with distilled water.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[sansenri]

This is a bottle of Visconti blue that I bought several years ago and was just about gone. The bottle is so unstable by design that I figured I wouldn't be losing much if it didn't work. Why make a top-heavy plastic bottle? I may wrap some solder around the narrow base to increase the stability. It is a nice ink though.

You are supposed to stand the bottle inside its external plastic cap turned upside down, to make it stand stable...

Design is a bit silly sometimes, I know...

[corgicoupe]

That doesn't appear to increase stability but, yes, it is a nice ink.

[peroride]

i echo the sentiment of test, test, test with serial dilution with distilled water

 

I've made the mistake of overdilution and ink is not like dye for easter eggs so I've learned

 

Given past experience with exposing petri dishes of media to air followed by microscopic examination, i would shy away from dehydration to regain concentration/saturation.

 

Who knows what fungi linger in the air or different vaporization points of ink constituents to adversely change the ink's usability.

 

But then again it is only a small sacrifice for science or rather, alchemy.

[Mongoosey]

I'm personally not a fan of diluting inks with water.

 

I tried it with noodler's HOD, a 4:1 ratio of HOD:Water and I found that it makes the ink feel quite "draggy".

[TheDutchGuy]

Some saturated inks will offer beautiful hues if they are diluted. Blackstone Sydney Harbour Blue and Sailor Shikiori Yonaga come to mind, two inks that I regularly dilute up to 50%. I just take 5 mL out of the bottle, put it in a separate vial, add 2 to 5 mL of water and I’m good to go. As a rule of thumb, if an ink sheens with normal writing then I would not hesitate to dilute it.

[sansenri]

I agree, dilution also reduces a lot of the problems of clogging caused by some very saturated inks.

I regularly dilute Diamine Sargasso sea and Majestic blue, 10-20%. The only drawback is they lose the sheen, which I'm not so interested in having especially at work, but I follow the same rule of thumb, if it sheens it can be diluted!

Drying time also becomes quicker usually.

I don't usually dilute more than 20% as I like these inks to remain sufficiently saturated.

[sansenri]

That doesn't appear to increase stability but, yes, it is a nice ink.

have you tried? I actually only do it like this, otherwise I agree the bottle would be too unstable.

Visconti used to make glass bottles of this same shape (although I've never owned one), I tend to think that the glass bottle being heavy was more stable, when they switched to plastic they wanted to keep the same shape, but they probably realized the problem, so they designed the transparent plastic cap to contain the bottle...

 

[corgicoupe]

Aha! That's a different cap than I thought. The bottle top is no help in stabilizing the bottle. But that would work.

[Arkanabar]

I dilute Noodler's Borealis Black 4:5, Bad Black Moccasin 1:1, Heart of Darkness 3:2, and Iro Ku-Jaku 4:1. I also diluted some Noodler's Red-Black (an estimated) 3 or 4:1. Of the lot, only the red-black had its color much affected, going from a reddish black to a burgundy. The BBM shades a little more and feathers a decent bit less when so diluted.

Other than the Red-Black, I also do all this dilution in sample vials. I suggest you do the same.

[sciumbasci]

As crazy as it may seem, I started diluting black ink to achieve a level of grayness similar to old Parker Quink.

 

2 part water, 8 part black is satisfying ratio for me. Suppose that if you do that with blue you could get a pretty shading ink, although a bit faint.

 

Take heed that diluting inks also dilutes the surfactants, making it drier

[Arkanabar]

The insane featherocity of Borealis Black and Bad Black Moccasin are the main reasons I dilute them as heavily as I do.

[Noihvo]