Flash-Dry Ink

[AidenMark]

An observation on the phenomenon of flash dry ink.

 

I filled a normally unproblematic fine nib pen with one of my favourite colours Diamine Bilberry. Bilberry dries quickly on the page but its not what I would normally think of as a dry ink.

 

After pausing a moment for reflection while writing, the pen refused to restart. It required water dipping the nib to reactivate the flow. This happened several times, even after as little as a 30 second pause, that I had to declare the nib and ink incompatible.

 

Have you found any other inks that are flash dryers?

[soum]

I think it is more to do with a saturated ink than with the ink being dry. This has happened to me with some Private Reserve inks. However, there are other factors such as ambient humidity that contribute to this problem.

[amberleadavis]

I call these inks with ignition problems. The problem is worse here in Las Vegas where we have no humidity. I've found that the same ink may work great in another pen.

[ScarletWoodland]

I've had the same trouble with Bilberry, it dries quickly in the nib when exposed to air (rather like the various sheen monsters). It's very efficient at finding pens with less than perfect cap seals 😄.

[txomsy]

I ain't so sure about saturation. I often use OS Nitrogen, Diamine Skull&Roses or Troublemaker inks in a Garant Alkor and I can stop to think with no issues as much as I want. But I also have a vintage 342G MB that I've filled with various inks that once started will write as long as I do not stop, but as soon as I do, it hard starts. I also have a second 342G that never fails to start no matter which ink it is inked with.

 

So, I suspect, both pens being about the same age, that it is something different. In the example, I think that it is likely that the first MB had already crust occluding the feed when I bought it and needs a deeper cleaning, not just the ink saturation.

 

Not to say the ink is not to blame either, I've had some greatly flowing inks that would have that behaviour on almost any pen, but I do not think it is only due to saturation, but also may be due to other ink components, or better explained, it is a combination of pen, nib, ink saturation, ink additives and maybe other factors. That is, a multifactorial problem where each factor contributes separately.

Edited June 2, 2020 by txomsy