Noodler's Navajo Turquoise Changing Colour

[steve50]

I've always felt that Noodler's Navajo Turquoise looks more like azure blue rather than turquoise when it's still fresh on the paper, but then gradually turns into a lighter turquoise colour overnight. I got reminded of this because I was looking at some notes I made with it a couple of days ago and was again surprised by how lighter it looks compared to today's notes with the same pen, paper & ink combination. Am I crazy or have others also noticed this?

[inkstainedruth]

I haven't used the ink in a long time. But inks are often very paper and pen dependent, and also a lot of inks are not especially light-fast.

There used to be a chart on the Noodler's website showing the properties of different inks (UV resistant, "eternal", "bulletproof" (aka cellulose reactive) and so on. But I couldn't find it on their website when I checked just now, so I don't know whether or not Navajo Turquoise is a "standard" ink or fits into one or more of those classifications.

Additionally, a lot of inks do change how they look when dry, just in general (and I don't mean just stuff like iron gall inks oxidizing).

I'm going on the presumption that you're using the same pen and same bottle of ink -- Noodler's inks are done in small batches (it's sort of a one-man operation) and there are often variations between them; Nathan Tardif claims this is a feature but not everyone agrees....

There could also be other factors involved as well: the feed on your pen might be ink-starved; the fill might be getting low; you're getting oil from your hands on the paper as you go down the page (some people who have this problem will put another piece of paper under their hand to prevent this). There could be other issues that I haven't thought of as well.

Photos might help, though.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[azbobcat]

Maybe... Maybe NOT. Things change. I LOVE turquoise!! I favorite is Private Reserve's Blue Suede, which is almost exactly the same color as Noodler's NT. While the pen you used may be the same, the rest may have changed. The paper while you say is the same, may have changed; the ink formulation may have changed, etc. Noodlers, like Private Reserve is a very saturate ink, so the color *should* still be the same, that said here are some questions you need to ask yourself: When was the last time you cleaned the pen? The pen maybe on the dry side. When was the last time you used the ink? Being saturated it *may* have settled. Shake the bottle up and allow the air bubbles and then fill the pen. If it is an old bottle of ink the water may have evaporated (and YES it can -- Ask me how I know) did you add water to re-hydrate the sludge aka the ink at the bottom of the bottle? Is this an OLD bottle of ink or a NEW bottle of ink? If an OLD bottle then buy a new bottle and try again. If a NEW bottle it might be due to a new formulation of the ink. A lot of people do not like highly saturated ink due to cloging and staining issues they report. Did you leave the paper in sunlight?? Or even read the paper in sunlight?? In the one case it may be due to bleaching, and in the other it is an optical illusion -- it only seems lighter.

 

In short there are any number of reasons. Generally I usually rotate out my pens, and the take the WHOLE pen APART and really CLEAN it, then put it away, this way the ink is always in a CLEAN pen.

 

The other thing you need to watch for is EVAPORATION. I don't always use my pens every day, or maybe I am on a color kick and bottles of ink sit and remain unused, then you go back and and find that a previously FULL bottle is now half empty, or even down to a sludge. The answer is simple to re-hydrate the ink with D.I. water and it is good as new -- well sort of: who knows exactly *WHAT* evaporated out besides water.

 

One solution I have now taken to solve the problem is now when I receive a NEW bottle of ink first I make sure it is TIGHTLY capped, then I take some Lab Grade Paraffin Wax sheet and seal the the joint between the the cap and the bottle, then put the sealed bottle back in the box, put it in a Zip Lock bag, and then store the whole thing in a cool DARK place. For opened bottles after I fill a pen I have taken to rinsing the inside of the cap and cap liner, then dry with a paper towel, making sure to dry the threads, I then take another paper towel and clean the lip and threads of the bottle. Then and only then do I recap the bottle and I make sure it is TIGHTLY capped, the it goes in a cool DARK place.

 

Hope this helps

Edited September 21, 2020 by azbobcat

[steve50]

I will write something with it today, keep it away from light, etc., and write another line in a couple of days next to it to see if it's just an illusion. I'm not too bothered by it, just found it to be an interesting phenomenon. Colour perception seems to be a really weird thing in fact. Shaeffer brown looks like normal brown under artificial lights but sunlight makes it look really reddish.

Edited September 21, 2020 by steve50

[Karmachanic]

I will write something with it today, keep it away from light, etc., and write another line in a couple of days next to it to see if it's just an illusion. I'm not too bothered by it, just found it to be an interesting phenomenon. Colour perception seems to be a really weird thing in fact. Shaeffer brown looks like normal brown under artificial lights but sunlight makes it look really reddish.

 

Domestic bulbs generally tend to be around 3000 - 3400 Kelvin. Warm yellowish. Daylight, in the often dreary but sometimes not UK, is somewhere between, 4800 and 5200 or so Kelvin - bluish. Best to judge ink colour in indirect daylight. Say indoors by the window, out of direct sunlight.

 

So maybe use the ink in the daylight today, and look at it again tomorrow in daylight, compared to fresh ink. Same paper. same pen same light.

Edited September 21, 2020 by Karmachanic

[inkstainedruth]

Yeah, light does do weird things. Early on I bought a sample of Iroshizuku Kosumosu, because a review I'd seen showed this lovely pink to orange shading. Well, I didn't get that, with the pen and cheap paper I was using. Not in the slightest. And under incandescent bulb light? Even worse -- it looked like the color of over-ripe watermelon.... Then I discovered that Private Reserve had a pink -- Rose Rage -- that looked almost IDENTICAL, only for about a third of the price....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[steve50]

Looks like I was mistaken. The colour looks more or less the same after a few days. Why I thought this about this particular ink, I don't really know!

[FLZapped]

I've noticed that Baystate Blue over time seems to become more translucent. (which is about as accurate as I can get and I don't know that this is entirely so)

[inkstainedruth]

Do you mean over the course of a page? Or if you haven't used the ink for a while? Or do you mean that if you look at something you've previously written?

Because if it's the last, it probably is because that stuff is NOTORIOUSLY non-lightfast and has just faded. If it's either of the first two, not a clue. I actually don't use BSB all that much because I've had bad problems with it feathering unless I dilute it with distilled water, and because of the UV non-resistance. And honestly, the color is a little neon (and purple-leaning) a blue for my taste.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth