Do you ever put ink back in the bottle?

[orpheus]

Oh, and one other thing... why would I be worried about bacteria/fungi/virii/flying spaghetti monsters in my ink? I'm not going to be drinking it, and I'm sure most of us come into contact with zillions of microorganisms every day - I doubt a bit of fungi in ink will make us sick.

 

(The paper, of course, will pick up such junk no matter what - so it's a moot point from archival purposes, as well.)

 

Now, the argument about placing reagents back in the bottle makes a bit of sense - if only from a pure chemistry point of view, rather than a biohazard one. Placing the chemical in use, may cause it to undergo some change.

 

However... I'm not dealing with a vintage ink stock or anything - if the master bottle is destroyed, I'll just get another one. I doubt the stuff'll sit around that long anyway. :roflmho:

 

I guess the issue isn't that we humans would pick up any dangerous microbes, but that if you grow something nasty in the ink, and fill your pens with it, it could clog or do other nasty things to your pens.

 

 

Having said that, I have to admit that I often dump the ink back in the bottle myself. Have never seen any ill effects. These days I try to be more careful: if only a tiny bit of ink is left in the pen, then it goes down the sink. If a lot is left and I want to top it off, I'll hold the pen upright, and twist the converter or plunger until I've expelled all the air. One way I tell is to watch the collector under the nib and the base of the nib: when ink starts to appear, there's no more air. Then I twist back just a bit to remove some of that ink from the collector and nib, and then I dip and fill.

Edited May 12, 2008 by orpheus

[Silas]

I have 2 empty ink bottles. All of the Brown/red/orange inks go from my pens into this one: Pelikan Brilliant, Galileo, Apache Sunset, Habenero, Antietam, PR Chocolate.

 

The other bottle is for blues....all the blues go in this. PR Supershow, Midnight Blue, etc

 

I'm starting another bottle of all blacks.....Manhattan, HOD, Aurora, etc.

 

I have come up with stunning colors (but ones not able to be duplicated!) and have had NO problems in my pens.

 

Some of these inks are on my desk for my students to fill their pens. Potluck!

 

Oh, and the Baystate Blue is NOT mixed with ANYTHING!

[Ramchandra]

I know, I am late by over a decade but I have been putting back ink into the bottle since the past 8 years

And have found no ill effects

 

Maybe it has to do with how we fill and dump ink back into the bottle.

 

I have been using a syringe to fill up ink and dump it back for every pen type unless those pens have an inbuilt filling system.

This way ink is less prone to contamination.

[sansenri]

heaven's NO!

 

didn't you pay attention in chemistry class when the instructor indicated not to pour excess reagents back into the bottles to prevent potential contamination of your stock solution (ink in this case).

 

if you want to save the ink that was in the pen, find a small container to store it in but please don't put it back in the master ink bottle.

 

thanks,

mike

(this reply is due to eight years of secondary and post-secondary science classes so don't argue with me on this one :>) )

 

 

 

 

 

QUOTE(Wizergig @ Jul 15 2007, 09:01 AM) 332233[/snapback]

Do you ever put ink back in the bottle?

 

Is this a safe practice? Sometimes I will have a pen that I am not going to use for awhile, and I like to clean them up. Sometimes that is a fair amount of ink down the sink. Would you ever put ink back into a bottle once it has been in a pen for awhile?

 

 

100% with you. I'm a chemist. Don't do it.

As widely discussed, why risk ruining your entire ink bottle, dump it, re-use it in another pen, mix it, draw with it, leave it to dry and reconstitute later.

Any of these, but never back in the original bottle!

 

(don't we just love resurrecting these old posts!...)

Edited May 23, 2019 by sansenri

[uceroy]

Nope! I usually write a pen empty, but in the rare case an ink didn't work in a pen, I either flush it down the drain, or if I have a spare empty bottle or sample vial, put it in there.

The small amount of ink isn't worth the risk of contaminating the entire bottle, at least not to me.

[Karmachanic]

Only if it has been in the pan less than 24 hrs.

[TSherbs]

 

100% with you. I'm a chemist. Don't do it.

As widely discussed, why risk ruining your entire ink bottle...

I would agree, but the risk seems minimal and I am an ink miser as much as I am a money miser. I have never had a problem with my ink for eight years of dumping it back in. When I get burned for the first time, I'll change. In the meantime, it feels good not to empty a pen down the drain.

[sansenri]

I do agree on not wasting ink, I don't do that either, however nor do I put ink back in the bottle.

If ever I need to empty a pen (more often I run them dry) I empty the remainder in a small glass container (some medicine vial are quite good for that) cap it and reuse the left over later using a syringe.

You don't know whether you have contaminated your ink bottle and to what extent when you pour ink back in.

You may have no contamination, or if contamination is mild the preservative in the ink may kill it.

But if contamination is less than mild it may reduce the life of your ink, you may not notice for quite a while that it's very slowly turning bad until the whole bottle becomes unusable. If you do this with all your inks you may be preparing for disaster some time from now...(unless you have very few bottles that you use up very fast)

It's just safer not to do that, possibly half fill the pens if you like changing ink often.

Edited May 27, 2019 by sansenri

[Arkanabar]

I generally write my pens dry. If I run out of ink at work (highly unlikely), I'll get a medicine cup, add some water, press the bar on my Hero 616 (point up), dip tip into water, and release, waiting for a five count. Or carry a sample vial to fill from. Or just carry a second pen. Or several or all of the above.

Not only that, but I only fill from sample vials, which often contain diluted ink (Borealis Black and Bad Black Moccasin 1:1 or more, Ku-Jaku 4:1; possibly I'll dilute the Noodler's Purple and Brown if I decide their behavior warrants it).

In part this is to ensure that if any of my pens ever get colonized by some nasty microbe, I won't cross-contaminate any of my bottles. Not that I've had any pen infections (as yet).

But I'm also experimenting towards a blue-black. I have an empty bottle into which I decant the first little bit of flush when cleaning a pen, or any pens I decide I want to flush before they're written dry. My hope is to wind up with something like Taz's Teeling Mix.

[SamCapote]

Knowing what I know about fungal contamination, and how ubiquitous fungal spores are, I would NEVER, EVER, EVER return FP ink to a bottle. I have on occasion returned it to a small sample plastic ink screwtop vial, and dated when.

 

I also use phenol &/or Noodler's proprietary preservative (that Nathan was generous enough to send in exchange for some things I had that he loves) liberally.

[ardene]

I normally don’t, but I use the same bottle of ink for all my pens so it amounts to the same as returning ink to the bottle. Maybe I am too reliant on the ink’s fungicides (and its relative acidity, since we talk about Waterman blue which some sources posted by others indicate that has a pH of slightly less than 3). However isn’t the MontBlanc recommended procedure for piston pens to return a few drops of ink to the bottle after each refill?