Baystate Blue-Black

[Daisy]

Aaargggh! This ink precipitated out in my pen.

 

I decided I'd had enough of it and went to go clean my Safari... yuk! It kept coming out and coming out and coming out, long after another ink would have run clear, and then I noticed flakes in the rinse water so I flushed it again and again. Right now I have it soaking in ammonia to get the last few bits out.

 

Now I understand why it was getting lighter and lighter: the solid pigments were precipitating out and getting stopped in the works while the liquid continued to flow by. I'm pretty sure the Safari will be fine, but I'm glad I didn't use a pen I care too much about for this.

 

I can't recommend this mix to anyone. Mods, maybe you could put a big warning at the top, or move it to the Recipes That Didn't Work area? Thanks!

 

I was in search of a blue-black and decided to make something; here's my stab at it:

 

 

I did the obligatory water test since both BSB and X-Feather are supposed to be waterproof. They still are in this mix, though the blue kind of diffused lightly over the whole page. I soaked the paper completely and then let it dry (there's an inexplicable drop off coffee on there too; sorry 'bout that:

 

 

It has some shading, though not what I'd like. Overall it's definitely a pleasant color that I will use more of.

Edited October 16, 2012 by watch_art

[Daisy]

Oh, almost forgot: the drops were from a regular glass eyedropper, the kind you get from Walmart. They are neither large nor small drops, just... drops. I have no idea how many are in a ml, sorry.

[dgturner]

Why the soapy water?

[Daisy]

Why the soapy water?

 

For extra lube just in case the two inks in combination decided to do something funky like precipitate out in the pen. I had no reason to think they would, and they haven't yet, but I figured throwing that in would make things easier to clean just in case...

 

I readily admit I'm no chemist.

 

I will try to post better pics tomorrow; these were photographed and I think they'd be much more accurate with a scanner.

[Daisy]

Okay, better pics. These are the same two as before, but scanned and color-corrected for white, plus a shopping list and another on Tomoe River paper. The white paper is all HP LJ 24# and the ivory is the Tomoe River.

 

 

 

 

 

Getting better at this, I hope

[watch_art]

wow that's pretty!

[K. Cakes]

I really like that! I don't have any BSB, but I may have to pick up a sample and try my hand at this recipe.

[Daisy]

Thanks y'all! I have to confess the more I use it the more I like it. It's very strange in that it seems to drift from more black to more blue to more black as one writes. Even though I mixed it well, it's almost as if the blue and black are marbled in the converter somehow. That, and it seems to get lighter as one writes, another strange feature. But all in all I'm liking it more and more.

 

But be careful: true to BSB, it's staining the daylights out of my white Safari. Nothing a little bleach won't fix, but it is BSB and I wouldn't put it in something I couldn't either soak or hit with a light bleach solution or both. You have been warned.

[Daisy]

Aaargggh! This ink precipitated out in my pen.

 

I decided I'd had enough of it and went to go clean my Safari... yuk! It kept coming out and coming out and coming out, long after another ink would have run clear, and then I noticed flakes in the rinse water so I flushed it again and again. Right now I have it soaking in ammonia to get the last few bits out.

 

Now I understand why it was getting lighter and lighter: the solid pigments were precipitating out and getting stopped in the works while the liquid continued to flow by. I'm pretty sure the Safari will be fine, but I'm glad I didn't use a pen I care too much about for this.

 

I can't recommend this mix to anyone. Mods, maybe you could put a big warning at the top, or move it to the Recipes That Didn't Work area? Thanks!

Edited October 15, 2012 by Daisy

[torstar]

Thumbs up for trying something like this.

 

I have done my best to warn about the perils of BSB on several threads. It's a great colour but may not be worth the hassle.

 

Those dye flecks in the water are unique to Noodler's dye-intensive flavours, BSB is not the only one.

[picautomaton]

Well done for being so brave. There are one or two (hundred) threads regarding BSB and how one should clean it out completely when filling a pen as BSB don't mix. When I read your experiment I hoped it would work knowing it wouldn't. BSB mixes well with water, I mix mine to reduce feathering.

[Daisy]

Yeah, I'd read those threads too, and it was behaving so well diluted (I had it diluted 1:1 with water) that I thought maybe... ah well. No harm done at all, as long as no one else tries this. Let it be a warning to the younguns... :ltcapd:

 

Thanks for wishing me well, just the same!

 

 

P.S. Torstar -- those flakes floating out of the pen had the consistency of algae; you know, when you scrape algae off an outside pet dish or something and watch it ripple away in little bitty sheets of nastiness? I knew it wasn't, but "flecks" is a very nice name for the gack coming out of that pen...!

 

 

P.P.S. I didn't know c-r-a-p was a cussword. Is it a cussword? Cuz the forum software bleeped me!

 

 

(edited to add P.S.)

(edited to add P.P.S. and replace pseudocussword)

Edited October 15, 2012 by Daisy

[inkstainedruth]

I think the problem is that unlike many inks (which, IIRC, tend towards the acidic to neutral PH range) the Bay State series are very alkaline. It's not surprising that BSB reacted badly when mixed with something outside that series. But it is too bad -- that was a pretty color.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Daisy]

It was pretty, wasn't it? It had really grown on me before it all went south.

 

What you're saying about the alkalinity makes sense, plus the black was not a regular black. It was X-Feather, which may have added to the chemical weirdness.

 

Ah well, now we know. I'm actually glad I tried it out, to be honest. It was a fun ink to write with because it kept changing character. I just didn't know it was Dorian Grey.

[torstar]

Yeah, I'd read those threads too, and it was behaving so well diluted (I had it diluted 1:1 with water) that I thought maybe... ah well. No harm done at all, as long as no one else tries this. Let it be a warning to the younguns... :ltcapd:

 

Thanks for wishing me well, just the same!

 

 

P.S. Torstar -- those flakes floating out of the pen had the consistency of algae; you know, when you scrape algae off an outside pet dish or something and watch it ripple away in little bitty sheets of nastiness? I knew it wasn't, but "flecks" is a very nice name for the gack coming out of that pen...!

 

 

P.P.S. I didn't know c-r-a-p was a cussword. Is it a cussword? Cuz the forum software bleeped me!

 

 

(edited to add P.S.)

(edited to add P.P.S. and replace pseudocussword)

 

 

 

 

Americans consider that word to be more dirty than Canadians...

 

I have an old bottle of BSB and it has an inch of foam on top, not ink, but blue bubbles that aren't disappearing. The new bottles are much nicer, the ink is still mixed, until its doth separate (i guess??)

[Daisy]

Americans consider that word to be more dirty than Canadians...

 

Not this American... that's the word I try to use when I FEEL like cussing. So if it's suddenly become a "wordydurd" I am in serious trouble.

 

SERIOUS trouble.

 

The BSB I used for this lil experiment was a bottle less than three months old. It does hold on to the bubbles, though! Even more so because I added soapy dishwater (made with Dawn) to it. BSB is an odd bird as far as inks go, certainly. It never behaves as I expect it to, and as a consequence I find myself never really using it. The above experiment was my attempt to get some play out of a rarely used ink.

 

Don't get me wrong -- I like BSB and all -- I just don't grok it. :roflmho:

[torstar]

I've run into "that word" getting disapproval with some Americans, it kind of made an impression on me.

 

When Noodler's separates it becomes interesting, shaking it doesn't help much. Both BSB and Plains of Abraham (don't ask) have stung me like this. The bubbles hiss and don't disappear over months...

 

I recently ordered two BSBs and they arrived as calm and unbubbled as I could wish. Fingers crossed on this...

[kiwiigirl]

Wow I love this color! I've been looking for one like this for awhile and I happen to have both inks already... I feel like I won the lottery! Thanks so much for this post

[Ted A]

kiwiigirl,

 

Read post 12!

[kiwiigirl]

Yeah I saw, I probably will experiment a little with it but only use it in a platinum preppy. Thanks for looking out for me though