What's the 'wettest' ink

[RLTodd]

Inks are wet because of the surfactant, wetting agent, added to them to make the water flow freer.

 

AFAIK, the wettest inks available, and they were made this way on purpose,are the ones Noodlers mixed up specially for Swisher Pens.

 

The reason why they are so wet is that they flow into certain, specified as "pen friendly papers," and there fore leave the surface of the paper smear resistant sooner. They were formulated for the benefit of Left Handed Writers.

 

One can make any ink as wet as they wish. It becomes unusable very quickly once it crosses a certain level. The process is to get some Kodak Photo Flo solution, dilute it as per Kodak's directions, and then add a drop to the ink and try it out. The quick and dirty way is to use dilute house hold detergent, but it adds other stuff to the mix that may cause effects not wanted.

 

Yes, this subject has been discussed to death on this forum. The Search function will turn up more information than anyone really wants to know.

[Lady756]

Noodler's La Reine Mauve...the stuff was uncontrollable in my Lamy Vista...

 

Agreed. My Vista is inked up with La Reine now and it's like a river.

[cowdad]

Also, there is the trick of adding a pinhead sized drop of dish soap (think Dawn..) to the converter of ink to make it "wetter". And, do you know the trick of slipping a thin shim between the tines to increase flow? .05mm is the thickness Richard Binder includes in his nib kit to floss the tines. See his webisite for more info-http://www.richardspens.com/-and type in "flossing" in the search box. Good luck getting the flow up to where you want it.

 

I think any amount of Dawn straight in the converter would be a bit much, at least for me. I will put a small drop of Dawn into one of those old ink trading vials and fill it up, and then a drop or two of that--that changes things.

 

Somebody else said something about Kodak Photo-flo and that is a better idea, but Dawn is cheaper and right here.

 

I didn't know Richard Binder sold a flossing kit. I've read a few times what Nathan says about distances on the nibs, and I don't have a single pen that is up to Nathan's standards, but I hope to, one day, but Nathan will probably get in touch with his European distributors before that happens. You know, I never had any trouble getting in touch with Nathan and he doesn't even know me.

[lapis]

Purplish: Tanzanite, yes, the laxative.

Blue-black: Sailor Jentle.

Reds: Tiananmen > Poppy.

Coupl' a greens: Amazon > White Forest > Kensington.

 

Tom

Edited February 25, 2011 by lapis