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Black Parker Quink Turns Yellow?


toms9248

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Hi

 

I have recently bought some washable black Parker Quink from amazon (about 3 weeks ago). It was quite cheap, only 4 packs of 5 for £5. At first I was happy with it, it lasted about twice as long compared to the permanent black Quink from Parker (2 weeks compared to 1). However, I have noticed it turns yellow on most paper. Especially in my science books. It can happen in less than 20 minutes. I handed in a 2 page essay in black and it came back almost completely yellow (but an A grade so yay me). Even as I write this though my media work is turning yellow. I had no such problem with the permanent ink. What is happening?

Here is a link to the amazon page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parker-Quink-Cartridges-Black-Washable/dp/B00B7APY2Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380368757&sr=8-1&keywords=black+parker+quink+20

I have also uploaded a picture of the yellow ink (I know my handwriting is dreadful and the image isn't the best quality either).post-107101-0-73244300-1380368831_thumb.jpg

 

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That happened to me once when I overwrote on a piece of paper that I had previously (and forgotten about) made a few squiggles with an ink eradicator pen.

 

It generally behaves on my other writing, so it may be a reaction to something, (a coating perhaps) on the paper you're using. Give your pen a good clean out and try another cartridge and see if that's any better. Also, see if the discolouration occurs when using a different brand of exercise book.

Long reign the House of Belmont.

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That happened to me once when I overwrote on a piece of paper that I had previously (and forgotten about) made a few squiggles with an ink eradicator pen.

 

It generally behaves on my other writing, so it may be a reaction to something, (a coating perhaps) on the paper you're using. Give your pen a good clean out and try another cartridge and see if that's any better. Also, see if the discolouration occurs when using a different brand of exercise book.

 

Just about to say that exact thing as when I was very young I tried ink erasing black ink and it went that same shade of yellow.

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Looks like Quink black after some time in fluorescent lighting.

Imagination and memory are but one thing which for diverse reasons hath diverse names. -- T. Hobbes - Leviathan

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I discovered recently that washable black Quink must really be a very dark brown when I left a page of notes out on the table, went upstairs for a moment to "powder my nose" and came back down to a page that was just a light brown mess of ink and wet cat paw prints! (That's her in the avatar pic - butter wouldn't melt!) So it's not surprising that if there's something a bit dodgy about it it might go yellowy brown.

 

If the boxes you received looked like the ones in the picture on that amazon link, it looks like they were old stock - the current boxes (also from amazon - though actual amazon, not a marketplace seller) apparently look like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parker-Quink-black-fountain-cartridges/dp/B000JTMIR0/ref=sr_1_1?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&s=officeproduct&ie=UTF8&qid=1380440345&sr=1-1&keywords=black+parker+quink. I imagine if it is old stock that has spent too much time exposed to UV light (unlikely if they were still in their boxes, though) or stored somewhere that was too hot, for instance, that this could happen. Is it all of them or just one? If you got four boxes, as pictured, try a cartridge from a different box, to be sure.

Edited by Geordielass
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Just checked the box. It doesn't look like the one that Geordielass put a link to. Also there is a stamp on the top of all the boxes that looks like a date. It says '10 26 09' (26th November 2009 I assume, so it's nearly 4 years out of date when I get it. Not good.). Shouldn't buy cheap ink then. Lesson learnt. Still going to try different boxes though see if that makes a difference. Thanks for all your help.

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Hi

 

Just wondering

 

If counterfeit ink is a big problem in the Ink Jet Printer market is there any history of Counterfeit ink in the Pen Cartridge world. I wouldn't put is past someone in China or thereabouts knocking out some Parker lookalike cartridges in Parker lookalike packets, with unsuspecting customers only finding when the ink inside did something odd once used, Clogging and fading being the two biggest issues in Printer inks.

 

Any history of Fake pen ink.

 

Paul

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If you are tied to using cartridges rather than a convertor and bottled ink, try the Aurora cartridges instead. They will fit pens that take Parker cartridges, but the ink is nicer (however you will pay for this difference).

 

Other than that, I used Parker Quink permanent black exclusively for over 20 years without a problem, and many of the notes I made at school well over 30 years ago are still black and legible. But this was bottled ink, not cartridges. Cartridges were too expensive for mein those days, and are still only mine as a back up (and very rarely used).

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I've only used Quink in permanent black, but that really is permanent and just plain black. I have small drawings I did in art school - back in the dark ages! - and they still look good. Of course, they were on paper that was quite good.

 

I don't have any experience with anything like this and I wish I knew more chemistry. Could temperature in a storage area have corrupted the ink?

 

I found an old pack of Quink cartridges from the 1980s a few months back and I wondered if it could possibly still be good. I popped one in an old Vector and everything was fine...like it was brand new. I also came across a couple of small international cartridges in purple that I don't even remember what pen I would have used them in and they wrote beautifully in an old Osmiroid calligraphy pen. In my case the inks were stored under normal house conditions.

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I did some paper chromatography last year. It turns out that Parker Quink black does have a large yellow component. The Quink is in the lower right corner.

 

http://squirrelscience.smugmug.com/2012-2013-Public/Local-Events/Crazy-Pen-Pix/i-ZTNTnRm/0/L/20130425_9999_24-L.jpg

Proud resident of the least visited state in the nation!

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Four years old, on its own, shouldn't have been a problem, the black quink I was talking about using was from some old cartridges I was using up (possibly up to 5 or 6 years old) that I found in a drawer, so yours could have been a dud, or it could have been stored badly.

 

If you are at school/college, you probably are much better sticking with cartridges for a pen you are using every day - I know what my school would have said if I had carried around an ink bottle and there had been an accident! I'm sure Aurora's a great ink in cartridges, but you won't find it readily on a student's budget in the UK, but you will get permanent black Quink - if you are lucky - and permanent black may well be the way to go - for obvious reasons it's less wishy washy than the washable stuff. I don't think it's as easily available on the high street, though. If you walk into your local WHSmith, you'll just get black cartridges and I think they'll be the washable sort, since that's probably where my old ones came from - you'll also pay a big premium (i.e. full price) at WHSmith.

 

If you just want to buy black Quink cartridges at a reasonable price I don't think you have much option but to go back to amazon, cross your fingers and try again. That's unless you want to spend over the odds by adding postage, at a good pen site, or buy enough ink and/or other stuff to hit their free delivery threshold. The UK site with the lowest free delivery is (I think) cultpens.co.uk (free delivery £10+) - someone will tell me if I am wrong - they do some great stuff, my main problem is not getting the price up to £10, it's keeping it close to that!

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Apart from exam season, there should be no real need to refill pens during the day at school. I went all through school using bottled ink, refilling my one trusty Parker 25 every night. My eldest son has just completed his A levels, again never running out of ink so long as he refilled his Safari every night (again, using a convertor and bottled ink). My suggestion is bottled ink then you should get away with only one pack of cartridges in a year.

 

Much the cheapest way, and it should allow you to obtain permanent black Quink if budget really is the constraint.

 

Edited for spelling.

Edited by View from the Loft
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I've been using Parker Quink black for years, and it's not turned yelllow on any paper! I'm intrigued - going to try writing on everything now, to see what happens ;) (This is with both cartridges and ink from bottles, from the late '80s through to a bottle bought 6 months ago)

 

I wonder if it's worth emailing Parker to report the problem - at worst, it just alerts them to a potentially dodgy batch. At best, they may send you some replacement cartridges.

 

(I emailed Leuchtturm about feathering in a notebook & they posted me a large "master" notebook & small diary, for free!)

Instagram @inkysloth

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Diamine themselves offer free postage over £10 too... http://www.diamineinks.co.uk with the added bonus of only being just over 100 miles away from you.

Yes, but they only do international-sized cartridges, and if you are buying in bottles, oddly, Diamine are not the cheapest place to buy Diamine inks!

 

NB If you did decided buy Diamine, and goodness knows they are excellent inks and British to boot, their Jet Black is not the blackest thing around (Onyx is a lot better, I gather, but I've only tried Jet Black and found it a bit disappointing - kind of very dark grey).

 

If you are comfortable with cartridges, stick with Quink, if you want to try bottles, then invest in the "Deluxe" Parker converter for a heavy day's note-taking at school or college - I have the cheaper piston converters and they are great if you like to change ink colours often, but that's because they don't hold much.

 

Also, to round out the cheapest shopping options, tigerpens.co.uk has a £10 order, free delivery - I forgot about them, as I've "window shopped" but never bought, whereas I've bought recently from Cult Pens (a load of Diamine inks, as it happens!)

Edited by Geordielass
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Yes, but they only do international-sized cartridges, and if you are buying in bottles, oddly, Diamine are not the cheapest place to buy Diamine inks!

 

NB If you did decided buy Diamine, and goodness knows they are excellent inks and British to boot, their Jet Black is not the blackest thing around (Onyx is a lot better, I gather, but I've only tried Jet Black and found it a bit disappointing - kind of very dark grey).

 

If you are comfortable with cartridges, stick with Quink, if you want to try bottles, then invest in the "Deluxe" Parker converter for a heavy day's note-taking at school or college - I have the cheaper piston converters and they are great if you like to change ink colours often, but that's because they don't hold much.

 

Also, to round out the cheapest shopping options, tigerpens.co.uk has a £10 order, free delivery - I forgot about them, as I've "window shopped" but never bought, whereas I've bought recently from Cult Pens (a load of Diamine inks, as it happens!)

 

I'd just like to second both Tigerpens and Cult Pens. I've bought from both with no problems. Also, The Writing Desk are worth checking out, they sell Diamine inks for £5.65 per 80ml bottle, and have a small selection of Diamine inks branded for them, at £5.99 per 100ml bottle.

Instagram @inkysloth

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  • 3 weeks later...

Recently bought Parker Washable Black in cartridge form with the same result - writing turned brown within 24 hours. Tried different papers with the same result, Never had this problem before although I normally use bottle ink! Incidentally, the manufacturing batch dates were 2010/11. Both year batches suffered the same problem.

 

Is this problem exclusively related to cartridges?

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Recently bought Parker Washable Black in cartridge form with the same result - writing turned brown within 24 hours. Tried different papers with the same result, Never had this problem before although I normally use bottle ink! Incidentally, the manufacturing batch dates were 2010/11. Both year batches suffered the same problem.

 

Is this problem exclusively related to cartridges?

 

No, it shouldn't be, I've used Washable Black cartridges, off and on, for 25 years, for school, Uni and work (ease of obtaining them and convenience making it more sensible for me in that sort of situation) and I've never had that sort of result on any paper (this includes using up loose cartridges found rolling around in the back of drawers which could have been anything up to 10 or 12 years old). Since you did try it out on different paper and from different batches, I can only think that the poor storage conditions idea may be the reason (or something about your pen? I don't see how, but...). I think discolouration can happen to any ink which is over-exposed to UV (not just Quink) but you'd have to ask someone with more idea of the science for a definitive answer on what else could be causing it.

 

The simplest solution is just to go back to your usual bottled ink, of course, but it has to be said that sometimes it is convenient to have cartridge backups - for that best try to source some permanent black or permanent blue/black, I suppose.

 

Sorry not to be more helpful - you could try emailing Parker as Inkysloth suggested, I suppose.

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I found this on the wiki page for Quink.

 

'Quink is not waterproof, unlike India ink. If paper that has been written on becomes wet, black ink will run and separate into blue and yellow components'.

Long reign the House of Belmont.

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Thanks for the reply. Cartridges have been stored in a writing bureau for about 6 months. Put there straight from the retailer! Have since tried several types of paper after cleaning the pen through with water - same results. O.K. with bottled ink. Guess it is faulty production although cartridges used showed production dates a fair gap apart. Think I will stick to bottled ink! (Afterthought - I wonder if the plastic used in the cartridges have reacted with the ink?)

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