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Oily Spots Floating In Ink Bottle


BCL-2

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Hi Fellow Pen Appreciators :)

 

I have recently bought a bottle of Diamine Royal blue and when I opened it I notices spots or patches of oily something floating on top of the ink.

It makes up a shiny reflective and very slightly rainbow-y layer.

The ink itself is rather dark and the thing on the surface really reminds me of spilled oil on the seas.

Is it a precursor or a warning of the feared SITB?

Or is it normal I just never met it before? (I'm a newbie to bottled inks and pretty new to fountian pens as well...)

 

Since then I've seen something a bit similar to that in my Diamine Asa blue, but I thought I'll take the careful option and ask before I put it into more precious pens and even more pronouncedly to sargasso Sea.

 

Thank you very much for your opinion or advice :)

Edited by BCL-2

2 Parker Frontiers, 1 Lamy Safari, 1 MB 146, 1 Pilot MR and new friends: M805 in blue and an M 420. Yay!

Current holy grail: Caran d'Ache Leman Bicolor in saffron or possibly white. Not yet sure.

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it is probably the anti fungal and lubrication compound in the ink. mold cannot grow in the antiseptic nature of petroleum.

'The Yo-Yo maneuver is very difficult to explain. It was first perfected by the well-known Chinese fighter pilot Yo-Yo Noritake. He also found it difficult to explain, being quite devoid of English.

So we left it at that. He showed us the maneuver after a sort. B*****d stole my kill.'

-Squadron Leader K. G. Holland, RAF. WWII China.

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That's a really good point! :)

 

After a repeated careful look I think I maybe have 2 different issues at hand.

I took a few photos, the one with the white layer (The Royal Blue) is not that brutal as it looks on the second picture, the lighting accentuated it. It's more like a universal, thicker layer of fine dust on top of the ink.

It looks approximately like this if I look at it closely at bright light:

post-106434-0-57655900-1383430108_thumb.jpg

 

And if I emphasise it with strong angled lighting for the photo:

post-106434-0-76450000-1383430115_thumb.jpg

 

 

The other one (Sargasso Sea) is different, it looks much more like oil, bigger more separated spots of reflective sth playing a bit in the colours of rainbow.

post-106434-0-95679300-1383430125_thumb.jpg

 

Sorry if the photos are not ideal, I did my best :)

Edited by BCL-2

2 Parker Frontiers, 1 Lamy Safari, 1 MB 146, 1 Pilot MR and new friends: M805 in blue and an M 420. Yay!

Current holy grail: Caran d'Ache Leman Bicolor in saffron or possibly white. Not yet sure.

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hmm that is interesting, way different than what i had in mind,

'The Yo-Yo maneuver is very difficult to explain. It was first perfected by the well-known Chinese fighter pilot Yo-Yo Noritake. He also found it difficult to explain, being quite devoid of English.

So we left it at that. He showed us the maneuver after a sort. B*****d stole my kill.'

-Squadron Leader K. G. Holland, RAF. WWII China.

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I just looked at my Saragasso Sea too and it has the same floatty stuff on top. Maybe its the sheen ingredient that is reported to be one of Saragasso Seas attributes. My Red Dragon on the other hand, does not have this substance floating.

 

I gave the DSS a good shaking and will see if it reappears and to what extent.

What Would The Flying Spaghetti Monster Do?

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Just took a look at the ink again and it is just barely reappearing along the edges of the ink/glass neck line. I'll check it again tomorrow and see how much resurfaces.

What Would The Flying Spaghetti Monster Do?

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I've had the same 'oil' appearance on a couple of Diamines. In the Green-Black, I just used some kitchen paper towel to soak it up and it 'went away'. The other - can't remember which colour - a gentle swirl around before opening the bottle mixes it in nicely, before filling the pen. Having spoken to Diamine, this would seem common with some of their colours: it's all in the blend!

The Good Captain

"Meddler's 'Salamander' - almost as good as the real thing!"

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I've had the same 'oil' appearance on a couple of Diamines. In the Green-Black, I just used some kitchen paper towel to soak it up and it 'went away'. The other - can't remember which colour - a gentle swirl around before opening the bottle mixes it in nicely, before filling the pen. Having spoken to Diamine, this would seem common with some of their colours: it's all in the blend!

 

I spoke to Dimaine as well, and they said on certain inks, with the ingredients used, it can be common to have an "oily" residue on them.

 

Obviously depends on the ink. I have heard it on Greens, and I would imagine as blue is a component of green, I would imagine the blues as well.

 

Ren

http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/8703/letterminizk9.png http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/7260/postminipo0.png

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Yeeaaaaaaa, I dont have to throw my bottle of brand new Saragasso Sea away. Thanks for the info Captain and Renfield.

What Would The Flying Spaghetti Monster Do?

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Good to know. Thank you.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes it's good to know I can trust the SArgasso sea. Actually I used sargasso sea since then and the oily layer did not result in any problem whatsoever.

It disappears pretty well with a shake.

 

I have a feeling that the Royal blue has some other issue though. It looks different, less oily and more like a dry dusty layer.

2 Parker Frontiers, 1 Lamy Safari, 1 MB 146, 1 Pilot MR and new friends: M805 in blue and an M 420. Yay!

Current holy grail: Caran d'Ache Leman Bicolor in saffron or possibly white. Not yet sure.

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I have seen this with other brands as well and shared your concern. So far, so good. Imagine your experience will be the same.

Not all those who wander are lost. J.R.R.Tolkien

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  • 11 months later...

I've spotted this phenomenon (albeit less intense) in my R&K Sepia bottle...did anyone else experience it with this particular ink?

"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true..." (Carl Sagan)

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I never looked at my inks' surfaces before as I always shake the bottle very well before opening it up!

 

If these things are part of the ink's constituents, it may not be wise to remove them with a paper towel. They were put in the ink for a purpose.

Eschew Sesquipedalian Obfuscation

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They were put in the ink for a purpose.

I rather think not. It's just not necessary to make ink only from dyes that have no contaminants. It's ink, not a pharmaceutical.

I know my id is "mhosea", but you can call me Mike. It's an old Unix thing.

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I spoke to Dimaine as well, and they said on certain inks, with the ingredients used, it can be common to have an "oily" residue on them.

 

Obviously depends on the ink. I have heard it on Greens, and I would imagine as blue is a component of green, I would imagine the blues as well.

 

Ren

Mike,

 

Diamine says it was common for their ingredients to have an oily residue. They add these ingredients for specific purposes, so yes, they are there for a specific purpose. It may not be necessary, but apparently Diamine wanted these ingreients in the ink.

Eschew Sesquipedalian Obfuscation

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Mike,

 

Diamine says it was common for their ingredients to have an oily residue. They add these ingredients for specific purposes, so yes, they are there for a specific purpose. It may not be necessary, but apparently Diamine wanted these ingreients in the ink.

 

Your interpretation doesn't make sense to me. They only actually want what is water soluble. I don't know which biocide they are using, but Dowicil 75 is highly soluble, and probably they use the same biocide in all their inks, anyway, so if only some colors have it and others don't, it's probably coming from certain aniline dyes. Apparently some of them them come with oily impurities which over time will float to the surface. If you remove these impurities, you won't be affecting the properties of the ink. For the quantities we are talking about, I'd certainly agree that it is a grand waste of time and energy, but I'm pretty sure your claim...that Diamine actually wants the oily residue in the ink and adds it there for some purpose which would be thwarted if the oily residue were removed from the surface...is not correct.

Edited by mhosea

I know my id is "mhosea", but you can call me Mike. It's an old Unix thing.

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Your interpretation doesn't make sense to me. They only actually want what is water soluble. I don't know which biocide they are using, but Dowicil 75 is highly soluble, and probably they use the same biocide in all their inks, anyway, so if only some colors have it and others don't, it's probably coming from certain aniline dyes. Apparently some of them them come with oily impurities which over time will float to the surface. If you remove these impurities, you won't be affecting the properties of the ink. For the quantities we are talking about, I'd certainly agree that it is a grand waste of time and energy, but I'm pretty sure your claim...that Diamine actually wants the oily residue in the ink and adds it there for some purpose which would be thwarted if the oily residue were removed from the surface...is not correct.

I did not interpret Diamine's statement about their ink. I never said that they wanted oily residue. I never said anything about biocides. I never claimed that Diamine wanted the oily residue. If you take out what ever floated to the surface you may be removing more than a residue. Diamine said that their ingredients may show the effect. You did not read what I said, you misintrepeted my statement. I only said they put the ingredients into the ink that they want in there. Therefore any effects are apparently acceptable to Diamine, based on their lack of concern for the observation. Inks can certainly have things in there that are not water soluble, dyes are very complex. Surfactants are used to keep things in suspensions. I have inks that routinely show settling, so I know that there are ingredients that are not water soluble (Noodler's Blue Ghost shows settling after only a few hours). There are also lubricants, wetting agents, suspension aids, chemicals to control the complex rheology properties of the mixture. Aniline dyes are only one classification of many many dyes. Ink manufacturers only want what is water soluble and also suspendable within limits. Apparently Diamine has some ingredients that float to the top and that is just fine with them as they say it is no problem with the ink.

 

This is the quote from the person who spoke to Diamine: "I spoke to Dimaine as well, and they said on certain inks, with the ingredients used, it can be common to have an "oily" residue on them."

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If you take out what ever floated to the surface you may be removing more than a residue.

 

Let me get this straight. You're claiming that if I take, say, a coffee filter or some such, and touch it to the top surface of the ink in a bottle (ostensibly to wick off a little oily stuff that has floated to the top surface of an ink), that I might be removing something important in the ink. Is that, in fact, what you are claiming?

I know my id is "mhosea", but you can call me Mike. It's an old Unix thing.

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