Watery Ink Problem!

[Josey]

I recently bought Private Reserve Flannel Grey and J Herbin Cacoa du Brasil (sp??), and both are coming out very pale and watery i flushed out the pens (Pilot Metropolitan F and M nibs) with water and dried them overnight before filling them with ink. The inks come out far less saturated than all of the writing samples I've seen :/ am I doing something wrong? Are the inks supposed to be this way?

[Sinistral1]

Right, wrong or otherwise, I have learned to give all my pens a hard shake (or twelve) with the nib wrapped in a paper towel and pointing down, before filling. It gets any remaining water and/or ink out. Hold on to the pen tightly and don't stand too near any solid objects or you might bruise your knuckles! Check the paper towel until no more liquid comes out.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Even after being left to dry overnight, a pen can still have water hung-up in the feed+collector. Some Members use a 'thermometer flick' to extract that water, though I prefer to wrap the section in a paper towel or cloth, then give it a 'maracas shake'.

 

If you used a chemical pen flush, perhaps that was not fully rinsed away, which would almost certainly give a very pale result.

 

Once clean and fairly dry, I suggest filling and flushing the pen several times with ink: If there is any residual water, it will be progressively diluted by the ink each time you cycle the converter piston. The miniscule amount of water introduced into a bottle of ink has no practical effect, especially as the Metro does not have a massive collector.

 

You may choose not to remove the excess ink from the exposed nib+feed after charging your pen - running it out will show the ink at the darkest 'native' value, then it will become lighter as the ink flow stabilises.

 

Also, how was your pen performing previously with other inks?

 

Bye,

S1

 

__ __

JHCdB down-stroke samples from six pens on 24lb laserjet copy/print paper:

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/FPN_2013/Ink%20Review%20-%20Herbin%20Cacao%20du%20Bresil/INK104_zpsb1ad1add.jpg

[Sasha Royale]

I use a rubber "ear bulb" to flush my cartridge fountain pens. It takes one minute. I finish by forcing air through the

pen nib/section for drying.

[Lou Erickson]

When you dried the pen, how did you do it?

 

I have a pen cup with a piece of ordinary paper towel in the bottom. To dry the pen, I let the pen stand, nib down, on that paper towel. It'll pull water out of the entire feed, and, after a day or so, give you a really dry pen.

[Beckwith]

 

I have a pen cup with a piece of ordinary paper towel in the bottom. To dry the pen, I let the pen stand, nib down, on that paper towel. It'll pull water out of the entire feed, and, after a day or so, give you a really dry pen.

 

+1... though I don't have a pen cup so I have to jerry-rig a way for the nib/feed to stay in contact with a paper towel. I will also often hold a paper towel in contact with the nib/feed after I fill a pen with ink if I just flushed it to draw both ink and water through.

[Mafia Geek]

Both of the inks you listed are on the pale side. The J Herbin in particular needs a fairly wet pen to give it good saturation, that's just the nature of the ink. The can be tough to read on the page unless in a really wet pen. I have a bottle of the J Herbin and wasn't a big fan of it, didn't live up to what I had expected, until I tried it in a vintage piston fill Kaweco Sport that has an oblique italic nib, then it's a really great colour, though still not real dark and looks "watery."

 

Try emptying out and cleaning the pens and leave them nib down in a cup or something wrapped in paper towel for a full 24-48 hours to get ALL of the water out, then re-load them and see if it's the same. If it is, then I think it might just be the ink (have a look at some reviews on the forum here).

[Moshe ben David]

 

+1... though I don't have a pen cup so I have to jerry-rig a way for the nib/feed to stay in contact with a paper towel. I will also often hold a paper towel in contact with the nib/feed after I fill a pen with ink if I just flushed it to draw both ink and water through.

 

Buy some cheap shot glasses, or even better the taller version used for Tequila shooters. Even WalMart has them cheap.

[Josey]

Thank you guys for the great advice! Now I finally know how to get all the water out of my pens (which I clean out often because I change inks a lot).

 

However, I've come to the conclusion that those inks are just fundamentally very watery Thankfully, though, I was able to successfully mix them with other inks from my collection to come up with far more satisfactory versions!

[Bo Bo Olson]

The Herbin is supposed to shade, which it can not do if it was super saturated.

When one is used to only super saturated glow in the dark mono-toned ink, any shading ink will be 'wishy-washy'.

 

I prefer two toned shading ink to boring mono-tone ink.

[mhguda]

Thank you guys for the great advice! Now I finally know how to get all the water out of my pens (which I clean out often because I change inks a lot).

 

However, I've come to the conclusion that those inks are just fundamentally very watery Thankfully, though, I was able to successfully mix them with other inks from my collection to come up with far more satisfactory versions!

So, please tell us what you came up with, and if possible, post some writing samples... I for one am curious to know what mixtures approached what you wanted better than the actual thing...

[william2001]

I agree with people above.

And, fountain pen inks are water-based, so it's supposed to be a little bit watery.

-William S. Park

Edited June 24, 2014 by william2001

[ac12]

The other "problem" is your pen.

If your pen is dry, then the ink will be lighter in color than a sample from a wet or wetter pen.

[Josey]

I think my issue is that while I like shading - like Iroshizuku inks! - I'm not a fan when they seem so "watery" that they appear very pale on the paper except for dark spots in the letters where I lifted my pen from the page. That doesn't seem like "shading" to me. Personal preference, I guess!

[Bo Bo Olson]

No, shading is more than a dot, or I'd not have so many shading inks.