What To Do With My Noodler's Inks ...

[mhosea]

I'm not surprised by Snorkels any more, just annoyed. But I soak and bleed into towel until they're clean before I change colors. (If I'm refilling with the same - rare - I'll just refill.)

The Snorkel design is really quite bad for changing inks. Flushing the snorkel does not touch the ink in the (secondary) feed. I suppose the recommended procedure would be to soak the nib for an hour or so, wick then shake out the water, maybe repeat. This is not recommended, I am sure, but after flushing, I often just remove the point, flush it directly, with a squirt from a bulb syringe, and then drop it in the ultrasonic for 30 seconds or so.

[RudyR]

I've tried to sell my noodlers, but no one seems interested in them. I probably will end up dumping them.

[Icywolfe]

Which Noodler's did you try selling?

[Lou Erickson]

I've tried to sell my noodlers, but no one seems interested in them. I probably will end up dumping them.

PIF them if you don't want them. Someone will be thrilled.

[Fozziebear]

RudyR, why are you selling them? And yes! If they're still good (no reason to assume they're not) please a visit to the PIF thread.

[Sholom]

No problems with any bottles of Noodler's ink, including these several-year old ones (I shake well the ones that settle before using):

Green Marine

Ottoman Azure

Swisher Tahitian Pearl

Swisher Aquamarine

Nightshade

Eel Blue

Walnut

FPN Van Gogh Starry Night

 

I don't decant my inks before filling, but I try to keep at least 18" between my mouth (and shirt) and the open ink bottle. Tap water is generally NOT sterile, and the microbes present vary widely around the country, so it is possible the OP's problems are related to the water used to clean out the pens. Distilled water may be necessary. It is also very important to make sure the pens are totally clean before switching inks. The one time I've seen the unremovable blackish film from a Noodler's ink was when I tried mixing Green Marine and DCSS. They made a beautiful color, but some black material (Noodler's black in the Green Marine?) precipitated and left a film on the glass vial that I mixed the inks in. I did this in a chemistry lab and could not remove the film from the vial with any lab detergent on hand or a dozen or so different solvents and mixtures, including extremely strong solvents like (for you chem geeks) NMP, THF, and methylene chloride (don't try this at home please - you need a good laboratory fume hood to work with these).

[Arkanabar]

I have ten or so 5ml Nalgene vials, and I'm going to start using them more often for filling.

Thus far, I've only ever had one open bottle of Noodler's, red-black that became my workhorse ink in my workhorse (Pelikan M200) pen. I had to dilute it to get it to behave, but no issues otherwise. Like the rest of my inks, it sits on top of my medicine cabinet. I have a 250' deep well for water, and I've been using that to clean my pens and syringe, and dilute inks.

 

This brings something else to mind. I have a PFM, and it sounds like it would be prudent to choose a single color for it, for the rest of its life.

[william2001]

You can give those to me if you want.

Want my address?

-William S. Park

 

P.S. Just kidding

[PAKMAN]

Just wondering...

 

Do you dump ink back into the bottles when you decide to change inks (instead of dumping in the sink?) Lots of people say they do this with no problems but if you have a contaminated pen it will clearly contaminate the ink if you practice this.

[Lou Erickson]

I have ten or so 5ml Nalgene vials, and I'm going to start using them more often for filling.

 

Thus far, I've only ever had one open bottle of Noodler's, red-black that became my workhorse ink in my workhorse (Pelikan M200) pen. I had to dilute it to get it to behave, but no issues otherwise. Like the rest of my inks, it sits on top of my medicine cabinet. I have a 250' deep well for water, and I've been using that to clean my pens and syringe, and dilute inks.

 

This brings something else to mind. I have a PFM, and it sounds like it would be prudent to choose a single color for it, for the rest of its life.

 

Why a single color for a PFM? The snorkel can be a hassle to clean, but isn't really that much worse than any other vacuum filler. Soaking is the answer.

[daeraedor]

On the Catfish Orange/Year of the Golden Pig sludge-ification question, I've seen it happen in pilot Varsity pens over time, especially with the Orange and especially with infrequent use.

 

Mostly, I found that dilution helped eliminate the toothpaste-like sludge (as referred to by someone in a review on Gouletpens), but just now I tried a bit of methanol and that seems not to have harmed it, in any case.

 

Methanol is an alcohol, like phenols, but it's aliphatic rather than aromatic. So I don't know how the phenyl group would affect functionality differently from the methyl group.

 

btw, I've put The Ink That Shall Not Be Named in the Pilot Varsity (disposable FP with wick feed) and the Pilot BeGreen Vball rollerball pen (rollerball with feed removable by tenacity and pliers); I did dilute it a bit but otherwise I've been happy with the results for at least a year of occasional use.

 

Just a couple thoughts.

[SeeksAdvice]

My YotGP actually started to thicken up in the bottle. It turned "grainy" for lack of a better term.

Methanol tends to eat plastics.

I don't put the ink back in the bottle when changing inks. Almost never "change" inks when I have ink in a pen. On those rare occasions when I do, I put it down the drain when I rinse the pen.

[amberleadavis]

When I left them in the brush pens... they became weird gels. I finally had to clean them out with a brush.