Sheaffer Brown/sepia Turn Green

[Bremsstrahlung]

Today i was a little bored and then think of doing some wannabe-calligraphy I proceed to fill my pilot parallel with sheaffer brown/sepia and i find this kind of green.

 

The last image a sample of how the ink used to write when I first got it.

[arcadeflow]

It was contaminated, throw it out and clean very deeply any pen that has used it in this state.

 

I love Sheaffer Brown! Too bad it didn't work out in my pens, bad flow.

[Bremsstrahlung]

It was contaminated, throw it out and clean very deeply any pen that has used it in this state.

 

I love Sheaffer Brown! Too bad it didn't work out in my pens, bad flow.

 

I wonder how it got contaminated .

[CaptainGroovy]

Before pitching the ink I would shake the ink up and see if it is just some sort of dye separation remember brown can be made by mixing green and red will make brown. I also would transfer some to a clean sample vial and see if anything is floating in it and or strain some through some filter paper. Sheaffer like many other ink companies did have a ‘STIB’ problem. However, until I could confirm for sure that my ink actually has the creeping crud I would not condemn it. I also think it very important to confirm one way or another if that bottle of ink does have STIB because this means you could of also have other bottles of ink that are also contaminated via cross contamination.

 

I do not know how many of you do this but in my opinion, it is a good idea not to fill a pen from a bottle of ink. Instead what I do is to draw ink from the bottle with a sterile pipette and transfer it into a clean \ sterile sample vial and fill my pen(s) from the sample vial that way you can avoid cross contamination of your bottles of ink. As odd, as this may sound I have a vial of ink for every color ink I own along with an ink swatch from that bottle. I know that this may sound like I am being obsessively compulsive or “A****ly” retentive but a few years back I ended up dumping about a little over 200 dollars worth of ink due to cross contamination. It happened like this at a former employer of mine the people in my work group for the most part all used fountain pen we had several communal bottles of ink Black, Blue, Blue-Black, Green, and Red. To make a long story short one of our co-workers had purchased the same color inks but from a different manufacturer that just happened to be the one to my understanding that had biggest ‘STIB’ problem. Needless to say, everyone who filled their pens from our communal bottles of ink infected at least one if not more bottles of their own ink. I think in my work group we estimated that all together we dumped about 2000 dollars in ink and were luck because the tainted ink was discovered in less than five business day. Then there was everybody else in the company who used fountain pens and would come by for a free fill up I sure that another 1000 dollars if not more of ink was also trashed. If you think about the spread of STIB at my former employer was like that old commercial about telling two friends and them telling two friends and so on and so on……

[starlegohunter]

I know that the pens that can erase school blue ink can cause Monteverde Brown to turn green once it is on the paper. There might be a chemical contamination of some type.

[amberleadavis]

It looks like the dyes seperated. I would not use it in fountain pen. Absent slime or weird smells, I'd doubt it was mold.

[mehandiratta]

This happened with me too... There is a mold... Sheaffer has got a problem

[indigo6b]

Hi! I'm new here and this is my first reply to a post, actually. Sorry if it's an relative old topic, but I'd like to comment and thank for the advise that is in these lines.

 

I got curious about this issue since my bottle of Skrip' Sepia (Slovenia) turned also green, and I was very dissapointed. The bottle is from some batch between 2009 and 2012, and I bought it in Mexico. The green was ugly, but I used it a couple of times since I discovered the issue. I first thinked of the ink being oxydized, since copper can be used to make brown ink, and it oxydize into green, But some lime appeared in the bottle so I got the idea of it being infested with mould, but I used it anyway since I discarded that notion, because how in the world some mould would come into my ink? However, I used it in pens that I can clean thoroughly before and after I used that ink... I believe.

 

After reading the latest replys, I runned to check the bootle of ink (I already have it), and effectively saw the lime, except that it's becoming white in some areas. I got nervous and checked thoroughly the other bottles of ink since I used recently that Skrip ink in a calligraphic pen, and also check my diaries to find if I used it in the past years: turned out to be used a couple of times, for a very short time and mostly with pens that got a full cleaning (since I hate that green and I don't want to be mixed with other colours). Then I checked every bottle of ink, and cannot find any traces of mould, thanks God. But I'll be cautious in the future.

 

I also have some care to my inks, since they are so expensive and I don't have that kind of money, buth I think that my method of one hypodermic syringe to master all of them has to change. Fourtunately, I got a good bunch of eyedroppers with sample included. I can then apply the way described by CaptainGroovy.

 

Thank you everybody to solve my doubt of years, and now that that Skrip ink has been separated of the group, I can rest peacefully.

Edited September 1, 2019 by indigo6b

[ENewton]

A few years ago, I found some old Shaeffer cartridges (from the mid-90s) in a closet and started using them.

 

I was happy to be able to try some long discontinued colors, such as Peacock and King's Gold, but the Shaeffer brown turned out to be an ugly green, like the image at the beginning of this thread.

 

I wouldn't have expected ink to get contaminated in a sealed cartridge, but I threw it away anyway.

[BaronWulfraed]

I got curious about this issue since my bottle of Skrip' Sepia (Slovenia) turned also green, and I was very dissapointed. The bottle is from some batch between 2009 and 2012, and I bought it in Mexico. The green was ugly, but I used it a couple of times since I discovered the issue. I first thinked of the ink being oxydized, since copper can be used to make brown ink, and it oxydize into green, But some lime appeared in the bottle so I got the idea of it being infested with mould, but I used it anyway since I discarded that notion, because how in the world some mould would come into my ink? However, I used it in pens that I can clean thoroughly before and after I used that ink... I believe.

 

 

Every time you open a bottle of ink, you expose it to mold spores that are floating in the air. If unlucky, you might have a few spores of a mold that likes the pH and compounds that make up the ink -- or have a bottle with a lower than ideal biocide (mold/bacteria killer) in the compound.