A Lesson Learned

[Charles Skinner]

I believe I have learned a lesson related to ink mixing. Not long ago, a mixed one part black ink with three parts Diamine Red Dragon. I was a little surprised when it came out somewhat purple. I call the mixture --- Just Another Purple Ink Mixture.

 

Now, for the surprise that "came to pass" this morning. I filled my old, great Esterbrook pen with this mixture. When I started writing, the"color" was almost black. I thought it would change somewhat after it dried, but it did not.

 

Then I emptied the pen, shook the bottle for about thirty seconds and then refilled the pen, AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW? The pen now puts down a much, much more purple line!

 

Somehow, unknown to this poor earthen vessel, first time around, the pen picked up almost all black ink, and very little red. I am really surprised that this "came to pass." Does this happen with other mixtures? Should I make a habit of shaking my ink mixture bottles before filling a pen?

 

C. S. (still learning about mixing inks)

[Charles Skinner]

Why have none of you had any sort of comment on this post? C. S.

[mhguda]

Maybe you still had some black ink in the pen from an earlier fill?

But yes, making sure the components have mixed well, one method for which would be shaking vigorously, is always good when you make mixes. Or you let the mixture sit for a while (some people advise days).

As to why it hasn't rained answers on your post - it's friday. Maybe people are busy... give it some time. If you're in a hurry with your question, formulate it so that it attracts more of the curious... especially since you seem to want to share a lesson learned, but what you actually do is pose a question...

[kestrel]

Some mixtures layer out. A few months ago I tried making Black Swan in African Violets. After thorough mixing it sat in its container for eight weeks while work intervened. When I looked at it last week there was a dark ink on the bottom and lighter ink on top. I remixed and, 24 hours later, they had separated again. Top half of plastic container stained, bottom half not. Even mixed the concoction did not remotely resemble samples I have seen here on FPN. I know others have had good luck with this mix but my batch is not going near any of my pens. I suspect the formulation of one or both components has changed.

 

Lesson reinforced: some inks don't play well together. Even if they did for someone else doesn't mean they will for me.

[Jan2016]

I always mix, even mine non-mixtures and standard inks

[Laefar]

It's possible, that one of the inks have higher density, than the other, so as time passed those two have layered out. Another possibility, is that your black ink was pigment based, rather than dye based Diamine. Pigments are small particles, they might be heavier, then diluted dyes, so the black ink precipitated in the bottom of the bottle.

[kestrel]

It's possible, that one of the inks have higher density, than the other, so as time passed those two have layered out. Another possibility, is that your black ink was pigment based, rather than dye based Diamine. Pigments are small particles, they might be heavier, then diluted dyes, so the black ink precipitated in the bottom of the bottle.

I'm sure that is what happened. Heart of Darkness is highly saturated and seems thicker when it flows than African Violets. I haven't measured but the densities are most likely somewhat different. African Violets is notorious for staining so that would indicate it was the top layer in the vial. I didn't expect these two to behave like oil and water, however. I have mixed other inks with similar differences (Violet Vote and Noodler's Purple, for instance) and they all stayed mixed. Lesson learned, ignorance reduced.