Ink Clots

[KingRoach]

Hello all. I have a question about ink clotting. Just a discussion really.

 

So you have a bottle of ink that goes bad and you get clots of ink it it. I imagine this like a chunk of pigment, and what has gone is probably the medium. Or is it the other way around?

 

What is a clot? How and why does it happen?

 

Can you revive clots? Do you mash them into a drop of water and make ink again? And how can you force clots to take place if you want them (for science).

 

 

Disclaimer: This Discussion has nothing to do with using ink in fountain pens. This is purely about ink. Whether you should chuck the bottle in the bin or not is not what I'm asking. If you want another bottle of ink go buy one. Buy me one too, I don't mind. I still want to get to know my clots.

 

I hope this discussion proves useful to some as I hope it will be useful to me. Please share your knowlege base and experience.

 

Bestos.

[Arkanabar]

Most often, a clot is one or more colonizing microorganisms, typically mold, yeast, or bacteria. It is colloquially known here as "SITB" or Slime/Sludge In The Bottle. When this happens, your best option is to discard the affected bottle. Otherwise, your pens are likely to cross-contaminate your other inks.

 

Inks contain biocides to reduce SITB. They can be overwhelmed. Storing your ink in close proximity to houseplants will often do it. Deliberately introducing contaminants will also do it.

Edited January 18, 2019 by Arkanabar

[KingRoach]

Are you aware of any contaminants that can produce it? Can clotting be produced chemically?

Can anything be done to the ink chemically, say, to separate the elements in the ink or to play around with its density or thickness? Someone here must be versed enough in chemistry to help figure out things we can play with.

[BaronWulfraed]

A true /dye-based/ ink has no pigments; any solids in the ink are either the result of contamination growing in the liquid, or flakes of dry ink after extreme evaporation. For the latter, adding distilled water should redissolve the dye.

 

The rarer pigment-based inks may clump if the solvent is allowed to evaporate. Pigment inks are fairly rare in the fountain pen world (Platinum Carbon being one, the possibly discontinued Pelikan Fount India another).

 

"density or thickness" -> Viscosity? Maybe adding water, or letting it evaporate some. Don't know how well it would behave if you added a drop or two of glycerin... or ammonia and/or alcohol (either of which may result in an ink the feathers badly). If you mean saturation... well, add or remove water.

[KingRoach]

Thanks a lot for the info. It may have been growth, then, in my inks. I've gotten rid of them now but will play with the remainer of this bottle as it's full. Don't worry I won't contaminate other bottles.

One thing I like to do to my inks is to have them slightly thicker or more dense. Likely what you mean by viscosity. This does happen sometimes when a cartridge is left in the pen for a while and it seem to evaporate a little bit, and the remainder of the ink comes out thicker and its line is much thicker and deeper colour. Depending on the end, you could possibly see the thickness as it dries sometimes. Not always a good thing, but sometimes it is.

I guess letting ink dry is all I have so far for that effect. I'll play a little. Any more thoughts are appreciated.

[Arkanabar]

You sound like the sort of person who'd really appreciate the color density of Noodler's inks.

 

I don't really like super-concentrated inks. If there isn't enough diluent, you can get problems like slow drying, poor flow, and smudging.

[tamiya]

One thing I like to do to my inks is to have them slightly thicker or more dense. Likely what you mean by viscosity. This does happen sometimes when a cartridge is left in the pen for a while and it seem to evaporate a little bit, and the remainder of the ink comes out thicker and its line is much thicker and deeper colour. Depending on the end, you could possibly see the thickness as it dries sometimes. Not always a good thing, but sometimes it is.

 

I guess letting ink dry is all I have so far for that effect. I'll play a little. Any more thoughts are appreciated.

Yep concentrating the ink by removing 20-50% of the water can make it denser in colour (not viscosity), can create more 'sheen' but less 'shading' afaik.

 

For some wierd irony I've got bottles & cartridges that have halved in volume due to leaky cap seal but that's taken 10-20yrs... but just leaving bottles uncapped for a couple weeks don't seem to dry them out much heating to near boiling can hasten evaporation slightly... (cue MICROWAVING INK thread hehe )

 

 

FP dye inks soak into the paper fibres though afaik, I've not boiled my ink so much that it sits atop the paper. Pigment particles soak in too, it's not "glitter glue". Even China ink or Marsmatic ink doesn't leave a line that sits proud.

 

(actually talking of which, my Staedtler Marsmatic ink bottles have dried out into crusty lumps, looks like charcoal. Haven't yet tried reconsituting but I don't think it'll easily redissolve - the dried pens that I wash out don't clean just by soaking or ultrasonic... I usually gotta dismantle them fully then scrub & scrape out the fossilised ink.)