Letting ink evaporate for a darker tone?

[CXC]

I'm about to embark on a series of tests exploring the use of evaporation to darken an ink.  I'd love to hear from anyone who has advice or experience.

Specifically, I haven't found the dark red I want.  I have a bottle of Noodler's Tiananmen which is somewhat close, so I intend to leave a vial of it open for a while, and dip test it every week.  This sounds more precise and easier to perform than trying to quantify the percentage of evaporation.

[Wonky]

6 hours ago, CXC said:

I'm about to embark on a series of tests exploring the use of evaporation to darken an ink.  I'd love to hear from anyone who has advice or experience.

Specifically, I haven't found the dark red I want.  I have a bottle of Noodler's Tiananmen which is somewhat close, so I intend to leave a vial of it open for a while, and dip test it every week.  This sounds more precise and easier to perform than trying to quantify the percentage of evaporation.

 

Is this likely to change the viscosity, and potentially clog up a pen?

[vorpal]

I evaporate inks often using a little USB coffee warmer. For example, Vinta Julio was way too light and evaporating it by a third resulted in a lovely muted blue. Evaporating Cross Black by 50% produced a sheening black ink. I use the lowest setting on the warmer, so it often takes the inks weeks to reduce. Patience.

[austollie]

Adding a drop or two of black ink works wonders when looking to darken an ink.  I do that all the time.  Obviously it's worth trying that on a small sample to make sure that precipitates are not formed, before adding black ink to a whole bottle.

[CXC]

14 hours ago, austollie said:

Adding a drop or two of black ink works wonders when looking to darken an ink.  I do that all the time.  Obviously it's worth trying that on a small sample to make sure that precipitates are not formed, before adding black ink to a whole bottle.

Glad to hear it can work.  I'll give it a try; it certainly will be faster.

[CXC]

19 hours ago, austollie said:

Adding a drop or two of black ink works wonders when looking to darken an ink.  I do that all the time.  Obviously it's worth trying that on a small sample to make sure that precipitates are not formed, before adding black ink to a whole bottle.

Initial tests very encouraging.  I am abandonning the evaporation approach.  Thanks for the good advice.

[amberleadavis]

On 10/15/2021 at 4:35 AM, vorpal said:

I evaporate inks often using a little USB coffee warmer. For example, Vinta Julio was way too light and evaporating it by a third resulted in a lovely muted blue. Evaporating Cross Black by 50% produced a sheening black ink. I use the lowest setting on the warmer, so it often takes the inks weeks to reduce. Patience.

 

That's cool.

 

On 10/16/2021 at 4:00 PM, CXC said:

Initial tests very encouraging.  I am abandonning the evaporation approach.  Thanks for the good advice.

 

Darn, I was looking forward to the results. Please show us pictures of your progress.

[Dione]

I've also evaporated Vinta Julio and Julia. Just removed the cap and loosely placed a piece of kitchen towel over the top. If you put it somewhere light (and away from any pet access!) and note the level it's easy to see when it's gone down. Don't leave it too long. A week is a good start.

[dipper]

This topic may hold the world record for the longest-running pen-related discussion thread?

 

It starts before fpnetwork was moved online, in the year 1857 with the first publication of "The Elements Of Drawing" by John Ruskin. Here is a quote from "Letter 1 - On First Practice"...

 

"Take any finely pointed steel pen (one of Gillott's lithographic crowquills is best), and a piece of quite smooth, but not shining, note-paper, cream laid, and get some ink that has stood already some time in the inkstand, so as to be quite black, and as thick as it can be without clogging the pen. Take a rule, and draw four ...."

 

Note: In 1857 the word  "pen" meant what we now call a "dip-nib", and certainly not a "fountain-pen".

 

Apologies....... my library then skips forward 62 years to the publication of "Sketching Without a Master. The Technique and Art of Pen-And-Ink Drawing" by J.Hullah Brown in 1919. Here are two quotes from "Chapter II Materials":

 

"Of the many kinds of ink on the market, only a few possess the necessary qualifications which are requisite in a good drawing ink. The draughtsman will find all he will require in either Higgin's American Ink or Hardmuth's Indian Ink, Wolff's Chinese Ink, Reeves' or Rowney's, or Winsor and Newton's Fixed Indian Ink."

......

"It was common practice some years ago for draughtsmen to compound and mix their own inks ; but the inks on the market to-day are of such excellent quality that this practice is quite unnecessary.

There is a limit to the length of time for which an uncorked bottle of ink will retain its original blackness. Some of the good black inks, which are excellent when the bottle is first opened, may be found to have turned to a brownish colour if exposed too long to the air, and especially to the light of the sun. The deterioration may take a year or two, but it is advisable to keep the bottle tightly corked when not in use, and to stir the ink or shake the bottle if it has been standing unused for some considerable time.

 

Skip forward 103 years, and the discussion continues online......

[amberleadavis]

@Dione the more things change....

[senzen]

Evaporation is sure to drive me nuts, happens to work nicely with a Waterman W5 lever filler and Fuyu Gaki for a just right hue.

[katerchen]

I always wanted to try this with Pelikan 4001 Konigsblau. I started with a 1L bottle, so there's plenty to go around. I use it in most of my German vintage piston fillers.

 

The thing is : when it partially evaporates in a pen, it gains a very nice sheening property that I'd like to emulate (and accelerate the process).

 

My main holdback is that I don't want to leave ink out in the open, gathering dust, pollen, naturally occuring yeast, etc.

 

-k

[dipper]

On 1/29/2022 at 10:47 PM, katerchen said:

My main holdback is that I don't want to leave ink out in the open, gathering dust, pollen, naturally occuring yeast, etc.

Here is an idea:

Put ink bottle, uncapped, in a plastic food storage box. Pack the box with silica-gel packets.

Seal box with plastic lid. Leave for 24 hours.

Water evaporates from the ink, water vapour is absorbed by the silica-gel packets.

The packets can be dried for reuse, over and over again, by heating them in a domestic oven.

 

Warning note: Some sources say that silica-gel can be dried in a microwave. That sounds dangerous! When the packets reach close to zero% water content the microwave could be effectively heating an empty chamber? (I destroyed my Zanussi  microwave by inadvertently forgetting to put my coffee mug inside. 1 minute on High, ----- One dead microwave oven.)

[arcfide]

Another technique other than adding some neutral black is to increase the flow of the ink using something like White Lightning to write a wetter line. There are issues with this approach, but some inks respond quite well to this approach. 

[Licue]

On 1/31/2022 at 1:34 AM, dipper said:

Warning note: Some sources say that silica-gel can be dried in a microwave. That sounds dangerous! When the packets reach close to zero% water content the microwave could be effectively heating an empty chamber? (I destroyed my Zanussi  microwave by inadvertently forgetting to put my coffee mug inside. 1 minute on High, ----- One dead microwave oven.)

Oha! 😧 I didn't know microwave ovens could be destroyed by empty heating, let alone that easily!

 

 

As for darkening inks by evaporation: I do this quite often - albeit mostly inadvertently, via insufficiently sealing FPs and old cartridges 🙄 

The effects on some inks (Royal Blue for example) can be quite nice indeed tho 🙂

 

If I wanted to thicken bottled ink intentionally, I'd probably cover the opening with some fabric, a handkerchief or maybe a mask, to protect the ink from getting dust and other stuff inside.