how to change ink colors?

[niner]

I have been wondering how y'all change ink colors in a single pen. Does it require cleaning? or do you just fill with a new color, I would imagine residual ink from the previous color. Does that run through pretty quickly or do you have a mixture color to write with for a while?

 

Basically I am wondering if I need to buy multiple pens for multiple colors or is swapping colors easy? The pens I am looking at are $300-400USD and if I can get away with only spending that amount once (for now) that would be SUPER.

 

BTW the colors I use most often are red and black, if that makes a difference. Of course I may need multiple pens if I am going to use the colors simultaneously

 

Thanks!

[Anne-Sophie]

You might want to rinse the pen if you want to switch from black to red but you don't have to if

you switch from red to black, you might get an interesting color.

 

What pen are you going to get?

 

 

For that amount of money you can buy many Lamy Safari in multiple colors, including black and red.

The same goes for Sheaffer NoNonsense.

 

 

[RayMan]

Before changing colors I always flush the pen thoroughly, and let it dry overnight.

[Kelly G]

If you don't mind some odd and non-repeatable color mixes, you don't need to rinse between inks, UNLESS the inks are not compatible - ie highly different pH values or other incompatibilities that could cause clogging problems. I usually flush my pens several times when changing ink colors - although I don't try to get them to a pristine state. Others will advise you differently.

 

If I'm simply changing shades/brands of the same color, I will sometimes not flush the pen at all. Just fill and go. It's all personal preference with the exception noted above.

[J0rdan]

Thanks for asking this, Niner...I've been curious about the same thing but too afraid to ask. I haven't rinsed any of my pens yet (keep the green in the green pen, the black in the black pen...) so I'm pretty unsure about it too. It will be nice to see the responses.

Edited December 19, 2008 by J0rdan

[niner]

Thanks for the responses, and I am sorry I posted this in the wrong forum, but I didn't know if it was a pen question or an ink question.

 

Anyway, the reason I want a $300-400USD pen is I told myself that after I graduated with my PhD I would buy myself a really nice pen (or pen set) The pen set being similar multiple nice pens for different inks etc. etc. Well I graduated 2 years ago now and still haven't gotten my pen(s) yet.

 

A couple of the ones I have been looking at are Waterman Exception Night/Day, Pelikan Souveran M800. I have actually tried right the Waterman Exception before I graduated and I really liked it. When I came back to looking at pens I remembered the square Waterman with the springy clip.

 

Basically, I want a really nice pen to grow old with and pass down to my children (at least let them fight each other for it ).

 

I have a few sub-$100 rollerballs, ball points and pencils and none of them really appeal to my as much as those pens mentioned above. So I want to step it up a notch, if that makes sense. My mindset is, buy what I really want, buy quality, and only cry once.

[Coyotebd]

How often do you plan on using red? I use red for underlining and corrections. While as a writer I do a lot of correcting and editing my own work, I don't write with my red pen that often compared with my blue pen. Thus, I recently picked up a $10 Dollar pen which I plan to use for red.

[niner]

I use red as often as I use black. I am not a writer, but I work in R&D and I color code when I write out equations / data / etc. I usually only need two colors, occasionally I will need more but not very often.

[John Cullen]

If you look on the ink pages you will see that many people mix inks like crazy. As someone else said, unless you are using an ink known to cause mixing problems or changing from one color to a radically different color, you do not need to clean the pen, and you certainly do not need to clean it to perfection.

 

I guess if the pen is a piston filler I can see why someone would not want to stick a pen that had been using green ink into a bottle of pink ink, but if you are using cartridges or converters then you should be able to just plug in a new or newly filled one and go on, with some strange coloration at the start. But if you are going from one sheaffer blue to sheaffer green, there is no point in flushing.

 

I suspect many people way overdo the cleaning of their pens. It seems to me that wiping nibs and trim and running pistons up and down furiously for ten minutes only adds extra stress to the pen. This kind of cleaning may be more a personal thing than a necessity.

 

If the pen is going to be put away for some time, that is probably when you need to really clean and dry it.

[RoyalBlue]

"If you look on the ink pages you will see that many people mix inks like crazy. As someone else said, unless you are using an ink known to cause mixing problems or changing from one color to a radically different color, you do not need to clean the pen, and you certainly do not need to clean it to perfection." (John Cullen)

 

It's certainly true there are loads of posts about mixing inks. Just to put the pen and ink manufacturers' views on record, I recently asked Pelikan in Germany about mixing their own or other manufacturers' inks in my pens and I have posted their answer in the 'inky thoughts' section under 'Manufacturer comment - mixing inks'. Please note the advice refers more to mixing inks before they go into the pen, but you may be interested to read the post.

 

Tom

Edited December 19, 2008 by RoyalBlue

[lapis]

If I only change one blue for another, I just rinse the pen with the new ink 2-3 times. Ditto black or reds.

BUT like if I change a black with a blue or a red -- or vice vrsa, then I always wash out the pen up to 10 x with water until the water is practically colourless, then I do the rinsing as stated above.

 

Dove

 

[Titivillus]

I usually will clean out the pen between fills of ink if I am changing colors. Just to make sure there are not going to be any weird chemical reactions in the pen. Beyond that if it is the same ink I might clean the pen once every 3-4 refills.

 

K

[laotzu]

Does this mean that you typically use black and red for the same work session? My comment would depend on the answer to this question.

[psfred]

I rinse out my pens if I'm changing colors. Otherwise I just refill them. No need to get obsessive unless you a going from say highly saturated red to light green or blue. Dark colors will hide any residual ink pretty well. Dry the nib and feed as well as you can after rinsing, though -- the water in there will dilute the ink for a while if you don't.

 

If you think you might be using two colors regularly, I would get more than one pen. Personally, I lean toward vintage pens -- a couple of nice Parker "51"s in great shape with extra fine nibs wouldn't run you more than $300, even if you got rather exotic ones, and since they are in perfect shape at 60 years of age (or at least mine are), I assume you will be able to pass them on in 50 more.....

 

Peter

[niner]

Does this mean that you typically use black and red for the same work session? My comment would depend on the answer to this question.

 

Right now I use two rollerballs one black one red, I figured I would use one rollerball in the color opposite of what would be in the pen, but I might like to switch the colors to change things up. I know it is weird, but I would like to use the fountain pen for the most writing I do. Some days I use red more than black and visa-versa. Eventually I would like two nice pens but until then I will be using different inks. But hey, I might be using my rollerballs for a while before I get a nice pen due to the economy.

[Akumar]

If you want to try lots of colours you may buy Airmail wality eyedropper pens. I have lots of them they are pretty inexpensive costing about 12 USD each. the barrels are transparent so they will show your beautiful inks. You cannot of course expect them to behave like 200 USD pens. But more or less I am satisfied with them and they are so 'retro'.

I do something very strange while changing colours. First of all I flush pens with water thoroughly so that at the end water is colourless then - now this is the strange part- I jerk them off till not a single drop of water comes out. I hope that is safe. Everytime I make a resolution not to do this but I end up doing this nevertheless. Thankfully none of my pens seem the worse for it.

[laotzu]

I would buy multiple cartridge converters (three?, four?) for whatever pen I settled on along with an Ear Syringe bulb from my local drug store and a couple of pudding dishes and some distilled water from the supermarket.

 

- Cartridge converters will let me experiment with different manufacturers and shades of black and red. I'd switch them out as the spirit moves me. I would simply return the unused amount to the bottle from which it came.

 

- I would fill the pudding dish with distilled water when I make the switch and fill the bulb from this clean dish. I would use the other dish to flush the nib. I'd flush the emptied converter as well. The whole process couldn't take a few minutes and makes for a pleasant break.

 

- I would go to Cost Plus and buy a really cool small wooden tray or box to hold this paraphernalia.

 

- Finally, I'd spend an obscene amount of money buying an embarrasing variety of shades from as many manufacturers as I could find. In the end I would begin to experiment with my own formulae until my friends begin to worry about my sanity and pallor.

Edited December 20, 2008 by laotzu

[offbase]

Rinsing the pen when changing colors has the added benefit of cleaning out the nib & feed (don't know if someone's already mentioned that). Also, if you're going from one brand of ink to another, you don't know if they're chemically compatible, meaning you could have some sludge (or worse) to deal with.

[JLT]

I use red as often as I use black. I am not a writer, but I work in R&D and I color code when I write out equations / data / etc. I usually only need two colors, occasionally I will need more but not very often.

 

We're in the same line of work (R&D). A disciplined fine point is what you seek in a nib. You may want to look into Sailors and Namikis - Japanese fine points tend to write a little finer than their Western equivalents and their quality is excellent. I have a Sailor Professional Gear with an H-F ('hard fine' - very little flex, if any) nib that does the job beautifully. I tend to keep that one filled with the color I use most often and an inexpensive fine point (Hero 616) filled with Noodler's Bay State Blue for contrasting notation.

 

As for changing colors, others have mentioned the importance of the change itself. I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to changing colors and I flush and dry every time, but that's probably unnecessary in many cases. I can see rinsing the nib being sufficient preparation when changing from blue to black, for example. The time required to flush a pen thoroughly can be minimized by using one of those aspirating bulbs the hospital sends home with you along with your new baby (we have nine children and those light blue mini-basters are everywhere!). I remove the converter, fill the bulb with warm water and run it through the pen. One flush usually does the trick and the converter can then be cleaned out separately by running water through it three or four times.

 

Happy Holidays!

[niner]

I use red as often as I use black. I am not a writer, but I work in R&D and I color code when I write out equations / data / etc. I usually only need two colors, occasionally I will need more but not very often.

 

We're in the same line of work (R&D). A disciplined fine point is what you seek in a nib. You may want to look into Sailors and Namikis - Japanese fine points tend to write a little finer than their Western equivalents and their quality is excellent. I have a Sailor Professional Gear with an H-F ('hard fine' - very little flex, if any) nib that does the job beautifully. I tend to keep that one filled with the color I use most often and an inexpensive fine point (Hero 616) filled with Noodler's Bay State Blue for contrasting notation.

 

As for changing colors, others have mentioned the importance of the change itself. I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to changing colors and I flush and dry every time, but that's probably unnecessary in many cases. I can see rinsing the nib being sufficient preparation when changing from blue to black, for example. The time required to flush a pen thoroughly can be minimized by using one of those aspirating bulbs the hospital sends home with you along with your new baby (we have nine children and those light blue mini-basters are everywhere!). I remove the converter, fill the bulb with warm water and run it through the pen. One flush usually does the trick and the converter can then be cleaned out separately by running water through it three or four times.

 

Happy Holidays!

 

Thanks for the nib advice, and the tip with the nose-pirator (it is not an aspirator because we use it on her nose). Unfortunately, we only have 1 girl who just turned 1-year old a couple weeks ago and we still need to use it for her. The next kid we have I'll get an extra one .