Nib Crud

[JefferyS]

I have seen nib creep with Black Swan in Australian Roses, and small amount of nib crud with Diamine Pumpkin. The photo below is a Gate City Belmont with BSAR loaded in it.

 

Do I have a leaky nib or something? I've never gotten this degree of crud before.

[tripcode]

What the ?

 

ETA: How the heck did that happen? SITB? Did you leave it out for like... a year?

 

My mind struggles to understand how that could even be a thing that happens at all.

Edited March 30, 2013 by tripcode

[zquilts]

WoW - I've never seen anything like that !

[ravantra]

Just remember you have to destroy the brain!

[JefferyS]

The last time I used it was Wednesday afternoon. I pulled it out to sign a "received" notice at my local postal place and saw that.

[JefferyS]

Just remember you have to destroy the brain!

 

It looks like one of Darrel's arrows that has just been pulled out of a brain.

 

 

 

[pajaro]

I had an early bottle of Noodler's 41 brown. This ink worked quite well in Parker 51s, Pelikans, Cross Solos and Montblancs. I used it an Esterbrook and the nib creep was fast and filled the cap with ink. I tried it in various other Esterbrooks with a variety of nibs, 2442, 9460, 2312, 9284, 9314-B, -F, 9668, 2668, in Js and LJs and a M2, and all had the same result, nib creep to where the cap had a lot of brown ink in it in a couple of days. Other Noodler's inks work perfectly in these pens. I concluded there was something wrong with this bottle of ink to which Esterbrook feeds were susceptible and tossed the ink.

[JefferyS]

If it were Black Swan in Cranberry Sauce, I could see it.

[JemC]

My bottle of Diamine Ancient Copper has done the same thing in every pen I've tried, though maybe to a slightly lesser degree. But your example looks especially brutal!

 

Forget the brain, I think you might need to cleanse the whole thing in a mighty fire.

[MadAmos]

Only one thing to do now ...... Nuke it from space.

[Pterodactylus]

Interesting that you noticed it also on Diamine Pumpkin.

I observed something similar with Akkerman Oranje Boven today (was there from one day to the next)

I'm convinced that Diamine manufactures the Akkerman inks and the observation that it happens with both Oranges is another puzzle part.

 

But it was not something like in your picture.... But who knows if we let it grow it might transform into something like that.....

[Gilberto Castaneda]

Can that be considered an ITD (inkually transmitted disease)?

[KCat]

If it were Black Swan in Cranberry Sauce, I could see it.

 

:roflmho:

 

I had a GREEN ink do that to me years ago. Don't recall which but it wasn't a Noodler's. Might have been a Diamine but could just as easily have been PR. There was nothing in the bottle. IIRC it was a pen that had a tendency to dry out easily.

 

At the time, I could have sworn it was a fungus but y'all have convinced me it is a crystal growth. Without access to a microscope to be absolutely certain...

 

That's mighty ugly, that is.

 

Either way (fungus or crystal) it doesn't require a leak. Just good surfactants (to pull the ink along the surface of the nib and feed) and the right environment to grow one or the other. Crystals and fungi can grow very quickly and "crawl" as they grow just by way of their need to take up space.

[PolarMoonman]

Can that be considered an ITD (inkually transmitted disease)?

 

:roflmho:

[Penne Stilografiche]

Did you add yeast to the ink? IT'S ALIVE!

[jacksterp]

And I was actually considering that ink.

[arkan15]

Hopefully the pen is ok! Looks like you tried to eat some red velvet cake with that nib...

Was also thinking of getting a sample of that ink soon

[JonSzanto]

Well, Jeffery, you already know the ink and how it behaves in your pens, so you just have to start thinking about what might have been different, starting from when you filled the pen last.

 

It would be REALLY interesting to get some smart heads together on a particular subject: why is it that these cruds / crystalizations / creeps / buildups / deposits seem to happen, by a great degree of preponderance, with red / orange inks? Besides the above mentioned inks (not counting the green outlier), I've also see this with J. Herbin 1670 Rouge Hemetite, and most recently with Montblanc Mahatma Gandhi (a saffron-hued ink). There really must be some component in the dye spectrum for those inks that wants to gain solidarity over time. I opened the cap of a fine-nibbed inexpensive German pen one day that had been inked with De Atramentis Oriental Red, and it looked like ice crystals on a frozen lake - long crystalline structures had almost filled the area bounded by the cap, all growing off the nib, all in a day or two after no problems for a while.

 

Quite fun, under certain circumstances. Red inks aren't easy.

[JefferyS]

Hey Jon,

I'm pretty sure the crud was my fault. BSAR has always creeped on my nibs, but just a film of ink, no crystals. A week ago, I got over-enthusiastic while cleaning a Gate City Belmont, and pooted the nib and feed right off the end. I replaced them, but perhaps not correctly.

Don't blame the ink on this one. BSAR has been a good ink for me in the past. I need to compare that Belmont to another to see if I put it back together accurately.

Jeffery

[JonSzanto]

Good to hear, J. BSAR has also never been a problem for me, and it was one of the first inks I bought going into all this, about 2 years ago. Always have at least one pen with it loaded up.

 

Best of luck.