A Quink Bottle, Or An Unexpected Dehydrated Ink

[Seele]

Whenever I see them at sensible prices, I pick up empty ink bottles for re-use. The English Parker Quink (with Solv-X) bottle that I picked up today has its content dried into a combination of a sticky tarry paste and granules, and that got me thinking: I wonder if water can be added to it to reconstitute the ink? There again the ink originally could have had liquids other than water in its formulation which had evaporated as well, so the addition of water might not have helped to restore it properly.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Seele

[Olya]

Yes, many people do that who hunt for vintage ink: add distilled water and it's like new again! (Usually..)

If it seems off get rid of it and the bottle won't have any harm anyway (as you're mainly after the bottle, just would be a shame to not use good vintage ink -- for the smell alone most seem to be addicted to, incl me!)

Edited July 3, 2016 by Olya

[Seele]

Olya,

 

I know what you mean, but to my mind, "vintage ink" is not quite the same as "mummified ink"! Come to think of it, a couple of years ago I gave a friend my half-used bottle of Pelikan blue-black, still in perfect condition with box, that I bought new in the 70s; the colour was far too light for my taste.

 

I bit the bullet and added water to it, bit by bit and mixed well, I have no idea how much of it was left in the bottle when it started to dry up, but as I reached about the one-third mark it felt about right. I dared not risk it in a good pen so I filled a Fellowship Black Bird with it, and it actually works rather nicely, albeit a little on the wet side.

 

The cardboard cap gasket is a bit icky though: although it is faced with a waterproof plastics film, ink got around it and has the cardboard backing quite soaked; it's obvious that the original owner did not bother to clean the cap and bottle screw threads when he capped the bottle. This means I would not want to put anything other than black ink in the bottle, but then I could replace it with a new plastics gasket and be done with it, but the cardboard gasket is, as you probably know, quite securely stuck down. I would have to think about it...

 

Also I have a bottle of the same English-made black Quink I bought in the early 80s, IIRC, in perfect condition with cardboard box. I have a feeling that it is a little nicer than the current French-made one, so I use it sparingly, so most of it is still there

Edited July 3, 2016 by Seele

[Olya]

The old Quink is definitely nicer than the new! Wish they made the old again w/ Solv-X, with the smell and everything.. Good idea to try it with a cheap pen! Sounds ok to me (am no expert though!), although I have to note that Pelikan Blue Black is to this day an irongall ink, so that should behave slightly differently than simple dye inks

[Seele]

That bottle of Pelikan blue-black somehow never turn dark like iron gall, that's the reason why it spent all those years on my bookshelf. I still use iron gall inks, along with all the drawbacks of staining the innards of the pens, but it's still nice of course.

 

I think when Chelpark was still manufacturing their inks also contained Solv-X, too bad they're gone and I never had a chance to acquire any.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Seele

[inkstainedruth]

I don't know how the Quink would do -- although I'm currently writing with whatever black ink got left in a Parker 51 that sat for nearly a year after *I* got the pen, until I was able to get a replacement cap for the Parker Frontier cap that was on it when I bought the pen; I'm guessing it's maybe Quink Black but don't know for sure... (the ink seems fine, BTW, and the pen is an Aerometric so it's just good to go as well ).

Someone sent me a jar of (probably) reconstituted Carter's Blue Black, which is pretty pale and watery (although I don't have anything to compare it to). But a guy in my local pen shop said once that vintage Sheaffer Skrip inks reconstitute just fine with distilled water.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Seele]

Ruth,

 

If you managed to get a pen with "pre-filled" ink where the ink is in good working order, kudos to you! I have never been that lucky, the pens I have acquired so far all had pretty much fossilized ink inside, and with a pen like the 51 the ink has invariably clogged up the collector fins. Come to think of it I pick up 51s on a pretty regular basis, the latest was a Newhaven-built pen and pencil set. Perhaps I might even be enticed enough to get the tools and parts to rebuild them eventually, and even silly enough to harvest fossilized inks from inside them.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Reconstituting the ink and then trying it out in a pen that won't be a problem if things go sideways is the good procedure, IMO.

 

Some inks have a bunch of extra stuff in them. Some of it's volatile enough to get out along with the water. That escaped component is not going to be present in the reconstituted ink. It's probably worth the effort though.

 

Reconstituting dried out Sheaffer Skrip Jet Black has seemed to work for me, but that's a pretty simple, and forgiving ink. That ancient Quink with the carcinogenic biocide in it may prove to give you a different experience from what it would have given when new. But if it writes well enough, good for you!

 

I have some dried out Skrip Jet Black in a bottle that I am planning to re-hydrate at some point. My only quandary is how much ink was in the bottle when I bought it new? If I fill the bottle up with distilled water and it was only half full to begin with I'll get a too thin, watery ink. If I don't put in enough water I may get some sort of excessively dense ink.

 

Well, later this Summer I will probably launch into that experiment.

 

Ink powders can be quite nice, too.

 

http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp360/Ink_Stained_Wretch/indelible_ink.png

[inkstainedruth]

Ruth,

 

If you managed to get a pen with "pre-filled" ink where the ink is in good working order, kudos to you! I have never been that lucky, the pens I have acquired so far all had pretty much fossilized ink inside, and with a pen like the 51 the ink has invariably clogged up the collector fins. Come to think of it I pick up 51s on a pretty regular basis, the latest was a Newhaven-built pen and pencil set. Perhaps I might even be enticed enough to get the tools and parts to rebuild them eventually, and even silly enough to harvest fossilized inks from inside them.

 

I didn't do anything special. I just started flushing the pen with distilled water and when I started getting ink coming out I wrote with it. I've done it with a bunch of pens, starting with my first Esterbrook (whatever came out of that pen started my fascination with blue-black inks, which I hadn't had much prior interest in). I guess I've been lucky that none of the pens I've gotten that were like that had been filled with India ink.

My first 61 I just kept refilling with distilled water over and over until what remained was too light to be really legible. I used that pen for around four months....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Seele]

Ruth,

 

That sounds like fun! The worst experience ever for me, was getting a pen with dried ink inside, but then the penny dropped: the previous user had the brilliant idea of filling it with stamp pad ink: nothing much is left of the pen now, as expected!

[inkstainedruth]

Ruth,

 

That sounds like fun! The worst experience ever for me, was getting a pen with dried ink inside, but then the penny dropped: the previous user had the brilliant idea of filling it with stamp pad ink: nothing much is left of the pen now, as expected!

 

Ick. That sounds AWFUL! And here I thought that India ink was the worst thing to put in a fountain pen, ever....

I wouldn't even know where to begin if that was the case. I have almost no experience with stamp pad ink (although my mom had a stamp with her name and address on it). I don't even know whether Rapid-o-Eze would have helped you....

Oh, that poor pen....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth