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Hey guys, I have recently purchased a Ranga model 9B eyedropper ebonite pen in matte finish. However, there is a problem with it that I noticed as soon as I inked it up. The ink starts to climb from the feed into the step down where the the grip section ends and the feed starts. Then it climbs the grip section and, as time goes by, climbs higher and higher. As you can see from the photos (which are 3/4 days after inking the pen), the ink has been absorbed by most of the grip section and has created mold... How can I stop the ink from climbing the grip section? I imagine polished ebonite eydroppers don't have this problem as I am unable to find this issue anywhere. Any and all tips are appreciated! Thank you! P.S. I also wanted to share this experience for all who might be wondering about purchasing an ebonite eyedropper in matte finish to know about this problem and choose carefully.

Today I went to refill my Lamy 2000 with Monteverde Horizon Blue. I noticed (luckily, before dipping my pen into it!) that the ink wasn't flowing in the bottle as I swished it around. In fact, it seemed to have turned to gel! A closer inspection showed that there still was some liquid in the bottle, but the entire bottom was covered with a solid mass. I didn't get the distinctive moldy odor that I've experienced from some previous incidents, but it was definitely ruined. This ink was not in the original bottle. I had previously transferred a large amount into an old Parker Penman bottle (my favorite bottle design of all time), and I had also taken the opportunity to dilute it 50/50 with distilled water, since pure MHB was too saturated for my taste. I don't want to give anyone the impression that I'm warning you all way from MHB. If anything, I'd consider this a warning about dilution. Ink depends on biocide ingredients to retard the growth of mold or bacteria. Diluting the ink 50% also means diluting the biocides 50%, and they may just not be effective when cut to half their original, intended strength! Just to drive the point home, I went back and inspected the remaining un-diluted ink in the original MHB bottle, and it's perfectly OK.

Hi guys, I bought two Souboku bottles about 10-12 months ago. Both were used without any problems. Today I notice there're some strange particles on the ink's surface of both. No odd smell. MB 149 filled with this ink was left untouched in the leather case for at least 2 weeks and It still writes nicely. The ink seems to behave well. I try my best to take the pictures attached below. Thoughts??

All three of the Esterbrook Dip-Less Pens shown were inked until a few days ago. Actually, I even have a fourth, but the need for three desk pens was already pushing it. The bottom pen is still inked, with Noodler's Walnut, in case I want a brown ink. The double set on top had Private Reserve Black Cherry (not really a red, more a rich, vaguely reddish brown) and Noodler's Black American Eel. It's now empty. I have a couple of Varsities in case I want a red or a black ink. A couple of days ago, taking the Black Cherry pen out to write with, I notice that there was a white fuzz on the feed. Looking inside the bottle, I could see that it was there too. I've seen this referred to as SITB (slime in the bottle), a growth of mold that can happen in inks when mold spores get inside there. It was my first personal experience with this. There was nothing in the black ink side, but because of the dual design, it seemed easiest to clean the whole thing. I emptied the inks, completely disassembled the whole thing, and soaked all the parts overnight in a bucket of water and ammonia solution. A couple of hours would probably have been fine, but there were distractions, and I forgot about it. Of course, there was some danger of the ammonia damaging the pens or the base, but I seem to have gotten away with it. After rinsing all the parts, I soaked the nib feed assemblies in a glass of ammonia solution for another couple of hours. It's possible I will fill these again at some point, but first I want to see if I get any kind of growth on the dry pens or the base unit. The feed material and the base unit are both somewhat porous, and ammonia is not necessarily effective with porous materials. The single Dip-Less set at the bottom of the picture is a later style where the pen does not dip directly into the bottle; the nib sits in a nest of plastic rods which draw up the ink from the bottle by capillary action. The dual set is different; the bottles are inverted and the ink gradually runs into the base unit, forming a puddle of ink that the nib dips into. I've noticed before that this seems to lead to the ink evaporating more rapidly than you'd expect. It may also have allowed airborne mold spores to settle in there. Anyway, an interesting experience, and hopefully useful to others who may be considering the Dip-Less models. These are the Esterbrooks which I've used most often over the past two or three years, and I do like them.

I have moldy Twsbi Vac 700R... I usually deal with mold by cleaning with alcohol, but Twsbi package warns to not use alcohol with their pens. Is there any other sure way to kill mold? I contacted twsbi and they recomended warm water and dishsoap, which I don't think is enough to kill mold. I was thinking hydrogenperoxide 3%, I use it with orchids to kill organic stuff. But I have no idea how twsbi material would react to it? I don't want it contaminate my whole collection or inks, so I need something that surely kills mold, not just removing what is visible. I was frist thinking to post in twsbi section, but I think this repair section may have more info about removing mold, since it is more common in vintage pens than modern ones.

So I received a few bottles of ink from a friend of mine, and one of them has a giant pile of goo in it that's got to be mold. It's about the size of a stack of 3 pennies. I think the brand is called "Small Endowment," and it's Chinese, but I can't find any other information about them. It's a cool color of ink, though, and I'm wondering if anyone has had success salvaging something like this before? Would it be possible to strain the ink through a coffee filter to remove the solids and then treat it with some sort of mold/fungus killer to make it usable? Or should I just throw it out and forget I ever had it? I'm attaching an image below, but I also put a video on Instagram that shows it better: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpcsepZDKH-/ Thoughts?

Can someone tell me if this is mold? What should I do? I am fairly new to fountain pens and still trying to figure things out. I bought this jinhao 9009 pen from China about 2 weeks ago but it wasn't until today when I pullout the converter to find it underneath. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be glue or mold, but i am a little worried. 🙁

Could some one who owns Diamine Sapphire Blue ink go and smell your bottle of ink for me please? I just ordered a few bottles of ink directly from Diamine UK, and among them is a 30ml plastic bottle of Sapphire Blue. As soon as I opened the cap, I noticed the unmistakable mouldy smell. Very strongly. If you have this ink, can you tell me if your Sapphire Blue smells differently from other Diamine inks you own? I have 20 odd other Diamine inks and most of them don't have any smell, or some of them have just a faint solvent type of smell. But this bottle just stinks! And I know what mould smells like. When you lived in an old house with mould in the wall for 12 months, you just know. I may have even developed some allergy to the smell of mould because I get teary eyes and sneezy when I smell such strong mouldy smell now. Thank goodness we have our new house built and everything is fresh these days. After I smelt the mould in Sapphire Blue, I went and opened every bottle of Diamine inks I own and sniffed all of them one by one. I noticed a faint hint of mouldy smell in Sargasso Sea as well, interestingly, another bottle from this new batch of inks I ordered. Both of these smelly 30ml ink bottles have the silver tape on top of the cap with the black text to show the name of the ink as usual, but the black font used on these is a little bolder or larger than my other older bottles. First of all do you think this mouldy smell is normal? Have you noticed anything like this from your recent Diamine order? I haven't contacted Diamine yet, because I wanted to check with you to see if this smell is normal for these particular inks i.e. Sapphire Blue, and maybe Sargasso Sea as well. Thanks for your input! Even if it is normal, I can't use these because just the smell gives me stuffy nose and headache. SNAK Eddited to add: I do love my Diamine inks, and I am not badmouthing them or anything, I am sure if this turns out to be a contaminated ink they will happily take them back and exchange for good ones. I will continue to be their customer too.

All, Could anyone be kind enough to put me out of my misery concerning something that might be mould (or perhaps isn't) in my bottle of ink. I haven't seen any growth on my pen, but I did refill an old bellows pen for a relative from the bottle in question about four or five days ago. I'm not yet loosing sleep over it, but it is haunting my dreams. Eternal thanks, Peter

Hello, I have recently acquired several cleaned/refurbished/restored/NOS pens, and I have used them without treatment. Just read several posts about mold I wounder will these pens increase the chance of getting mold into my ink collection of 10+ bottles of ink? And will pen flush like the Goulet ones or J. Herbin ones doubled with an ultrasonic cleaner while doing pen maintenance help control and eliminate any possible mold? All my inks are contemporary ink that are presumably fresh and I read that biocide are used, will this make my collection less possible to be contaminated? I do rotate pen and ink so if something goes wrong I guess I have to disinfect every pen and dispose every bottle of ink.

I have drive across my city trying to find a sheaffer bottle that doesnt have this, and i have not be succesfull, after open more than 7 bottles on different stores i have found the same floaty things in the bottle... so maybe this is normal.. is it? Since is the first time i use bottled ink.. i have to ask about it. another question, do Cartridges could have mold?? because it seems that is the only option i have if i want to use Sheaffer ink. (I dont enjoy Lamy ink the other brand i can get in here)

GASP!! THE HORROR! But please don't be too afraid. Let me explain. I have a bottle of Private Reserve Avocado that I only just opened recently. The smell was immediately awful, like ammonia. So I dug around with a toothpick and found a bit of jelly goop at the bottom. (It was a little terrifying, but fascinating.) I know the immediate response is to dump it down the drain. BUT... I hate to waste ink, and I have a terrible knack for playing with things I shouldn't. So of course I filled up a Pilot Petit 3 with the ink anyway. I know some hearts just skipped a beat out there. But I've had this cheap-o pen (the reason I am experimenting with this one is because of that cheapness) filled and used for several weeks, and have had no problems. No funky stuff growing, no flow issues.. By all means, it works perfectly. I just get a whiff of ammonia now and then in a particularly wet area in my sketching. But I actually don't find the smell to be any more or less offensive than many markers I own. I also have a junker Welsharp mini pen I found at an antique mall that had no cap. I pulled the nib out and decided to use it as a dip nib, specifically with one pen body for this one specific ink, in order to keep cross-contamination at bay. I suppose the point of this topic is to ask whether anyone else out there has gotten use out of their contaminated inks? Do you feel comfortable doing so? Has it worked/not worked for you? WOULD you use it as a dipping ink only? Or am I just a cheapskate with a danger streak? I am by no means telling you to go ahead and use ink that has SitB, that it is safe, blah blah blah. Not in the least. And I surely would NOT use contaminated ink in any of my regular fountain pens. I'm just sharing my experience in living on the edge of inkdom, and that I've been able to use the ink in a limited way to avoid (literally) throwing my money down the drain.