Anyone Ever Look At Ink Through A Microscope?

[watch_art]

Oh yeah! Well... ya'll think yer all cool and stuff!?

Well....

 

LOOKY HERE!

http://www.socialearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/magnifying-glass.jpg

 

Shawn,

 

Is that SamCapote's Legal Lapis image in the background?

 

 

HA! No, just a pic I yanked off the net.

[geoduc]

Here's a little ink mixing experiment. I chose two inks that should mix without problems and two that probably wouldn't get along.

 

Diamine Prussian blue and Diamine lavender blended together with no issues:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5434857267_557481984d_z.jpg

 

 

Next I tried Sailor sei boku (nano blue black) and MB Midnight blue, figuring that they were likely incompatible.

 

I posted MB Midnight blue earlier. Here's sei boku by itself:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4100/5435477428_5a32e67492_z.jpg

 

And here's where I mixed them on a slide:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5054/5434857367_be19a07d2e_z.jpg

 

Here's a 400x closeup of the interface between sei boku & midnight blue:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5057/5435467980_56f7698798_z.jpg

 

They definitely did not want to mix. As a matter of fact, they made a crust on the slide that took a liitle effort to remove. Not something I'd want to happen in a pen.

 

 

 

And for your free bonus, here is J. Herbin 1670. No gold flecks to be seen. Very pretty under the microscope, though.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5220/5435468050_89c3226f3c_z.jpg

[foxtail1]

Nice shots, geoduc! I love the color of the J. Herbin 1670. We should do a nerd calendar of ink micrographs!

[Surnia]

anyone feel like risking a baystate mix on a slide to see what happens?

 

If sam's doing videos I'd love to see the reaction proceed in realtime too >_>

[jomielll]

The picture of Sailor nano blue black and MB blue black is soooo cool

 

If someone made a calendar I'd buy one Portion of sales to FPN?

[eilu]

I'm missing my microscope peering days *sigh*

Someone should make chromatographs to go with these...

[pen2paper]

:hmm1: two thoughts (not easy early Sat morning btw)

non-compatibles = Ink Wars!

and > "where's the gold?"

 

Inspired thread - Please continue!

 

 

 

[geoduc]

I'll add some final images and then I think it's time to move on. Besides the pretty photos, the one useful thing that I got out of this is that microscopy looks to be a useful way to test compatibility of inks prior to any large scale mixing. The couple of tests I ran showed that putting small drops on a slide and dropping a cover slip on them gave a quick visual indication on whether or not the inks would get along. It's definitely worth further investigation.

 

Sailor rikyu-cha:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5258/5440009793_b9870733a5_z.jpg

 

Iroshizuku ku-jaku:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/5440009737_43c612bd51_z.jpg

 

Noodler's violet vote:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/5440009933_ed31642554_z.jpg

 

Noodler's saguaro wine:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4108/5440009883_724673f0a1_z.jpg

 

Montblanc racing green:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/5440615394_4cc95a4bbf_z.jpg

 

Iroshizuku fuyu-gaki:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5136/5440009667_3e78e3228b_z.jpg

[foxtail1]

Wonderful images, Geoduc! Art!!

 

Particularly like the saguaro wine.

[geoduc]

Wonderful images, Geoduc! Art!!

 

Particularly like the saguaro wine.

 

Thanks!

 

I like the saguaro wine as well. What actually happened is that I left some streaks on the slide when cleaning between photos, and the saguaro wine followed the streak lines as it spread. I thought it was a very nice effect.

[kirianth]

I'm missing my microscope peering days *sigh*

Someone should make chromatographs to go with these...

 

I'm late to this geek-fest, but that is exactly what I thought! Both the bygone (fluorescence) microscope days and that some liquid chromatography might be fun. Or, emission spectra from the fluorescing inks Maybe one of these days I'll get a cheapie Ocean Optics spectrometer for myself...

 

As for the ink that had stuff in them, I wonder how filtering the ink (with a good .2um filter) might change the behavior of the ink afterwards.

[texaspenman]

Feeding both my ink nerd and science-nerd-self at the same time. Woohoo! Keep 'em coming!

Would it be possible to try Higgin's eternal? Gotta find those Fountain pen jamming particles!

[Surnia]

I'll add some final images and then I think it's time to move on. Besides the pretty photos, the one useful thing that I got out of this is that microscopy looks to be a useful way to test compatibility of inks prior to any large scale mixing. The couple of tests I ran showed that putting small drops on a slide and dropping a cover slip on them gave a quick visual indication on whether or not the inks would get along. It's definitely worth further investigation.

 

Thank you for all your images, They've been great! Certainly an interesting look at stuff we use all day!

[ShortMegan]

(Lurker coming out of Lurkdom to say, Wow, Holy Cow, and THANKS for all those great photos!)

[geoduc]

(Lurker coming out of Lurkdom to say, Wow, Holy Cow, and THANKS for all those great photos!)

 

Thanks for coming out of Lurkdom. Now that you're here, stick around.

[alecto]

geoduc - those are gorgeous! I can imagine an arty ink catalogue featuring images like that.

It's a good thing they don't package them as glossy art cards with the inks, otherwise I think I'd be pushed over the edge on purchases...

[dsatco]

Here's a little ink mixing experiment. I chose two inks that should mix without problems and two that probably wouldn't get along.

 

Diamine Prussian blue and Diamine lavender blended together with no issues:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5434857267_557481984d_z.jpg

 

 

Next I tried Sailor sei boku (nano blue black) and MB Midnight blue, figuring that they were likely incompatible.

 

I posted MB Midnight blue earlier. Here's sei boku by itself:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4100/5435477428_5a32e67492_z.jpg

 

And here's where I mixed them on a slide:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5054/5434857367_be19a07d2e_z.jpg

 

Here's a 400x closeup of the interface between sei boku & midnight blue:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5057/5435467980_56f7698798_z.jpg

 

They definitely did not want to mix. As a matter of fact, they made a crust on the slide that took a liitle effort to remove. Not something I'd want to happen in a pen.

 

 

 

And for your free bonus, here is J. Herbin 1670. No gold flecks to be seen. Very pretty under the microscope, though.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5220/5435468050_89c3226f3c_z.jpg

 

This is art....really.

[ClassicHippie]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

[SamCapote]

I'm gonna start using a "Smutz" categorization. This Diamine Steel Blue is 5 out of 5. In addition if it looks like there are fungal elements, blasts, hyphae, or bacteria, I may add a comment of how likely an infection may be present. This is not the same as the obvious slimy SITB, but may be a precursor. This small 30 ml bottle caught my attention when I saw some white formation on the top of the bottle, but not floating on top of the ink when looking inside. I have all the Diamine inks, and there is one other blue that has a less severe white formation also on the top of the bottle sides/corners. I treated both with biocides, and will recheck them in a while. (thumbnail)

 

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/pike444/Inks/Microscopic/DiamineSteelBlues.jpg

 

 

I'm getting to the point of checking a lot of inks under the microscope before putting it in my better and vintage pens.

Edited March 20, 2011 by SamCapote

[geoduc]

I'm gonna start using a "Smutz" categorization. This Diamine Steel Blue is 5 out of 5. In addition if it looks like there are fungal elements, blasts, hyphae, or bacteria, I may add a comment of how likely an infection may be present. This is not the same as the obvious slimy SITB, but may be a precursor. This small 30 ml bottle caught my attention when I saw some white formation on the top of the bottle, but not floating on top of the ink when looking inside. I have all the Diamine inks, and there is one other blue that has a less severe white formation also on the top of the bottle sides/corners. I treated both with biocides, and will recheck them in a while. (thumbnail)

 

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/pike444/Inks/Microscopic/DiamineSteelBlues.jpg

 

 

I'm getting to the point of checking a lot of inks under the microscope before putting it in my better and vintage pens.

 

Wow, looks like you have a whole ecosystem in there! Please post 'after' pictures once the biocide treatment is complete.