Clogging With Private Reserve Or Noodler’S Inks

[rodgerkoopman]

Found this write-up on Richard's website

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/care/inks.htm

 

And can tell you I've experienced firsthand the clogging issues he mentions in my trusty Pilot Custom 823 with several versions of Noodler's ink. I really want to like Noodler's but can ill afford to keep running into issues or, worse, possibly destroy my feed as Richard mentions is possible. I ordered some Waterman and Diamine inks in the hope they'll perform much better. According to several write-ups, these two brands are supposed to be the two better ones in terms of general purpose inks with good flow properties.

 

Anyone else have this occur to them? Any other ink recommendations?

 

Thanks.

 

[thedeacon]

I haven't had any issues with Noodler's ink. However, my experience is limited compared to others. I have used Diamine for years and never had a problem with any color. All of the them have behaved wonderfully. No problems out of Waterman either, but limited experience there as well. Private Reserve and J. Herbin appear to have a loyal followings. They may be worth researching.

 

Edit: Ignore the Private Reserve part. I read the topic again. My bad.

Edited June 18, 2013 by thedeacon

[ziptrickhead]

A large majority of my bottles are Noodler's inks and so far I haven't had any extreme issues with them. Sure, some require more cleaning than others but that's the price you pay for using heavily saturated inks. When I first started using fountain pens, I used nothing but Pelikan Brilliant Black in my Safari for years without cleaning the pen once. Would I do the same with say a Bulletproof ink? Of course not, but that's because I now know better and I was lucky that I was using an easy to maintain ink.

 

If you understand that your pens will require occasional cleaning and you don't just leave ink to dry up in a pen then I feel like you shouldn't have any issues with clogged feeds. In general if I have a pen that's inked up and I don't use it for 2 weeks then I dump out the ink and flush the pen. I don't keep my pens filled up and then put into storage for extended periods. On the other hand I've had my Pilot Custon 74 filled up with Black Swan in Australian Roses that I probably haven't used in a month and I just picked it up to write with and there were no issues.

 

If you're not happy with Noodler's or Private Reserve then I would definitely agree with your move towards Diamine inks. I have a few bottles and they're lovely and the inks seem thinner and wetter than Noodler's so hopefully your clogging problems go away. Plus Diamine has a decent selection of colors and shades versus most pen manufacturers that sell ink. There are some heavily saturated Diamine inks too though so no one should really make generalized statements of a brand from a small sample of inks.

[BMG]

Personally, I have been rotating Aurora, Diamine, Iroshizuku, J. Herbin, and Pelikan inks through all my pens for the past couple of years (after rather monogamously using Aurora black and little else for years) and have never had any problems with any of them. I've not been tempted to try either of the brands you mention because of the potential problems associated with them and because the range of colors available elsewhere is so vast.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I, living in Germany chase Continental European inks....I've not just got my basic 50 but not the needed 100, so I've not chased Diamine yet.

Pelikan, Herbin, Lamy, MB, R&K, the DA inks that shade (DA does make saturated inks too.), are to me as easy as Waterman. Because those are imported to the US, and have custom's duties, are more expensive than Noodlers or Private Reserve.

 

(Well I don't know what Pelikan 4001 inks cost in the States but they are the cheapest in Germany at @€3.80; Lamy is close to that price. Pelikan Edelstine, MB at €13....DA can be as high as 15 or low as 9.50 depending on the particular ink. Its been a few years since I ordered any Waterman, that was €7.50. )

If you think of the price of a cocktail or two, European ink is not that expensive and sure lasts longer.

 

Noodlers inks cost €9.50...of course they have larger bottles. I do have two Golden Brown and Apache Sunset. Ottoman Azure strikes my fancy, as soon as I get around to it.

I still have quite a large amount of inks and a few more Continental European inks that I don't have, like Aurora, Akkermann, a Swiss company, Omas, Visconti and that Famous Slovakian ink Sheaffers.

 

Richard didn't mention it, but he makes a safe ink too; Gateway I think it's called.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Bo Bo Olson

[rodgerkoopman]

Great feedback all; thank you for that. I'll check out the Gateway ink; that could be a good tip.

 

Forgot to mention my 823 truly is my daily writer and has been for the last 3 years. I write a fair bit each day so the pen gets lots of use. Even after flushing with solution and-or cold water, cleaning, regular maintenance, etc. (all of which I do) my 823 would just dry out mid sentence, which is frustrating, especially when you're in a meeting taking copious notes

[HDRoot]

The warrantee on Rick Propas's Pelikans is voided if used with PR or Noodlers. I have no experience with either one. I've never had a bad experience with Diamine and usually look there first when I've decided that I need a new ink. Good, solid stuff at a (relatively) reasonable price.

[Daisy25]

So how are the Iroshizuku inks faring in all of this? I love the color and flow in the two I have (and I plan to pick up a few more). I tend to think of these inks as being particularly "good" inks -- 1) because of how well they perform in my pens and 2) how much they cost.

 

Do I need to be rethinking this? (I don't know it's possible for me to give up tsuki-yo, though I suppose I could limit the pens I use it in).

[welch]

Iroshizuku is splendid ink. Asa-gao is my luxury / splurge ink. Diamine is all around good. Diamine Sapphire is not a bad substitute for Asa Gao.

 

I have never had trouble with either Private Reserve or with Noodlers normal inks. I don't need any of the Noodler specialty inks, and I only use Noodlers Blue Eel and Blue...most of the blues tend toward teal, which is not my taste.

 

One warning: the Noodlers and Richard's Gate City inks come in a bottle that tips over easily. If you get one of them, consider decanting to something moe stable, like the Diamine bottle...or the world champion vintage Sheaffer Skrip "topwell" bottle. People often sell empty Skrip bottles on EBay.

[amberleadavis]

The ink that have stained my pens beyond recognition were all Diamine. Diamine Grape and Noodler's Demonstrators do NOT play well together (yes, I should have seen that coming).

 

Some inks are just --- finicky --- for example, BSB and QSH, but others have been trouble free for me for YEARS (Blue Eel and Midway Blue). Yet, I can tell you that in my pens, BSB had nothing on J. Herbin Anniversary ink for clogging my TWSBI. I've had 20+year old MB and Skrip ink behave beautifully, and had Pelikan ink clog my pen (and a friend's pen).

 

Bottom line, any ink will give you grief if you let it dry out in your pen (which happens easily when you live in the Nevada desert). Proper pen hygiene is essential.

[dorothynotgale]

Honestly, I've never had any problems with Noodlers, and I use several of their inks as go-tos. The most dangerous I use is the notorious BSB, which can most generously be described as "finicky" (read: stains viciously and requires pampering akin to raising an Egyptian Prince to become Pharaoh), but it's not a hardship for me to flush the pen I use it in regularly.

 

PR inks have been more of a problem to me. I own three: DC Supershow Blue, Velvet Black, and Spearmint.

 

The blue got retired through no fault of its own - I just liked BSB better and haven't looked back since. I plan to offer it for swap soon, as it's a pretty color with a fascinating red sheen.

 

The black has always flowed nicely, but I'm looking foe a replacement because of it's incredibly slow drying time.

 

Spearmint, on the other (third?) hand, is a beautiful green that I loathe using. It gums up everything I put it in within a week.

[Meaty0]

I've been using plain old Parker Quink (Black) in my five Parker 75's and two Parker 51's for the last 10 years without any problems whatsoever. Interestingly "Richards Pens" article that you linked, bags this ink and praises Waterman inks - I strongly suspect they are one in the same. So good 'ol black Quink has been the best general purpose ink I have used.

 

I HAVE had problems with Pelikan 4001 in non-Pelikan pens - it literally drips out of them! No problems in the Pelikan M600 I use ocassionally though.

 

I'm trying a Noodlers Lubricating Ink in Turquoise with great success so far in all my pens. (Parker, Pelikan, Waterman and Southern Pen Design.) Nice colour too.

 

EDIT: I must point out that I flush my pens with a weak surfactant/water solution each time before I refill them. After each third or fourth refill, I pull them apart and clean them completely.

Edited June 19, 2013 by Meaty0

[krz]

No clogging issues here with Noodler's inks. I've used many colors in mostly vintage pens for years now.

[OakIris]

The warrantee on Rick Propas's Pelikans is voided if used with PR or Noodlers. I have no experience with either one. I've never had a bad experience with Diamine and usually look there first when I've decided that I need a new ink. Good, solid stuff at a (relatively) reasonable price.

Whoa, Rick should have this more prominently displayed on his website; I had no idea this was so - luckily I am using Diamine Green-Black in the Pelikan 400 that I purchased from him. (To be honest, I can't even find anything more about the warranty on his site - the statement that these two ink brands void the warranty is stuck at the bottom of the Tech Talk section on his site, which I didn't even look at until I searched for the info HDRoot mentioned in his post, but otherwise there does not appear to be anything specific about a warranty.)

 

I haven't really started using any Noodlers inks in my pens, though I have some samples and a bottle that someone gave to me, but I do use and like some Private Reserve inks. Thus far I have had no flow or staining issues with them and like the colors, so seeing that both Richard Binder and Rick Propas have strong reservations - to say the least - about Private Reserve inks is a bit.....disturbing. I will take extra care to clean and flush the pens in which I use PR more frequently. (Just realized I have PR Chocolat in my Parker Vacumatic Brown Pearl - maybe I should find a substitute ink....no problems at all yet with the use of this ink, but the thought that I might damage this pen just because of my choice of ink would make me very unhappy. )

 

Holly

Edited June 19, 2013 by OakIris

[Bo Bo Olson]

Diamine Grape!!!! .

 

Some one sent me a sample...I got to dig through my records to see which piston pen it's in....take too long to try and find it by writing.

 

Looks like its needle feed a cartridge time..

I forgot that some purples have just a bad reputation as reds for staining piston windows.

[wallylynn]

my 823 would just dry out mid sentence

 

I just want to point out that poor flow is not necessarily clogging. Does flow resume after a rest? Or is a flush/cleaning necessary to get things going again? You might want to check out that everything else is in good shape, nib + feed alignment for example. If air can't get back into the ink reservoir, then ink won't come out.

 

You might want to try diluting your Noodler's a little and see if that helps if your bottle is overly saturated.

 

Another possibility is that your bottle is contaminated with STIB (stuff in the bottle).

[CAG_1787]

You are more than entitled to take your ink-buying dollars wherever you choose, but I'd be saddened as a fellow FPNer if you chose to completely forgo the Noodler's inks. They form the bulk of my collection and for variety, price, and (yes) performance, they remain my favorites.

[torstar]

The ink that have stained my pens beyond recognition were all Diamine. Diamine Grape and Noodler's Demonstrators do NOT play well together (yes, I should have seen that coming).

 

Some inks are just --- finicky --- for example, BSB and QSH, but others have been trouble free for me for YEARS (Blue Eel and Midway Blue). Yet, I can tell you that in my pens, BSB had nothing on J. Herbin Anniversary ink for clogging my TWSBI. I've had 20+year old MB and Skrip ink behave beautifully, and had Pelikan ink clog my pen (and a friend's pen).

 

Bottom line, any ink will give you grief if you let it dry out in your pen (which happens easily when you live in the Nevada desert). Proper pen hygiene is essential.

 

 

That about says it all, very good!

[TSherbs]

..... Spearmint, on the other (third?) hand, is a beautiful green that I loathe using. It gums up everything I put it in within a week.

I love Spearmint (PR), and it has not clogged anything I have had it in (Konrad, Artista, Estebrook J). I haven't had any ink of any kind clog a pen of mine. The problems have always been nib/feed alignment.

[spiv]

I use many Noodler's inks. I have yet (knock wood) to experiance clogging. I have a preppy eyedropper dedicated to BSB....it has never been cleaned, another preppy (needle fill cartridge) dedicated to Henry Hudson Blue. I often use El Lawrence and two months ago I inked up six pens with HOD.

 

I have Naples Blue, American Blue, Supershow Purple, Shoreline Gold, Claret and Arabian Rose in the PR family and at least a half dozen or more from Noodler's.

 

I have had nib creep, ink in the caps, Rouge Hematite gunk, STIB in two inks (neither was a PR or Noodlers) and a few other issues but never clogging... And so far, I've only cleaned with water. Maybe it's the higher end pens you use, the most expensive units I have are two Lamy 2000s. Maybe you need some nice Esties, a Parker 45 and some Preppies...

 

Having said that, Diamine makes some lovely inks, if you feel safer with those... Enjoy... They have many to choose from.