Edelstein Inks Fading On Moleskine?

[Floreat]

Yikes! I'm quite relieved that the only Edelstein ink I have is Mandarin.

[Buzz_130]

I guess it's time to pull out some journals from a year or two ago and see how the Edelstein inks fared.

 

Buzz

[amberleadavis]

I guess it's time to pull out some journals from a year or two ago and see how the Edelstein inks fared.

 

Buzz

 

We would love to see it.

[Alabamapenman]

I have been keeping a journal since 2006, making almost daily entries, and have used numerous inks from Waterman to Pilot Iroshizuku (four colors), through Sailor's Gentle Ink, Noodler's (numerous colors), Diamine, Omas, Private Reserve, Lamy, J. Herbin, Pelikan, and others. The journals are from the cheak to the expensive, although I have generally settled in on the Leuchturm 1917.

I just checked some random dates and none have faded in the least. You must have gotten a bad batch. Makes you wonder who actually makes the inks. Are they made in different places around the world? That may be true for some of the brands available around the world, as opposed to those made for "local" distribution.

[Tanzanite]

The paper seems to make a difference. The inks faded less on Leuchtturm.

[svantepilt]

I have used Edelstein Onyx, Sapphire and Ruby on Rhodia notebook paper.

 

I made a test and taped one page of this paper with theese inks at the inside of a window with 2 glasses. Not much direct Sun on this window.

 

After three weeks the Sapphire and Ruby was almost totally gone and it was impossible to read the text. About 95 % of the inkcolor had disapired / "gone away".

 

The Onyx was not much affected and only about 10 % of the inkcolor had disapired / "gone away".

 

The Pelikan Edelstein Ruby and Sapphire are the worsest inks I ever have used according to fading properties. I dare not buy any more Edelstein inks.

 

I can not undetstand how Pelikan can sell inks with theese bad fading properties.

[stefanv]

Reviewing my notebook, it appears that the pages that tend to sit open a lot are fading. For instance, I will have the same page open on my desk for a week or two at a time while implementing items from a to-do list. Other pages which are rarely ever open haven't faded much at all, so it must be a light thing. My book is never in direct sunlight, but there are both north and west facing windows over my desk, and also a large expanse of south facing windows at the other end of the room (24 feet away). But all the windows are made with two layers of UV-blocking glass.

 

This is all with Edelstein Sapphire. One would expect an expensive ink like this to be a bit more resilient.

[welch]

oh? Maybe I'm buying from a bad batch then.

 

Just saw this link from a thread about Edelstein inks. Current Quink Permanent Blue has not faded for me, and I wrote with it in 2010 and off-and-on since. Washable Blue seemed to fade as it dried, but not Permanent Blue.

 

In general, do the "pin in sunlight" tests show more than which inks fade more than others, but not which inks fade in normal use? By normal use, I mean that written pages are put into a folder and the folder filed away in a cabinet; or that the writing is done in a notebook like the Levenger's Notabilia, and that the journal is folded and put back into my briefcase or then stored in a shelf?

 

Can we extrapolate from the direct sunlight tests to how long an ink will be readable in a notebook?

[white_lotus]

 

Can we extrapolate from the direct sunlight tests to how long an ink will be readable in a notebook?

 

Not unless you have controls which fade at known rates, and in effect, measure the amount of sunlight received. That is the purpose of various ASTM tests for paints and other materials as regards to lightfastness. These usually involve expensive equipment, but the Blue Wool Scale is a simply method. Unfortunately these cards have become quite expensive.

 

Also, papers which are not acid free may induce changes in the ink on the paper because the dyes could react with the acids in the paper.

Edited May 20, 2019 by white_lotus

[welch]

 

Not unless you have controls which fade at known rates, and in effect, measure the amount of sunlight received. That is the purpose of various ASTM tests for paints and other materials as regards to lightfastness. These usually involve expensive equipment, but the Blue Wool Scale is a simply method. Unfortunately these cards have become quite expensive.

 

Also, papers which are not acid free may induce changes in the ink on the paper because the dyes could react with the acids in the paper.

 

That's about what I expected: if Ink A survives a month in sunlight and Ink B survives a week, Ink A will probably last longer than Ink B before fading, but we have no idea how long A and B will last. I have a signature written using Sheaffer or Parker blue in 1953, but none of the current inks have been around for 65 years. Skrip was reformulated about 2000, when BiC moved production to Slovenia; Quink was reformulated, somewhat, when Parker removed Solv-X.