What Sort Of Sitb In This In My Nooders Mass 54?

[Icywolfe]

Can you try to "touch" or poke the sediment? Because from the picture it looks like tons but in normal view it can be very little.

[oshizemi]

My bottle of 54th Mass. has the same sediment in it after sitting unused for a while. My Whaleman's Sepia also does the same thing. I add a little distilled water to my bottles and shake them up. Noodlers makes some very thick inks, and I've found the bulletproof ones have a tendency to separate. YMMV of course. If it smells funky or you get fuzzies growing under your cap it could be an infected bottle.

[Moynihan]

Interesting discussion. Last night i started to fill my pen with Noodlers 54th, and the Con-70 converter was not bringing any ink up. I pulled nib out and it was covered in a deep blue black jelley. (yes, i had shaken the bottle prior to filling, as i always do with a Noodlers Ink, and no the bottle had last been used about 2 weeks ago).

Apparently, this time there was not enough liquid left un-jellied, even after shaking, above a jello like mass that was in the rest of the bottle. I decided to clean out the bottle, and the result was interesting.

Hot water dissolved about the top 1/3 of the jelly. Household ammonia, overnight, dissolved most of the rest.

About 1/3 of an inch in the bottom is currently being soaking in situ in fresh household ammonia. Prior to pouring that in, i explored the remaining mass with a q-tip. It was of a consistency similar to crem brulee (with a hardened top surface), or solidified fat in the bottom of pan. Interesting.

I did a through pen section/nib cleaning, and filled it from a freshly opened bottle of 54th.

I do not think broad generalizations can be drawn from my experience. This not my first bottle of 54th. It is actually one of my two favorite inks, and i go through it at a pretty good clip.

But this experience has prompted me to look for a replacement ink, instead of getting more 54th

Edited October 14, 2015 by Moynihan

[amberleadavis]

When we were playing with powdered inks, we found some components jelled - it was disturbing. No pens were harmed, but it felt weird. I admit, I have other inks which I like just as well and don't cause me stress.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

One of the things that must be borne in mind with “self filling” fountain pens is that in almost all of them, I guess the Sheaffer Snorkel and PFM excluded, the section gets dipped into the ink as the pen is being filled.

 

We put our fingers on a lot of stuff, both organic and inorganic, in the course of a day. So when that section you've been wrapping your fingers around goes into the bottle to draw some ink into the pen it is not a 100% one way operation. Bacteria, mold spores and even some skin cells are being introduced into that watery environment. And then the cap goes back on the bottle and the humidity level of the air in the bottle goes up.

 

When I was exclusively refilling cartridges I always used clean, stainless steel blunt needles that never touched anything but the ink. I also decanted the ink into small bottles that I have that hold about 10 mL. This way if something does contaminate the ink it only ruins what's in that small bottle and not a large bottle of ink.

 

Having branched out to regularly using lever fillers piston fillers, etc. I am glad that I still use the strategy of decanting the ink from the large bottles to the small ones. It's also easier in many ways to suck up the ink when the bottle is not that much wider than the section. I recommend this use of smaller bottles as a way of fighting SITB, which can cause so much sadness.

[Chazzy91]

I have to change some settings on this account. I am not alerted when people comment on a thread I start Anyway, this scenario ended sadly. No amount of distilled water would absorb this gunk; I'd estimate I ultimately added an entire ounce of distilled water to the remaining 2 ounces of ink in the bottle, and yet the fallout remained in full force. I was, and still am, perplexed about this entire episode. I contacted the retailer and they refunded me the cost of the ink. I simply cannot accept that this is the result of some sort of contamination on my end, however paternalistic that sounds. That is, if my pens are to develop problems, it will be because I disassemble and clean them too often and vigorously rather than because of contaminated ink. I have several other bottles of ink, and none of them have exhibited any unusual behavior. Before this event, I even used the decanting method of filling my pens from sample vials, in an effort to avoid cross-contamination. However, this event only proved to me that no amount of preparation can prevent a dud, which I suspect was the ultimate problem with this ink since others swear by it. I now fill straight from the bottle and brace to throw out any transgressors; so far, all is well. Overall, I really wanted to love this ink, and did for quite some time, but this sort of behavior is unacceptable.

 

P.S. I am not bashing Noodler's.I just recently finished a bottle of Heart of Darkness, which displayed the not-uncommon "clinging" to the bottle's glass walls when turned upside down after being undisturbed, but always shaped right up with a quick shake. Nothing like these Massachusetts 54 photos. I loved HOD, and felt safe putting it in virtually any pen. I will buy more Noodler's inks, but not this one...

[Moynihan]

Last week i had the same experience as in my previous post #23, in 2 pens.

I have now cleaned 54th out of both and retired the ink, poured out the remaining opened bottle. Unfortunatly have 2 unopened bottles yet, but this Favorite" ink will no longer be used by me.

[lgsoltek]

I have to change some settings on this account. I am not alerted when people comment on a thread I start ...

 

To the right of the title you will see a button "follow this topic", click it and you'll be reminded when someone replies to your post.

[Fozziebear]

Although very late to this conversation, I truly appreciate the words of wisdom as I am having similar problems with the very same ink. I have enough inks from the same brand to be confident that is not the issue. I clean my pens regularly. I decant into sample vials using clean, disposable pipettes, so contamination is not likely the issue.

 

I made my purchase from Amazon, I think. I will go back through my receipts and see what, if anything, can be done. If nothing, perhaps I can decant the non-sediment layer into an empty bottle and salvage about 3/4 of what's left in the original bottle.

 

Again, thanks for this thread the insight that comes with it. I love the ink and, until this problem, this was quickly becoming one of my favorites. Hopefully, my remedies will enable this to be used regularly once again.

 

Cheers.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

I have had two SITB inks. Aurora Black and Texas Bluebonnet. I ran the black through a coffee filter and used it till it was empty. I have not played with the Bluebonnet yet. It became slimy in a pen and the I noticed slime along the cap.