Is This Ink Behaviour Normal?

[gammada]

A few days ago I did the first inking of my pen with a colour other than black. After throughly cleaning the converter on my Parker Vector pen -following guidance from the folks at gouletpens.com- I proceeded to fill it up with Waterman Tender Purple ink.

 

All went good during the first few minutes, but after that the pen has slowly developed a tendency to skip from time to time. This didn't happened before the ink change (I was using Parker Quink black). Is this a normal occurrence or am I doing something wrong?

 

Also, I'm planning to buy other ink brands for use with this and my other pen (Lamy Safari), should I take any precautions regarding using different brands on the same pens?

 

Thanks!

[SkylarKnight]

I had this happen with my new pen.. I think the ink was too dry for an already dry pen. Perhaps your purple is dryer than the quink? Do you have any other inks, wetter ones, in your disposal?

[gammada]

I had this happen with my new pen.. I think the ink was too dry for an already dry pen. Perhaps your purple is dryer than the quink? Do you have any other inks, wetter ones, in your disposal?

I was thinking of buying some more inks come Thursday. Which brand/ ink color do you recommend as a wetter ink?

[mhosea]

Waterman Purple is a well-behaved ink, IMHO, and Parker Quink Black is not. Sometimes a given ink doesn't work that well in a given pen, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility that there was an interaction with residual ink in the feed, which may be a lot more reluctant to give up its reserves than you expect. You said that you cleaned "the converter". How did you go about cleaning out the feed?

[gammada]

You said that you cleaned "the converter". How did you go about cleaning out the feed?

 

Hi Mike, the process I followed is: I put distilled water on two glasses, first I left the pen in one of them for about 5 minutes. Then I started pumping in clean water and dumping it on the tainted water until the water in the converter was clear. Then I took notice of the fact that on the shaft of the converter, some black ink was adhered to it and was slowly liquifying again. Did some more cleaning until all of this tainted-water stopped coming down.

 

I need to clarify that the pen was left unused for 9 years before being re-inked with Quink two weeks ago. Previous to that, the pen only had its first and only inking.

[mhosea]

Water has a higher surface tension than ink, so it is easily possible to make the water run clear without getting to all the ink, especially if some of it dried 9 years ago. My suggestion would be to try again, but before that, make a flushing solution with clear household ammonia (clear ammonia, not the yellow stuff), water, and a drop of dish washing soap. You don't need a strong solution of ammonia, about 10%. I never actually measure because it's just not important to--9 parts water to 1 part clear household ammonia is a completely arbitrary ratio to begin with, but it gives you a general idea of how much ammonia to use, not full strength, and not only a trace. Anyway, after cycling that through, flush again with plain water to get the pen flush out. Then let the pen dry overnight before inking it again.

Edited August 26, 2014 by mhosea

[SallyLyn]

Mike gave very good info and advice. Keep cleaning the pen but gently. Waterman Purple is a super well behaved ink. I'll often use it after I've cleaned a pen to help get out any other stuff left behind. The Parker Vector is normally a free flowing nice writing pen without issues unless abused. All should be good with some additional cleaning, just don't do it all in one day. Took years to get gummed up.

[gammada]

Water has a higher surface tension than ink, so it is easily possible to make the water run clear without getting to all the ink, especially if some of it dried 9 years ago. My suggestion would be to try again, but before that, make a flushing solution with clear household ammonia (clear ammonia, not the yellow stuff), water, and a drop of dish washing soap. You don't need a strong solution of ammonia, about 10%. I never actually measure because it's just not important to--9 parts water to 1 part clear household ammonia is a completely arbitrary ratio to begin with, but it gives you a general idea of how much ammonia to use, not full strength, and not only a trace. Anyway, after cycling that through, flush again with plain water to get the pen flush out. Then let the pen dry overnight before inking it again.

 

Thanks for the advice Mike, turns out the solution was much, much simpler… paper!

 

At the same time I switched inks, I started using a different kind of paper than the one I've been using with the black ink. For some odd reason the paper has areas where the ink just won't hold up. I did a test with several sheets, and all have these spots.

 

I started using the pen on a different kind of paper and now it flows smoothly!

 

And btw, I read somewhere that this ink tends to taint the converter barrel on plastic converters, I can say that at least on my Parker, it does not -so far.

 

Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions!

[SkylarKnight]

I was thinking of buying some more inks come Thursday. Which brand/ ink color do you recommend as a wetter ink?

To be honest, I wouldn't know, I just guesses. Someone said that tender purple should behave better than quink, so I'll take my word back. Hope you find a solution soon!

P.S. an ink I found to be wet is J.Herbin Rose Cyclamen. I have it in a pen that I was told was too dry of a writer for the previous owner, and after inking it up it writes a nice and wet line for me.

[Abner C. Kemp]

You might want to try using some kind of pen flush.

 

Iroshizuku inks are pretty much universally wet if you think the ink is the issue.

[amberleadavis]

Wait... this happens with new pens. You want the first ink to be something that is high in surfactant. If you have sample of polar blue or one the eel inks, you need only use about 1/2 a converters worth to break in the pen. After that the surface tension on the converters improves radically. The pen flushes often have ammonia and they just make the surface tension worse. One of our chemists around here can explain it, but I can tell you from experience that this works.

[amberleadavis]

PS the reason wet inks are recommended is because for many of the inks what makes them "wet" writers is the surfactant.