Essential Oils And Ink

[Maurizio]

Hi folks. Here's a question for the amateur and professional chemists here, as well as long-experienced inkophiles. I'm sure it's been covered before but didn't find a comprehensive answer so apologies in advance for any redundancy.

 

I'd like to put some essential oils in my ink for the scent experience. For example, basil is supposed to be an invigorating scent for mental activity, especially in the afternoon when some of us sometimes "flag" a little and I've put a few drops on a tissue while working at my desk to pleasant effect.Other oils, such as lavender, are reputed to be calming.

 

So the question is: would it be safe to put essential oils in ink, or, would it destroy feeds or other resin and delicate parts of the pen? I know that each oil has specific properties, so I guess a corollary question is, is there some easily accessible resource in which the properties, caustic and otherwise, of individual oils can be looked up?

 

Thanks for any replies.

 

Happy holidays and my best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year to all around the world.

[Ursus]

Interesting question indeed! There is also the question of how it influences the flow performance of the ink...

[dogpoet]

I'd also wonder what sort of base the essential oils are dissolved in? If there's any alcohol in there, putting it in a pen could be a bad idea.

[Maurizio]

I'd also wonder what sort of base the essential oils are dissolved in? If there's any alcohol in there, putting it in a pen could be a bad idea.

 

This I can make clear. The kind of essential oils I'm referring to are 100% pure. Just the distilled oil of whatever plant; nothing else. The oils I'm referring to are usually steam distilled and not extracted with chemicals. They can however be very powerful in their effects, thus my caution before giving this a try.

[dogpoet]

Gotcha. That's one complication you don't have to worry about at least, then. Mea culpa.

[vorpal]

I'd be interested in finding this out myself.

[dvalliere]

A quick search on these forums and my own background knowledge leads me to think that it's a bad idea. Fountain pen inks are water-based. Oils are, well, oil. Oil and water don't mix. You'll end up with separation in the pen and the oil will rise to the top. You could use some sort of emulsifier but you're in some real chemistry-land at that point.

 

And we haven't even addressed the possibility of malfunction or damage yet.

[Fabienne]

Here is the answer: don't do it. I am a perfumer and I tried it and ruined the plastic of a TWSBI mini. It makes a chemical reaction with things like lavender. BTW, lavender can be used as a paint thinner (found that out in art school). They may be essential oils but you have to treat them with respect.

[vorpal]

Then how do scented inks exist at all? Both Herbin and de Atramamentis offer them.

[dogpoet]

A quick search on these forums and my own background knowledge leads me to think that it's a bad idea. Fountain pen inks are water-based. Oils are, well, oil. Oil and water don't mix. You'll end up with separation in the pen and the oil will rise to the top. You could use some sort of emulsifier but you're in some real chemistry-land at that point.

 

And we haven't even addressed the possibility of malfunction or damage yet.

Would a drop or two of the tension breakers they use to stop acrylic paint misbehaving calm that any?

(And you would not believe how worried I am about saying that in a discussion about stuff people are talking about putting in a fountain pen... )

[dogpoet]

Then how do scented inks exist at all? Both Herbin and de Atramamentis offer them.

An odour with a water rather than alcohol base that will mix with ink in very low concentrations?

[alaskazimm]

Then how do scented inks exist at all? Both Herbin and de Atramamentis offer them.

 

Likely using fragrance oils which are synthetic, man-made scent. If the FOs available for soaping or candle making would react differently than EO's, I don't know. It may worth the <$5 to get a Jinhao to experiment with.

Edited December 21, 2015 by alaskazimm

[vorpal]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the scents used were pure flower scents, not artificial. This is from J. Herbin's website:

 

J. Herbin scented inks are made from floral water (hydrosols) of rose, orange, lavender, apple and violets. The hydrosols used by J. Herbin come from Grasse, France, a Provencal town long associated with the perfume industry, and famous for its floral scents.

 

And here is more info from https://www.naturesgift.com/aromatherapy-information/what-is-aromatherapy/hydrosols/

 

How Hydrosols Are Made

During the distillation process that yields the essential oils, the steam containing the oils is chilled, thus turning into water, with a layer of essential oils floating on top. The essential oils are skimmed off and bottled for our use. In some cases the remaining water is just discarded. However, this water contains both minute molecules of the essential oil, as well as all the water soluble elements of the plant that are not present in the oil.

Edited December 21, 2015 by vorpal

[Maurizio]

Interesting responses so far. Fabienne thank you for your input. I certainly would try a first experiment in a cheap pen.

 

If J. Herbin & the other company are in fact using real hydrosols then it may just be a question of proper dilution and perhaps emulsifieying agent?

 

Any other chemists, perfumers, substance engineers out there who can weigh in?

Edited December 21, 2015 by Maurizio

[Fabienne]

I am suspicious. I highly suspect that the stuff about hydrosols on Herbin's website is advertising. Hydrosols are pretty expensive and they are not without their perils, too. I suspect that they use synthetic fragrances and in a very low dose. They probably use an emulsifier, they can come in a clear variety. I don't think that you can have apple in a natural essential oil, I highly suspect violet as well, their rose smells 100% man made. I don't need to go on. They are selling illusion, just as most companies are. They are in a more romantic area of retail and so rely on charm to a greater extent than some do, and it works. Doesn't mean they are "bad people", they are trying to give the public what they want.

[Ron Z]

Good that you asked. While the fragrance may be nice, the risk is high. It might not harm things, but you can kill the pen with the experiment. Trying it on a different pen doesn't count because the type of plastic may be different, so one won't react where another can melt and turn ugly.

 

Essential oils can be rather strong stuff, especially in pure/concentrated forms. Even orange oil used as an adhesive remover can damage finishes on floors or furniture. I've seen it melt plastic.

 

The prior cautions are correct. No oils or alcohols should be used in a fountain pen. Besides the risk of damaging the plastic or rubber parts, any oil in the ink would likely contaminate the feed and cause flow issues. I've had pens come through the shop with feeds melted, warped and otherwise damaged because the owner chose to use something other than fountain pen ink in the pen. In some cases replacement parts were not available, so a dead pen.

 

It wasn't J Herbin in this case, but I have heard an ink manufacturer quoted as saying, "Its not about the pen, its about the ink!" when asked whether their inks were absolutely safe in a pen. I tend to disagree.

[vorpal]

Well, for the adventurous, here's how to make your own.

 

http://floral-waters.com/about_preparing-your-own-hydrosol_459.html

 

Easier to just pick up a bottle of Herbin....

Edited December 22, 2015 by vorpal

[DonLeone]

I (used to) use essential oils in my own beard oil mixes.

 

I've had lots of inks on my hands and only rouge hematite gave a slight burning feel. High amounts of essential oils will burn like a.. euh. well, it will burn!

 

Essential oils also don't last, scent-wise. 6 drops (whatever counts as drop from the dropper bottle) in 22-30ml of carrier oil lasts maybe a week or 3. And that's in a closed glass bottle.

 

Essential oils are used for aroma therapy. It's pseudoscientific, as in, not science. http://skepdic.com/aroma.html Some scents may help clear up sinuses though.

 

You're also dealing with plant based stuff. They have an expiration date (I'm not 100% sure on this part but I am on the following part:) and mixing them with anything will lower the shelf-life down to maybe a few weeks. That's why us beardos buy the base oils, mix them in small batches and use them up within a week or two, maybe a month. Any longer and you get weird SITB. So far I've only gotten the stuff you might see in older olive oil bottles, but denser and more stringy.

 

And then there's the washing it out. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!!! So I use these glass bottles with eyedroppers built into the cap. They're bought from apothecaries. Quite cheap actually, less than 1 euro for 2 bottles iirc. But trying to get old oil out to prevent contamination of my new batch has proven to be nigh impossible. It really doesn't like to dissolve. Not even with soaps. Actually I should try soaps again... Still, if this were to end up in a pen... nope, not gonna go there.

 

I mostly use cedar E. oil to further bring home the weirdo terrorist lumberjack mad scientist theme I'm going for with my beard. I used to do Cedar+Eucalyptus+Lavender for the scents and their special calming and healing properties. Since the scents get overpowered by cedar and the other properties are hogwash, I now keep it simple and go a drop or two of cedar into my 30ml batches.

[Algester]

actually oil is a bad idea to get the fragrance you want you need you guessed it water based fragrances as well you know something like how you make rose water

 

how ever it is not rare to actually find water based perfumes or fragrances basically the same stuff that J.Herbin, De Atramentis, and Sailor uses yes Sailor has "perfumed" inks

 

some call it water soluble fragrance oils I would suggest to take precaution to the level like ink mixing that means make small batches because I do not know how the substance would react to the disinfecting substance of the inks in question

and make sure you have a cheap pen that shall be sacrificed to the inky elder gods

that said good luck on this endevour

Edited December 22, 2015 by Algester

[Maurizio]

Thanks for the imput folks; thank you Ron for your insight and experience; I certainly don't want to melt parts of my nice pens.

 

What I've decided to do is this: since I have a variety of nice Pilot pens (Falcons, CH 912, C74, VP's an old Ecrino) I'm going to buy Pilot Metropolitan as a test subject. If anyone can weigh in whether Pilot uses the same resin formulas for their feeds in the Metro as in the other pens, I'd love to learn that. I'm going to make a test batch of one drop of basil essential oil in a bottle of Pilot blue ink and run that through the Metro and see what happens. I also have a Platinum Preppy I will experiment on. If that experiment works, I'll try the same ink in my Pilot Ecrino which I've used as my backup knock-around pen for 15 years during which time it has delivered pen performance excellently.

 

If the Ecrino experiment works, I may try the ink in one of my Falcons; I'm not sure yet. One thing that concerns me is that of small effects over time. I may see no damage in the Metro or the Ecrino while the damage is underway at a very slow rate. I will proceed with caution and may not put the essential-oil adulterated ink in a good pen (if ever) until I've seen how the test pens look after a year.

 

I'm also going to do a google search on the chemical properties of basil essential oil.

 

Any other advice or comment?