Iroshizuku Has Ruined An Urushi Finish...

[Donald2]

 

I use Iroshizuku inks in my PILOT VP Raden and PILOT Custom 845 (Urushi), as well as Custom, Elite and others... no problems. But then, the urushi coated parts have a good distance away from where the ink is.

 

I never knew that Urushi has a bad reaction with Iroshizuku inks. I just ordered 2 Pilot Vanishing Point Raden Water Surface fountain pens from Japan and I just found out that they have an Urushi finish on them. I was going to exclusively use Iroshizuku ink in both of these pens, but now I'm having second thoughts about this after reading about the Iroshizuku ink's bad reaction to Urushi. I would like to know if there are any other fountain pen inks that I can use which are "safe" and which also have excellent performance with the Fine and Medium nibs on the Pilot Vanishing Point Raden Water Surface fountain pens that I just purchased. Should I stick with only Pilot inks and only keep away from the Pilot Iroshizuku inks? Are there any other safe inks out there that I can use? Or is it safe to use the Iroshizuku ink? I want to protect the Urushi finish on my 2 Vanishing Point Raden Water Surface fountain pens that cost over $400 each.

[alanshutko]

I have a few VPs though not urushi, and I think you're pretty safe. There's no place that the ink is likely to look near the urushi on a VP.

 

There is ample metal trim near the nib. There's lots of protection inside. If you get ink on the outside of the body where the urushi is, you can wipe it off. This is a different situation from a pen where you might have an ebonite or urushi section, inside of a cap.

[Donald2]

I have a few VPs though not urushi, and I think you're pretty safe. There's no place that the ink is likely to look near the urushi on a VP.

 

There is ample metal trim near the nib. There's lots of protection inside. If you get ink on the outside of the body where the urushi is, you can wipe it off. This is a different situation from a pen where you might have an ebonite or urushi section, inside of a cap.

 

I would think that I would have to take the nib section out of the Vanishing Point barrel to dip it in the Iroshizuku ink bottle to fill the converter and then put it back into the Vanishing Point barrel. The Urushi barrel on the VP Raden Water Surface fountain pen does not make any contact with the ink or with the nib section, so maybe it will be safe. If I had to dip the VP Raden pen inside the ink bottle without taking the nib section out of the barrel, then the barrel could easily get into contact with the ink causing damage to the Urushi lacquer finish. What do you think?

[Inky_paws]

I may be misunderstanding you Donald, so forgive me if I am.

I've just bought a VP (a much more humble model). When filling, the entire nib unit comes out of the body of the pen. There's no need for the ink to come in contact with the pen body if that's what you were worried about.

[alanshutko]

Inky_Paws is absolutely right. You never actually dip the body of the pen in ink. I have a couple (also much more humble) VPs. Though... Those raden ones look sooo good!

[Donald2]

I may be misunderstanding you Donald, so forgive me if I am.

I've just bought a VP (a much more humble model). When filling, the entire nib unit comes out of the body of the pen. There's no need for the ink to come in contact with the pen body if that's what you were worried about.

 

Yes, that's what I meant. The Urushi Raden Water Surface body of the pen never comes into contact with the ink because the entire nib unit of the pen comes out of the barrel when you need to fill the converter with ink.

[Inkling13]

Makes me doubt the OP's claims that the ink was at fault. It's the first case I have heard of this, and secondly, there have never been any pictures. It could be an inherent fault in the urushi, or just design in general, but pictures are worth a thousand words.

[MYU]

Makes me doubt the OP's claims that the ink was at fault. It's the first case I have heard of this, and secondly, there have never been any pictures. It could be an inherent fault in the urushi, or just design in general, but pictures are worth a thousand words.

The OP was talking about a different pen altogether. A Danitrio Mikado. Sometimes there will be ink seepage with a fountain pen, and in his case it had blobbed up on the section while capped. Who knows how long the ink was in contact with the urushi coated section. But he said the ink caused an erosion to the finish. Not sure which Iroshizuku ink he was using. I thought maybe they've got a "bullet proof" ink, similar to what Noodler's makes for archival ink. But I don't see any sign of it. He said he had the pen for 8 years... maybe he never suffered any ink blobbing on the section before? Who knows. He posted just ONCE in this topic... never returned. Last post was in September of 2017.

 

Given all this, I would not express any deep concern about Iroshizuku inks. If there were problems with it, we'd hear far more complaints.

[Poision Pen]

I too use Iro ink in my urushi coated Nakaya pens. The ink does come in contact with the finished section when filling and I see no ill effects from the ink as far as damage to the urushi.

I think something else is going on there

[Inkling13]

The OP was talking about a different pen altogether. A Danitrio Mikado. Sometimes there will be ink seepage with a fountain pen, and in his case it had blobbed up on the section while capped. Who knows how long the ink was in contact with the urushi coated section. But he said the ink caused an erosion to the finish. Not sure which Iroshizuku ink he was using. I thought maybe they've got a "bullet proof" ink, similar to what Noodler's makes for archival ink. But I don't see any sign of it. He said he had the pen for 8 years... maybe he never suffered any ink blobbing on the section before? Who knows. He posted just ONCE in this topic... never returned. Last post was in September of 2017.

 

Given all this, I would not express any deep concern about Iroshizuku inks. If there were problems with it, we'd hear far more complaints.

True, it's just I keep seeing this topic keep popping up, and I don't understand the reason for its popularity. I wouldn't have suspected Iroshizuku ink to cause this problem.

[Corona688]

And then there is something else to consider: do we honestly expect an object that is in near constant use to last for years and years (over 8 years at the least in this case) to NOT exhibit any changes? I consider the slow evolution of a pen, even one kept in good use and storage, to be one of the most personal aspects of the world of writing instruments. Life happens, even to pens.

"Oh no, my pen has stained with ink, how ever could that have happened" is one thing. "Oh no, my pen is made of a material which changes dimensionally when stained", quite another. Calls into question the long-term viability of the pen-ink combination. Edited February 14, 2018 by Corona688

[JonSzanto]

"Oh no, my pen has stained with ink, how ever could that have happened" is one thing. "Oh no, my pen is made of a material which changes dimensionally when stained", quite another. Calls into question the long-term viability of the pen-ink combination.

 

Agreed. However, based on discussions not only on this forum but elsewhere about this particular case, it seems fairly clear that it was not merely an ink issue, or the ink issue, but some larger set of circumstances.

[MYU]

 

Agreed. However, based on discussions not only on this forum but elsewhere about this particular case, it seems fairly clear that it was not merely an ink issue, or the ink issue, but some larger set of circumstances.

 

Thank you for this information. It's rather inconsiderate for someone to start a topic like this and never revisit it with an update. It leaves people to jump to false conclusions. I wonder how many people have read this and since stopped using Iroshizuku ink in their urushi coated pens because they didn't see a resolution when they sifted through the topic.

[Donald2]

I haven't stopped using Iroshizuku ink in my Parker Vector.

[flashylightsmeow]

Hey, reviving a dormant topic, I think this is happened to me as well. Are there small bumps on the feed? I’ve never uncapped the pen and found any condensation, have been using Kon Peki, not sure if this is just one of those things and adds to the character of the pen, or if this is damaging! Thoughts?

[MartinPauli]

Pure urushi is literally indestructible.

Neither lyes nor acids can attack Urushi, not even fluoro-antimonic acid, which dissolves gold.

Urushi copes with temperatures up to 300 degree celsius without problems.

But important, that urushi is applied professionally on clean surface

Urushi diluted with oil is somehow weaker and as mentioned uv radiation (Sunlight) does weaken urushi but remember, urushi was and is used in Japan in architecture and crafts, on armour, palanquins, temple columns, statues, soup bowls and burned on surfaces of cast iron teapots and much more