Celluloid Storage - Reality

[Joe124013]

I have an Omas Arco Brown but I'm honestly thinking of selling the thing. I've not inked it yet because I've heard a lot of inks can react bad with celluloid, and now even storing it with other pens is bad?

[Intensity]

I do feel pretty discouraged, but my Omas pearl gray is doing great so far, *knocking on wood*.

 

This was an interesting read:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/206514-cristallized-celluloid-pens-a-tibaldi-trasparente-ruined/

 

and this article gives some general suggestions on storage:

http://cool.conservation-us.org/coolaic/jaic/articles/jaic30-02-003.html

 

It seems like alkaline inks are worse than acidic inks for celluloid. Close to neutral would be best.

[Joe124013]

Yeah I heard more neutral inks are the best (which is a shame as previous I had always favored Pilot and Colorverse inks, which I understand are very heavy alkaline). I've bought some Diamine inks as I've heard they're very neutral but I've still been quite scared. Beautiful pen but such a temperamental beast apparently.

[Intensity]

Colorverse inks are not heavily alkaline, their pH varies. Colorverse lists ink pH on each color's info page.

 

https://colorverseink.com/product/list2.html?cate_no=73

 

Pilot's dye inks are toward alkaline side.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Intensity

[Bibliophage]

I have an Omas Arco Brown but I'm honestly thinking of selling the thing. I've not inked it yet because I've heard a lot of inks can react bad with celluloid, and now even storing it with other pens is bad?

No, it's specifically that cramming different _old_ celluloids together _can_ cause some damage. Razors show this damage a lot. If you have one celluloid pen, and you have it in a pen jar, you should be fine - lots of air flow. If you have it in a box with acrylic pens, the only damage might be to exposed steel.

 

So, if you have a celluloid pen, just remember it's a pen. It wasn't intended to be eternal, but rather a tool to be used. Don't panic a whole lot. The main thing with storage is if you put it in a sealed display box, crammed with a dozen other celluloid pens, you're courting a higher risk of damage. That's all.