Do you ever put ink back in the bottle?

[Kees]

I always use the same ink (Sheaffer Skrip blue/black), almost always fill pens still containing an ink residue (which I then put back in the bottle), clean them by filling and emptying them more than once, and get away with it. No dirty fingers either.

 

I wouldn’t use FPs if they wouldn’t provide the most comfortable and indeed most satisfying way of writing. No time for nostalgia!

[Penache]

I write my pens dry usually or if there is minimal ink in the pen I simply flush it out. I'm a little wary of contaminating my limited array of beautiful bottled ink so better safe than sorry.

[mikey]

heaven's NO!

 

didn't you pay attention in chemistry class when the instructor indicated not to pour excess reagents back into the bottles to prevent potential contamination of your stock solution (ink in this case).

 

if you want to save the ink that was in the pen, find a small container to store it in but please don't put it back in the master ink bottle.

 

thanks,

mike

(this reply is due to eight years of secondary and post-secondary science classes so don't argue with me on this one :>) )

 

 

 

 

 

  Wizergig said:

Do you ever put ink back in the bottle?

 

Is this a safe practice? Sometimes I will have a pen that I am not going to use for awhile, and I like to clean them up. Sometimes that is a fair amount of ink down the sink. Would you ever put ink back into a bottle once it has been in a pen for awhile?

 

[Wizergig]

  mikey said:

heaven's NO!

 

didn't you pay attention in chemistry class when the instructor indicated not to pour excess reagents back into the bottles to prevent potential contamination of your stock solution (ink in this case).

 

if you want to save the ink that was in the pen, find a small container to store it in but please don't put it back in the master ink bottle.

 

thanks,

mike

(this reply is due to eight years of secondary and post-secondary science classes so don't argue with me on this one :>) )

 

 

 

 

 

  Wizergig said:

Do you ever put ink back in the bottle?

 

Is this a safe practice? Sometimes I will have a pen that I am not going to use for awhile, and I like to clean them up. Sometimes that is a fair amount of ink down the sink. Would you ever put ink back into a bottle once it has been in a pen for awhile?

 

I have not done it yet. With all the good replies I see no reason to start now.

 

[Opus104]

Eeek!! I have done it, without knowing of the biohazard I risked. I feel the need for a handywipe.

 

I shall monitor my ink supply for nasty growths and change my habits.

[fenrisfox]

  Wizergig said:

Is this a safe practice? Sometimes I will have a pen that I am not going to use for awhile, and I like to clean them up. Sometimes that is a fair amount of ink down the sink. Would you ever put ink back into a bottle once it has been in a pen for awhile?

 

I do. I haven't ever done it with really old ink, though - I'm pretty new to FPs, and only have one.

 

However, whenever I refill the pen, I eject the old ink back into the bottle (I prefer to top it off in the morning or at night, so I don't suddenly run out).

 

Oh, and one other thing... why would I be worried about bacteria/fungi/virii/flying spaghetti monsters in my ink? I'm not going to be drinking it, and I'm sure most of us come into contact with zillions of microorganisms every day - I doubt a bit of fungi in ink will make us sick.

 

(The paper, of course, will pick up such junk no matter what - so it's a moot point from archival purposes, as well.)

 

Now, the argument about placing reagents back in the bottle makes a bit of sense - if only from a pure chemistry point of view, rather than a biohazard one. Placing the chemical in use, may cause it to undergo some change.

 

However... I'm not dealing with a vintage ink stock or anything - if the master bottle is destroyed, I'll just get another one. I doubt the stuff'll sit around that long anyway. :roflmho:

Edited July 18, 2007 by fenrisfox

[Teuton]

Why would it matter if you are sticking the nib in the ink jar anyway?

[bluestocking]

That's what I'm saying...and after taking a microbio class there's no avoiding cooties so I'm not even going to get paranoid about it. Pens can't get sick.

 

[Limerick]

I can't remember that I've done this. When I want to rest my pen for a while and clean it, I find myself writing the rest of the ink out of the pen and then cleaning it up. Because I have flow issues with converters so often, I use a syringe to refill my cartridges, and everyone who has done so knows that it's quite a pain to get the ink out of a cartridge with a syringe. Most ink end up in the sink rather than in the ink bottle.

[WhosYerBob]

Depends - how old is the ink in the pen, has there been any evaporation, cross contamination with other inks or water, etc.

 

Sometimes I do - most of the time I don't.

[Shangas]

"You are hereby charged with mixing inks and with returning imparted ink back to its parent bottle. How do you plead?"

"Guilty."

 

Yeah that's right. I've done it!

 

But not any more. These days I just empty the ink into my bin if I'm emptying a pen. And refill it with fresh ink. It uses up the ink on my desk faster and gives me excuses to buy more ink...I'm terrible!

[Juan in Andalucia]

It depends on how long that ink has been in the pen. If you fill a pen, and you use half a fill in say, 3 or 4 days there's nothing wrong with refilling that pen with the same ink and pour the ink back in the bottle.

 

I like to leave home with a full load in my pens, although I rarely use a full load (I mostly use parker 51s, pelikans and a lamy 2000).

 

Filling and using your pens often (unless they're clean and empty, that is) helps to remove any sediment in them.

 

Juan

 

[kenny]

How can you avoid it if you want to refill your piston-filling pen for the day?

 

Not everyone is in a position to "write their pens dry."

 

Most of the day, I am not at a place where I can have an ink bottle to refill. I need to have a full pen that I know will last for the day.

 

Therefore, in the morning before I go to work, I will need to refill my piston-filling pen. When I lower the piston, whatever is in the pen will drain back into the bottle, then I will refill from that bottle.

 

Are other people seriously emptying the entire remnant volume of the pen into the sink, then refilling with that same color? It seems awfully wasteful--I might have 1/2 pen or even 3/4 pen at that time. I just need to "top it off" to be sure I don't run out that day.

 

 

[satrap]

yeah, always

[I am not a number]

  mikey said:

heaven's NO!

[snip]

(this reply is due to eight years of secondary and post-secondary science classes so don't argue with me on this one :>) )

In over 30 years of putting ink back into the bottle I have never had a problem with the practice.

 

Theory versus my (and I stress my) personal experience I guess...

Edited April 26, 2008 by I am not a number

[churl]

If I am refilling my pen into the same ink that was previously contained, then I don't mind at all. I simply empty out as much air as possible from the pen and refill. I don't dump out the ink already contained. As someone with a degree in chemistry, the argument not to contaminate your stock solutions is compelling, but ink is pretty easily replaced, and unlike chemistry, contaminating your ink is not likely to change its chemical properties or cause explosions.

 

Now, if I'm dumping ink from a pen (either to switch color or to clean it out) then I will put that ink into a separate ink bottle. I waste all my inks into one bottle (and this will sound horrible), and use the combined ink to fill some of my cheaper pens which can take the abuse.

[Viseguy]

I keep a few inks at work and have most of my inks at home. With the work inks, I often resort to the quick-and-dirty "top up" with the same color, emptying whatever is left in the pen back into the bottle and then refilling: battlefield conditions sometimes require extreme measures. With my home inks, I'm more careful (usually).

 

But, ya know what? It doesn't seem to make any difference. All my inks are like the Energizer Bunny. They keep going....

 

 

Ooh, I just noticed that I posted to this thread last year -- and, what's even more surprising, my posts are consistent with one another! Great mind thinks alike...

Edited April 27, 2008 by Viseguy

[Loveforwords]

Do you realize how much of a pain in the ass that would be if I had to flush out my converter, every time I wanted to refill my pen? If I use the same Ink and it's running low, it makes no sense to sit at the sink and cycle the plunger twenty times before it gets to a clear consistency. Obviously I'm not going to do that if I'm changing colors. But that's why I have a few pens so I don't have to change the ink color that often.

[burmeseboyz]

I always put it back in the bottle. I was also a chemistry major in college. My reasoning is:

1) You're never going to get your nib/feed completely clean of residual ink so by sucking up ink from the bottle, you're contaminating it anyway so there's no point in purging the pen.

2) Samples (inks) are expensive.

3) So you have some residual "other inks" from the previous filling. Well if the contaminants had not washed out when I was cleaning the pen, and they were stuck when the previous ink was in the pen, it's pretty likely that it'll stay stuck in the pen and not wash out with the new ink. Long story short, the amount of contamination is minimal especially when compared to the total volume of the ink in the bottle. Well within organic chemistry standards. Not within the analytical chemistry standards but there's a real they're called ANALititcal chemists.

[orpheus]

  burmeseboyz said:

I always put it back in the bottle. I was also a chemistry major in college. My reasoning is:

1) You're never going to get your nib/feed completely clean of residual ink so by sucking up ink from the bottle, you're contaminating it anyway so there's no point in purging the pen.

2) Samples (inks) are expensive.

3) So you have some residual "other inks" from the previous filling. Well if the contaminants had not washed out when I was cleaning the pen, and they were stuck when the previous ink was in the pen, it's pretty likely that it'll stay stuck in the pen and not wash out with the new ink. Long story short, the amount of contamination is minimal especially when compared to the total volume of the ink in the bottle. Well within organic chemistry standards. Not within the analytical chemistry standards but there's a real they're called ANALititcal chemists.

 

But would the amount of contamination still be minimal if you dump say half a converter or piston fill back into the bottle? That's more than the residual amounts you're talking about.