Same ink, same paper, different pens: different colors?

[Skydiver]

I loaded Pilot Iroshizuke Kon-Peki into a Pilot Custom 74 (EF) and a TWSBI 580AL (EF). The writing with the two pens on the same paper results in the Pilot's color coming out to be a darker blue -- almost blue black, while the color coming of the TWSBI is the bright blue like what I've been seeing in YouTube videos.

 

I acquired the Pilot as a used pen. I flushed out the pen until it came out clear. It used to have black ink. I then pulled out the nib and feed and got more black ink on my fingers. I washed the converter, section, nib, and feed until clear again, and then let sit in a glass of water for an hour. No more ink seeped out of the parts while in the glass, so I just gave the parts a quick dry with a clean paper towel, and then re-assembled and then inked up the pen. On first touch of pen to paper, I got the nice bright blue. The following morning, I started seeing the blue-black.

 

Is this normal to get different colors for the same ink while using different pens due to different flow rates and nib sizes?

 

P.S. As I'm writing this, I've just noticed that there's black ink inside the pen cap of the Pilot. Stuffing a Q-tip in there, the Q-tip came back out all black, rather than blue or blue-black. Is it possible that I've gotten some cross contamination of the old black ink that was in the pen cap?

[JonSzanto]

The vast majority of what you said makes me lean towards the previous ink darkening the new. Keep in mind that when you mix inks and want to tone down or darken something, often a *single* drop of black/dark ink can have a dramatic effect. And while you think you wash it out completely, little bits of ink can hide in the feed and sometimes ink itself (as in the new ink) can loosen up the old better than water. The last bit is that even if the nibs are nominally the same width (not the same name, like "EF" but physically the same width), you can have variations in flow from the feed and how the tip lays down ink, and again, just a slight be more ink in each stroke could darken the tone.

 

Of course, I have no idea why you are questioning this - I think you bought one bottle of ink and got two shades out of it! (that's a joke)

[amberleadavis]

Cross-contamination is very common.  I have to be insane when I do reviews to make sure the color is original.  When I am writing only for myself, I ink up from samples and don't care about cross-contamination.  

 

That being said, I have found that with the same ink, the flow from a super broad music nib makes the ink look much darker than it appears from an extra fine nib.

[amberleadavis]

OH and back to what @JonSzanto said, I have inks I use as cleaning inks because they do clear out other inks.  Noodler's Rattler Red is a good example.  

[AceNinja]

1 hour ago, Skydiver said:

On first touch of pen to paper, I got the nice bright blue. The following morning, I started seeing the blue-black.

This concludes that there's still black ink inside the pen, somewhere, some crevices.

 

1 hour ago, Skydiver said:

Is this normal to get different colors for the same ink while using different pens due to different flow rates and nib sizes?

And therefore i don't think this is the case of "Same ink, same paper, different pens: different colors?", it should be a case of "not clean enough".

[Misfit]

I had this happen with Montblanc toffee brown being in two pens. One was a True Writer, B nib and a Lamy with a 1.5mm nib. The ink looked different. Still brown, but different. 

[JonSzanto]

47 minutes ago, Misfit said:

I had this happen with Montblanc toffee brown being in two pens. One was a True Writer, B nib and a Lamy with a 1.5mm nib. The ink looked different. Still brown, but different. 

It’s a feature, not a bug! 😉

[Misfit]

@JonSzanto 😜 You are on a comedic roll. If I didn’t need to bake a cake, I’d take a photo of the writing. 

[Karmachanic]

For me Edelstein Moonstone goes down much darker with the M1005 than it does with the M805.  A nib thing?

[Lithium466]

4 hours ago, AceNinja said:

This concludes that there's still black ink inside the pen, somewhere, some crevices.

 

And therefore i don't think this is the case of "Same ink, same paper, different pens: different colors?", it should be a case of "not clean enough".

The Pilot double part feed is able to hold some dried old ink for a while. I purchased some pens from a friend that used Platinum Carbon black, and the filling/air channel of the Pilot feeds were coated, even after long soaks in pen flush. I had contaminated light inks for weeks.

[Runnin_Ute]

I just filled a Jinhao 599 with a light Birmingham ink (Salmon Hors D'oeuvre). I thought the pen was clean. It has been a while so I don't recall what ink was last in it. It has turned it a pinkish brown color. Much darker than normal. If I had a bottle I would probably flush again and refill. But because I only have a sample I will just write it out.

[Skydiver]

I guess I'll be doing some more pen cleaning tonight... Time to give the pen flush from Goulet pens a try.

 

[Skydiver]

11 hours ago, JonSzanto said:

Of course, I have no idea why you are questioning this - I think you bought one bottle of ink and got two shades out of it! (that's a joke)

Yes, I should have seen the upside to this. 🙂

 

[Skydiver]

This makes me feel slightly better that I filled the converter using a syringe despite my resolution to ink pens by dipping them into the bottle and working the converter up and down. It would have been a shame to cross contaminate a new bottle of Kon-Peki.

 

[AceNinja]

9 hours ago, Skydiver said:

This makes me feel slightly better that I filled the converter using a syringe despite my resolution to ink pens by dipping them into the bottle and working the converter up and down. It would have been a shame to cross contaminate a new bottle of Kon-Peki.

 

That's why I'm very careful when filling pen, I will still dip the nib in bottle to fill, especially if it's a piston filler.  I'll draw up ink in one stroke, never push the piston up and down to 'cycle' the ink, never push the piston to drip 3-4 drops of ink back into bottle like some manufacturer recommends.  If converter pen, i typically dip the converter and fill in one stroke, again never cycling the ink while converter in bottle. 

 

Because I can't be sure the pen is completely clean, even if I know (or so I thought) I've clean the pen completely.

 

[Skydiver]

11 hours ago, Skydiver said:

I guess I'll be doing some more pen cleaning tonight... Time to give the pen flush from Goulet pens a try.

 

I got matching colors now after flush, disassembly, rinse, soak in water, soak in pen flush, rinse, dry, then reassembly.

 

It was interesting that after the flush and disassembly this time around, I discovered that the feed was a translucent blue. When I first got the pen, and I had disassembled and soaked it, the feed was an opaque black. The comments about how some inks help break up old dried ink was right on the money.

 

Thank you everyone for your advice and all the humor! 🙂

 

[AndyYNWA]

5 hours ago, AceNinja said:

That's why I'm very careful when filling pen, I will still dip the nib in bottle to fill, especially if it's a piston filler.  I'll draw up ink in one stroke, never push the piston up and down to 'cycle' the ink, never push the piston to drip 3-4 drops of ink back into bottle like some manufacturer recommends.  If converter pen, i typically dip the converter and fill in one stroke, again never cycling the ink while converter in bottle. 

 

Because I can't be sure the pen is completely clean, even if I know (or so I thought) I've clean the pen completely.

 

This! 👆

I never push ink back into the bottle just to fill the pen completely. I take out the pen from the bottle and push the air out and wipe the nib, then I can fill it some more.
However, I change inks quite often, so I don't need to fill the pen/converter. Even better if it's a bit less so I can change more often. ☺️

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 9/26/2023 at 7:37 AM, Misfit said:

I had this happen with Montblanc toffee brown being in two pens. One was a True Writer, B nib and a Lamy with a 1.5mm nib. The ink looked different. Still brown, but different. 

Our passed Ink guru Sandy1, use to show this every time she tested an ink. 5 Widths of pens and 4-5 different good to better papers, made an ink look so different. Different due to width, different due to paper...........Her very valuable pictures seem lost unless someone with the skills has time to retrieve them from where ever they now are.

Amber said it was possible to retrieve them.  I'm writing a book so I don't have time. There should be some retired person with a bit of spare time who can do wonders.

(I couldn't do the wonder in the the first place.)

[Sholom]

I have Noodlers Green Marine in a Waterman Phileas F nib and a Pelikan 120 MkII F italic nib and they look like two different inks. The difference: the Pelikan is both broader and wetter than the Phileas. I've also been amazed at how hard it can be to get the last traces of old (especially dried old) ink out of some pens. I just cleaned out a Parker 45 that has had R&K Alt-Goldgrun in it for the last 10 years at least. I soaked the cap overnight and wiped it out with a dry tissue and saw no color. Then I wet the innards of the cap again and stuck a Q-tip in all the way and rotated it a bit. It came out black. That pen last had black ink in it (probably Parker Quink) sometime before 2005. I suspect ink can get trapped between the inner cap and the inner wall of the cap. Maybe ultrasonic treatment for a few hours would get more of it out but I am not seeing any darkening in my Alt-Goldgrun so I think I will leave well enough alone.

[Skydiver]

Wow! That is some dedication to an ink!

 

I'm still in the gotta try everything phase.