Mimeograph Ink Smell

[SamCapote]

I have been haunted by that magical smell coming with all the freshly printed tests back in the day.  I finally decided to order some old stock Dick's Mimeograph ink on Ebay just to be able to have that wonderful smell experience again.  Crazy, huh?

[inkstainedruth]

Is it FP safe?  Or are you going to use it with brushes or dip pens?

Of course you're one of the examples I used to explain to my husband that no, I DON'T have a huge number of inks (Amberlea Davis being one of the others) and he looked at me and said "This is NOT a competition!"

He's actually starting to broaden out  -- he wants me to try and pick him up a bottle of Namiki Blue when I got to OPS in a couple of weeks, as well as another bottle of Namiki Black.  

Not sure if he's ever opened the bottle of Noodler's Dark Matter that someone at the Commonwealth Show recommended to him last year when his plans for the weekend fell through and he ended up going to the show with me.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[SamCapote]

2 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Is it FP safe?  Or are you going to use it with brushes or dip pens?

Of course you're one of the examples I used to explain to my husband that no, I DON'T have a huge number of inks (Amberlea Davis being one of the others) and he looked at me and said "This is NOT a competition!"

He's actually starting to broaden out  -- he wants me to try and pick him up a bottle of Namiki Blue when I got to OPS in a couple of weeks, as well as another bottle of Namiki Black.  

Not sure if he's ever opened the bottle of Noodler's Dark Matter that someone at the Commonwealth Show recommended to him last year when his plans for the weekend fell through and he ended up going to the show with me.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

No, I bought it purely just to have that smell which is a flood of pleasant memories.  I moved from Connecticut to Mississippi a year ago, and it was quite a challenge to safely pack up all my many boxes of ink.  Probably the most valuable are the 12 new full bottles of Penman Sapphire, not to mention having about a thousand of those cartridges that I think we all bought from a Greek seller who was practically giving them away because of evaporative loss.  I still think I have the largest collection of ink of anyone on this forum.  And that's ok.

 

[inkstainedruth]

Oh, and it turned out my husband HAS tried Dark Matter after all....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[PJohnP]

 

On 10/19/2023 at 11:16 PM, SamCapote said:

I have been haunted by that magical smell coming with all the freshly printed tests back in the day.  I finally decided to order some old stock Dick's Mimeograph ink on Ebay just to be able to have that wonderful smell experience again.  Crazy, huh?

 

 

Heh.  You may find that you need to "top up" the ink with solvent.  As I recall, mimeograph ink used methanol/isopropanol as a solvent.

 

Much of the scent that elementary school kids liked was that solvent ! (and we'll leave aside those kids who would gather many mimeographed sheets to inhale)

 

 

 

On 10/21/2023 at 7:23 PM, SamCapote said:

 

... Penman Sapphire, not to mention having about a thousand of those cartridges that I think we all bought from a Greek seller who was practically giving them away because of evaporative loss.  I still think I have the largest collection of ink of anyone on this forum.  And that's ok.

 

 

Chuckle.  Yes, indeed, I had a lot of those cartridges ! 

 

I decanted a fair number into PPS bottles that I had acquired, but I still had quite a stash of them.  I've more recently been giving them over to others, as simply letting the cartridges slowly petrify seems vaguely sinful.  They do rehydrate - I've been using them in a Parker 75 Flat-Top from the latter 'sixties - but the ink is then sometimes hard-starting in the pen.  A touch of Photo-Flo seems to tame that problem.

 

Still, at my current rate of use, the carts would fail far ahead of my consumption, so I've farmed out most of them in recent months.

 

 

 

John P.

[amberleadavis]

On 10/21/2023 at 6:23 PM, SamCapote said:

 

No, I bought it purely just to have that smell which is a flood of pleasant memories.  I moved from Connecticut to Mississippi a year ago, and it was quite a challenge to safely pack up all my many boxes of ink.  Probably the most valuable are the 12 new full bottles of Penman Sapphire, not to mention having about a thousand of those cartridges that I think we all bought from a Greek seller who was practically giving them away because of evaporative loss.  I still think I have the largest collection of ink of anyone on this forum.  And that's ok.

 

 

We should have made a movie about moving your inky collection. I would have watched it over and over again just to discover new to me inks.

[SamCapote]

On 11/6/2023 at 1:44 PM, amberleadavis said:

 

We should have made a movie about moving your inky collection. I would have watched it over and over again just to discover new to me inks.

 

I had previously "enrolled" my late, former wife of 38yrs into ignoring my surreptitious ink supply.  I faced a new, daunting challenge in impressing upon my new wife the critical importance of my ink and FP treasure trove.  I can tell she has rationalized that I have this "adorable" (my adjective) colorful, liquid hording obsession that makes absolutely no sense to her, but the overall love and partnership fortunately has room for accommodation.  

[SLinkster]

On 10/21/2023 at 8:23 PM, SamCapote said:

I still think I have the largest collection of ink of anyone on this forum

 

Have you unpacked? Gotten organized? Are we allowed to ask for photos of your stash? I'm always interested in seeing how other people organize their supplies stashes. I feel like there must be better ways than my so-called methods. 

[SamCapote]

4 minutes ago, SLinkster said:

 

Have you unpacked? Gotten organized? Are we allowed to ask for photos of your stash? I'm always interested in seeing how other people organize their supplies stashes. I feel like there must be better ways than my so-called methods. 

I have only unpacked about 5% of my stash.  I have to move other stuff into the attic to make room for the glorious ink display.

[SamCapote]

On 11/6/2023 at 12:21 PM, PJohnP said:

Chuckle.  Yes, indeed, I had a lot of those cartridges ! 

 

I decanted a fair number into PPS bottles that I had acquired, but I still had quite a stash of them.  I've more recently been giving them over to others, as simply letting the cartridges slowly petrify seems vaguely sinful.  They do rehydrate - I've been using them in a Parker 75 Flat-Top from the latter 'sixties - but the ink is then sometimes hard-starting in the pen.  A touch of Photo-Flo seems to tame that problem.

 

Thanks for that suggestion.  Just ordered a bottle of Photo-Flo from Amazon, as I have noticed the reticence of PPS restarting flow in my Parker Duofold.  I will cease being dominated by this regal foible.

 

On 11/6/2023 at 12:21 PM, PJohnP said:

Still, at my current rate of use, the carts would fail far ahead of my consumption, so I've farmed out most of them in recent months.

 

 

Obviously, we always collect at least 10 lifetimes of our favorite inks, so this is no problem at all.

 

[inkstainedruth]

2 hours ago, SamCapote said:

 

I had previously "enrolled" my late, former wife of 38yrs into ignoring my surreptitious ink supply.  I faced a new, daunting challenge in impressing upon my new wife the critical importance of my ink and FP treasure trove.  I can tell she has rationalized that I have this "adorable" (my adjective) colorful, liquid hording obsession that makes absolutely no sense to her, but the overall love and partnership fortunately has room for accommodation.  

My husband tells people that the pen stash is just the gateway to the "real" collection -- the inks.  Of course I once told him that you and Amberlea Davis had WAAAY more ink than I do; and his response was "This is NOT a competition!" 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[amberleadavis]

7 hours ago, SamCapote said:

 

I had previously "enrolled" my late, former wife of 38yrs into ignoring my surreptitious ink supply.  I faced a new, daunting challenge in impressing upon my new wife the critical importance of my ink and FP treasure trove.  I can tell she has rationalized that I have this "adorable" (my adjective) colorful, liquid hording obsession that makes absolutely no sense to her, but the overall love and partnership fortunately has room for accommodation.  

 

I just read this outloud to my partner.  He smiles at my collection and says nothing.

 

6 hours ago, SLinkster said:

 

Have you unpacked? Gotten organized? Are we allowed to ask for photos of your stash? I'm always interested in seeing how other people organize their supplies stashes. I feel like there must be better ways than my so-called methods. 

 

Any organization is better than no organization.

 

6 hours ago, SamCapote said:

I have only unpacked about 5% of my stash.  I have to move other stuff into the attic to make room for the glorious ink display.

 

I look forward to the display.

 

4 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

My husband tells people that the pen stash is just the gateway to the "real" collection -- the inks.  Of course I once told him that you and Amberlea Davis had WAAAY more ink than I do; and his response was "This is NOT a competition!" 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Of course, it is not a competition, but if it were, Sam wins.