a safe/safe-ish way to add lubrication to bottled inks?

[1pen2pen]

hello all, I suspect that i might be barking up the wrong tree here but is there a well-know, relatively safe way make an ink "wetter"?

i've seen some mention of eye drops being used, i think because of glycerine or glycerol in the drops, but can't seem to find supporting evidence that that's a safe route to go.

anyone have knowledge of this, or something similar?

i do understand that it's going to depend on what inks are in play but i thought i'd start with the general question first.

[Claes]

Start looking here: 

 

They keep searching this forum.

 

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

 

 

 

[1pen2pen]

okay! will do, thank you. 👍

[Penguincollector]

  Pure glycerin is a option, I know that @Bo Bo Olson has used it in dry inks. I used to use dish soap, but it’s gotten a lot more concentrated than it used to be, but you can try either a drop of soap diluted with water if it’s a concentrated soap, or a tiny amount on the tip of a toothpick dipped into the soap container and the excess scraped off on the rim into a mL or two of ink in a sample vial or ink miser. 

 

  Here in the US, Vanness sells an inexpensive product called White Lightning which is an ink lubricant and biocide. I have it, and it’s great, but a drop goes a long way.

White Lightning
 

 

[1pen2pen]

most welcome info, thank you!

[inkstainedruth]

Some people have recommended PhotoFlo (which you can get at photography shops).  A few vendors have versions of that as well (I think I may have a sample of the one Vanness sells).  But it's hard to control how much to use (I put a drop of PhotoFlo in a fill of Noodler's Kung Te Cheng in a pen and it diluted the ink so much it changed the color -- apparently you want to put a drop in an entire bottle...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[1pen2pen]

good to know, but i wonder what's in that that we should worry about? SDS says "Propylene glycol" and something called Triton X-100 which is "included in the Candidate List of substances of very high concern". 😷

[inkstainedruth]

On 2/8/2025 at 3:24 PM, 1pen2pen said:

good to know, but i wonder what's in that that we should worry about? SDS says "Propylene glycol" and something called Triton X-100 which is "included in the Candidate List of substances of very high concern". 😷

Well, since I'm not Cruella de Vil (from the original book 101 Dalmations -- it's been decades since I've seen the movie and remember the book better, even though I read it as a kid) I don't plan to be drinking ink anytime soon.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[1pen2pen]

yeah, ink would probably make an unsatisfying beverage. just mentioned it as something in the ink is likely to end up being something on the fingers and ... so on and so forth. one chooses one's level of paranoid cautiousness as they see fit.

[InesF]

Since I'm cited ... (thanks, @Claes), some more comments from me.

 

You may increase the amount of ink that lands on the paper while moving your pen over the surface by adding some surfactants to the ink. That way you reduce surface tension. However, this is a tricky business, as a single drop of dishwasher fluid can completely ruin a big bottle of ink. I once "cured" a strange ink by dipping a wooden tooth-stick into dishwasher liquid, shook off all visible residues from the stick, dipped it into a 50mL ink bottle and got an ink almost unusable because of firehose behaviour and increased feathering. This tiny amount was already a bit too much!

Better use "soft" surfactants, such as Triton X-100, from which you prepare a 1:100 dilution and add single droplets to your ink bottle - or better a 1:1000 dilution to add to a fraction of your ink. Check after each single addition.

Or, you use the recommended White Lightning (or similar products) which are already highly diluted surfactants.

 

If you like to increase shading (if your ink can shade at all) or if you like to have finer and more saturated ink lines, you have to increase the viscosity of the ink. Increased viscosity does not change ink flow. You may add honey (beware, yeasts and fungi love sugar! yes, and bacteria do as well!) or other thickening agents. Philosophies differ a lot about what to use. Especially Gum Arabic is widely disliked, although it is water soluble and can be dosed quite well. (I'm loving it)

 

If you manage to open the slit width of the nib in question, you will increase ink delivery amount without changing the ink composition (it will stay useable with other pens). Do this on your own risk - although, if your fine motion skill is better than that of a blacksmith with a 10kg hammer, you may succeed without ruining your fountain pen. I'm sure, the higher the value of your pen, the more careful you will be.

 

And finally, inspect the paper you use. Can it be that its surface is somehow "treated". That can be surface coating, surface printing (this nice marble pattern, for example) or a paper recipe with high content of additives. Most interestingly, some inks react with some paper types while other inks react with other paper types in a strange way that can't be summarised in general rules. "try and error" is here the only option.

 

OK, four parameter to check and to adjust. I hope this keeps you busy, but at first I hope this was helpful!

Good luck!

[1pen2pen]

wow! @InesFmany thanks for that! special thanks for the ratios on the surfactants. lots to think about. 👍