Normal Settling or Bad Ink?

[KingJoe]

Alright, I pulled my Noodler's Eternal Brown off the shelf after about 8-10 weeks of non-use. Decided to mix a nice semi-permanent dark-ish brown (turned out well, by the way). I noticed some solids on the bottom of the jar, and had to shake vigorously for over 5 minutes to disolve it all. There didn't seem to be a lot, just well adhered to the glass. I chalked it up to non-use, and mixed and loaded (into a non-expensive pen...just in case).

 

After sitting about 72 hours, I noticed the sediment was back. I gave it a good shake, set it back on the counter, and 24 hours later I checked again. Yep....it's back. It's much easier to disolve now, but has me slightly worried.

 

There is yellow, green, and black solids in this sediment (seems logical given its color on paper). It's VERY thick, and looks rather bad in the bottle. It didn't do this the first month or two I was using it. Shook it once a week then (just because it's Noodler's Bulletproof), and never saw any sediment. Now it collects heavily in less than a day. The cap has never been left off, nothing has gotten in the bottle.

 

I'd like to put my mix into a good piston filler, but given the uncertainty of the parent brown bottle, I'm hesitant. If it weren't happening so fast, or if it had always done this, I wouldn't be so worried. Anyone know if this is normal with Eternal Brown? I may contact Sam or Nathan Monday to run it by them, but thought I'd check here first.

 

Thanks!!

 

~~King

Edited January 13, 2008 by KingJoe

[Phthalo]

Noodler's Russian Chekhov (a soft orange yellow shade), ends up with rich, red-pink sediment on the bottom of the bottle. As you have found, this takes about five minutes to blend with the rest of the bottle.

 

So, sounds like normal Eternal behaviour to me. I have three of the Russian Authors inks, and mine have all required that much shaking from day one.

[psfred]

Probably normal. El Lawrence and FPN brown do it too, I have to shake them quite a while to get them suspended, but they seem to work just fine in the pens I use.

 

I've found that most Noodler's have to be mixed before filling -- anything with Black in it will have the black portion settle out, although just a couple inversions seems to re-suspend the black well rather than shaking for a while.

 

Unless your pens clog, I'd not worry about it.

 

Peter

[jbn10161]

That precipitate is common with Noodler's. (It's one of the reasons I don't use Noodler's ink.)

[Inkanthropist]

I've noticed exactly the same thing with Eternal Brown. Shaking the bottle for a while seems to make things better, and I've never had any problems with clogging.

 

Neil

[FrankB]

Eternal Brown is one of my favorite colors, and I like its water fast properties. And, yes, I have sediment in the bottom of my current bottle, too. I just shake it up and keep going. I have not had any clogging problems with any pens yet, including piston fill Pelikan pens.

[KingJoe]

Unless your pens clog, I'd not worry about it.

 

I went back and checked the pen I had it in (Lamy Safari w/ converter) to see how it was doing before putting my mix in a "good" pen. After 3 days of non-use, stored nib-up in a pen cup, there was indeed a very small amount of sediment in the converter, on the bottom. Very minimal amount, but there. Not enough to even slightly worry me. And I use the "good" pen a lot more than the Safari, so it gets moved about a lot more and refilled a lot more, so sediment should be minimal. Between weekly flushes and daily or every other day fills, I shouldn't get much buildup at all.

 

~~King

[KingJoe]

Eternal Brown is one of my favorite colors, and I like its water fast properties. And, yes, I have sediment in the bottom of my current bottle, too. I just shake it up and keep going. I have not had any clogging problems with any pens yet, including piston fill Pelikan pens.

 

Exactly what I was hoping to hear. Thanks Frank, and all who responded!

 

~~King