Just What is Solv-X

[bunnspecial]

It's not inconceivable that there were different formulae used over ~50 years.

 

The only Sov-X bottles I have are ones that I think are 80s or 90s vintage. Once I'm able to do so, I'll analyze those and see what I find. Assuming I'm successful, I'll do my best to hunt down some older bottles to test.

[welch]

On 2/13/2021 at 5:55 PM, corniche said:

 

Thank you for remembering my efforts, Welch.

 

I must have been on my hiatus yet, when this aired.

 

- Sean 

 

It was your brilliant investigation, Sean. Needs to be pinned, because people still ask, "What was Solv-X?"

 

And, welcome back!

[corniche]

5 hours ago, welch said:

 

It was your brilliant investigation, Sean. Needs to be pinned, because people still ask, "What was Solv-X?"

 

And, welcome back!

 

Hi Welch,

 

Thank you; it's nice to be back.

 

Thanks again; I won't argue with you, because it does come up a lot, but I can't pin anything. 

 

- Sean 

[Mr.Rene]

On 2/13/2021 at 7:55 PM, corniche said:

 

Thank you for remembering my efforts, Welch.

 

I must have been on my hiatus yet, when this aired.

 

- Sean 

 

Dear Corniche,

you have done excellent searching work..

Nevertheless, You have a new challenge..

WHAT MONTBLANC SC-21 INK INGREDIENT  IS ??

🙄 🤔 🤔🤔

Regards.

 

[corniche]

1 minute ago, Mr.Rene said:

 

Dear Corniche,

you have done excellent searching work..

Nevertheless, You have a new challenge..

WHAT MONTBLANC SC-21 INK INGREDIENT  IS ??

🙄 🤔 🤔🤔

Regards.

 

 

Hi Mr. Rene,

 

This is new one to me, so I will be starting from scratch - and I cannot read German - but I will look into this.

 

- Sean 

[Mr.Rene]

8 minutes ago, corniche said:

 

Hi Mr. Rene,

 

This is new one to me, so I will be starting from scratch - and I cannot read German - but I will look into this.

 

- Sean 

Great and Good Luck !!

[txomsy]

Might it be Scandium-21?

 

Scandium is an atomic element and 21 is its atomic number.

 

Dash it. A quick search shows it stands for "Super Cleaner 21". Sorry.

[bunnspecial]

I'm afraid the GC-MS I have at work is dead, but I've sealed a deal to secure us another GC-MS along with an HPLC. The GC-MS isn't one of my favorite models to work with(the quirky Varian 3800 along with a Saturn ion trap 2100) but don't look a gift horse in the mouth and I've been able to coax good work out of a virtually identical 2200D in the past. The HPLC is a Hewlett Packard 1050 with a VWD.

 

In any case, I have big plans for both of these, but among them is to do some ink analysis. The HPLC should analyze dyes well. The GC-MS can hopefully identify some of the things like preservatives and surfactants.

 

Assuming I can work out methods for these, I might be able to take requests. I have quite a bit of recent and older MB ink(a bunch of square shoes, and a few round ones). In the past few weeks I've added two bottles of vintage Quink Solv-X-permanent blue-black and permanent blue.

 

BTW, the patent application has me really wanting to try and formulate my own ink as laid out. I just don't have the stuff on hand to do it.

[bunnspecial]

Reviving this one again because I had the great pleasure yesterday of spending an hour on Zoom with Dr. Leighton Davies-Smith.

 

He held the title of "Ink Chemist" at Parker and in the larger parent organizations for a number of years through the 80s and 90s, and was largely responsible for the formation of Penman inks.

 

We talked about quite a few things regarding ink chemistry, and I also point blank asked him about Solv-X

 

His answer was basically that it was a marketing term for things present in "every modern ink", not just Quink. He stated that in Quink it referred to the bactericide/antimicrobial combined with solvents/surfactants used to both enhance flow and also prevent feathering. The latter were primarily gylcol ethers, not more modern non-ionic surfactants like the Triton X100 or other Triton surfactants often cited. When Phenol became a "naughty list" item, he stated that Quink originally switched to isothiozone-based biocides, although it could be a bit of a "whack a mole" game because bacteria and fungi would become resistant to them over time.

 

Basically, though, Solv-X is no one particular thing-it was just a term marketing used for an ink that contained biocides, surfactants, and anti-feathering agents with no particular regard to what those are. Modern Quink could rightfully be stated to contain "Solv-X", but isn't advertised as such. 

 

He also made another interesting comment to me-originally when moving away from phenol, they tried to duplicate the smell as closely as possible since many people "expected" ink to smell like that.

 

I asked specifically about the patent linked/referenced in this thread. He was familiar with the patent, and said that particular ink formula never came to fruition(I was interested in some other aspects of it like the use of Vanadium salts). He said that in the files he had access to, there were thousands of ink formulae that never went to production for various reasons.

 

BTW, he did say that patents were a great source of information on this stuff, and said one name to look for in particular on patent applications was his predecessor as Parker's "ink chemist-"-Martin Sexton.

[welch]

Great post!

 

(Ah...a Zoom call. I've been wondering how Chrissy got to a Lone Star pen meeting)