Diamine Ancient Copper Drying on Nib

[gbryal]

I really like Diamine Ancient Copper on paper, but I guess I'll never use it in a pen I can't take apart to clean; it has terrible problems drying all over my nib, coating it in brown gunk. I can rinse or wipe it off and it's good for a while but comes back. Has happened in a Wyvern and a Kultur so far, but I suspect it will happen in anything.

[Chrissy]

It has been mentioned in other posts and threads that sadly Diamine Ancient Copper has these properties. A similar ink shade that you may want to look at would be De Atramentis Sandalwood

Also, it is said that Diamine Majestic Blue takes quite a bit more cleaning out of pens than many other blues. I wouldn't use it in say a demo piston filler

[mhosea]

Has happened in a Wyvern and a Kultur so far, but I suspect it will happen in anything.

It is a property of the ink. However, I suspect it is a consequence of evaporation and will happen more in pens that have caps that don't seal all that well. Probably once it starts, the process is "seeded". To "reset" you'd need to flush the nib and feed out thoroughly and reload. It may also be worse this time of year in the US because the air is dry (more evaporation), but you could try it in the Platinum Century 3776. That has a slip-n-seal cap, no? If it does it there, then I'd agree with you that it will probably happen in anything. I've never seen it, BTW, though I use DAC infrequently enough that I'm not all the way through my first bottle, bought in 2011.

[Dreck]

I've not tried it, but you might want to give this a try. http://www.xfountainpens.com/collections/ink-bottles/products/chesterfield-antique-copper-bottled-ink

[mhosea]

Chesterfield inks are widely believed to be made by Diamine and bottled by xfountainpens.com. It is not known whether any are custom inks, but some are pretty easy to match up, e.g. Chesterfield Sapphire is Diamine Sapphire Blue, in my experience. It's a good option for winter delivery, as breakage of glass bottles can be a problem.

[gbryal]

Also, it is said that Diamine Majestic Blue takes quite a bit more cleaning out of pens than many other blues. I wouldn't use it in say a demo piston filler

Same with Diamine Majestic Purple, I put it in some Indian demonstrators and couldn't eradicate it entirely.

[AZBennett]

I had this same issue with a Waterman's Commando and Diamine Sapphire Blue. I had to completely disassemble the pen, clean and clean and cleam the nib and feed before I got all the residue off. I have since moved on to De Atramentis Robert Louis Stevenson and it has worked perfectly in the pen. Consequentlu the Sapphire Blue works fine in two of my other pens so I am not sure what exacerbated the issue.

[tandaina]

Meh. It is a lovely ink, and the gunk cleans up easily a simple water flush has never failed to get a pen totally clean for me, I don't bother with disassembly. It is unsightly but not damaging.

[Chrissy]

I have a very nice Waterman Carene that is a great match for Diamine Ancient Copper. I only ever had a tiny sample that dried out completely in that pen. Perhaps I should give it another go.

It's interesting that the Carene has a push on cap, that may not seal quite as well as some screw on caps. That could be part of the problem.

[rdcalhoon]

I have Ancient Copper inked probably more than 2/3 of the time. I have never seen a buildup. It is usually in my Lamy Vista or Pilot Metropolitan as those are my two pens with 1.1 nibs. I don't recall any comments about either of those two regarding cap sealing.

I favor the explanation of rapid evaporation of the ink. I live near Seattle where the humidity remains moderate. I do see nib creep sometimes, but the liquid ink seldom dries. I can see how ink/nib/feed combos that tend to creep would continue to feed new ink to the surface as the ink dries out in low humidity.

(Squeamish folks may want to skip this next bit.) I know that when I travel back East in the winter the low humidity drives my sinuses bonkers. I am always having to rinse out the hardened goo with saline.

If the dried ink is only on the nib surface and does not affect the pen performance except for maybe a bit of a hard start, then it is an esthetics issue. And certainly almost every choice in the fountain pen world hinges on the enjoyment engendered.

Personally, I'm not bothered by a bit of nib creep. I wipe it off if excessive and get on with writing. But then I have never pulled off a pen cap to discover a pile of gunk on the nib.

I am interested to learn what the humidity is where the OP lives. Is my Low Ambient Humidity Ink Dessication Hypothesis reasonable or is it all wet (so to speak)?

[tandaina]

I have Ancient Copper inked probably more than 2/3 of the time. I have never seen a buildup. It is usually in my Lamy Vista or Pilot Metropolitan as those are my two pens with 1.1 nibs. I don't recall any comments about either of those two regarding cap sealing.

I favor the explanation of rapid evaporation of the ink. I live near Seattle where the humidity remains moderate. I do see nib creep sometimes, but the liquid ink seldom dries. I can see how ink/nib/feed combos that tend to creep would continue to feed new ink to the surface as the ink dries out in low humidity.

(Squeamish folks may want to skip this next bit.) I know that when I travel back East in the winter the low humidity drives my sinuses bonkers. I am always having to rinse out the hardened goo with saline.

If the dried ink is only on the nib surface and does not affect the pen performance except for maybe a bit of a hard start, then it is an esthetics issue. And certainly almost every choice in the fountain pen world hinges on the enjoyment engendered.

Personally, I'm not bothered by a bit of nib creep. I wipe it off if excessive and get on with writing. But then I have never pulled off a pen cap to discover a pile of gunk on the nib.

I am interested to learn what the humidity is where the OP lives. Is my Low Ambient Humidity Ink Dessication Hypothesis reasonable or is it all wet (so to speak)?

Heavens we're just a couple miles apart. I'm in Kirkland. ;) Just moved here from Texas where pens were in dry air conditioned buildings all the time.

While I got the crusties on nibs (especially on antique pens, so probably not well sealing caps) it never caused hard starts or writing problems. I'd call it entirely a cosmetic issue for me.