Can you give ink more sheen?

[jbb]

Is there anything that you can add to give fountain pen ink more sheen?

[Laura N]

Okay, I am no sheen expert, to put it mildly, but I feel bad there are no answers yet. :)

I've noticed that I see more sheen with wetter, broader nibs that put down more ink, and with paper like Tomoe River that is more coated and less absorbent. So, just throwing possibilities out there, I think if I wanted more sheen I might experiment with adding a bit of dish soap or Photo-flo or other lubricant.

And since I've found that sometimes trying the exact opposite of what you think is what ends up working with ink, maybe I'd see what happens if I let some of the ink evaporate a little before filling the pen.

Really, it is my hope that these WAGs will smoke out someone who actually knows what she or he is talking about. :)

[tiffanyhenschel]

Okay, I am no sheen expert, to put it mildly, but I feel bad there are no answers yet. :)

I've noticed that I see more sheen with wetter, broader nibs that put down more ink, and with paper like Tomoe River that is more coated and less absorbent. So, just throwing possibilities out there, I think if I wanted more sheen I might experiment with adding a bit of dish soap or Photo-flo or other lubricant.

And since I've found that sometimes trying the exact opposite of what you think is what ends up working with ink, maybe I'd see what happens if I let some of the ink evaporate a little before filling the pen.

Really, it is my hope that these WAGs will smoke out someone who actually knows what she or he is talking about. :)
I don't have time to go look for it right now, but I seem to remember reading a thread on FPN about this. They were testing various inks by leaving them to evaporate for a while. Some of them developed nice sheen.

[Special K]

Hey jbb, rather than looking for a way to add sheen to your existing ink (s). There is ink out there that already has a higher LRV than others. Just google Inks with hi sheen.

[mhguda]

In my experience, letting the ink evaporate and thus become more concentrated did it in those instances where an ink seemed to develop a sheen. You get a hint of this if you have a pen that's inked but not used for a while, say a few days, and it starts up immediately; that's when I've seen sheen in an ink that normally doesn't have it, or not much.

[oldstoat]

I'm no chemist, but from experience it seems that higher saturation ( whether intrinsic or the result of drying) is a factor. So is less absorbent paper, e.g. those with a slight glaze. I suspect that that leads to some ink drying on the surface rather than being absorbed and bound to the deeper fibres of the paper. This may mean that different solutes/dyes dry differentially in layers so that the sheen is the effect of light hitting and being reflected from different layers at different angles.

Try Majestic Blue....