n00b ink question

[N6GQ]

So I have a bottle of Diamine Imperial Purple that's very nice.

I also have 3 new pens, 2 of which are demonstrators, one is not.

I filled all 3 pens with ink from the same bottle.

One of the pens sat on my desk for about a month before I used it again, the other two were put away. My desk doesn't have direct sunlight, but natural lighting is there all day every day.

The one that sat out in natural light (again, not direct sunlight) is MUCH darker than the other two. It appears almost black, while the other two are very nice purple as expected.

Is that normal for a pen with ink to have the ink get darker from sunlight? I'd have guessed if anything it would have gotten lighter, but darker?

[naimitsu]

Couple questions...

1. Do you know the temperature difference between the two storage places? Even indirect sunlight, it may be warmer on the desk, which would contribute to a bit of evaporation that can sometimes make colors more saturated.

2. What are the 3 pens? Maybe the 2 that were put away has a better seal than the one on the desk, which is another contributing factor to evaporation etc etc etc

3. Did all 3 start out the same? What I mean by this is whether or not they had the same ink in it before you changed, whether they were cleaned out at the same time and dried out the same way. If the one that sat out used to have a much darker ink in it before switching to Imperial Purple, then there might have been some residue in the converter or back end of the section that would not have been as readily apparent after the initial fill.

[N6GQ]

1. Temperature differential is minimal - indoors and temperature never outside of 65-70F for all 3 pens
2. The 3 pens are: Parker 45, Wing Sung 698, and Jinhao 599. The Jinhao and the Wing Sung are demonstrators (clear), and the Jinhao is the one that demonstrates the dark ink
3. All 3 started out essentially the same. Wing Sung and Jinhao were both brand new, and Parker was cleaned. So should have been no residue.

[naimitsu]

Did you clean the Wing Sung and Jinhao before filling?
Maybe there was some machining fluid residue on the Jinhao that may have affected the ink.
Try cleaning it and refilling it with new ink and leaving it out again. Then do a comparison with the current writing sample.

[Pterodactylus]

It is normal that the ink getting darker when parts of the ink evaporates.
The rate of evaporation is highly depending on the pen.

It also happens when your pen was unused a longer period of time that first it writes really dark as the ink in the nib evaporated and if you keep writing that new ink flows down that the color will be lighter again.
(When the ink in the converter/piston/sack,... did not evaporated that much).

So basically the effect is evaporation.

It also depends on the ink how prone to it it is (beside the pen, which has the biggest influence)
It also depend on the ink if it is still usable (of course the saturation increases).

Some inks are really prone to evaporation and get unusable quite soon.
The most extreme inks with respect to that I know are Noodler's Apache Sunset and Golden Brown.

If you fill a pen with Apache Sunset and let it sit for about a month the ink will turn to a gooey liquid which will never dry on paper anymore (really bad behavior).

https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5636/22813786049_1250eaeb34_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/AKYBLM)
Noodlers_response_05 (https://flic.kr/p/AKYBLM) by Ptero Pterodactylus (https://www.flickr.com/photos/117783735@N07/), auf Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5717/22885938940_7c520f1c8b_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/ASmqj9)
Noodlers_response_03 (https://flic.kr/p/ASmqj9) by Ptero Pterodactylus (https://www.flickr.com/photos/117783735@N07/), auf Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/751/23155673786_3225a6dbee_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/BhbT5W)
Noodlers_response_06 (https://flic.kr/p/BhbT5W) by Ptero Pterodactylus (https://www.flickr.com/photos/117783735@N07/), auf Flickr

Noodler's most likely would advertise this as hidden hardcopy feature :deadhorse:

This then looks like this when you turn the page

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/568/23189500275_0421bffe3a_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Bkbfwg)
Show_response_22 (https://flic.kr/p/Bkbfwg) by Ptero Pterodactylus (https://www.flickr.com/photos/117783735@N07/), auf Flickr

Others will evaporate much slower, and even when they get darker are still usable.

[N6GQ]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

To follow up, the Jinhao that was exhibiting the problem was NOT cleaned before inked, so that may well be part or all of the problem. I will clean it and then refill it again with the same Diamine ink and see what happens. I'm guessing that will tell us one thing - and if it still gets darker, perhaps it is the evaporation issue as suggested.

Thanks much, I learned something, appreciate the feedback.

[SIR]

Ptero has the answer; it has been said that an ink's capacity for 'sheen' can be enhanced if a small measure is left to 'breathe' for 24-48 hours before use.

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/198510-inks-with-a-sheen/page-26

[FredRydr]

Thread hijack: Pterodactylus, which camera, lens and settings did you use for this photograph?

Fred



https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/751/23155673786_3225a6dbee_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/BhbT5W)

[Pterodactylus]

Hi Fred,

this photo is quite old (December 2013) at that time I just used my iPhone 5 to take photos.
In this case I held a Belomo 10x Triplet in front of the iPhone camera (this worked surprisingly quite good :dirol: (at least in my opinion))


Side note:
Later I bought a Nikon D5200 with several lenses (including a macro), and all the newer pictures I posted are taken with that equipment.