Mystery Inks

[Paddler]

Went trudging around my favorite flea market, this morning. Found a few miscellaneous pieces of hardware I was looking for and then spotted a group of 3 – oz. Noodler's bottles standing between a collection of ball peen hammers and a vintage 8 – track tape player. They were five Noodler's bottles and they were chuck full of ink. There was also a bottle of permanent blue black Skrip, 2/3 bottle of Parker Penman Emerald, and ¾ bottle of Private Reserve Suede blue.

“What are you asking for the ink?”

“$5.00 a bottle. I can deal on the whole lot.”

“Hmmmm. . . . How about $20 for the lot?”

“Done!”

That is the good news. The bad news is that the Noodler's bottles had been in a flood and four of the labels had washed away. One label says “walnut”. The other bottles contain mystery ink. One is a pretty blue, one is a deep red, two are different shades of purple. I don't really care what the inks' names are, but I would like to know if any are bullet proof. I guess I can do some experiments and find that out. What fun, huh?

[Chrissy]

:) Yes. It sounds like fun.

[Paddler]

The one Noodler's ink that is a pretty blue indoors turns out to be green in direct sunlight. Doesn't that frost your granny's knuckles?

The bottle of Skrip had chunks in the bottom -- crunchy chunks that don't dissolve in water. I think that stuff was the "permanent" fraction of the ink. I poured it all over the side. I will use the bottle for other inks; the Skripwell is ideal for dip pens.

[fountainpagan]

That is a great deal.

And solving the mistery sounds like great fun. Do you expect some help from the forum, or will you just inform us on your lone ranger's progress?:wink:

[Chrissy]

The one Noodler's ink that is a pretty blue indoors turns out to be green in direct sunlight. Doesn't that frost your granny's knuckles?

The bottle of Skrip had chunks in the bottom -- crunchy chunks that don't dissolve in water. I think that stuff was the "permanent" fraction of the ink. I poured it all over the side. I will use the bottle for other inks; the Skripwell is ideal for dip pens.

I agree with you about the old Sheaffer Skripwell bottles, but they can have a tendency to get rusty cap threads that annoy me.

I heard that Noodler's Walnut can be quite a nice brown ink. It's not going to be easy deciding which ones are bulletproof and which, if any, aren't though. :)

I even remember the 8 track tape player. Shows my age huh. ;)

[Paddler]

I can probably keep this thread bumped up for a while. It will probably take a couple of months' exposure to direct sunlight to tell if any of these are bulletproof (or bullet resistant). I don't know how anyone on the forum can help identify these inks. There would have to be a way to calibrate the colors on everyone's monitors.

I did a preliminary rinse test today. They all rinse out of paper except the walnut and the one I call "deep red". The walnut is a lot darker than the homebrew walnut I make here from green husks.

My age shows too. At the flea market I asked for a seller's asking price for his plane iron sharpener. He said in the last two weeks I was the first guy who knew what that thing was. His price was still too dear. I will have to keep sharpening my plane irons by hand.

[KKay]

Walnut is a nice ink, I've tried it. It is not bulletproof. (says partially-uv resistant, bleach resistant etc...) It is forgery resistant and water resistant. I saw a review where someone had this ink and it would stay in your pen for quite some time, and then just write with no issues. It may take a while to dry on coated paper. I didn't have that problem with my sample, but some have mentioned it before. If you want to use it on coated paper, I'd give it a try. If it is hard to dry, dilute with a small amount of water. I think it was pretty and well behaved.

[fountainpagan]

I confirm Walnut Brown is a beautiful ink.
Yes, it is a slow dryer, especially with high grade papers. With cheap porous ones, it dries quite quickly.

[Paddler]

You folks have peaked my interest in the walnut ink. I will dilute some of it to see if it has the same warm tint as the real thing.

Real walnut ink will wash out of paper if you pour warm distilled water over it. However, you can soak it for weeks in a closed book and it will stay in place. If you had water damage in a fire, your journals written in real walnut ink would survive.

[SIR]

I don't know how anyone on the forum can help identify these inks.

Chroma test samples?

[Paddler]

I don't know how anyone on the forum can help identify these inks.

Chroma test samples?

Probably not worth the effort. If the ink won't wash out or spread on soaking or fade in UV light, it is good enough for my purposes. If it won't perform at that level, I will still use it to write drafts.

[SIR]

I don't know how anyone on the forum can help identify these inks.

Chroma test samples?

Probably not worth the effort. If the ink won't wash out or spread on soaking or fade in UV light, it is good enough for my purposes. If it won't perform at that level, I will still use it to write drafts.

Let us see the colours, then maybe someone or other will be able to recognise them?

[Paddler]

I don't know how anyone on the forum can help identify these inks.

Chroma test samples?

Probably not worth the effort. If the ink won't wash out or spread on soaking or fade in UV light, it is good enough for my purposes. If it won't perform at that level, I will still use it to write drafts.

Let us see the colours, then maybe someone or other will be able to recognise them?

OK. Wait until I find a site that will host photos.

[Paddler]

Here are writing samples of the mystery inks. Forgive the poor writing; I was working in the garden all morning and my hands were shaky.

http://i.imgur.com/lk22LCG.jpg

[Paddler]

Mystery ink #4 is a real chameleon. In tungsten light it appears a deep red. In LED "simulated sunlight" it is dark blue. Outside in direct sunlight it is green. Go figure.