Latex diaphragm and certain inks

[sharmon202]

I read at mycoffeepot.org that latex material in a filling system reacted poorly to PR & Noodler's inks. They were referring specifically to an Edison Menlo at the time.
How do I know if I my pen has latex as a material in the filling apparatus?
Any opinions on the need to keep Private Reserve & Noodler's out of it?

[Silverbreeze]

If it's an Edison PN or Menlo it's Latex sac for sure. If it's a lever filler assume latex. If it's a Vacumatic assume latex.


With the sheer number of colors Diamine has I just avoid Noodler's and Private Reserve in sac pens to be safe, also avoid Salior Nano and JHerbin 1670

I do favor Noodler's in sacless pens btw

[joshjarrod345]

hahaha good one.... keep it up...

[KBeezie]

There are some who would say avoid all boutique inks (ie: inks not made by pen makers), some say avoid noodler's/PR, I'm more in the boat of avoid certain models of inks, but not the brand as a whole.

I like noodler's but there are some higher saturated ones I will stay away from, for example BayState Blue (this is the one that's getting all the bad rep for Noodler's as I haven't seen a melted sac or feed complaint from any other Noodler's inks, unless someone is failing to mention it), or something very dry and cloggy like Kung Te-Cheng. (same issue in terms of clogging can be had with pigmented inks like Platinum Carbon Black, etc).

But generally speaking, regardless of the ink brand, if cleaning and clogging is a major concern you usually need to stay away from thick highly saturated inks.

J.Herbin (1670 Blue for example), Waterman Black and Blue, Iroshizuku inks (Tsuki-yo etc), and Akkerman (Shocking Blue #5, Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indigo #6, etc) are some examples of inks I've tried that clean out pretty easy, but they're not waterproof either. In a Vac filler I'm leaning more towards inks that are easier to clean out, not because I think it may have an impact on the sac/diaphragm, just because it already takes long enough to clear out a Vac pen.

And when it takes long to clean out a pen, there's a higher chance of leaving some old ink in, and when you introduce new ink to it (different model or brand etc), *that's* where the potential for pen damage can come in since the chemicals may react negatively to each other.

Essentially Pen hygiene in general is not something to be overlooked especially when changing from one ink to a different one.