Pens in the cold

[Quantum Sailor]

So as I'm looking at the temperature on my phone showing a nice toasty 1 degrees F and contemplating the walk to the train station and subsequent standing on the platform waiting for it to arrive I have become curious as to the effect if any this will have on the fountain pens in my bag.

Does anyone know if extreme cold has an effect on modern/vintage fountain pens?

[fountainpenkid]

Ink, having soultes in it, freezes at a lower temperature than normal water, and will be less affected by the cold. If the ink inside the pen did freeze, the expansion of the ink could crack the pen if the material was weak enough, but I don't think that would happen. You aren't exposing your pens long enough to take them to sub-zero temperatures (assuming the bag is zipped or airtight to any degree). Safety pens found 100 years later on the bodies of WWI soldiers in France were found to still function and write after all that time (and during that time they would have experienced countless cold winters), so I would say you should have no worries.

[Waski_the_Squirrel]

The bag will provide insulation unless you're spending a long time in those temperatures. I walk to work daily with mine in my bag, and I live in North Dakota.

[tandaina]

Yeah, the bag will insulate them. And ink won't freeze at 32 degrees, would need a little colder than that.

When things freeze they do expand, however, our pens are not a sealed environment. Even a piston filler or eyedropper has space for the ink to expand into (unless you really topped it off) and would ooze out the feed before it burst the pen barrel. Bursting or breaking is most problematic when the liquid has no where to expand into, like a full and sealed bottle of water stuck in your freezer. A pen isn't that well sealed. I wouldn't worry, but I wouldn't leave the pens in your freezing cold car either. (Good way to get them stolen, and eventually at 0F the ink will freeze and if nothing else damage the INK.)

[KBeezie]

Though you could always use Noodler's Polar ink which is freeze-resistant, but not sure if certain pen materials themselves could be damaged by the cold itself. I imagine that the cold would most likely hurt the pens if the ink were to freeze and expand in certain areas.

As tandaina said, the ink could expand to an extent and leak, but if it completely freezes, it may have no where to expand when the exposed areas are frozen and it starts pushing on the body. Which is something I believe Noodler's Polar line prevents.

But I usually have a pen on my persons or in a bag, such as in the inside-pocket of my coat, or shirt pocket, or in rare cases (not likely to happen in the winter) in my pants pocket. The body heat alone would keep it from getting anywhere close to freezing, and a bag in between trips would insulate the pen quite well.

However if you do leave a bag out in the car overnight or something, make sure you do not open the bag and let the bag's content return to room temperature (ie: a couple hours). You may have urges to quickly check the content of the bag but the temperature and dew point in the house may cause the content to be quickly condensated or in some cases actually start to ice up on the outside. Which I've actually had happen to vintage cameras when I came back into the cabin from the cold winter, and my RB67 started condensating like crazy and within 5 minutes half an inch coat of ice was forming on it.

But yea, in bag or person during the trip from build to building etc. It wouldn't be long enough to be frozen, especially if it's on your person.

[dneal]

Everyone covered the issue of freezing, but what's going to happen (when you get to wherever you're going and use the pen) is that you will notice some condensation on the nib and (likely) inside the cap. Just keep some tissue on hand and blot the water away.

[Quantum Sailor]

thanks all for the responses