Newb ink question

[Alec_J]

I have read hundreds of posts and can't find a straight answer. Is it ok to return ink to the original bottle? If not why?

I am completely open and want to do what's best practice. I certainly don't want to ruin a full bottle of ink over 1ml or less.

I watched a Goulet video and Brian said its just fine to return ink to its original bottle. So that's what I've done a few times. I then have read differing opinions but without sufficient reason. I realize Brian is a retailer and earns a living by selling more ink, but I would think his interests would be best served by publishing good information.

If the pen is clean prior to inking it, and I use less than half of a converter in a day or two, why is it bad practice to return it to its original bottle?

I hope I haven't already ruined my current VERY modest collection of inks .

Thank you all for your collective knowledge and experience. I have learned a tremendous amount already from everyone. Also thank you all for making this blog SO welcoming and supportive! I have other hobbies where the accompanying forums are much less welcoming and friendly. This forum and community are awesome!

Alec

[cwent2]

If you transfer the ink from the converter to the ink bottle it is safer than sending the ink from the converter through the nib section to the bottle because by writing your nib collects minute particles of paper (dust) and that has the ability to corrupt the ink.

I would recommend not doing either of the above - instead if you feel you may want to change colors more frequently - don't fill the converter completely - 1/2 full or less - then dump the ink you do not use.

Hope that is useful.

[Jon Szanto]

I'll just give my thoughts on it, nothing overtly conclusive but a fair amount of reading, paying attention, and using pens and inks for a few years.

First off, it probably is wrong to think that it is either "perfectly safe" or "absolute disaster" to return ink. My guess is that more often than not, it would be a benign situation. So why not do it, then?

First off, it is probably a very small amount of ink. On the chance that something in your pen could cause mold growth, SITB, or any other problems, why risk an entire bottle for a few drops

Second, even someone who attempts to practice good pen hygiene - like me, for instance - can tell you: there are some pens, no matter how much you flush them, can still retain a small amount of ink (in the section or feed, sometimes in a sac or barrel if that kind of filler, etc). You may do the best you can, but when you fill that pen with another ink, you may be mixing it with another color and/or 'infecting' it with foreign matter. It only then becomes a problem if you return some of that ink, including the pollutants, back into an otherwise pristine bottle. You might not make the ink in the bottle go bad, but you might affect the color or performance.

Have I *ever* put ink back? Sure. I can't remember the circumstances, but I try not to go through life being rigidly dogmatic. Might have been a brief fill in a clean pen that I changed my mind on, returning a very standard (maybe inexpensive) ink back to the bottle. In general, I don't. I really don't.

But I don't just flush it down the drain, either!

I've got four very small bottles, labeled as "Black mix", Blue, Red, Other... If a pen had some black in it that has just a bit left and I've got to get it out, I'll put it in the black mix bottle. I keep these around, and they hardly have any ink in them. But I'll use that, rather than fresh, 'good' ink, when testing pens I might be repairing, or using with dip nibs, etc. I keep an eye to make sure the ink looks ok - not cloudy, lumpy, odd smell, etc. I should also note that I have never personally experienced an ink go bad. Maybe my habits have paid off, or just lucky, or that it doesn't happen often.

Hope this helps. Bottom line: tossing an entire bottle wouldn't be worth it, just for a drop or two every so often. Recycle into a 'bulk' ink mix, or just flush it out.

[Laura N]

I agree with both of the previous posters: I don't think it's necessarily disaster if you do it, but I don't put ink back into the bottle. Instead I only partially fill the pen if I think I won't use that ink much. I'm of the "better safe than sorry" school. If there's a small amount of ink that I flush unused, it's always very little, and I don't worry about it.

[ac12]

I used to do that all the time, when I refilled a partially empty pen, the old ink gets ejected into the bottle.

Now I use a pipette to move ink from the bottle to an ink vial.
Then I load the pen from the ink vial.
If I unload the pen, it is into the ink vial.

That keeps the ink in the bottle from getting any "stuff" from the pen.

And what was mentioned about dust and stuff, I recently clogged one of my pens by writing on a particular paper. "Something" from the paper got stuck in the slit and jammed up the ink flow. Sticking the nib into the bottle would have transferred whatever 'something' that was into the bottle. So nibs do pickup 'stuff' from the paper (lint, dust, dirt, etc) that you probably would not want going into the ink bottle.

[Alec_J]

Thank you all. I did not know or think about the paper particles, or that there may be residual ink left to contaminate a different bottle. I will only partially fill and/or use a separate return container in the future. I completely agree Laura "better safe than sorry". Thanks again!

[Sailor Kenshin]

For me, it started with a bottle I found difficult and fussy to open. *stipulacalamomuskcoughcough*. So I put a good amount of said ink into an easy-open vial. Then I did the same with a couple other inks.

I'm not doing it with every bottle, but a few. Maybe you do that, and 'risk' a far smaller volume of ink if you want to return some to the vial.

[fncll]

My practice is much like previous posters: I occasionally put ink back into the bottle---if it's a particularly full cart/conv/etc and/or an expensive ink---or into an old ink sample vial. When I do, I don't expel ink through the nib unless it's impractical not to, even though I suspect any "contamination" of dust or fibers or what-have-you is exceedingly small.

But the bottom line for me is: I prefer to write the pens dry!

[tandaina]

I just write my pens dry or nearly dry and then flush.

I doubt you'll find a definitive answer on this. Lots of folks do it without issue. But every now and then... There was a story recently of someone putting the *wrong* ink back into a bottle, ruined bottle of ink. There's always the chance of returning mold spores or other pollutants to the bottle. I have a number of limited edition or discontinued inks that I love. I absolutely will not do *anything* to put them at unnecessary risk. After all, I can't just replace them.

So my policy is: no ink returns to the bottle once it has left. Sometimes that means I waste a little ink down the sink, but I'd rather that then potentially waste a whole bottle of $40 ink I bought limited edition from Japan (add in shipping and it's more like a $50 bottle of ink) and can't get another of.

[ac12]

I just did that screw up the other day.
I had a pen with Cross/Pelikan blue ink in it, and I knew what ink was in the pen.
But I grabbed the ink vial of WATERMAN blue, knowing it was WATERMAN blue.
Then I proceeded to dip the pen into that vial. GRRRRRR

Luckily it was only a dip rather than a load, because I usually load the pen, expel the ink then load again, which would have put a lot more of the Cross/Pelikan ink into the vial than just a dip.

Don't load ink when you are tired, one part of the brain does not talk to the other part of the brain.

[Chrissy]

I'm in the 'I only partly fill the pen' group. But I have returned ink to very small bottles, or almost empty bottles, during my lifetime. I'm also OCD about cleaning my pens out every time I empty them.