Silcone Sacs

[wingwiper]

Anyone have good fortune using Silicone Sacs in Vintage Pens as compared to Latex Sacs?

I put 2 new Latex Sacs in pens and in a year they are wasted? Looking for something a little more durable.............

[AzJon]

Your latex sac should last much, much longer than a year. Not sure what is going on there...

[Jon Szanto]

Agreed with AzJon - latex sacs should last a very good number of years without failure. Sounds like a bad batch or maybe old stock? Cheap enough to re-do, but maybe ask about the quality/freshness of the sacs when you order.

[mmd]

Souns like bad ink to me.

[wingwiper]

gotcha.....thanks

[Fermata]

I have heard that some inks can have an effect, although this doesnt seem likely. What brand of ink have you been using?

[wingwiper]

I have heard that some inks can have an effect, although this doesnt seem likely. What brand of ink have you been using?

just standard Noodlers blue-black, black, etc...........nothing exotic at all

[mhosea]

Many suspect Noodler's ink in these cases, and that might be the correct diagnosis somehow or other, despite that most people don't experience problems like that. The sacs may be to blame, or if they are of a design where you touch the sac, environmental exposure could be a factor (e.g. I'm told that if you have printer's ink on your hands, you can make sacs fail with it).

If the the sac is not in contact with plastic, PVC (what Parker 51 aerometric sacs are made of) is a much better choice than pure silicone. Woodbin sells PVC sacs but calls them "silicone" (or used to--I might be out of date on that). They're quite good, just not appropriate unless they are encased in a metal shroud or are in an all-metal barrel. Pure silicone also suffers from gas permeability and, in my experience, problems with ink retention in the back of the sac, like what is complained about with some converters in cartridge/converter pens. The gas permeability problem is hard to live with, IMHO, leading to "burping" ink into the cap. Unfortunately, it's latex or silicone in vintage pens where the sac is in contact with celluloid and what not.

[grainweevil]

Other possibilities come to mind such as did you use talc? And if so, what sort?

[wingwiper]

No.........I did not talc it, but as far as the ink have been using Noodlers for years. I only use the more exotic colors in modern fillers, converters, etc. as to not take a chance with the sac.

I do a heck of a lot of writing and lam fond of the "archival" characteristic with many of Noodlers inks. I have been using Noodlers Eel in my PF, TD fillers for many years and never an iota of any problem. Maybe I will try switching up to something else in my sac pens to see if it helps? The only thing is I have vintage Waterman 52's, 7's, ED's filigree's (too many to list as all numbers go crazy), Moore's, Eversharp, Sheaffer's, Hard Rubber, Celluloid, etc. pretty much every pen you can think of (I have too many) I have been using the same ink in for years w/out issue?

Like whoever said..........maybe a few were just a bad batch

[mmd]

I had bad experience with Noodler's ink. I basically let the ink sit in my pen for 10 days and the sac was destroyed. The ink leaked out from the sac, right through the lever box and onto everything underneath. Just standard black, which I also had been using for a while. However, no two Noodler's standard blacks are the exactly same. Not sure what the problem was but I stopped using Noodler's in my vintage pens and switch to Quink, later Pilot black and blue black. Two years after that and this never happened to me again. Many pen repairers discourage using Noodler's inks in sac and personally, I don't take those as just bs.

Unrelated: Pilot inks (those 350ml ones not iroshizuku) are great, consistent and much cheaper and I really like that glass bottle it comes with.

[grainweevil]

No.........I did not talc it

Well, then. Given one of the reasons for so doing are to protect the sac from premature decay, I'd start there.

[wingwiper]

No.........I did not talc it

Well, then. Given one of the reasons for so doing are to protect the sac from premature decay, I'd start there.

Sounds like a plan......thank you!


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