Noodler's Baystate blue just ruined my Ahab! Help!

[gforce]

True, the pen is not "ruined",it still writes well; but the stain remains. What other noodlers inks do the same thing? I will use BSB in cartridge pens only, not in piston pens.










"What you permit, you promote"

[KrazyIvan]

[Yoda] Pen filling system matters it does not. What kind of pen hygiene you keep matters it does.[/Yoda]

[fountainpenkid]

Aurora Blue stains every bit as much as BSB but no one treats THAT ink like radioactive waste.

Hmmmmm? I've used that in three vintage celluloid pens and I've never had any problem with that ink. At all. Maybe they changed the formula?

[Sailor Kenshin]

Aurora Blue stains every bit as much as BSB but no one treats THAT ink like radioactive waste.

Hmmmmm? I've used that in three vintage celluloid pens and I've never had any problem with that ink. At all. Maybe they changed the formula?

It's possible. This was a sample vial I got not long ago.

[cedargirl]

True, the pen is not "ruined",it still writes well; but the stain remains. What other noodlers inks do the same thing? I will use BSB in cartridge pens only, not in piston pens.










"What you permit, you promote"

Noodler's Kung Te-cheng comes with a warning that it stains nibs.

[mhphoto]

True, the pen is not "ruined",it still writes well; but the stain remains. What other noodlers inks do the same thing? I will use BSB in cartridge pens only, not in piston pens.

Why does everyone think this is strictly a Noodler's issue?

It's ink. Ink, by definition, stains.

[Jon Szanto]

Why does everyone think this is strictly a Noodler's issue?

I didn't notice "everyone" thinking or implying that. Nathan Tardiff makes a lot of inks, with differing formulas. Some of them have issues. This is not to say that his is the only brand that contains some inks that are more difficult than others.

It's ink. Ink, by definition, stains.

However, in varying degrees. With knowledge, one can certainly have a less-staining experience.

[AltecGreen]

BSB is a weird ink.


Here is what happened to a brand new Lamy Safari belonging to a fellow Pen Posse member inked with BSB for less than a week. This was a brand new pen, flushed with water, and only inked with BSB. The feed basically crumbled and the nib fell out while in use.







In my own experience, I had Brian Gray make a pen out of Torlon just for BSB. That pen was also brand new and only inked with BSB. In my case, after a few weeks of use, the flow slowed. I took the entire feed assembly apart and found the BSB had crystallized within the feed. The crystals were about 1 mm in size and could not be dissolved in tap water. I had to manually scrap the crystals out of the feed.

Weird ink.

[jor412]

That's really weird. I use BSB in a black Pilot 78G. If I hold it at a certain angle I can see how the ink has stained the feed & section, but nothing else has happened to the pen.

[whych]

Moral of the story seems to be:
Use BSB only in a pen you don't mind getting ruined if the ink doesn't agree with its innards.

From all the stories about the ink, it seems to affect a wide range of pens and react differently in each case.
It also seems that it is entirely random in that someone will use it in his pen with no ill effects and someone else will use it in the same brand/model pen and it chews the pen.

It's possible. This was a sample vial I got not long ago.

What the guys never report is whether it is from a brand new bottle or a sample bottle.
Perhaps it's a contamination issue in the bottles that there is something else in the bottle or sample that combined with the ink causes the problems.

True, the pen is not "ruined",it still writes well; but the stain remains. What other noodlers inks do the same thing? I will use BSB in cartridge pens only, not in piston pens.

The old German piston pens should be able to take most things that are thrown at them. The likes of Rotring, Faber Castell and Staedtler all used the same material and pistons for the drawing pens that would clean up quite happily after having India ink formulas dry in them.

If you ever use or plan to use old vintage pens, stay away from alcohol for cleaning - it will eat the pens. Even Montblanc bodies will disintegrate with alcohol. Rather get some drafting ink pen cleaner and use that. (Rotring, Koh I Nor make them. Find the cheapest in your area.)

[Sailor Kenshin]

Uhm... Just to clear things up.

The 'it' I was referring to as quoted above was AURORA blue, not BSB. I mentioned that AB stained a cart, pipette, and cleaning tool every bit as badly as BSB is said to stain, and no one treats AB as nuclear waste.

My AB is from a recent sample bottle. I can't control or determine what batches samples come from. Nor can anyone else.

I agree that BSB is best in a dedicated, inexpensive pen.

[whych]

The 'it' I was referring to as quoted above was AURORA blue, not BSB. I mentioned that AB stained a cart, pipette, and cleaning tool every bit as badly as BSB is said to stain, and no one treats AB as nuclear waste.

My AB is from a recent sample bottle. I can't control or determine what batches samples come from. Nor can anyone else.

I agree that BSB is best in a dedicated, inexpensive pen.

Your mentioning that you got the AB in a sample, just gave me the idea that perhaps the BSB also came from samples. No many of the 'help! BSB ruined my pen' posts mention anything of whether the ink was from a sample/old batch/new batch, etc.

Like you say, there are other brands of ink that can do just as good a job at staining pens as BSB, but nobody ever posts that the ink ruined their pen.
Just like the old iron gall inks could ruin a pen, I have bought, cleaned and used many old German pens that were probably never cleaned in their lifetimes and were fed a diet of Pelikan or whatever blue black and still work perfectly after a clean out.

Perhaps the new synthetic dyes in the modern inks that are more harmful to the pen than the old stuff.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I wouldn't be surprised. People also seem to treat IG inks as poison, but maybe they are not.

[Jon Szanto]

I mentioned that AB stained a cart, pipette, and cleaning tool every bit as badly as BSB is said to stain, and no one treats AB as nuclear waste.

1. I think, at least in the representative sample on the forums, that far, far fewer people use AB than BSB. You may not see problems reported with AB, but you also certainly don't see people touting it's innate incredibleness as you do the League of Fanbois and Grrlls of BSB.

2. Since you mention your staining, have you heard of *anyone* reporting a similar problem with AB? I'm curious, because I am totally committed to Aurora Black, and I've considered giving the Blue a try.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I mentioned that AB stained a cart, pipette, and cleaning tool every bit as badly as BSB is said to stain, and no one treats AB as nuclear waste.

1. I think, at least in the representative sample on the forums, that far, far fewer people use AB than BSB. You may not see problems reported with AB, but you also certainly don't see people touting it's innate incredibleness as you do the League of Fanbois and Grrlls of BSB.

2. Since you mention your staining, have you heard of *anyone* reporting a similar problem with AB? I'm curious, because I am totally committed to Aurora Black, and I've considered giving the Blue a try.

Nope. Haven't, but then this is my first exoerience with AB, and I,ve read reviews, and no one mentions staining either.

I am indeed wondering whether the AB formula has changed, because everyone also says it has a purple cast, but mine reads turquoise.

And since it is growing on me, I've changed its status from Nemesis Ink to Use Only In Certain Pens.

[fountainpenkid]

I mentioned that AB stained a cart, pipette, and cleaning tool every bit as badly as BSB is said to stain, and no one treats AB as nuclear waste.

1. I think, at least in the representative sample on the forums, that far, far fewer people use AB than BSB. You may not see problems reported with AB, but you also certainly don't see people touting it's innate incredibleness as you do the League of Fanbois and Grrlls of BSB.

2. Since you mention your staining, have you heard of *anyone* reporting a similar problem with AB? I'm curious, because I am totally committed to Aurora Black, and I've considered giving the Blue a try.

Nope. Haven't, but then this is my first exoerience with AB, and I,ve read reviews, and no one mentions staining either.

I am indeed wondering whether the AB formula has changed, because everyone also says it has a purple cast, but mine reads turquoise.

And since it is growing on me, I've changed its status from Nemesis Ink to Use Only In Certain Pens.

Turquoise??? You sure have a different formula then!! Mine is like 4001 royal bleu, but richer.

[Laura N]

I mentioned that AB stained a cart, pipette, and cleaning tool every bit as badly as BSB is said to stain, and no one treats AB as nuclear waste.

1. I think, at least in the representative sample on the forums, that far, far fewer people use AB than BSB. You may not see problems reported with AB, but you also certainly don't see people touting it's innate incredibleness as you do the League of Fanbois and Grrlls of BSB.

2. Since you mention your staining, have you heard of *anyone* reporting a similar problem with AB? I'm curious, because I am totally committed to Aurora Black, and I've considered giving the Blue a try.

Nope. Haven't, but then this is my first exoerience with AB, and I,ve read reviews, and no one mentions staining either.

I am indeed wondering whether the AB formula has changed, because everyone also says it has a purple cast, but mine reads turquoise.

And since it is growing on me, I've changed its status from Nemesis Ink to Use Only In Certain Pens.

By coincidence, I just spilled some Aurora Blue this afternoon. It cleaned up very nicely.

It's an ink I've used for years, out of different bottles, and never had staining. It is also never been turquoise for me. It's a standard blue, pretty close to Montblanc Royal Blue and similar to Pelikan Royal Blue or Waterman Serenity Blue. The bottle I'm using now I got a few months ago.

I don't know if your sample is wonky or a different ink. But it doesn't sound like Aurora Blue to me in color or behavior. YMMV.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Intriguing!

My AB leans more turquoise on certain papers, too. And stainy-wainy. As in, This Pipette Will Never Be The Same.

[Jon Szanto]

Sounds like a bad batch. I remember about a year ago a big to-do about Omas Blue coming out with some really odd formulas, very different. Happened to be at a time I got a sample from Goulets, and people were posting "Whoa! This can't be right." I ended up not ordering any because it didn't sound like they were going to try to sort it out any time soon.

It happens, I think.

[Sailor Kenshin]

And the funny thing is, it's grown on me.