Interesting.

I only observed slime one time in one of my inks.

Guess which one..... yes of course a Private Reserve.

It´s Private Reserve Tanzanite.

I observed the slime maybe 2 years ago. I removed the slime from the bottle with a tooth pick as good as I could.

The rest of the ink looked and wrote like normal.
I tested it only once in a converter pen which I flushed thoroughly after use.
I faced no cross contermination to other inks after that.

Since then I didn´t used the Tanzanite anymore, but I also did not throw it away.

Seeing this thread today inspired me to take a look at the Tanzanite again.

So this is what I found right before.

Private Reserve Tanzanite Slime


Yes there is some slime mainly in the upper part of the bottle, the ink itself still look fine.
And there was way less slime than I observed the first time.
It does not seem to progress really.


So I´m curious, is this really a biologially contermination?
Does it really live?

Or is it a kind of chemical reaction which can happen with specific inks?


If it is a biological contermination I would have expected a much higher quantity of slime in there, but after 2 years the ink (beside of the minor slime) still look fine.
Ok, the ink smells, but I´m not sure if the Private reserve already smelled that way before.
There is also no sign of mold or something like that.


If it is just a weird chemical reaction I would expect that there can´t be any cross contermination to other inks via pens happen.

If it really lives, then of course it could happen.

But as each ink already come with biocides that should prevent contermination I wonder how likely a broad contermination would be.

There are microorganisms all arround and I would expect if the biocides inside a ink are sufficient and intact they should prevent a contermination even you keep using the conterminated ink in pens.



How are your experiences, did somebody faced a cross contermination over various inks from various manufacturers?


Or is it just a local thing caused either by a chemical instability or a insufficient biocide protection of specific inks (or inks from specific manufacturers).


As Private Reserve is often affected I think we can assume that their inks are faulty in the one or the other way.


This is an interesting topic, I´m keen to read your thoughts and experiences.