Preventing ink inoculation

[bogiesan]

(cross-posted at FPN, now that it's back online)

I recently found specks and blobs of black mold in a bottle of Herbin 1670 Rouge Hematite. I know that a variety of fungus, algae and mold can grow in any non-sterile environment under the proper conditions. Asked a biologist what the source of contamination might be and she said, instantly, "We are filthy and our world is lousy with wild spores that float in the air and fall off your hair and skin. Whatever you put into the bottles is dirty, too."

Unless the ink manufacturer is incompetent, the most likely source of ink contamination is us.

I will now be wiping off the nibs and sections of my pens with alcohol before I insert them into ink bottles for refilling. I understand celluloid and other pen body materials should not be wiped with alcohol. I don't have any such materials in my pen collection, just plastics and metals.

david boise ID
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[Nomdeplume]

Or, you could use a clean syringe to remove ink from bottle and fill from another vial....or directly from syringe into pen/cartridge, depending on filling mechanism.

[Waski_the_Squirrel]

Most inks have fungicides in them. I don't know much about this one (though I do own a bottle). I wouldn't worry too much about it, except maybe with certain brands. I've heard somewhere that J. Herbin doesn't have real good fungicides.

For me: I'll continue to get the ink dirty.

[mhosea]

I've heard somewhere that J. Herbin doesn't have real good fungicides.

I guess they have a strong emphasis on being non-toxic, to their employees as well as consumers, but what you can say based on what they've written is that their additives were inadequate to prevent mold growth with the use of warm tap water in their production. They had to go to cleaner water to prevent it. Let that sink in.

[bogiesan]

Or, you could use a clean syringe to remove ink from bottle and fill from another vial....or directly from syringe into pen/cartridge, depending on filling mechanism.

I use a syringe to refill Sheaffer cartridges and I could probably shoot up the convertors, too, just never tried it.

I most likely gave colonies of lower life forms a ride into the bottle on the touchdown-filling Sheaffer; a lot of that particualr pen gets pushed deeply into this particular bottle.

[bogiesan]

Searching online for tales of mold and fungus and algae in inks led me to a similar conclusion: perhaps Herbin inks could be made to a higher standard. However, the 1670 series of inks come in a large volume bottle. Unless you are a prolific and monochromatic writer or artist your bottle of Hematite or Ocean is going to sit on your ink shelf for a very long time. My Rouge is from the very first shipment that came to the States in 2010, IIRC.

I now have a small squeeze bottle of 80% rubbing alcohol in my ink cabinet.

[mhosea]

Are you in the US? I am not one who believes that the state of California is a reliable arbiter of what is carcinogenic. Phenol has been used for a long time, and in large doses is problematic (so is water, BTW), however, when used in a 4% solution like this

http://www.naturalpigments.com/phenol.html

I do not think it is dangerous business. Chloraseptic spray is 1.4% phenol, for that matter. Buy a clean, amber or blue dropper bottle, since the spray applicator is the last thing you need. Unfortunately, shipping will cost more than the phenol, but AFAIK, unless you work in a lab, there's nothing for it.

After having a bottle of Eclat de Saphir go moldy, I eventually decided to add phenol to my bottle of J. Herbin 1670 Bleu Ocean.

[kaisnowbird]

I think I'll just have to be more diligent in using up my J Herbin stock.

[bogiesan]

[QUOTE=mhosea;57780
After having a bottle of Eclat de Saphir go moldy, I eventually decided to add phenol to my bottle of J. Herbin 1670 Bleu Ocean.[/QUOTE]

I will see how things go with swabbing alcohol.. If I can't prevent contamination I will try a drop or two of phenol.

[bogiesan]

UPDATE: 2014_01_26: I received a note from Herbin promising to replace the rouge soon but apparently the stock of 1670s at the distributor has been depleted and must be replenished from France. I don't mind if there is a delay of weeks or months; it is good that sales are good.
That was three weeks ago. I will post again when the package from Herbin arrives.

[bogiesan]

UPDATE: 22014_04_24: Four months have passed but no replacement bottle of ink has arrived.
So I dropped Herbin another note. Their representative is shocked--SHOCKED--that someone has gunk in this particular ink. They have completely forgotten our initial exchange and now they insist I send the bottle back for analysis before they will do anything for me. I don't mind sending the bottle back for a quick DNA scan, seems like a a reasonable request, but I wish they had simply asked me to do that four freaking months ago.
Conclusion: If you have intercourse with Herbin's USA customer service people, satisfaction is ultimately dependent upon your efforts to remind them to follow up or follow through. I'll let you know how this comes down in a few more weeks.

[bogiesan]

UPDATE: Issue resolved to my satisfaction. The customer service staff at Herbin is professional to the point of obsession. Handle them with care, be very nice, they'll be very nice back.

[dr.grace]

Are you in the US? I am not one who believes that the state of California is a reliable arbiter of what is carcinogenic. Phenol has been used for a long time, and in large doses is problematic (so is water, BTW), however, when used in a 4% solution like this

http://www.naturalpigments.com/phenol.html

I do not think it is dangerous business. Chloraseptic spray is 1.4% phenol, for that matter. Buy a clean, amber or blue dropper bottle, since the spray applicator is the last thing you need. Unfortunately, shipping will cost more than the phenol, but AFAIK, unless you work in a lab, there's nothing for it.

After having a bottle of Eclat de Saphir go moldy, I eventually decided to add phenol to my bottle of J. Herbin 1670 Bleu Ocean.

So how much of the 4% solution do you add to ink? IOW, what concentration of phenol is enough to inhibit mold growth?

[mhosea]

So how much of the 4% solution do you add to ink? IOW, what concentration of phenol is enough to inhibit mold growth?

Well that is a matter of some wishful thinking on my part. I shoot for something in the range of 0.1% or 0.2% concentration, depending on whether the ink is one that I worry about, and pray that there is no reaction to neutralize it (hence screwing up my calculation and also altering my ink in some unexpected way). I never add it to inks that I suspect to be alkaline, BTW, and if a person had any sense at all (which I don't always), they'd add the phenol and ink to a sample vial and test things out first.

Here's where I found most of my information originally:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...sts/?p=1965812