Cactus Fruit Eel

[Lady Onogaro]

So a weird thing happened to me. I got a new Nemosine Singularity with a .06 stub nib, and I tried this ink in it. It gushed a bit, but then I thought it settled down. I wrote a half a page in it and then put the pen down. When I went back to the pen, I found the cap was wet with the ink. It turned out that the ink had run through the pen into the cap.

I flushed the ink out of the pen and am now using one of the cartridges that came with the pen (I am guessing it is the Chesterfield brand). I'm not having any problems with it now.

So I wanted to know if others had this happen to them. I don't think it is the pen; maybe the pen in combination with the ink? Should I not try to use this ink with this pen? I read somewhere where someone said diluting it could solve a problem with wetness.

I don't necessarily want to give up on the ink as I like the color.

[mhosea]

While ink is a factor, and some Noodler's inks have very low surface tension, I would tend to suspect a problem with the converter, either an air leak at the nipple or a problem with the piston of the converter. Of course crack is possible in general, but I am guessing this is a new converter. If you have any empty international cartridges, try rinsing them out and refilling them with the Noodler's ink. You will probably need a syringe and a blunt-tip needle such as

http://www.gouletpens.com/Goulet_5ml...inksyringe.htm
http://www.andersonpens.net/Syringe-...-p/rs-sy20.htm

The service being provided above is allowing you to buy just one or two. You can purchase syringes and Luer lock blunt-tip needles (suggest 20 gauge, though 18 will work) from many sources, but mostly in bulk. Once you've verified (I predict) that it isn't the ink, rather the converter, we might try to fix the converter or just get another one ($6 for 3 where you bought your pen).

[Lady Onogaro]

Hi, Mike,

I did use what should be a new converter with the pen. I do have a syringe kit from Goulet (in fact, I filled the converter with it). Could that have caused the problem (rather than drawing the ink up through the nib)?

I will also try rinsing out a cartridge and using it.

Thanks so much for your quick response.

[broadoblique]

I use a lot of the Cactus Fruit, I keep a TWSBI 540 1.1 full of it, - fabulous color - and have never had a problem with it. North African Violet is my disobedient Noodler's. I find that it likes to creep all over the nib and inside of the cap on my TWSBI 580 when I'm not looking.
I find that those two colors look so fantastic through the clear barrels of the TWSBI that some creep wouldn't stop me using them.
TWSBI ink colors.jpg

[Lady Onogaro]

I tried filling a cartridge with the Cactus Eel, and at first things looked just peachy. A few seconds into a page, GUSH! I pointed the nib upwards and it stopped. I can write with the nib upside down, and it's not a problem. But I don't know if it is going to work with the nib right side down for long without gushing. I am wondering if it is the nib itself, which is pretty flat (it's as if the ink pours around the sides of the feed).

It didn't happen with the cartridge I used, though.

[Lady Onogaro]

I use a lot of the Cactus Fruit, I keep a TWSBI 540 1.1 full of it, - fabulous color - and have never had a problem with it. North African Violet is my disobedient Noodler's. I find that it likes to creep all over the nib and inside of the cap on my TWSBI 580 when I'm not looking.
I find that those two colors look so fantastic through the clear barrels of the TWSBI that some creep wouldn't stop me using them.
TWSBI ink colors.jpg

They do look gorgeous!

[mhosea]

I am wondering if it is the nib itself, which is pretty flat (it's as if the ink pours around the sides of the feed).

No, that sounds pretty typical when you've got a gushing problem. Your bottle Cactus Fruit Eel could have too much surfactant in it. I've never used that ink, so I don't know what's normal for it. Does that ink work in other pens without gushing? That's worth trying if you haven't already. Aside from air leaks (various ways) and ink with too much surfactant in it, I can't think of anything else that would have that effect.

[Lady Onogaro]

I changed the Cactus Fruit to a different ink (De Atramentis Dianthus) and used the converter, and now everything seems fine. The Cactus Fruit Eel was a sample I had from Goulet; maybe it was something in the formulation of the ink. I might try what little is left in another pen to see if I get a different result.

[tiffanyhenschel]

Is there any chance you recently flushed the pen with a rinsing solution and didn't get it completely flushed out with water? If there was any residual solution left in the pen combined with a naturally lubricating ink, that would explain the problem. I did that once.

I don't have experience with that ink myself, but I know carribean_sky has used it a lot.

[mhosea]

Is there any chance you recently flushed the pen with a rinsing solution and didn't get it completely flushed out with water? If there was any residual solution left in the pen combined with a naturally lubricating ink, that would explain the problem. I did that once.

I don't have experience with that ink myself, but I know carribean_sky has used it a lot.

Or maybe this happened at GPC with the syringe they were using, not systemically but as a one-off slip up.

[jde]

The 'Eel' series of inks are designed for piston filling pens to help lubricate the pistons. The 'eels' are 'self-lubricating' inks.

Suppose you can use them in other types of filling systems, but this may be a large factor in why you experienced the gushing. Not that a converter isn't a piston, but that's not the intended type.

Just pointing out the 'obvious.'

Cheers!

[LunaAzurina]

The 'Eel' series of inks are designed for piston filling pens to help lubricate the pistons. The 'eels' are 'self-lubricating' inks.

Suppose you can use them in other types of filling systems, but this may be a large factor in why you experienced the gushing. Not that a converter isn't a piston, but that's not the intended type.

Just pointing out the 'obvious.'

Cheers!

I never would have figured that out. Thank you.

[mhosea]

Suppose you can use them in other types of filling systems, but this may be a large factor in why you experienced the gushing.

Doubtful. If it did, piston fillers would be gushing all over the place with it, too. Lots of people choose Eel inks because they think it makes the ink feel smoother than the standard counterpart (when there is one). I don't think a water-soluble piston-lubricating additive is likely to decrease surface tension much, and the opposite may be true. Richard Binder even opines that Noodler's Eel inks sometimes do not flow at all in some pens that seem to work just fine with other inks. Now that I haven't experienced, but it does seem to me that Gruene Cactus Eel has a flow rate just a notch below most of the standard, non-Eel inks that I use. I use Noodler's Blue a lot, and when I tried Blue Eel, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary in my non-piston pens.

[jde]

Here is what Mr. Binder states on his website about eel inks.

[mhosea]

Here is what Mr. Binder states on his website about eel inks.

I guess based on my experience with Eel inks flowing less freely, if anything, I interpreted doesn't "flow properly" to refer to halting or intermittent flow. It never occurred to me before that one might interpret "often do not flow properly" to mean that they gush. Are you suggesting that he is referring to excess flow?