Ever had ink mold?

[jskeen]

I have a bottle of Noodler's "heart of darkness" ink that I had filled one of my inkwells with about 2 oz's of. I opened it the other day and found that the entire underside of the lid (turned maple, finished with renwax) was kind of fuzzy with a copper green patina, and there were clumps of the same green fuzz floating in the ink pool in the well.

It doesn't seem to effect the performance of the ink, after I had cleaned it out with a q-tip and filled my pen, but struck me as odd. I guess I'll turn myself a new stopper and finish the base with ca, or maybe cast myself up a blank and turn a stopper out of PR and see if it still gets fuzzy.

Any ideas why or how to prevent in the future appreciated.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Ok... with all luck, you have not inked a pen with it yet!!! Ink mold is VERY BAD in a pen and will play horrors with your feed. I assume the mold was in the ink well and not the HOD ink, Correct? IF you poured off a little ink into that ink well and not touched a pen from that ink well into the Noodlers bottle, then you most likely have a good bottle of ink with the ink well contaminated. I would quarantine the bottle of ink and watch it, but you have to seriously clean that ink well or pay the price.

There is an additive that Pendemonium sells to prevent the mold and it may be a good idea to pick up some and treat all of your ink. This way it does not stray on your pen and if you change ink contaminate another bottle.

PS.. You will need to do a full tear down cleaning on the pen that was inked from the ink well.

Go here and read this post from FPN :
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10060

 

[Scott]

Hi James!

I'm with Lee on this - mold is NOT a good thing! Whether it manifests as a full-blown infection, such as you had, or merely SITB (Stuff In The Bottle), it can really clog your feed.

There is a good chance the unsealed wood stopper may have brought this on, so yes, maybe make a new stopper out of some inert material. But just to be sure, I would follow Lee's suggestion to quarantine the original bottle of ink for a while to make sure it doesn't grow anything. And do flush the moldy ink, and sanitize your inkwell before refilling it. If it were me, I would sanitize the pen you used it in as well, just so you don't spread the infection. Maybe a weak ammonia solution would do the trick. Too bad - Heart of Darkness is supposed to be a nice ink! I don't have any (yet). Mostly I use Aurora Black for my black ink needs, although i have both blue-black and red-black in the Noodlers as well.

Scott.

 

[ed4copies]

GGGEEEEEZZZZZ James,

Maybe you better clear the HOUSE, move to the GARAGE and see what develops!!!!

Sorry guys, the seriousness level had escalated this to a RED ALERT!!!!

 

[Dan_F]

Well, actually, to a dedicated fountain pen user, it is a serious matter. Probably less so with a cartridge pen, but a mold infestation can be very difficult to eliminate once it gets established in a pen, particularly a lever or self contained piston filler. The things that can kill mold are often not friendly to pens either.

Dan

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Dan is right, top that off with filling systems and pen designs that are not easily torn apart and cleaned, like the feed system on a Parker 51 for example. By the time you see mold in a fully hooded pen, you have a serious problem. How about a Mont-Blanc piston filler, that is fun to try to remove maybe a 50-75 year old filler without damage to a pen.

PS... Scott, the HOD is a very nice ink... I had a sample of it a while back and even I really like it.

 

[jskeen]

Well, I called Luxury Products and talked to them about it, and they said that HOD started production after they switched to the new style anti mold additives. They did immediately offer to replace the bottle for me if I sent it in so they could analyze it. After checking the original bottle (totally free of any funky stuff) I came to the conclusion that it was the permeable finish on my wooden stopper on that inkwell causing the problem. As for the pen, it was just a jr gent with a spare black enamel section, so no great loss there. I trashed the converter, sterilized the feed, nib, and housing with DNA, and moved the ink in that inkwell to a squeeze bottle for shop use and sterilized the well with DNA. Cheap lesson to not turn inkwell stoppers from wood and wax finish.

This also works as incentive to turn a new stopper and matching pen blank for that full size gent kit I have been holding onto for my new personal desk set. Think I'll cast it up out of pr instead of wood though.

 

[KenV]

Technically Alcohol is not a disinfectant but rather a biostatic media. It is safe to put on skin and clean before injections, but it is not used to kill stuff. Moulds and especially the spores are highly resistant so suggest you use some strong halide (Iodine is a good one) and allow contact time to get the ugly stuff dead dead dead.