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#1 D Armstrong

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Posted 10 February 2016 - 09:10 PM

There has been some debate as to whether some inks can negatively affect the rubber sacs in vintage pens. This 1950s Sheaffer's Snorkel crossed our bench this week:
 
gooeysac.jpg
 
You will note the lovely way the hole matches how the ink pooled in the pen when it was at rest. The little ball beside the sac is the gooified residue that once was the missing sac wall. The perimeter of the hole is quite gummy. The sac was a new one; all but the gooey hole is lovely, new, stretchy, bouncy rubber. This means that it's not a defective sac, but one that was compromised.
 
It should be noted that the thickness of a snorkel sac is about half that of a regular sac (it needs to be thinner to allow the filling system to work properly). As such, snorks can be considered to be like the proverbial 'canary in a coal mine', in that they will probably fail in this way faster than a full-thickness sac.
 
The ink? The customer says it was Caran d'Ache "Storm". We have seen similar, although not as picturesque, damage from Diamine "Midnight Blue".
 
As several qualified repair people have stated in the past: when choosing ink for vintage pens, stick to that made by reputable pen manufacturers (e.g.: Parker, Waterman, Pelikan, etc.). You are also likely safe with companies who have successfully made ink for hundreds of years, like Herbin.

David Armstrong
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#2 vintage penman

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Posted 10 February 2016 - 10:32 PM

Diamine has been in business for 150 + years. Barring a few odd examples most are safe in my experience.



#3 FarmBoy

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Posted 17 February 2016 - 02:59 PM

It is not clear that the sac in a Snorkel or Touchdown needs to be a special thinner sac.  A thinner sac would compress easier but not relax back with as much ease as a thicker one.

 

I believe there was/were a few topics about this somewhere.  David Nishimura and I discussed this once as well. 

 

I am now of the opinion it is a combination of certain inks and the latex formulation.

 

Todd



#4 entertainment

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Posted 06 March 2016 - 02:43 AM

Last year, at the Philly Pen Show, I was told by one of the preeminent pen restorers that he only uses pvc sacs in his Snorkel repairs because he had been having so many sac failures with rubber sacs like the one shown in the original post.






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