# Advice on vintage ink find



## MartinPens (May 11, 2012)

Caught a garage/antique sale this morning and there were two bottles of Sheaffer Skrip ink.  They seems fine to me, but I'm new to all of this. Any advice? Safe to use?  Photo attached.


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## IPD_Mr (May 11, 2012)

Bad ink will have a smell to it as well as a film of mold on top.  It is VERY rare to see vintage ink go bad.  I think you should be quite fine using that.  It is most likely from the early 1960s and the emerald is quite nice looking.


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## MartinPens (May 11, 2012)

It has an old smell, but no mold. Seems very viscous. I'll definitely give them a try. I like the ink jars. They have a partial divider in them to make drawing the ink into the nib easier. It was a cool find!

Sent from my iPad using Forum Runner


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## 76winger (May 11, 2012)

Great find, and the Emerald does look nice!


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## TomW (May 11, 2012)

MartinPens said:


> Caught a garage/antique sale this morning and there were two bottles of Sheaffer Skrip ink.  They seems fine to me, but I'm new to all of this. Any advice? Safe to use?  Photo attached.
> 
> View attachment 75398



Dang Martin,

I used that exact ink in 3rd grade penmanship class...go easy on the antique part...!

Tom


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## Haynie (May 11, 2012)

You'ld know if it was bad.  Real nasty smell.  An art teacher once told me to filter old ink before using it.  Don't know the truth of that.  He liked using older inks and paints for his personal stuff.


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## ashaw (May 11, 2012)

TomW said:


> MartinPens said:
> 
> 
> > Caught a garage/antique sale this morning and there were two bottles of Sheaffer Skrip ink.  They seems fine to me, but I'm new to all of this. Any advice? Safe to use?  Photo attached.
> ...



Tom I with you on this one.  I guess I am an antique.  Used the same one in my 3rd grade class.


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## MartinPens (May 12, 2012)

Vintage.... vintage ink. : )  does that soften the blow any?  I guess anything older than 30 years is called antique or vintage anymore.  Or I could just say "old and smelly" ink. : )


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## tomas (May 12, 2012)

MartinPens said:


> Vintage.... vintage ink. : ) does that soften the blow any? I guess anything older than 30 years is called antique or vintage anymore. Or I could just say "old and smelly" ink. : )


 
That probably describes some of us here better than vintage or antique.

Tomas


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## mredburn (May 12, 2012)

tomas said:


> MartinPens said:
> 
> 
> > Vintage.... vintage ink. : ) does that soften the blow any? I guess anything older than 30 years is called antique or vintage anymore. Or I could just say "old and smelly" ink. : )
> ...


 :biggrin: OR you could just run them all together to make sure they gottcha covered


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## ssajn (May 13, 2012)

Looking at these brings back memories. Before retiring I was in the paper packaging business and use to make the boxes for Sheaffer Ink.


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## Dan_F (May 13, 2012)

Ink should not be all that viscous, sounds like they may have lost some water in storage. You might need to dilute with distilled water to get them back where they should be. 

Dan


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