Heard a guy at the pen show say 'all shimmer inks clog' and it got me thinking

I was at the Ohio Pen Show last weekend, just browsing the ink tables, when I overheard a guy telling a new collector that all shimmer inks will clog a pen eventually. He was so sure of it, like it was a law of physics. It made me pause, because I've been mixing my own shimmer inks for about two years now. I use a specific 0.5 ml pipette to add mica powder to well-behaved base inks, and I've found that if you keep the shimmer particle size consistent and use a wet-flowing base, you can go months without a single hard start. My daily writer, a TWSBI Eco with a broad nib, has been running the same custom teal shimmer mix since January. So is the problem really the shimmer, or is it just how people use it? What's your longest-running shimmer ink success story?

2 comments

2 Comments

nora53515d ago

My buddy Mark swore off shimmer inks after a bad clog in his Lamy. Then he tried that Jacques Herbin Emerald of Chivor everyone talks about. He got nervous and cleaned his pen every two weeks like clockwork. Six months later, that pen still wrote perfectly on the first try every morning. He only stopped because he wanted to try a new color. Makes you wonder if regular cleaning is the real secret, right?

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marymorgan15d ago

Totally get where Mark is coming from, but cleaning every two weeks is overkill for most pens. The real secret is using the pen often so the ink doesn't dry out inside. A good shimmer ink in a pen you write with daily will usually behave just fine. I only clean mine when I change colors or if it's been sitting unused for a month. Constant cleaning can wear out parts faster than the shimmer ever would.