Update: I was sure shimmer inks would clog any pen, but a meetup in Austin proved me wrong

At the Texas Pen Show last month, I watched a woman fill a Pilot Kakuno, a cheap school pen, with a heavy gold shimmer mix she made herself. She said, 'It's all in the surfactant, a single drop of Vanness White Lightning in 30ml changes everything.' I told her that was asking for trouble, but she let me try it. The pen wrote smooth as butter for a full page, no hard starts, no glitter clump in the feed. I've been too scared to try it in my own good pens for years. Now I'm mixing a sample batch with a tiny bit of dish soap as a wetting agent. Has anyone else had luck with a specific recipe to keep shimmer flowing in fine nibs?

3 comments

3 Comments

robin_foster12mo ago

Seriously, @webb.jordan, why stress so much over glitter in a pen?

webb.jordan2mo ago

Man, that's wild. I had the same fear until I saw someone run straight up craft glitter through a Lamy Safari at a shop. My brain short circuited. I've been using a drop of plain old Photo Flo in a 5ml sample vial, shake it like crazy before every fill. Works in my Prera with a fine nib, no joke. Still gives me anxiety but it hasn't died on me yet.

the_miles1mo ago

Yo, "shake it like crazy before every fill" got me. Lol. I actually heard a story from a guy at a pen meet who swore he used to run the crappiest metallic craft glitter through a Jinhao 159 just to see how long it would survive. He said it clogged after like a week but the nib and feed were fine after a deep clean. That definitely made me less scared of trying shimmer inks. I went with a sample of Emerald of Chivor in an old Kakuno with a medium nib and it was actually fine. But the anxiety is real every time I shake it too hard. I think the Prera and fine nib combo is a solid choice for this stuff though, that plastic feed on the Pilot pens seems to hate clogging. Your recipe with Photo Flo is genius, I might steal that for my next batch.