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Traveling with a Snorkel - Ink Disaster?

u56rh

u56rh

Hello Chaps,

I have a Shaeffer Snorkel Statesman coming from Main Street Pens soon (so excited), and have to travel quite often by air. Does anyone know how well the Snorkels stand up to air travel?

I've found that my Waterman Kultur doesn't seem to mind, but my Estie SJ practically exploded everywhere with ink, staining the lovely blue pen body the color purple (followed by much wailing and gnashing of teeth).

Would much appreciate any advice.

Rob
 
E

Eeyore

I learned the hard way that Snorkels and intercontinental flights do not go well together. For some reason, pens usually hardly leak on shorter flights; maybe because the planes reach a lower altitude, and air pressure changes are less?
 
Dave258

Dave258

johant1968 said:
I learned the hard way that Snorkels and intercontinental flights do not go well together. For some reason, pens usually hardly leak on shorter flights; maybe because the planes reach a lower altitude, and air pressure changes are less?
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I believe this is the reason. I hear that if you are going to fly with a fountain pen, top off the ink so that there is less air in the filling system. And always try to have them nib up.
 
andrew98

andrew98

cursethis said:
Whatever you do, don't ink it with Noodlers. I've had issues with pens with Noodler's leaking on flights. :cursing:
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That's probably just the nib creep exacerbated by the pressure changes. :smile:

Dave258 said:
I believe this is the reason. I hear that if you are going to fly with a fountain pen, top off the ink so that there is less air in the filling system. And always try to have them nib up.
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I've flown a lot with fountain pens on both long and short flights, and keeping the pen nib up is a must.

-Andy
 
cursethis

cursethis

andrew98 said:
That's probably just the nib creep exacerbated by the pressure changes. :smile:

-Andy
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I'm sure that was the bulk of it. When I was about to go through customs and fill out one of those forms, I got a cap full of Noodler's Lexington Gray all over my hands. Then I reached for another pen, and got Noodler's Gruene Cactus Eel on me as well. :mad3:
 
syngent

syngent

Holy moly... that is unbelievable

Way better then my hero experiment, whish I didn't mess up my snorkle or I would have tested that one out

I just cleaned a Liberty Elysium mess that dried up in my Dani's fees when I had it in there
 
andrew98

andrew98

cursethis said:
I'm sure that was the bulk of it. When I was about to go through customs and fill out one of those forms, I got a cap full of Noodler's Lexington Gray all over my hands. Then I reached for another pen, and got Noodler's Gruene Cactus Eel on me as well. :mad3:
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What a nightmare! I'm likely just going to banish the stuff from my life altogether. I like some of the colors, but it's just not worth the risk of potential damage.

-Andy
 
cursethis

cursethis

andrew98 said:
What a nightmare! I'm likely just going to banish the stuff from my life altogether. I like some of the colors, but it's just not worth the risk of potential damage.

-Andy
Click to expand...

My plan is just to use them in c/c pens and just run through what I have left... which is a massive bottle of HoD, Cayenne, Apache Sunset, Lexington, and Luxury Blue. Yikes... that's going to take a while. I gave away my Noodler's Eel sampler to my father after I got so annoyed with all of the nib creep. Even worse than nib creep? When ink starts coming out of the screw in nib portion of the barrel of your Parker 45.
 
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cursethis

cursethis

nemo said:
Might want to keep the Noodler's out of it while on the ground. Controversial FPN thread.
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It's funny how people either love or absolutely despise Noodler's.

I really wanted to like Noodlers. The whole bulletproof characteristics and the vast amounts of colors were a great selling point. But the way the ink behaves is just miserable.

I'm not even going to blame them for destroying sacs, because I'd bet there's a whole bunch of variables going on other than just Noodler's. Will I be putting Noodler's in any of my vintage pens? No, but that's because I have enough various other inks that I like. I don't have to take the risk that maybe Noodler's kill sacs.
 
u56rh

u56rh

Wow!!

Well, thanks so much to all for your replies and advice. Very much appreciated. This is what I've taken away from the thread:

1. Flying with a snorkel may or may not be fine, depending on a number of factors.
2. I need to invest In a decent camera. All my shots of the stained Estie came out terrible.
3. Attempt not to live in fear of sac failure: chin up, write on.
4. Read up on sac replacement for snorkels. I'll probably benefit from be knowledge.

Seriously interesting article from the other place. Thanks for be link, and thanks again for your posts.

Rob
 
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