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Hi everyone! Just curious if anyone knows the shelf life for van son rubber based ink. I wanted to buy to complete set of base colours but I am a hobby printer and I might not ever get around to using up the cans. Do they ever harden? Thanks :)
rubber base will eventually turn hard as a rock, don’t know how long it takes, sometimes years. if i were you i would try the ink tube guy, he is on this site but i can never think of his name, ink will keep better in tubes where air don’t get to it.
I have lots of rubber based inks that are 5 + years old and are totally fine, but have seen some dry sooner. They keep pretty well, really.
I know there is a can of black here i have had for 13 years and its still useable under the skin which grows thicker year on year ! I only use rubber based inks for numbering and am going to be in ink for a week or so ,I like to use this to avoid having to wash up for the overnights !! Its not that i prefer to collect the dust in the train but due to having to wash a couple of times during the shift to keep the faces of the boxes from filling with crap !!
And I have received old stock rubber base ink that was already spent (this was Gans ink from APE, a substitution, when my order was for Superior letterpress ink). Only buy on an as-needed basis. If you can’t pay for a can of ink while it is still useable, you are not charging enough.
No rubber base ink, or acrylic ink either (and soy is a variable), has the shelf life of oil base ink. Period. If you are a small user buy ink in tubes from Dave Robison (oil or rubber base inks) and hope you beat the clock.
Parralel has a point as an inch of skin and letterpress printind solid blocks goes very badly together ink is always difficult to store and it does not take many years to become inundated with half used tins crammed in every shelf and cupboard ! I have 1kilo and 5 kilo cans Some of that will never see the bottom of the tin if i make 100 years on it !
I should add that we have such volume of ink because we do offset litho here too and that is where most is used .!
that 100 year mark is fast approaching?????
Not a while yet im a spring chicken in the scheme here , the other two have done their 100 years between them and i think we just make 150 years between us !!