Hi Garry! I enjoy your videos. I also do chromatography tests for my reviews. Like you, I don't think my methods are perfect, but I have picked up a couple of pointers over the years, so I thought I'd pass them on to you. Take them on board or ignore them as you see fit. I'm not formally trained in this, either. I've been told that for lab chromatography the ideal is to let the ink dry completely before placing the end in water. I've seen side-by-side comparisons of fully dried and immediate tests and there are slight differences in the results for some inks. I try to wait 5-10 minutes, but I think even that is faster than advised. I also recommend leaving it in the water for longer on some inks. When I do mine, I hang the sheet above the water and wait until the water has creeped a millimeter or two above the last bit of color. For most inks that makes the color strip around four centimeters in length, but in some cases, it stretches even farther. I think this is especially important if the top of the moving ink is still a dark band. To me, that indicates that there are more colors to come. You're right about that dark band at the bottom of the third (I think) ink you showed. That band does reveal the part of the ink that is water resistant. (A water-proof ink will have nothing but the single dark band where you first applied the line of ink.) I don't know if it matters much, but I also try to avoid touching the paper in the area where I expect color to creep during the test. I know that with writing samples, you sometimes find feathering in areas of a page that have been handled heavily, due to a transfer of oils from fingerprints. Thanks for all the great videos and keep up the good work! InkyRick (aka InkyInspirations)

Thanks for the video, it's handy to see a step by step guide. I'm about to start doing a chromatography strip for each ink I swatch, so this is very timely!

Chromosome strips are fun. But, like you, not sure what they tell us about ink performance except when a stable line at the bottom indicates some water resistance. Thanks for a colorful video. Best wishes.

Long story Long : So paper is part of a tree which is sliced very thin each tree has tubules inside it that enable water to be transferred from the roots to the leaves . The direction that the chromatography strips are cut plays a big role on how the liquid will travel . When the liquid touches the paper it uses those tubules to climb the paper by capillary action and following the path of least resistance . A denser dye/pigment will only travel a little bit where a lighter dye/pigment will travel further. The key to getting specific measurements between those is to have the paper placed in an upward direction so enable the different weights to be separated out by the flow of the liquid . When final separation of dye/pigment is able to be detected is when to take the paper out of the liquid. Dryer climates may have shorter result due to evaporation of liquid water that can be evaporated and vis versa more humid climate may travel longer. I hope this helps

I equate the chromatography to how different pigments are added to paint to get a particular color or shade for the paint. It is amazing how these pigments create these colors. Iam guessing this is how different colors and shades of inks are made. I would think permanent inks eould be different as they are made not to separate to individual colors. I may try thsi for my inks to see the individual colors that make up the color. I like to try blue black first as it is made to show two different colors at the same time.

Hello Garry! I’ve shared my process on my channel before. I’ve never used a timer, but estimate about 20 seconds. I hold until I see the water stop moving then a few more seconds. Using a magnetic Oli clip, I hang the dry end on my tripod to dry. I enjoy seeing the levels and colors of ink colors revealed. Thanks for sharing!

Hi! I don't know why the algorythm recommended me your videos, since this is not really a subject matter I ever took interest in, but well since I'm here... I love writing with fountain pens, but I have a disability that affects my whole body - and in this case more importantly, it affects my hands. I have a hard time gripping things for long periods of time, my fingers tend to cramp a lot when they've been in the same position for over 15 minutes and I drop things a lot. For that last reason, I hesitate to invest money into a high quality fountain pen for fear of dropping it too often and breaking it early on. But I also find myself pretty uncomfortable with most fountain pens I've tried because of the pain they've brought me. Would you have any recommendation for a pen that's around or under $50 that has some built-in solutions for grip and ease of use? Thank you! I wish you the best with your videos