Will my Copics blow up?

March 3, 2008 12:28 PM

Will my art pens survive a plane flight?

Travelling by air later this week, and hoping to catch up on some inking while I'm gone. But I'm worried about destroying my arsenal of art pens/pigment liners/brush pens by bringing them along... I've had regular pens get messed up by the air pressure on planes, but these function differently and I hope that'll help. Comic-makin' Mefites, have you flown with art pens?

posted by COBRA! to travel & transportation (8 comments total)

Most airline cabins are pressurized to about 6000 feet. The pens should be ok barring any rapid pressure changes. In which case you and your pens will be equally messed-up.
posted by nathan_teske at 12:40 PM on March 3, 2008

What kind of pens do you use? I usually carry around a bunch of Sakura Microns, and they've never acted oddly in planes.
posted by Greg Nog at 1:01 PM on March 3, 2008

Mix of Copic Multi Liners, Staedtler Pigment Liners, Faber-Castell Pitt Pens, and a Pentel brush pen. But they're all pretty much the same thing, except for the Pentel.
posted by COBRA! at 1:35 PM on March 3, 2008

I took my markers on a plane flight (in my purse, so... in the cabin). When I got to the hotel, laid on my bed and took the top off one of them to color a drawing, the ink burst out leaving spots all over the comforter. After that I took the top off each one on the bathtub and none blew up. And the one that did was working fine after that.

At the Pilot website they say:
Airplane Travel
When using many brands of liquid ink pens on an airplane, be sure to remove the cap with the point of the pen upward. This will avoid problems (leaks) that could occur due to cabin pressure.
posted by lucia__is__dada at 2:27 PM on March 3, 2008

I've flown with Sakura Microns several times, and they've always blown up on me if I forget to take care of them. The Microns seem to have some sort of barrier that gets punctured in the front of the pen, near the tip and inside. Once that barrier gets punctured, it will keep leaking ink onto my fingers every now and then. I call this 'peeing'.

Now, I try to put my pens in an airtight plastic bag, seal it, put it inside another airtight bag, seal it, etc. The last time I did this (a month ago), all of my pens, including Microns and a Staedler Lumocolor pen (which I believe is the permanent-ink version of the Pigment Liners) were fine.

nathan_teske: Airline cabins are pressurized, but a pressure differential still exists between the cabin pressure and normal atmospheric pressure. Which is why bottles of water and potato-chip bags will become more inflated in the cabin.
posted by suedehead at 2:53 PM on March 3, 2008

Ditto suedehead's experience with the Microns--mine have leaked all over on numerous occasions. Bring 'em in a Ziploc.
posted by hobbes at 3:23 PM on March 3, 2008

Thirding Suedehead. I think my Microns explode 60% of the time I bring them onto planes... His solution (the airtight bags!) would work smashingly, I think.
posted by ThomThomThomThom at 4:56 PM on March 3, 2008

Right on. Thanks, all.
posted by COBRA! at 5:41 PM on March 3, 2008