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Upgrade On My Iron Gall Brewing Experiments


pharmacist

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Finally I wil have some spare time to recommence my iron gall ink brewing. I had some feed-back from a few users of my home-brewed IG ink and here are the inks I am going to brew:

 

-Urkundentinte: my famous blue-black IG ink with the highest amount of ferrogallotannate pigment currently available :thumbup: . Because this ink is already optimized I will not make any changes to it. The optimized formula, used to brew this ink, yields an ink that flows just as well from a fountain pen as well from the nib of a dip pen. It can produce very fine hairlines, without dropping from the nib, but it still flows easily from (wet writing) fountain pen, without any noticable startup problems.

 

-Terra Incinerata: my first batches were a bit too greenish, but I managed to improve the colour to a warm ochre teint. Due to the feed-back I now use this improved formula to brew my ink. It darkens into a dark brown coffee brown colour.

 

-Turkish Nights: No extra improvements. This initially cyan/turquoise flowing IG ink darkens to a dark bluish-black.

 

-Darkening Absinthe: No extra improvements. The ink flows a green teint and darkens into a teal green-black colour.

 

-Purpura Imperialis: Another dye has been used to improve the purple teint. Previously the teint was too bluish. It nows flows a nice purple and darkens quickly into a purplish-black ink line.

 

-Oriens-Occidens: No extra improvements. This ink flows orangy and darkens into a warm brownish sepia.

 

Due to the unsatisfactory initial colour of my red IG ink, I have stopped making this ink, until my experiments to find a much better and most importantly completely compatible dye will succeed. It is very difficult to find a suitable red dye that does not precipitate with my stock IG solution. My next brew will be ready in about 1 week time :rolleyes: .

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Happy to hear that Turkish Night and Darkening Absinthe remain unchanged. They're my favourites and I'll probably need other bottles in a couple of months :-)

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Hey pharmacist - good to hear.

 

Can we have a refresher on the colour samples, expected costs etc?

 

Looking forward to hopefully getting my hands on some of the Oriens-Occidens.

"...using a fountain pen should feel like riding a unicorn through a field of cupcakes during a rainstorm of scotch while eating bacon" - Dan Smith

"Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn't try it on" - Billy Connolly

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Hi Nelson.

 

Great news.

 

Do you have any writing samples of the new Terra Incinerata or the Purpura Imperialis?

 

Yes, please! +1 on pix, so we can see your improvements.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Happy to hear that Turkish Night and Darkening Absinthe remain unchanged. They're my favourites and I'll probably need other bottles in a couple of months :-)

 

I'll second that! Turkish Night and Darkening Absinthe are my favorites as well and I have a hard time coming up with anything that would improve them. Bounded by physical reality, of course.

JLT (J. L. Trasancos, Barneveld, NY)

 

"People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest."

Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962)

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We live in the Golden Age of Inks.

 

And you are doing wonders. :thumbup: In the new golden age of IG inks.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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I'll second that! Turkish Night and Darkening Absinthe are my favorites as well and I have a hard time coming up with anything that would improve them. Bounded by physical reality, of course.

I'm a bit torn with TN. If it leaned a bit more to the blue and a bit less to the green, it'd be my favorite ink. As it is, I treat it pretty much like a green ink...enough that I was worried I got Darkening Absinthe by accident.

 

Still, a fun ink. Urkundentinte lays down a bit like Salix from my fine nibs but oxidizes to gray very quickly on most papers. I haven't decided what pen to run it from, after a bit of trouble cleaning it from my TWSBI Vac700.

Robert.

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Hi xiaomg,

Cyan is still a color that tends to be between blue en green and combined with the black IG pigment and you will end up to something towards greenish blue-black. Urkundentinte is best to be used with wet writers and most importantly: clean your pens regularly, if you do not write with it every day or so to prevent clogging.

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Hi Ruth,

 

 

 

Here is the scan of Urkundentinte versus Purpura Imperialis (new version) and Terra Incinerata (new version):

 

fpn_1347266775__new_batch_ig_inks.jpg

 

Congrats on getting a purple iron gall ink! It's beautiful!

Find my homemade ink recipes on my Flickr page here.

 

"I don't wait for inspiration; inspiration waits for me." --Akiane Kramarik

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So how does one purchase ink from the Pharmacist? What are the prices?

Walk in shadow / Walk in dread / Loosefish walk / As Like one dead

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Hi Ruth,

 

 

 

Here is the scan of Urkundentinte versus Purpura Imperialis (new version) and Terra Incinerata (new version):

 

fpn_1347266775__new_batch_ig_inks.jpg

 

The two new ones do look great.

 

My must-haves are Darkening Absinthe and Oriens-Occidens. But they all are well-behaved and excellent to use. Anyone who's interested should definitely email Nelson to get on the list.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I too am interested in making a purchase (western Canada) and wondering details on how/pricing.

 

I think I'm going the strictly iron gall ink route for the properties, might try my hand at making it, but in the meantime need a good supply to last through daily use until I get a handle on making it. I like the color choices too, I think I might like the purple actually, but we'll see.

 

Anyway, if you could let me know about a purchase (how and timeline) that would be great.

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What is Pharmacist currently charging (shipped) for these? Am I correct that he's been working through PMs and hasn't set up an online store front? I'm growing more and more intrigued with these, especially the Terra Incinerrata.

"What? What's that? WHAT?!!! SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!" - Ludwig van Beethoven.

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To order the inks and get pricing information, I contact pharmacist at the email listed in this post.

 

Fantastic. Anybody know what the pricing and shipping to the US has typically been?

"What? What's that? WHAT?!!! SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!" - Ludwig van Beethoven.

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