Platinum Blue-Black, Another Iron-Gall Ink

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

It's not really mentioned here very often, but Platinum blue-black, at least according to Platinum is an iron-gall ink. You can look here.

 

Platinum blue-black is one of my favorite blue inks. My mom used to use it a lot when she was younger. It's also one of the only iron-gall inks available in cartridges. MB doesn't even have iron-gall inks in cartridges. That said, I have a lot of odd information about the ink since we have loads of it everywhere in my house, even in places where we wouldn't think to look. It was also the ink I chose when I bought my Nakaya. They were really nice and gave me a complimentary bottle.

 

Let's start on time based stuff.

The ink starts out on paper quite blue. The ink slowly changes color on paper to a greyer, more steel blue color. Three days is enough to change it noticeably to the more "mature color." It's hard to see, but the top line is older, and the entire second line is fresh, and bluer.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7438/10109573545_b2904e4e9d_b.jpg

 

 

 

If you are curious about the waterproofness of the ink, the longer the ink stays on paper, the more permanent it gets. If you put freshly written stuff under the sink, it will run slightly, but after three or so days, there isn't any running at all. The ink stays put. It's really waterproof. No matter what I did to it, it didn't go anywhere. After the paper dries, the ink turns greyer still, but there is still no running or bleeding.

 

About longevity in the cartridges, after many years, the ink as does all other inks, dries up in the cartridge. I don't know what plastic Platinum uses, but the cartridges end up half-full after nearly twenty years. This is better than most cartridges. I have some 1/3 full Pelikan cartridges from about five years ago. The ink though, turns grey and gets tiny chunks in it that taste like iron. (Nasty, I know. Thanks mom, for having an old stash of these cartridges somewhere in the house)! I was 10, and was cleaning a pen that we put one of the cartridges into. If cleaning a pen that used this ink, if the ink was allowed to dry inside, one would need to take out the feed. The little bits and pieces will wash away quite easily.

 

Corrosion. Well, many Platinum pens that have used this ink that have the plated gold nibs get the nibs eaten away or corroded or in some cases, the plating flakes off the nib. Platinum talks about this in link above. My mom's pen (burgundy from the early 70's), and my pen (purple from the 1960's) both had gold nibs, and we didn't have this problem, fortunately, but I've seen loads of 70's Platinums pens with gold plated steel nibs that corroded. Platinum pens are crazy common in my family, and you can find them in strange places too. It doesn't seem to attack the rubber seals or the plastics used in the pens though. Our pens both have intact seals. Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to attack the plain steel nibs or the stainless steel ball in the cartridge much at all. One of my sisters has a Platinum pen with a plain steel nib from the 70's, and the nib is completely intact even though Platinum blue black was used in the pen.

 

How about the ink eradicator? Depending on the age of the ink, as in how long it was on the paper, the ink eradicator, as with Montblanc Blue-Black, another ferro-gallic ink, will remove the blue parts, leaving grey on the paper. The longer the ink stays on the paper, the less it will be able to eradicate.

 

How about reaction with the paper? My mom's notes from 40 years ago seem quite intact. It looks like the color stabilizes after a few months as a nice steel blue. I've heard that most modern ferro-gallic inks don't really eat paper like their older counterparts because of newer chemicals and ingredient being available.

 

As far as I can see, the ink doesn't stain. I have some vintage Platinum cartridges of blue-black from the 60's and 70's that I cleaned out, and they cleaned out completely. My newer cartridges are the same way.

 

Here is a photo of fairly fresh Platinum Blue-Black where one word was soaked in water. The scanner I use has a CIS sensor, so stuff that doesn't touch the glass isn't as clear, and the part of the paper that was soaked was wrinkly after I dried it. "Steel" is after water and "blue" is untouched by water. I ran the paper under the sink for five minutes. As you can see, nothing ran at all, but the ink turned greyer. So, if you and your notes in Platinum blue-black go under water, you don't need to worry too much.

 

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3788/10109486925_fdeb2131c6_b.jpg

For me, I really like the color, and I also kind of like that my mom used it too when she was younger.

By the way, I heard that Platinum is going to discontinue the 30 ml bottle and going to switch these to a new 60 ml bottle.

 

Dillon

Edited October 7, 2013 by Dillo

[quinden]

Platinum Blue-black is one of my favorite inks as well; I had heard that the bottled ink is ferro-gallic, but I didn't know the cartridges are also.

 

Thanks for the heads-up and the informative post, Dillo!

[jde]

So glad you posted your life-long experience with this ink. It's one of my favorites, and I only discovered earlier this year that it was a ferro-gallic ink.

 

A 60ml bottle is coming?! That's what I've been waiting for.

 

Cheers,

Julie

[Dillo]

Jde, the announcement is here

 

Ink-400 is the 30 ml bottle. I'm excited to see this new 60 cc bottle.

 

Dillon

[requiescat]

I'd been curious about this ink because of the cartridges I received with my Nakaya (never used any, I went straight to Noodler's Black out of habit). This looks like a great ink to try, though--thank you for the informative post!

[trhall]

Great post, as always, Dillon! Glad to hear about the new 60ml bottles too!

[lapis]

Thanks again. Something new to order! Not in carts but I do admire the fact that they in fact offer such carts.

 

Mike

[swanjun]

I have a couple of blue-black Platinum cartridges for my Preppy. I reckon they're the same, and never knew it was iron-gall. Nice!

Edited October 6, 2013 by swanjun

[fiberdrunk]

The link says this is a "ferrous tannic acid" ink, not a "ferro gallic acid" ink as the original thread title said. There's a difference (ferrous tanno-gallic is more archival than just ferrous tannic). It's still iron gall, though. But thanks for the heads up, because I had no idea Platinum Blue-Black was even an iron gall ink. It's good to know.

Edited October 6, 2013 by fiberdrunk

[Dillo]

The link says this is a "ferrous tannic acid" ink, not a "ferro gallic acid" ink as the original thread title said. There's a difference (ferrous tanno-gallic is more archival than just ferrous tannic). It's still iron gall, though. But thanks for the heads up, because I had no idea Platinum Blue-Black was even an iron gall ink. It's good to know.

 

I'm not the most knowledgable, but isn't the gall often the source of tannic acid, hence the name? Isn't "ferro" iron? I did edit the post title and post to correct it.

 

You make the stuff though, so you know a lot more than I do about it.

 

Dillon

Edited October 7, 2013 by Dillo

[OldGreyGuy]

Interesting the announcement says:

 

The new bottles now contains 60cc of ink and comes with an ink reservoir that facilitates filling the ink even when there is a little amount of ink left in the bottle.

 

Now I just love bottles where there are reservoirs to help me fill pens. I wonder what this one looks like.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

If anyone is curious, both the bottles and cartridges are date coded.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3829/10140637573_1b5115675b_b.jpg

 

On the cartridges it's either four digit code for the older ones or two digits and a letter for the newer ones. The first two digits is the year, and the letter (A=January, C=March, etc) or last two are the month.

 

Dillon

[Bemo]

Thanks for this, particularly with Mont Blanc dropping their IG ink.

[hari317]

I agree with the review. I imported two bottles of this ink recently. The writing becomes permanent only after a few days and it flows very well in the pens I have tried it in(century 3776 with C nib and Izumo with F nib).

 

Good to hear about the 60ml bottle, but the price!!! earlier it was just 400JPY for 30ml now they want 1200JPY for 60ml!! 1.5x price increase. Personally I would stock up at existing prices...

 

We will end production of the dyestuff ink “INK 400 (#1 Black, #2 Red ad #3 Blue-black),” one our long-standing, basic products and introduce a new bottled ink series. The new bottles now contains 60cc of ink and comes with an ink reservoir that facilitates filling the ink even when there is a little amount of ink left in the bottle.
* New bottled ink (60cc, comes with an ink reservoir) INK1200
#1 Black, #2 Red and #3 Blue-black / \1,200 each (excl. tax)
Please use our genuine inks for Platinum fountain pens.

 

[fiberdrunk]

 

I'm not the most knowledgable, but isn't the gall often the source of tannic acid, hence the name? Isn't "ferro" iron? I did edit the post title and post to correct it.

 

You make the stuff though, so you know a lot more than I do about it.

 

Dillon

 

Galls have both tannic and gallic acid in them. Acorns and black walnuts have tannic acid. Fermenting something with tannic acid in it will help convert some of it to gallic acid. But they're not the same thing. The best (as in most archival) iron gall inks have both tannic and gallic acid in them (most commercial iron gall inks have only the tannic acid and ferrous). It's possible to buy both tannic acid and gallic acid powders (the latter is quite expensive, too).

[Dillo]

 

Galls have both tannic and gallic acid in them. Acorns and black walnuts have tannic acid. Fermenting something with tannic acid in it will help convert some of it to gallic acid. But they're not the same thing. The best (as in most archival) iron gall inks have both tannic and gallic acid in them (most commercial iron gall inks have only the tannic acid and ferrous). It's possible to buy both tannic acid and gallic acid powders (the latter is quite expensive, too).

 

That's very interesting! Thank you for explaining!

 

Dillon

[arran]

In a recently acquired Nakaya with F nib , I have been using all kinds of inks , and had never issues.

Though I must say you must get usd to Nakaya F nibs , some can be quite dry writers and rather scratchy , especially compared with their M nibbed brothers.

However throughout the year I have learnt to appreciate the sue of Nakaya F nibs , and sailor F as well

Today , however I used for the first time the supplied cartridges , in blue black.

Overall , besides the waterfastness , there are now advantages that appeal to me.No hesitations , or skipping however

Ink seems rather drier than other inks , and especially in fine nibs , this colour of ink , is rather dull.

Ink flow to my opinion is not optimal.

In this very pen , e.g. Pelikan edelstein aventurine and iroshizuku takesumi gave much better results

[TheDutchGuy]

So far I'm quite disappointed with this ink. I've got some Platinum Preppy's and a Plaisir lying around that I tend to give away (though they frequently get nicked before I can give them away, people love them). Those pens come with a Platinum cartridge, and since I usually buy the blue pens, I get the blue cartridges. My local dealer only stocks Platinum blue-black cartrifdges, so I bought these, assuming the ink would perform like the blue ink did. Well, it doesn't. It's dry and looks pale and uninspired. It dries on the nib after a few second pause, causing skips. Where other Platinum inks perform very well in the Preppy and the Plaisir, this one doesn't. I don't know if it's because this blue-black is an iron-gall ink, but whatever the reason, I paid 12 euros for two boxes of this ink and I regret that a lot.

[Grafeus]

Well, Platinum Blue Black can be rather pale, if not downright insipid, when used with certain nibs with generous width. I had a couple of Medium Preppies with blue-black carts and the ink was uninspiring. But use it with a narrow nib - something like a Fine/ExtraFine Platinum 3776- and it changes into a darker, much-more interesting blue. A Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde kind of ink. Being iron gall perhaps it's not as freely flowing as regular inks. However, compared to other inks of the same ilk it's definitely a very well behaved one.

[jmccarty3]

This ink does very well in my Nakayas with stub and oblique nibs.