Iron Gall Inks Compared

[jandrese]

Here are scans showing three iron gall inks. All are well behaved and attractive inks. Mont Blanc Midnight is the darkest, and the slowest to dry. The MB Midnight is also the least likely to shade, and has the highest percentage of non-waterproof dye. All write on the dry side of the equation.

 

I love Salix and have been using it exclusively for the past three weeks. Never mind that I carried only one pen on vacation in the Philippines (TWSBI Diamond 540 orange demonstrator) for that time. Salix is a mercurial ink. Sometimes light blue, sometimes blue/black, sometimes dry, sometimes almost wet, but is always attractive. It dries fast and so is great for this lefty. Like Pharmacist's Document ink it darkens at it dries due to oxidation. Lovely stuff.

 

I just received the Document ink. It is very similar to Salix, more grey perhaps, a little lighter in color, maybe a little drier. The two are very close, like identical twins that you can just barely tell apart.

 

All three inks love Staples bagasse and seem to be repelled by Rhodia dot pad paper. Never mind, I use bagasse almost exclusively.

 

Both Salix and Document ink shade like nobody's business. Wonderful stuff, and eminently practical. Don't worry, they clean up easily from pens and won't rot your nibs. So good, I'm considering making one or both of them my only ink(s), well, except for some reds, greens, oranges....

 

 

Spots of identical volume (90 microliters) on hand towel. Notice the dark fringes where ink piles up, that is the shading effect made evident.

 

[fiberdrunk]

I'm goo goo for iron gall ink. Great review and comparisons!

[reprieve]

This is a very useful comparison! Thanks!

 

Salix may be the perfect iron gall ink for me. I love its shading and, in my experience, Salix is a little bit better behaved than MB Midnight (it's easier to flush and works well even in drier nibs). I still need to try my sample of Diamine Registrar's, but Salix will be hard to beat.

[The Good Captain]

A good review and Salix is probably my favourite of the three IG inks I have. The other two being ESSRI and Lamy Blue-Black (bottled). I like the way it still retains some blue colour after a time and it's a great blue-black ink because of that.

[HDoug]

I too, goo goo. Using Salix at moment but saw some Lamy iron gall blue-black recently. Is that still available somewhere?

 

Doug

[The Good Captain]

I too, goo goo. Using Salix at moment but saw some Lamy iron gall blue-black recently. Is that still available somewhere?

 

Doug

Certainly in the UK and I presume the bottled stock about isn't the new formulation; if ever that materialises.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Many thanks for the comparison!

 

It seems to me that I-G inks as a group are rather "mercurial", responding to choice of pen & paper far more than conventional dye-based inks: perhaps frustrating for some, but an attraction to others.

 

Bye,

S1

[pharmacist]

Hi Jandrese,

 

thanks for the review. Just to emphasize my ink relies heavily on the IG component and does contain only a relatively small amount of dye, just to make the ink visible when writing with it. I notice the Salix ink is very similar to mine own home-brewed Urkundentinte .

[jandrese]

Hi Jandrese,

 

thanks for the review. Just to emphasize my ink relies heavily on the IG component and does contain only a relatively small amount of dye, just to make the ink visible when writing with it. I notice the Salix ink is very similar to mine own home-brewed Urkundentinte .

 

 

Ah, I thought so, thanks for confirming. I love how it darkens with oxidation. Write a few lines, look back and see darker letters, cool. Also, Document works really well on cheap copy paper. No bleed, no feather, just fantastic. Also want to say again how great it is for left handers since it dries so quickly and is water fast. Thanks!

[The Good Captain]

Here are the comparison scans of Salix and Scabiosa, both done a few minutes after the ink was dry.

Nice and different.

[rapid_butterfly]

I'll also admit to having gone goo goo for iron gall ink. And I am thrilled with both the R and K IG inks. I use them extensively at work and still enjoy them for personal correspondence as well. I am left handed, so I value the quick dry time as others have noted; and I also value the waterfastness. I am so impressed with these inks.

 

I like Diamine Registrar's but as has been noted above, Salix is even better since it retains some blue even after the oxidation.

[Joe in Seattle]

Great comparison, thanks. I've found the MB to vary in hue from nearly black, to grey, to bluish - on the same page. Depends on how much flow the nib has, perhaps? It's a reasonably nice ink, though.