My thoughts are indeed inky today, this being my second question in this forum.

So, can you soften the undesirable qualities of iron gall ink by mixing it with other inks? Any other ink, although with my MB blue-black I might turn up with some strange colours depending on what ink.

I'm not necessarily looking for permanent or waterproof properties in the resulting mix, but it would be interesting to note what durability or other properties it does yield.

I have mixed Rohrer & Klingner's Iron Gall Salix with other blue inks before, with no bad results. I think that modern iron gall inks are already mild enough that they won't damage fountain pens as long as you give regular cleaning/maintenance (which I'd do with any pen anyway).

The result was a blue ink which dried to a much paler colour, and had a water resistant component to it.

Now that I've got Noodler's Luxury Blue, I prefer to use that for mixing with non-water-resistant inks.

I'd recommend giving any ron gall mixes a day or two rest prior to use. They're usually very acidic and, as such, can cause precipitates.

Well, it is not always a good idea to mix inks because you never know what will happen.

Of course, this is also why it can be fun to mix inks. Some are compatible, some aren't. This is true of all inks---iron gall or not.

Also, keep in mind that just about all iron gall inks that are on the market for fountain pens are already a mixtue of the iron gall ink and another dye (so it can be seen easily when it is firs applied to the paper).

I would think that if you diluted the iron gall ink enough to raise the pH (i.e. less acidic), or if components in the other ink neuturalized the gallic and gallotannic acids, the reactions that form iron gall pigments would be retarded or prevented completely.

Sure, you may end up with some different colors, but the whole process depends on what specific inks you are mixing together.
Just be careful of precipitates that may form when you mix any two inks together.

I will proceed as advised. There are better inks to mess around with, but I'm looking for something interesting to use up the MB blue-black and learn in the process.

A follow-up to this discussion, now that my Montblanc pen is back in working order (the only pen I care to use iron gall inks with for now).

My initial reason for wanting to mix MB blue-black was curiosity and wanting to use up the ink. However since then I've decided I want inks that have water-resistant (or semi WR) properties.

When I tested my cleaned-out 146 to see if it worked, I inked it up with my old-bottle MB green. While the pen worked great (huzzah!), the green was so light as to be difficult to read on my preferred Seyes-ruled paper.

I looked at my MBBB, and then I looked at my MB green, and suddenly

Yes, mix them together, not just because they are there, but because I suspected it would make a fabulous dark turquoise blue.

I wasn't off the mark by much at all...it's a lovely shade that resembles Noodler's Legal Lapis but even a bit richer. I just have to tweak it to get it more blue than green, to my preference. The water-resistance is not perfect but acceptable to me.

Thanks to the advice I received here (thank you, Lloyd, mschaffer, and NeoTiger ), I am taking care to let it sit overnight to be sure that precipitates won't poison the experiment (and knock my 146 back out of commission). If the result proves precipitate-free and interesting enough for public consumption, I'll post pictures and details, and link them to the Ink Recipes pinned thread.

If it weren't for the helpful people in this forum, I would not have had the courage to attempt either project -- cleaning out my abused pen, or mixing the inks.

My ink-mixing experiment has been accomplished precipitate-free, so the results [insert drum roll here]:
Click to view attachment
Some comments about the ink...you'll notice the striking resemblance to Noodler's Legal Lapis. With my apologies to Mr. Tardiff, I was not trying to make a knockoff. I'm accomplishing two things - one, using up inks I have, and two, saving money in a budget crunch But on my monitor at least, the resemblance is striking, which doesn't make me unhappy.

To reiterate the recipe for clarity's sake...one part Montblanc Blue-Black to one part Montblanc Green (the emerald shade, not hunter). You can go up to two parts green, if you like a greener peacock blue, but you'll have of course lighter traces of gall left if your writing takes a bath.

Here's mine post-bath:
Click to view attachment

As predicted, the iron gall is left, so the more you have in the mix, the more water resistance you have. The traces of green left on the paper are where the most concentrated Q-tip applications were; with plain text, nothing is left of the green.

This ink feathers on cheap paper. It is just fine on good paper, but it is certainly not a fast-dryer, so go forth, tilt paper, and underwrite, ye lefties.

The writing in the photos was done with my newly-restored MB 146, which has an M nib, but I'm surprised at how broad it is (been a long time since I wrote with it, if you've followed the story.) I have a journal with narrow ruling, in which I can't write with this pen. I made the ink to use with it though, because of the iron gall content, and because a broader nib shows off the shading.

Speaking of shading...I find it a bit too varied in this ink, but various mixes didn't even it out. I can live with it...until I can afford Noodler's


The question remains for me: does diluting the MBBB in this ratio make it safe enough for steel nibs, or should I not take the chance? Any thoughts appreciated.