I know not to use it in a fountain pen, but I have recently aquired a half-full half-litre of old-fashioned India Ink - it looks like it has a Pelikan on the bottle/label and the name is something like Walter -Gunther.

A tall, square sectioned bottle in a grey cardboard box.

Is there anything I need to know about this stuff or can I just shake the bottle and go and dip-pen to my heart's content?

Chris

Is there any hint as to its age? Do you know if half of the ink got used or if it's possible that a significant amount of the water in the ink has evaporated over time?


There isn't a lot that an ink can do to a dip pen so I'd say try it. Of course if it's very old you might find that it could use some water added to it. If this seems to be the case then I'd separate out some of the ink and experiment on that portion with dilution rather than do it to the entire bottle all at once.

I have a couple of bottles of Pelikan "Drawing Ink," as it's labelled, and both are rather old. One is at least 20 years old and it's still liquid and mostly there. I don't know if its missing volume is because some of the ink got used long ago or because of evaporation. I do have another bottle of the same stuff that has evaporated all of its water and there's about a third to a half of a bottle of black goop that looks like patent leather in the bottle.

I suppose the correct reading is “Günther Wagner” (or vice versa?): that’s Pelikan, alright.

Pelikan still makes India ink; I wouldn’t recommend it for writing, but nothing speaks against trying.

Thanks Kees, that's exactly it. Thanks.

The bottle must be thirty years old and has not been opened for over twenty years. To my knowledge, there has been almost no evaporation and what has been used was poured out by whoever owned it before me and used for whatever reason.

I have now also found a few dip-nibs of different sizes, so I might have some fun.

Chris