Pharmacist's Terra Incinerata

[youblue9]

This is my first attempt at an ink review, so I apologize if I missed something obvious. Ok, here goes.

 

I guess I should start off by saying that I am in no way affiliated with pharmacist, I’m just a very happy customer. Also, I apologize that these are photos and not scans. I don’t have a working scanner at the moment. The color representation does look accurate on my screen, particularly on the comparison between the ink wet and dry, and the q-tip swabs. As always, your monitor may vary.

 

I suspect that most of you are familiar with pharmacist and his experiments into creating iron gall inks that have colors other than the standard blue-black, but for those of you who aren’t, I’ll give a quick summary. Pharmacist is a fellow FPN member (and from what I can tell, all around great guy) who through experimentation has created formulations for iron gall inks in a variety of colors, and has kindly offered them for sale to the rest of the fountain pen community. You can order the inks directly from him by contacting him at irongallinks@hotmail.com. He brews these inks by hand, in small batches, so there’s often a waiting list to get them. However, don’t let that discourage you – the inks are absolutely worth it! Pharmacist was easily to deal with, and I was very surprised at how quickly I got the inks. I emailed him to be put on the waitlist on June 17th, and on June 23rd he emailed me to say the batch was ready. I sent payment on June 24th, and the inks were in my hands on July 1st (I’m in the US, pharmacist is in Belgium I believe). I think I’ve waited longer than that for ink that didn’t have to be hand-brewed!

 

Ok, on to the ink. This one is called Terra Incinerata, and it’s described as a sepia/dark brown. This ink is lovely! I have long been on the hunt for a water-resistant brown ink that I truly love, and I think I may have found it in this ink. Here is a scan and written review on a Rhodia Dot Pad. Pens used were a Pilot Plumix with the standard medium cursive italic nib, a vintage Eversharp 913 with an EF flex nib (from Peyton Street Pens, also awesome), and a glass dip pen of unknown maker (that I believe was brought back for me from Disney World of all places by my step-grandparents when I was a child).

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7131/7522684890_c39c2587c4_b.jpg

 

I know some people have said that this ink goes down green for them, but I’m not seeing that with mine. For me it goes down as a warm medium brown, and quickly darkens to a rich deep brown. See the scan below comparing the ink when it first is laid down vs. fully darkened. Even when fully darkened, it’s still distinctly brown – I don’t think you’d mistake it for black. Properties seem to be excellent – flow is good, pens start up immediately after being capped for several days, writing is smooth, and it’s well behaved on every paper I’ve tried it on, even crappy copy paper, and this Southworth stuff I have that everything bleeds and feathers on. On Rhodia, there is no feathering or bleeding at all. On the cheap stuff, I did see a small amount of feathering only when the Eversharp was fully flexed. Like all iron galls I’ve used, the ink is a little on the dry side, although I would say this one is a little bit more wet than say Mont Blanc BlueBlack. I forgot to do a smear test, but dry time seems normal, and the only smearing I saw was again when the nib was fully flexed. Shading is absolutely lovely with this ink. I see it even when the Eversharp is used without flex, but it’s really nice with the flex or the Plumix’s CI nib. By the way, I should also note that I noticed there are a few places in the above image where it appears that the pen/ink might be skipping. I assure you that’s not the case, I just happen to have a very light touch (when I use a pencil I use a mechanical pencil with .3 mm lead), and the nib on the Eversharp is very very fine when no pressure is applied. The ink is there, it’s just hard to see in the photo.

 

Here is the Terra Incinerata on another fountain pen friendly paper, Rossi Medioevalis Amalfi flat card:

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7109/7522686044_8aa5fdabd8_b.jpg

 

And here it is on crappy copy paper:

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8001/7522686236_c986afb243_b.jpg

One of the neatest things about this ink is the color change that occurs as the iron gall reaction happens when the ink is put down on paper. It’s really cool to watch the color change happen as you write. The darkening effect happens pretty quickly, but it can take it a bit to get to its fully darkened state. I believe this also depends on the paper. Here is a comparison between lines written with the Eversharp 913. The first had been allowed to dry overnight, the second line the ink is still wet.

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8294/7522686432_43ff450db4_b.jpg

I also did a swab and glass dip pen writing comparison of the Terra Incinerata with the following inks: Noodler’s Grizzly, Brooklyn Brawn, Kiowa Pecan, Whaleman’s Sepia, #41 Brown, Nightshade, Singapore Sepia, Peranaken Brown, Sentosa Tranquility, Waterman Havana Brown, Noodler’s El Lawrence, Zhivago, and Standard Bulletproof Black. This sheet was allowed to dry for two days, and then split down the middle, and the right half was then given a 10 minute water soak. As you can see, the Terra Incinerata performed remarkably well! It definitely lost some color, and while it was soaking I could see the yellow component coming off, but it’s still perfectly legible. It seemed to lose about the same level of color as the Noodler’s Inks in this list that are considered semi-bulletproof (Zhivago, Whaleman’s Sepia, Kiowa Pecan, and Brooklyn Brawn).

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7259/7522687058_8b056a11ee_b.jpg

 

All in all, this is a great ink that I’m really enjoying. I’m so happy I took the plunge and ordered some of pharmacist’s iron gall inks! If you’re on the fence about this ink, I encourage you to get it.

 

Since I know a lot of folks are interested in this ink, and I’ve got a few pens loaded with it right now I’m going to make an offer I may live to regret: If anyone would like to receive a short (and depending on how many responses I get it could be very short) note from me written in this ink via snail mail so you can see it in person, please send me a PM with your address, and I will send you a short note or postcard in the next week or so.

Edited July 7, 2012 by youblue9

[zebra baker]

Thank you for the wonderful review. I especially loved seeing the comparison of the day old ink with a newly written line -- a reminder to be patient when assessing inks. This looks like a(nother) brown I should try.

[WOBentley]

Very nice review...

This is a really nice ink and I think you did a great job characterizing it.

[pharmacist]

Hi Youblue9,

 

thank you for the review. A note on the initial colour of Terra Incinerata: the very first batch I made was a more greenish/earthy sepia turning into a dark brown, but I improve the initial colour into a warmer initial sepia.

 

My new inks are:

 

Purpura Imperialis (purple-black)

Sang Real (red-dark brown).

[inkstainedruth]

Nice review!

I like the comparison with all the other inks (especially the soak test).

You may have one of Pharmacist's later batches. Mine, which I got in the spring, is definitely more towards the greenish side, although I suspect that's somewhat paper dependent.

And yes, +1 on their being great inks to use, and plus +10 on Pharmacist being a great guy (I speak from experience as a more than happy customer) and a service to the FP community.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lapis]

Excellent review. I like the sizes and lengths of your typed texts and your photos. Not just one or the other. IMO photos are always more dependable than scans. Beautiful ink. Especially the degree of darkening. I'll have to get this one for sure!

 

Mike

[amble63]

+1 on the soak test and on what a great guy Nelson (pharmacist) is. I have Terra Incinerata but have not tried it out yet, as I have been too busy using Darkening Absinthe, Turkish Night and Urkundentine, but I think it is time to ink up a pen! I do get quite a kick out of watching the ink darken right before my eyes.

 

thanks for the review and the effort you put into it.

[pharmacist]

Just to inform you that for my next batches of Urkundentinte, I am forced to increase the price to €12/100 ml, because of price increase of the already hefty costing aniline blue by my supplier. Maybe I should find another supplier, but sofar none could deliver me the quality and purity, necessary to make a good flowing ink. Because I do not want to make any concession on this, the bad news is this price increase :embarrassed_smile: .

 

The fancy coloured inks will still cost the same as now.

 

 

[youblue9]

Thanks everyone for the kind words! I'm glad the review is helpful.

 

Thanks also to pharmacist and inkstainedruth for clarification on the green color -- Ruth, you're correct, I do have a later batch. For the record, I wouldn't have minded if it had gone down green either, but I do love the color it is. (In fact, an olivey green iron gall would be lovely too!)