Seeking Superb Safe Sepias For Vintage Pens

[truthpil]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but, for those who recommended R&K Sepia for vintage pens, how do you guys think it'll fare with gold plated parts? I couldn't find anything regarding the ph levels of R&K inks, and the whole nibs getting pitted or losing plating kinda scares me

 

Thanks in advance for any input

 

I couldn't find any specific Ph reference, but it was called "neutral" in one product description. It doesn't have any IG content, so I wouldn't be too worried.

 

I see this thread has resurfaced....

If the OP can track down vintage Skrip Brown (red box era), that may be just up his/her alley. It was a lovely sepia brown (actually says "Sepia" on some sides of the box, while saying "Brown" on other sides). Sadly, I had a leak (fortunately contained by a ziplock bag) and lost most of the contents. But it was a wonderful ink. If the price was right I would definitely buy another bottle of it. (I think the red box stuff is more recent than the yellow box stuff -- one of my boxes of Skrip in the yellow box has directions on one of the box lids on how to fill a Snorkel! )

The original formula of Birmingham Shadyside Walnut Street Brown was very good -- but they changed sources for the dye components, and the newer version is much redder.

Another vote for Iroshihzuku Yama-guri, but the Iroshihzuku inks tend to be wet -- sometimes too wet for the pen they're ink (it was way too wet, for instance, for a 1990s era Pelikan M400 Brown Tortoise, with a juicy and springy F nib -- quite disappointing because I thought it would be a good combo for doing drawings).

Might not be sepia toned *enough", but last year's Edelstein Ink of the Year, Smoky Quartz, is also very nice.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: If you can still manage to track DOWN a bottle of Smoky Quartz, that is....

 

Thanks for the tip about old Sheaffer Brown! I'm really enjoying my yellow-boxed 1950s Sheaffer Permanent Blue-Black, so it'd be nice to have a vintage brown/sepia around as well.

 

The one sepia-ish ink I keep coming back to over and over for both vintage and modern pens is Herbin Lie de The. R&K Sepia can be too thin and dry at times and I also get bored of the color when I don't have the right pen-paper combination to bring out the shading. The Herbin ink always cheers me up and looks classy.

[Bo Bo Olson]

If you have a spare arm and a leg, the discontinued MB Sepia is an ink I like.

 

Back when I was a noobie, when all things but the MB bottle of MB was hated, I'd gone to my B&M to get the bottle....had Racing Green in my hand; the most hated ink in the world...some sort of murky green....and murkey was not 'IN.

(In spite of the best alchemist in the world, Racing Green is not cloned..... )

The new and the old bottles are well worth having.

 

Took the bottle of Sepia (E12)...thinking it was a brown ink....When Toffee came in the Sepia ended up in cobweb corner. Then tried it again a couple years down the road....and ran out to German Ebay and got a second bottle for E19 and postage.

 

Seldom, in past auctions on German Ebay one went with 10 bids for only E17.00....but there was but one.

Look in other countries Ebays.

 

I hate coming to Inky Thoughts.....I keep wanting to ink a pen.....and I want to stay at only 5 pens inked not my normal 17....so I can use up some inks.

 

 

 

Waterman's Havana Brown...this is the very first time I've seen that called sepia.

Didn't shade in any test I saw so was never on my list.

 

Smoky Quartz....that too, but now that I think of it, it's in that sepia direction.

Edited January 10, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson