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Kwzi Ig Mandarin. Or Not?

glorfindel

By glorfindel
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glorfindel Mint

glorfindel

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Last year I got a sample of KWZi IG Mandarin. It was bright orange slowly turning into a murky green-gold. I really liked the final color. But when I got a bottle of it, the final color was not green at all - it was deep orangy-brown. Searching FPN, the reviews I see for Mandarin look more like what's in the bottle. Looks like I may have gotten wrong ink in the sample vial. However, now I really want THAT ink, not Mandarin.

 

Any help identifying that ink would be greatly appreciated.

 

post-40696-0-00273200-1500087716_thumb.jpg

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glorfindel Mint

glorfindel

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Thank you for the suggestion, JungleJim. I'll try ig Orange in a sample.

 

But I think the mystery is solved. I ordered a couple of samples of inks that looked similar to the one I had in a mislabled sample and from the second try found the culprit.

It's KWZi IG Aztec Gold. It's a great color once oxidation is finished. Kinda similar to Rikyu-Cha.

I can't say I dislike ig Mandarin, so I'll keep it too. Still, kinda sucks when you get a different ink from the one you expected.

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Dupontdelamare Near Mint

Dupontdelamare

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Thank you for the suggestion, JungleJim. I'll try ig Orange in a sample.

 

But I think the mystery is solved. I ordered a couple of samples of inks that looked similar to the one I had in a mislabled sample and from the second try found the culprit.

It's KWZi IG Aztec Gold. It's a great color once oxidation is finished. Kinda similar to Rikyu-Cha.

I can't say I dislike ig Mandarin, so I'll keep it too. Still, kinda sucks when you get a different ink from the one you expected.

 

I have all three of these colours, I use Rikyu-Cha the most, indeed it is my favourite ink, but for me it comes out quite a bit darker than Aztec Gold, but the latter had great shading, with traces of grey gold and greenish tints. It also dries very quickly with little show through, which makes it ideal for use in a broad gold plated Bock 1.5 nib, which I use mainly for headings. So far I have not found a dedicated use for Mandarin, nor chosen a pen for it.

I would be tempted to try it with a vintage flex nib, the only problem being that my flex nibs are in pens with sacs, either latex or silicon. I wonder whether both sac-types would be safe with Mandarin, as it has a very low IG content. I would be grateful if any one can advize.

Regards

Dupontdelamare

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inkstainedruth Ancient Artifact

inkstainedruth

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I have to say that I really like IG Mandarin a lot. My bottle definitely oxidizes to about what glorfindel's scan shows.

Trying to remember what the end result of my sample of IG Aztec gold is like, now (I haven't tried IG Orange).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Dupontdelamare Near Mint

Dupontdelamare

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I sent a message to Kwz and Konrad kindly replied that Kwz IG inks are really gentle for stainless steel, Gold palladium, rhodium and titanium, but if a pen is badly gold plated there might be an issue. I have IG Aztec with a gold plated Bock, luckily with no problem, so I’m feeling ready to experiment.
He further told me that IG inks do not effect latex sacs more than other inks. They just need occasional replacing whatever the ink used. That is good to know, so I will go ahead and try IG Mandarin (encouraged by Ruth Morisson’s praise of it above) in a vintage pen with latex sac and gold flex nib, and possibly report back.

Regards
Dupontdelamare
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inkstainedruth Ancient Artifact

inkstainedruth

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I'll admit that I haven't tried IG inks in any sac pen, for the most part. OTOH, I used IG inks (not just KWZI) in pens with stainless steel nibs all the time.

People tend to panic needlessly. Modern IG inks do NOT destroy fountain pen nibs. Even stainless steel ones. Some people say that IG inks CAN corrode stainless nibs, but I haven't seen that happen with any of mine (and I've read recently that ammonia flush can do that with 14K gold nibs depending on the other alloys -- but I haven't seen that happen either). The issue with IG inks was with dip pen nibs that weren't stainless steel, but also were not expected to last (they don't have tipping on them). Modern IG inks just need to be flushed more often than regular inks, and when you do, use a vinegar solution rather than (or before using) ammonia solution, and flush before, between, and after with distilled water.

The only concern with IG inks is that they can precipitate out the iron content. I bought a bottle of vintage Sanford Pen-It that happened to -- and it mucked up the sac in the Pilot Metropolitan converter. But the ink itself was clearly bad. Fortunately, it only cost me a buck.... And I was able to get a replacement Con-B converter on eBay.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Intensity Collectors Item

Intensity

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Vintage blue-black inks were made with IG content too, at the time sacs were used for ink reservoirs. A lot of blue inks from well-known brands (like Waterman) are also* fairly acidic, and they are known to be kind to sacs. It should be fine to use modern IG inks from KWZ and Platinum (for example) in vintage fountain pens with gold nibs and sac reservoirs.

 

*I'm saying "also" because pH is not the full story. There are various degrees of reactivity for specific substances that's not all reflected in simple pH measurements.

(examples of "Common Types" a list down the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrosive_substance)

Edited by Intensity

“I admit it, I'm surprised that fountain pens are a hobby. ... it's a bit like stumbling into a fork convention - when you've used a fork all your life.” 

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