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Alternative To Diamine Registrar's


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Can anybody suggest an ink with a similar appearance to Diamine Resistrar's?

 

I like the off-grey colour it fades to, but am reluctant to use it in my vintage pens. I'm not fussed with permenancy, just the colour.

 

Need I worry at all, or am I right to be reticent?

 

Many thanks for your thoughts,

 

W.S.P

W.S.P

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I use it in vintage pens. Iron gall is a vintage ink formulation, after all. Just don't let it dry in them.

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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Hi there,

That's good to know, I'm very careful with my vintage pens, so I don't think drying out will be an issue.

 

I didn't realise Diamine used a vintage recipe for this ink.

 

Have you found that your ink dries blue-black then fades again over time? Mine has gone a bluish grey, like a weird sepia colour. I wrote with it a few months ago.

 

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts!

 

All the best,

 

W.S.P

W.S.P

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I did'nt mean the Diamine use a vintage recipe, only that iron gall inks have been around since before fountain pens. I am positive that Diamine's chemistry is modern. :)

 

You can see a photo I took of Registrars 10 minutes after writing here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/230980-which-inks-are-you-using-today/?p=4245235 A day or so later, it is almost completely black.

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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I've had the opposite problem with Diamine Registrars -- it very quickly oxidized to a washy blue-grey. Great shading, but that's about all you could say on its behalf.... It's the example I point to whenever the topic of whether Diamine makes the Akkerman inks or not. They clearly are not just relabeled Diamine inks (the way the Chesterfield inks were. Because Akkerman Ijzer-galnoten was way better looking than Diamine Registers on the page....

to sure of a non-IG substitute. You'd want to be looking at inks that were greyish blue to begin with. The original formula of Organic Studios Blue Merle was nice, but then the batch I tried at the ink testing station at DCSS one year, and it was really different from the sample I had.

Another couple to maybe look at would be Noodler's Henry Hudson Blue (exclusive to Fountain Pen Hospital in NYC, or Noodler's Blue Upon the Plains of Abraham (exclusive to Wonder Pens in Toronto). Both of them are a little bluer than you might want, though, and BUtPoA is on the dry side).

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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I've had the opposite problem with Diamine Registrars -- it very quickly oxidized to a washy blue-grey. Great shading, but that's about all you could say on its behalf.... It's the example I point to whenever the topic of whether Diamine makes the Akkerman inks or not. They clearly are not just relabeled Diamine inks (the way the Chesterfield inks were. Because Akkerman Ijzer-galnoten was way better looking than Diamine Registers on the page...

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Hi Ruth,

 

I have both Akkerman #10 and Diamine Registrar's and they look absolutely the same, fresh on the paper as well as months later. I got them last year directly from Akkerman and Diamine.

ESSRI looks a tiny bit more reddish when writing but ages to the same nice blackish blue-black then.

 

All three are great with my vintage sac pens. These are made for these inks. :-)

 

Best wishes

Jens

.....................................................................................................

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136145166@N02/albums

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ESSRI looks a tiny bit more reddish when writing but ages to the same nice blackish blue-black then.

 

Have you noticed a difference in wetness between the three? I was led to believe ESSRI is slightly wetter than Diamine.

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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Have you noticed a difference in wetness between the three? I was led to believe ESSRI is slightly wetter than Diamine.

 

Hi,

 

short answer: IMO ESSRI is the wettest of them.

 

well, some months ago I would have said ESSRI is the driest, but I found Diamine Registrar's (DRI) having a stronger tendency to skipping/ railroading more than it in misaligned pens... (I like to restore vintage bent nibs and ESSRI is one of my test inks).

 

The problem is that the fine differences are subjective impressions (or reflections of what we have read...I was led to believe, as you said).

I'm not sure if Akkerman #10 is really wetter then DRI - if it is, the difference is little.

 

Best

Jens

Edited by SchaumburgSwan

.....................................................................................................

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136145166@N02/albums

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short answer: IMO ESSRI is the wettest of them.

 

Thanks! I had read that it was wetter, but haven't had an opportunity to find out for myself.

 

I'm currently using Registrars in pens that run wet and wide (where it works great), and KWZ IG #2 or #5 in the others.

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black. A truly outstanding ink.

The Good Captain

"Meddler's 'Salamander' - almost as good as the real thing!"

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Morning all, thanks for all your responses.

 

I should clarify that my registrar's ink faded to a grey, black, blue sort of shade - very antique looking - and it is this look I'm searching for. I didn't realise there was so much variation between users; I assumed this was commonplace.

Are there any examples that fit the bill of vaguely antique looking, without going full on sepia?

 

Best wishes,

 

W.S.P

W.S.P

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Some options:

 

First, another vote for ESSRI, I have been using it on an old Peter Pan eyedropper and it behaves wonderfully (at least on this pen).

 

Second: Koh-I-Noor black seems to be made from a dark olive green when diluted, but as is, it is a black that tends to gray. Mostly when fresh, if you let it oxidize in the pen (e.g. by keeping it too long in the pen), then it becomes blacker. There is also a blue that looks somewhat teal or turquoise when fresh and tends to dark blue when oxidized in the pen.

 

Rohrer & Klingner have Salix and Scabiosa, one is blue-black and the other is red-black

 

Montblanc Permanent black or permanent blue

 

De Atramentis Archive inks are a suitable alternative as you have the basic colors and can mix them to your liking.

 

And many more. See e.g. https://www.jetpens.com/blog/the-best-waterproof-fountain-pen-inks/pt/829

If you are to be ephemeral, leave a good scent.

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  • ESSRI is wetter than Registrar's. Registrar's is one of the very driest of all of my inks (IG or non-IG).
  • Akkerman #10 is basically the same as Registrar's but -- importantly enough -- wetter and more lubed due to more/better sufactants.
  • Pelikan's 4001 is IMO "better" than both ESSRI and/or the Registrar's.

Thusly: Akkermann's Pelikan's > ESSRI >> Registrar's

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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  • ESSRI is wetter than Registrar's. Registrar's is one of the very driest of all of my inks (IG or non-IG).
  • Akkerman #10 is basically the same as Registrar's but -- importantly enough -- wetter and more lubed due to more/better sufactants.
  • Pelikan's 4001 is IMO "better" than both ESSRI and/or the Registrar's.

Thusly: Akkermann's Pelikan's > ESSRI >> Registrar's

 

 

Hi,

 

well, what we can say is that we have four excellent inks here. :-)

 

Which one is best for the user depends... I'm writing 95% with vintage sac pens...

 

Strong IG inks like Akkerman #10, DRI and ESSRI require some more care as they have a tendency to develope a sediment when in contact with oxygen. So the pen needs to be flushed more often. I don't use them in easy to clean pens, but not in piston fillers or the Swan Visofil.

But if the wetness is right, you benefit from an unique color/darkness.

 

A light IG ink as Pelikan 4001 BB (or the Platinum Classic line) is less problematic, and the blue is very nice...

 

Anyway if I had to choose, ESSRI would win!

 

Great that we have them all.

 

Best

Jens

.....................................................................................................

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136145166@N02/albums

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... Strong IG inks like Akkerman #10, DRI and ESSRI require some more care ...

 

 

That's a good one! DRI is the right abbreviation!!!

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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Hi Ruth,

 

I have both Akkerman #10 and Diamine Registrar's and they look absolutely the same, fresh on the paper as well as months later. I got them last year directly from Akkerman and Diamine.

ESSRI looks a tiny bit more reddish when writing but ages to the same nice blackish blue-black then.

 

All three are great with my vintage sac pens. These are made for these inks. :-)

 

Best wishes

Jens

 

Wondering now if my sample of Diamine Registrars was bad. Because the difference between it and the Akkerman was really obvious. (Admittedly, these days I much prefer KWZI IG Blue Black and IG Blue #3 over either of those...). I have no experience with Pelikan Blue-Black -- it isn't readily available in the US (which is odd because I have no trouble getting other Pelikan inks); plus I seem to remember reading somewhere that the formula may have changed because it's a lot more teal-looking a blue black than it used to be. I have no experience with ESSRI, either (I've wanted to try it but didn't think I'd go through a bottle that big in a timely fashion -- even if I didn't use ANY other ink, IG or otherwise; plus the shipping to the US was sufficiently high I had considered that if I DID order a bottle of it, I'd throw a pen into the order as well -- this was about 5 years ago -- because it looked like the pens on their websites were Parker Vectors; that would have helped level out the shipping charges a bit, but still not enough to merit getting a 100 ml bottle of ink....

I didn't recommend Salix to the OP because it's a LOT bluer than the others. And that didn't sound like a color the OP wanted (plus I got the impression that what was wanted was a NON-IG ink that gave the same overall color as oxidized Diamine Registrars).

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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That's a good one! DRI is the right abbreviation!!!

 

:-))

 

Just understanding the joke...

Edited by SchaumburgSwan

.....................................................................................................

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136145166@N02/albums

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Can anybody suggest an ink with a similar appearance to Diamine Resistrar's?

 

I like the off-grey colour it fades to, but am reluctant to use it in my vintage pens. I'm not fussed with permenancy, just the colour.

 

Need I worry at all, or am I right to be reticent?

 

Many thanks for your thoughts,

 

W.S.P

 

I use Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black as an alternative. It does have a little iron-gall (so little Pelikan don't explicitly put it on the label, but their website says it does), so it is still waterproof, but the maintainance required is far less than for Diamine Registrars (far less likely to form sediment). It cleans out of the pen very cleanly, no staining of ink windows, unlike the Diamine.

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Wondering now if my sample of Diamine Registrars was bad. Because the difference between it and the Akkerman was really obvious. (Admittedly, these days I much prefer KWZI IG Blue Black and IG Blue #3 over either of those...). I have no experience with Pelikan Blue-Black -- it isn't readily available in the US (which is odd because I have no trouble getting other Pelikan inks); plus I seem to remember reading somewhere that the formula may have changed because it's a lot more teal-looking a blue black than it used to be. I have no experience with ESSRI, either (I've wanted to try it but didn't think I'd go through a bottle that big in a timely fashion -- even if I didn't use ANY other ink, IG or otherwise; plus the shipping to the US was sufficiently high I had considered that if I DID order a bottle of it, I'd throw a pen into the order as well -- this was about 5 years ago -- because it looked like the pens on their websites were Parker Vectors; that would have helped level out the shipping charges a bit, but still not enough to merit getting a 100 ml bottle of ink....

I didn't recommend Salix to the OP because it's a LOT bluer than the others. And that didn't sound like a color the OP wanted (plus I got the impression that what was wanted was a NON-IG ink that gave the same overall color as oxidized Diamine Registrars).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I have experienced differences between batches of DRI. One batch I got was particularly light. The rest have been ok. I think, if the ink has a limited shelf life - if you slowly turn the bottle upside down, you can see a layer of sediment, which does seem to imply that some of the iron-gall has reacted with air and precipitated.

 

Looking at UK birth certificates, I don't think it is a particularly saturated ink anyway (it does not dry to black):

 

https://www.simplycertificate.co.uk/blog/birth-of-princess-charlotte-is-registered-how-to-register-a-birth-in-the-uk

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