Making Ink

[mr T.]

Is it possible to make you own ink for fp's not by mixing existing inks, but from raw materials yourself? I mean: are there any recipes for making ink from chemicals or so that's around in most households? Does anyone have a recipe?

[Stephen-I-am]

This link for dyes has been posted before. I've never tried it though.

 

Stephen

[goldkiwi]

I think one of the issues with making your own ink for fountain pens is that a lot of materials out there may be damaging to your pens. They might either clog up the feed or be corrosive to your nibs. If you're using dip pens then this might not be such a big deal, since you can just rinse your pen right after using them.

[BillTheEditor]

Why do you want to make your own ink "from chemicals or so that are around in most households?"

 

If you just want to save money, it will be cheaper to buy ready-made ink, and you will get a better product than anything you can make at home.

 

If you want to do this as a hobby, you will also need pens that you don't mind having destroyed by your home-made ink. I frankly doubt that you will find much in the way of ordinary household products that could be useful in making an ink, particularly an ink that will not damage the pen it is in. The biggest problem is likely to be that the ink may corrode any metal parts inside the pen (including the nib itself).

 

If you're going to try this anyway, you could start with fabric dye packaged for home use. In the U.S., the brand names to look for are Rit and Dylon. I have seen Dylon for sale on Amazon. You may need to add something that will act as a lubricant and as a wetting agent, such as liquid dishwashing detergent (in VERY SMALL amounts). You may also need something that you can use to adjust the pH of the product (neutral pH would be what you are after if you don't want the ink to eat up the pen).

 

Good luck.

Edited March 18, 2007 by BillTheEditor