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Dear guys, I'm wondering if it could be possible to have an oil paint with iron gall ink properties, Adding iron sulphate and gallic acid to linseed oil, will it turn black, or is it only soluble in water? If not is there any way to mix it with oil?

I'm looking to add a new fountain pen friendly "iron gall" ink to my stable and would like some input. I regularly use Chesterfield Archival Vault ink (a rebrand of Diamine Registrar's ink) and have also used R&K Salix, old formula Lamy Blue-Black, as well as several true iron gall inks (with my dip pens only, obviously). I love the Chesterfield ink and I really like true iron gall inks, but I am looking to expand my horizons. Right now I am debating between ESSRI, R&K Scabiosa, KWZ Gummiberry, and Platinum Blue-Black. Most of these inks are not available in samples and I do not plan to buy anything other than one of these inks (I already have more pen stuff than I really need), so I want to make the best choice possible right off the bat. Here are my thoughts so far: --Platinum Blue-Black intrigues me (partly because I JUST discovered that it is an iron gall based ink), but I don't know about the color. I really disliked the color of Salix and do not want to find myself with a similar colored ink. If the Platinum is a fairly dark or vivid blue, then I would be happy with it, but a muted blue will end up sitting in a desk drawer. The other issue is that this ink is more expensive than any of the other inks on my list, so it really needs to be great for me to give it a try. On the upside, the bottle has a reservoir in it, and I am a sucker for bottles with reservoirs. --Scabiosa is priced well and is an interesting color, but it seems fairly muted...I'm a bit hesitant due to my dislike of Salix. --ESSRI is well priced and seems like a fairly standard IG ink, but I'm not so sure that it is all that much different from Diamine Registrar's/Chesterfield Archival Vault ink. --KWZ Gummiberry is a pretty cool looking ink, but it seems pretty close to Scabiosa in color. I have only found this ink for sale at Vanness pen shop, and the cost including shipping is a bit high. So, I am having a hard time making a decision. I want an interesting IG ink that I can use on a regular basis. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

It will be nice if this gets pinned... hoping for a kind Mod to help out. This thread will be used to update the list as necessary. Swatches will follow. SWATCHES...... (up to 63 for now) C.

Diamine Registrar's is my go-to ink for work, because it doesn't feather/bleeds through even the cheapest papier. It's quite expensive though, and I've bought some Ecclesiastical Stationery Supplies Registrars, which is three times less expensive (factoring in shipping costs). After a workday of using both inks, the differences I've noticed : 1. The colour is virtually undistinguishable. 2. ESSRI is less dry than Diamine, so it's the ink of choice for drier pens. 3. ESSRI does feather slightly and does bleed through slightly, whereas Diamine almost never does. See the comparison here : Recto : http://i.imgur.com/gZ5LGby.jpg, Verso : http://i.imgur.com/3PWCJwE.jpg The first two lines are written with ESSRI, and the rest with Diamine.

Hi folks, I use FP at work, and, to this date, I still have not found any dye-based ink that could emulate all the desirable properties of IG. My own field is medicine, but I think the following requirements apply for virtually any businesses : 1. No feathering on the cheapest paper available. 2. No bleedthrough on the cheapest paper available. 3. Fast drying. 4. Water resistant. (Waterproof is better, but rarely an absolute requirement). 5. Somewhat fade-proof. (Medical records -- as other business documents -- are usually stored for a period of ~ 20 years, so the ink doesn't have to be designed to last for centuries). 6. Not overly dry -- I want to write as fast as I can. I am yet to find a non IG ink that fulfills those requirements. The closest I got is Noodler's X-feather, but its definately slower drying than IG and does bleed through some of the cheapest papers I use. Any suggestions ?

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ0627-2.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ0627.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ0627-3.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ0622_1.jpg #74 with Zebra "G" nib on Original Crown Mill Pure Cotton paper KWZI's #74 is a weird one for me. Rationally, it's a very fine ink with great behavior and a decent color. Yet I don't love it. I'll not likely miss my sample when it's gone, but I would recommend it to anyone looking for an ink in this color range. I prefer it hands down over #83 "Iron Gall Gold," which I'll try to review soon. As far as iron gall inks go, this one doesn't seem to have a lot of color shift upon oxidation. It kind of just gets a bit darker. I should point out that in the review above I describe Alt-goldgrün as "in this color range" when I meant "in this style," i.e. a complex dirty greenish gold. As always, care was taken to ensure color accuracy, but that green-gold on the paper is hard to capture. On my screen, even after color correcting the image and tweaking the levels, etc., the ink is slightly greener in real life that on screen. Perhaps my screen does not reproduce this color well as all other inks in the comparison appear as they do on paper.

I have been looking for Iron Gall inks in my area and online but the only ink I am able to find is Diamine registrars which is out of my reach. I know there is R&K salix as well but I cannot find it online or any place in my area.

Hello all, I am currently hesitating between wide posibilities about a great ink/pen combo for crappy paper. In fact I am planning to work everyday with this set : FPR Triveni Jr / Sailor Jentle BlueLamy Safari F / PR Fiesta red (to underline)Pilot parallel / ...? (for big titles) (at home) + This for crappy paper, and I woud like also for less big titles, so like this I will be able to have a pen for two different purposes (better for me and my wallet, mostly more convenient if the ink will be with the Parallel). The inks : I am here to ask you if Scabiosa would be a great competitor, but what annoy me is that it will be very dry (I've tried Salix for comparison) among with a narrow-nibbed pen... My crappy paper → Cheap feathering-prone school copy paper, and it is more to make little notes on texts with highlighting. Otherwise I wondered about blacks before, and I have currently Perle noire but not tested in narrow-nibs (I thinked to a 78G but with con-50 I think that for the price there are better options).I can also order some samples of X-feather or Noodler's black for example. I don't know if there are more to consider, maybe more polyvalent about the flow or drying time, I am open to other colour than black/ "classic" colours, I want it to be distinguable and readable easily. Scabiosa interested me because before I was thinking about Herbin PDL, I would love to use it everyday ! You will surely recommend me basic inks like watermans, pilot.. (no judgments) I guess. About pens : I am talking about narrow-nibs (F,EF) because this is what I am used to (western F), and because I think that for this purpose it is more adapted. I have thinked about the Nemosine Singularity, not very expensive but I don't need/want to spend really much more, this might be good because of the nib choices : Does 0.6/0.8 Italic on this would work well (flow) with Scabiosa ? (also Knox K35 possible) If yes, super good, otherwise does my Safari with a 1.1 would be too wide for this purpose, I have not tested the nib yet ? If Scabiosa is that dry maybe with a western M nib the line will be not too big and the flow good ? Or do you have other pens to recommend ? Finally : Maybe I am confused, but there are a lot of options and I hope that you will be able to help me in this choice. Hoping this thread is readable, Thank you !

So, I have been using heart of darkness, which has long been my favorite ink, but the office field books have switched to some diffrent paper, and it has doubled my line thickness. It just seems to soak out the ink like a sponge. I went to Platinum blue black, which is a pretty dry ink, but it has the same behavior. At first I thought my nib had sprung, but under the scope it looked fine. Do you know of a really dry permanant ink or a permanant ink that tends to sit higher on the page? Really, I know the issue is a paper one, but its what we are provided and expected to use. Don't know how much longer we will use them, as even people who dont care about pens have been complaining about the paper.

Hi, Some of you may have had experience with registrar's ink, legally required in the UK for certain kinds of documents, such as marriage certificates. The usual options come from Ecclesiastical Stationery Supplies or Diamine. But both are iron gall inks and clog up pens, especially when they're used infrequently, which they are in my case. It's a bit of a faff. So, I was wondering if there are rollerballs, or indeed even gel ink pens, that are indelible like registrar's ink is. Ballpoint pens actually strike me as being indelible, but I don't know if this meets whatever the UK legal requirements are. Thanks.

Greetings and Salutations! Well, after a lonnnngg break from ink mixing and fountain pen faffing I've finally returned and had some fun. I decided that I wanted to make my own ink. Not mix, but MAKE. First off, I have to give all the credit to Pharmacist since this ink is based on his recipe. I did deviate on some of the steps but I will explain that below. The biggest hurdle was to get hold of Gallic Acid. I searched high and low and could not find ANY in South Africa, but finally managed to get some imported by a chemical company. The rest of the chemicals are quite easily obtained here. So without dragging this out, here's the recipe: 5ml glycerine (I did not add this, as I will explain after) 1gm Gallic Acid 1.5 gm ferrous sulphate (hydrated?) (FE2SO4.7H2O) 200 mg salicyclic acid (preservative to prevent mould) 1ml hydrochloric acid 25% distilled water Steps 1. Dissolve gallic & salicylic acid in 40ml hot distilled water 2. Dissolve ferrous sulphate in 40ml hot distilled water 3. Add hydrochloric acid to (2) 4. Add (3) to (1) 5. Add 10ml Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue to (4) - did not add 6. Add glycerine to (5) - did not add Okay, the recipe is easy and straight forward. I did not perform step 5 & 6, so I ended up with a base iron mix that is pale lavender in colour. On paper it is basically invisible for the first 10 seconds after which it starts turning black. The reason I did not do the last two steps is to be able to experiment with different colours etc. I took 3ml of the base, added .5ml glycerine and .5ml Waterman Purple. The result is a light purple ink that darkens to something I would swear is the exact same ink as R&K Scabiosa. I've tried the ink in a cheap eye dropper with a bit of a scratchy nib (yeah yeah, Im too lazy to smooth it), but the ink flows nicely. Shading is very good and since it Is and IG, it is waterproof in the sense that only the added dye/ink will wash away, leaving the black IG component on the paper. The test was done on Tamoe River (cream). I do not have proper tools to measure the acidity of the base or final ink but after a week in the cheapy pen (no precipitation or gunking) I can't see any adverse effects yet. I'm linking the smaller version of the scan and including a link to the full sized version. http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g459/NeelsK/Ink%20Mixes/Pseudo-Scabiosa-small_zps53115ce6.gif Link to full size scan: http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g459/NeelsK/Ink%20Mixes/Pseudo-Scabiosa-full_zps1a751451.gif~original

I was just taking another look at an old sample vial of Montblanc Midnight Blue that somebody sent me a long time back. I inked up a pen... I don't see any blue in this ink. It looks to me like a neutral graphite gray. Is that normal, or did this sample just not keep well? I know some IG inks change color after they dry, so I guess maybe it could happen eventually in a vial as well? I'm on a search for my ideal blue-black, so Midnight Blue could be one of the options for me. I would like for my blue-black to have a hint of blue in it, though!

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Here are some KWZI green inks I was graciously sent to allay my confusion between #26 IG Green #1 and #25 IG #2. I must say that after trying them both out, they appear to be just about the same ink. Though an error in the labelling of sample of #2 and the bottle of #1 I used is a possibility. In my written example the two seem a bit different. #25 IG green #2 is more green and is a slightly lighter and less saturated colour. #26 IG Green #1 is a bit richer and has a tiny bit more blue in the darker parts. But the line separating the two written examples was done at the end of writing with IG Green #1, yet looks exactly like IG Green #2. And both have some blue as seen from the wet drops. Apparently #2 Green should not have any blue. #26 IG Green #1 had more blue throughout initially and was less obviously green, but then upon drying the inverse became true. But they are very, very close. I have to say, it almost seems that if #26 were diluted slightly it would be exactly like #25. On a further wet drop test I can hardly tell the difference between the two. And in a q-tip swab test there was absolutely no difference between the two inks. I am convinced that any differences on paper were due solely to differences in the pen's nib/feed wetness at the moment of writing. #36 Menthol Green is a vibrant but messy colour!! I got splashes on the table that usually if cleaned within seconds comes right off. But Menthol Green was hard to clean and stains remain. The demonstrator was also difficult to clean out after only a few minutes of exposure to the ink. It's a beautiful colour, but be careful with it. #42 Rotten Green is a unique colour. I'm not sure where it would come into use, but it was certainly interesting to try out. #27 IG Turqoise goes on sky blue and darkens dramatically to a colour that could almost be used for business correspondence. The more I look at it the more I like it. #75 IG Green Gold went on so light and lime coloured with the Nemosine Singularity medium nib that I flushed the pen and tried again. With a wetter TWSBI 580 it went on darker, but still pale, yet darkened quickly and dramatically. It has a minor amount of sparkles and is much more toward green than gold. Shading is spectacular. Drops: Top left - #42 Rotten Green Below that - #27 IG Turquoise - Note there is no green in it. The green you see is transfer of another ink. Below that - #75 IG Green Gold Top right - #36 Menthol Green Below that two drops on rightmost side #26 IG Green #1 Left of that 2 smaller drops #25 IG Green #2 http://i62.tinypic.com/2ce2c92.jpg http://i57.tinypic.com/jpx91w.jpg http://i57.tinypic.com/29lmpp5.jpg http://i59.tinypic.com/2mo2og0.jpg http://i58.tinypic.com/29orabt.jpg http://i60.tinypic.com/zkmxsh.jpg http://i60.tinypic.com/29gkgnc.jpg

Hi all, I've been trying to get all the dried-in iron gall ink out of a Parker "51" Aerometric, but it never seems to stop coming out. Background I've been using R&K ‘Salix’ iron-gall ink in the pen for the last eighteen months. I'd only ever used dish soap & tap water to clean it out, as I'd never had flow problems and the pen was in constant use, so the ink was never anything other than ‘fresh’. My mother had to go into hospital for a while this year, and while she was in (and for a short while after she'd been discharged) I was rather preoccupied and so hardly used the pen for about a month. When I came back to it, the pen still wrote ok but the ink had become noticeably darker. Once I'd used it up I decided to clean the pen out with a solution of white vinegar, then dish soap & water, then vinegar soultion again. Although the dish soap fill came out ‘clean’, the second vinegar solution fill dislodged as much old ink as the first. So I decided to keep doing vinegar soaks until no more ink came out. The Process So Far I started out by filling the pen with a solution of white vinegar, and leaving it for a day or so with occasional nib-up to nib-down rotation & longitudinal shaking to try to circulate the solution through the breather tube & sac. I would then prop the pen up on a piece of kitchen paper to enable capillary action to drain/wick the vinegar solution out through the nib. After a few weeks of this, and small amounts of old ink coming out each time, I have increased the concentration of the vinegar soultion, and have been leaving the filled pen on top of a radiator in order to use the heat to increase the speed of reaction. Old ink is still evident on the kitchen paper after each cycle of filling with vinegar solution & wicking through the nib. I can never see any colour in the pen's sac (I had a NOS one fitted to it), but there is still always some depsoited on the kitchen paper after the vinegar solution has wicked through the nib. After a couple of weeks using the radiator & the stronger vinegar solution, I am becoming rather frustrated now, and would really like to expedite the process so that I can get my "51" back into rotation. Being both a ‘restoration virgin’ AND an inveterate klutz, I feel in no way competent to disassemble the front section of the pen without fatally damaging it. So, I am thinking of buying an ultrasonic cleaner to help to get my "51" clean. After reading old threads about best practice with USCs, I am thinking of pushing the pen into a piece of thick cardboard and placing that across the USC's bath so that only the section of the pen to just in front of the clutch ring is suspended in the cleaning solution, but I still have some questions that I'd like to ask: Questions 1) As I am (I think) trying to remove layers of iron salts that have precipitated inside the pen's collector, should I actually be using a solution of white vinegar in the ultrasonic cleaner, rather than ammonia (or whatever is in the detergent that comes with the USC)? 2) Should I fill the pen's sac with the cleaning solution before placing the section inside the USC's bath, or should the sac be dry and ONLY the section that is submerged contain solution? 3) Am I right to think that I should put the pen through a USC cycle, then empty it (squeezing & wicking onto kitchen paper), then another round of USC-then-emptying, then further rounds as necessary? 4) Am I wrong about the identity of the dark blue patches that have been appearing on the kitchen paper after every vinegar soak? Are these bluish-grey patches (that are the same colour as the dye component in R&K ‘Salix’) actually patches of the salt (Silver Acetate?) that results when the sterling silver breather tube of a 1950's aerometric is exposed to vinegar? 5) Is there anything else that I need to know before I go ahead with my plan; do you have any general advice for me (apart from ‘type shorter posts already, you blethering Windbag!‘ )? Or; 6) Should I actually just ‘bite the bullet’, and take my pen's life in my hands by attempting to fully disassemble it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, M.

Hi all, First, let me tell you this is my first post on this forum and I really love the community and the amazing richness of information available here. Thank you all! After years of trying to find the perfect fountain pen + ink combination to be able to write on almost any paper including Moleskine with no feathering, bleed through or other issues, I bought many fountain pens, inks and notebooks and spent hundreds of hours experimenting. Recently I discovered iron gall inks and Diamine Regisrar's ink in particular,which I find to be an amazing ink for such situations. I can use a single fountain pen and write on any paper that comes my way during the day without feathering, bleedthrough or other concerns. However, I seem to be getting inconsistent results with it. When I fill the pen (a Pilot Vanishing Point binderized F or a Pelikan M215 EF stainless steel or a Pilot Urushi F) they write rather dry. After a couple of days (without flushing) the pens start to write very wet and much darker and saturated. The line thickness is double the size. This is the most illogical impossible yet happening miracle (curse) I am struggling with. In the worst case I would expect it to clog, not become wetter. I understand iron gall inks take a few days to reach a dark saturated color. This is not the issue. Examining the writing after a few days after the last inscription, I notice this variation too except now everything is much darker. (I can't really eliminate the possibility that the same sheet of paper could be more absorbent in different areas... but I noticed this phenomenon on several different brands of paper). I kindly ask you to help me understand what are my options, what is going on, if any of you has experienced this. Also, does anyone have any suggestion on how to ensure a pen on Diamine Registrar's that writes with a consistent ink flow all the time (on the same paper) without having to flush the pen daily. I want to be able to flush it once a week as part of the iron gall maintenance habit, and have 7 days of consistent line thickness, flow and everything else. It is inconsistent on the same notebook, so i'm not saying there are variations across paper types (which are more than expected). Thank you so much in advance for all your wonderful suggestions. PS since winter holidays are approaching, I wish you all Happy Holidays!

Hello everybody! Although this is not a recipe as such, it should soon become one if I get enough information on this. Should it become a recipe, I'll share it with you all. As I live in the UK, oak galls are quite hard to find (we just don't have that many). Acorns, however, are in abundance. As I've heard that English oak galls form the English oak, or Quercus robur, are quite low in tannins (about 20%). Acorns from the same tree however, are (I believe) the Aleppo galls of the acorn world in that they contain much more tannic acid than regular acorns. Does anybody know how much of an English acorn by weight (in %) is in tannic acid? If it's anywhere around the 15-25% mark of our low-quality oak galls, they should be possible to use interchangeably with oak galls in recipes, and it'll be happy days for me, as I could then make a LOT of ink. Anybody have any info or advice on the matter? Any input would be highly appreciated!

The original KWZI 1-47 reviews are here.. Thanks to Konrad and Dale (dcroe05), without them this work would have never been possible. Konrad for creating these amazing inks, Dale for his generosity in sharing his samples with me. The Iron Galls are marked with a big "IG" under its respective swab. I have a few favorites... (like 30... ) .. but I will let you pick your favorites. I hope you enjoy drooling over these amazing inks.. as much as I enjoyed reviewing them.

Hi everyone! I've recently been interested in Iron-Gall ink colours...but I can't seem to hold my breathe and put them in my FPs... So my question to you is: What is the closest iron-gall like colour ink you know of? (without having any iron-gall content!) Only one I can think of is the MB midnight blue... *I love that strange subdued slight purple/blue-black look that seems to jump right off the page! Thank you!

Hello All… This is the highly anticipated KWZI – Group Buy !!! This is KWZI first Transatlantic Group Buy, but it won’t be the last. If your favorite color is not available today, do not despair. Konrad is busy replenishing his stock and old and new colors will be available for future Group Buys. Price: Standard Ink (60ml): $10 USD Iron Gall Ink (60ml): $12 USD Shipping: Overseas Shipping is built into price. You will only be charge for North American shipping. Please select the number of bottles you are committing to buy on the form linked below. We have very limited number of ink colors thus, we have limited the amount of bottles you can buy per color. PLEASE NOTE: We diligently try our best to update our stock as quickly as possible. In the case you placed an order before we could declare a color Sold Out, you will only be invoiced for what we can ship to you. Timelines: The List will be open until 100 bottles are sold or by September 30th. Whichever is first. The ink will be shipped and should reach the US by mid October. Barring any mishaps and/or postal delays, buyers should be getting their inks starting the end of October. If you have ANY issues/problems with this form, or any special requirements to discuss, please do not post in this thread… send an email to KWZI.Inks (at) Gmail (dot) com This thread will be use to keep you abreast of development and to share milestones; when the list is close, when to expect PayPal invoices, when the ink is on your way… etc. Claudia ---------------- SOLD OUT: #7 Blue #23 IG Blue #28 IG Red #29 IG Violet

Hey all, just a few questions: What exactly is 'pH'? To my knowledge it is how acidic an ink is or something? What does it mean if an ink is 'pH neutral'? How does the 'pH' level affect my FP? What is the difference between Iron-Gall and Dye-Based inks' 'pH' levels? And lastly; Can IG inks be mixed with standard (dye-based) inks, just something like Diamine or Waterman? I've seen R&K inks can, but I've also seen many posts about Diamine's Registrar's turning cloggy, even if mixed with less than a drop of other ink. Sorry for the "few" questions, but I am still quite a novice. Thanks, Tom.

Perhaps slightly odd question but I once tried some Rohrer & Klingner Salix, which I understand to be an iron gall ink, and it had this interesting almost syrupy undertone to the smell. (Not unpleasant; I rather liked it. Just distinctive.) I think I still also have a sample of Scabiosa around here that I can sniff. But I wanted to ask, is this syrupy smell my imagination? Do other iron gall inks have it, or something like it? I ask because I am writing a story and it would be extremely convenient to have a sweet-smelling ink without resorting to perfume. I would normally leap upon the opportunity to order ink samples, but quite honestly this winter has made me paranoid about doing so until it warms up some more. (I'm in Louisiana, but my kid had *snow days*. Eep!) Otherwise, any pointers to inks with such olfactory qualities would be welcome. (The things that sf/f writers research...)

These are my first ink reviews so I'd like to hear all suggestions how to improve them. I've got quite some inks in my collection already (most of them are samples but it's a start) and I will review some more in the future.

I am thinking of trying Diamine Registrar's ink in my Pilot Custom 74. I am concerned about the metal agitator in the CON50. Has anyone had any experience with the CON50 and iron gall inks? Did you remove the agitator?

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