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I'm a fan of 'dry' (less lubricated) inks and over the last two years used exclusively the Diamine Registrar's/ESSRI, Salix and Pelikan 4001 blue black. Are there other similarly dry inks available? I would like to try something new, new colours and I'm not particularly concerned about permanency or its lack anymore.

Diamine Registrars Ink Review # 192 --- 🧾 Description Diamine Registrars is a classic iron gall ink. It’s my last blue-black IG ink review. In a perfect world, I would have tested Akkerman’s IG and KWZ’s blue-black. It’s my least favorite IG ink, mostly because I tested it after Essri. It doesn’t mean it’s bad or anything. NO, it’s an excellent IG ink, but I think I’ve reached IG fatigue. Ink writes blue to blue-black and oxidizes immediately to dark blue-black or black with a wet flex nib. Ink flow is drier than Essri, and on occasion, if forgotten, the pen will need some coaxing to write. In Safari, it did fine. Cleaning, like all iron gall inks, requires patience and care—ideally, powdered ascorbic acid, pen jacuzzi, soaking, and a bit of scrubbing. 🛁 If you buy the 100 ml bottle, you need to transfer it into glass bottles. Iron gall inks have expiry dates, so depending on the level of oxygen in the bottle, the precipitation process can accelerate. Do not shake IG ink bottles, in case the ink has expired. You don't want iron particles to get stuck in your feed. Iron gall inks are waterproof, but not lightfast. In case of prolonged humidity above 70%, the ink will deteriorate. --- 🧪 Chroma --- ✍️ Writing Samples (scan) Rhodia / Iroful Midori /Tomoe River 68gsm Hammermill 20lb --- 📸 Photos Photos were taken two weeks after the review. Rhodia/ Irofu Midori / Tomoe River 68 gsm Hammermill Oxidation 🔍 Comparison Note that these swatches will oxidize over time. --- 💧 Water Test --- 🎨 Artwork I created numerous draft sketches with this ink, but only a few finished pieces. Cancer (Zodiac) Inktober yearlong challenge 2025 The zodiac sign Cancer originated in Babylonian astronomy, where it was known as AL.LUL, a hybrid creature with the body of a turtle and elements of a fish or crab. It was associated with the summer solstice and symbolized cosmic transition. The Greeks later reinterpreted the sign as a crab, linking it to the myth of Heracles and the Hydra. Ancient doctors thought tumors with spreading veins looked like a crab’s legs. The Greek word karkinos meant both “crab” and the disease. Latin kept the name—so did the zodiac. Here is my interpretation: a cigar-smoking crab (incorporating my cat & mouse theme) in the heat of summer, perched atop a hybrid turtle wearing a Mesopotamian headdress. Diamine Registrars' Iron gall, J Herbin Bleu Calanque, Diabolo Menthe, Diamine Sepia. Paper is Strathmore. Mr. Percival Inspired by the movie Storm Boy, about a boy who saves three baby Pelicans. In the story, every time a Pelican dies, a storm brews. Paper is Talens Mixed Media --- - Pens Used: Pilot Kakuno EF, Lamy (EF/F/M/B/ Stub 1.1) , Kanwrite Desire, fitted with a FPR flex - What I Liked: The writing was great with M-B nibs. - What I Did Not Like: Writing with Japanese Ef nib. - What Some Might Not Like: IG ink. Lower lubrication. - Writing Experience: Good with M/B nibs. - Pros: Waterproof, oxidation. Good on copy paper. Comes in 30 ml bottles also. - Cons: Not lightfast. 🧷 Ink Characteristics - Shading: Yes - Ghosting: Faint on copy paper. - Bleed Through: Very faint with flex primed nib. - Flow Rate: Ok - Lubrication: Below average. - Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. - Start-up: Good with all pens but Kakuno. - Saturation: Lovely blue-black to black. - Sheen: No. - Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Did not notice. - Nib Creep / Crud: Did not notice. - Staining (Pen): - Clogging: No. - Cleaning: I went directly with ascorbic acid and pen jacuzzi through several cycles. - Water Resistance: Excellent. --- 🛒 Availability - [ ] Available in 30ml glass bottles or 100 ml plastic bottles. --- 💬 Closing This is an excellent iron gall ink by Diamine, readily available in small 30 ml bottles and big 100 ml plastic bottles. The only hick for me was that the writing expereice in comparison with Essri is not up to par, but this is just a matter of taste. No fountain pens were hurt in preparing this review. ;) Please don’t hesitate to share your experience, writing samples, or any other comments — the more the merrier. :)

Here's a great example of one of the few fountain pen friendly iron gall inks left on the market (RIP Montblanc Midnight Blue… ). It and R&K Salix are about even on like-o-meter, but I find myself preferring Registrar's Ink due to its darker final color. http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/537/DZc31c.jpg

I welcome any insight on this problem I've been having. I was given a fountain pens for my birthday about fifteen years ago. I enjoyed it but after a little, I discovered that its ink could wash away with water. I didn't know there were other options in ink so I stopped using the pen I had. A few months ago I mentioned this to a clerk at my favourite stationary shop, that I'd love to use a fountain pen but that water-soluble ink is a deal breaker. He said, but there are permanent inks. I bought the Lamy 2000 and the only permanent ink they stock, the Diamine Registrar's Ink. After a few weeks, the pen started to clog. The ink had quickly stopped being the rich blue black that it started as and often I would have a few hints of the dark colour and then a much thinner pale blue. Then it started to clog and I couldn't write a full sentence without having to stop and nurse the flow out again. When I went back to the shop, they kindly ordered a medium nib and switched it for my fine nib. That seemed to have solved the problem for a while but then that too started clogging. The owner speculated that the iron gall was reacting with the gold nib. (But then isn't gold nonreactive? Perhaps with the laminate.) This last week, I gave up on the ink and picked up Noodler's Black from another shop in town. When I switched out the ink, I took the pen apart (not like in the timid video on the Lamy website where they show a beautiful video of an animation of emptying the pen and filling and emptying it with water a few times) and rinsed it with filtered water. The first day the pen wrote smoothly for the better part of an hour. And then started to go dry towards the end of my writing time. I thought, well, there is a gentle cross-draft going through my apartment on this hot and humid day. Maybe that's why. But then I wrote again just after midnight and it started stopping again. So much so that I switched back to my faithful Uniball Deluxe. I disassembled the pen and this time soaked it until morning with a hint of biodegradable dish soap, as some people (the shop owner included) had suggested. I filled it again with the Noodler's Black and that morning, yesterday morning, it wrote beautifully. My only remark was that it had a lot less character than the Diamine (like a one note whisky to the Diamine's complexity of colour) but that it wrote smoothly with my pen. Then last night, I wrote for half an hour and it started to skip. This morning the skipping became too much and I had to go back to the Uniball. So, first, I strongly suggest avoiding iron gall inks such as the Diamine Archival Registrar's Ink in a Lamy 2000. I don't know if this would be an issue with all gold nib pens or if it is the lamination process that Lamy uses to coat the gold nib. I just know I will never again put that ink in this pen, as beautiful as it is. And, second, can anyone help me? I'll go back to the shop and see what they suggest. But this is driving me crazy. Is this problem coming from residue from the iron gall? It was in both the fine and medium nibs. The only other common denominators are me and the notebook, a Leuchtrum, think Moleskin but nicer paper. Is there a way to clean the pen once and for all? Thanks, Andrew