What is ink made of?

[Mille]

I look at the bottle. I smell it. I get some ink on my fingers.

 

There is nothing on the label that says what the bottle actually contains. Except that I know it is water and dye.

 

But what kind of chemicals are the different inks made of?

[lapis]

Many inks contain aniline and aniline-type copmounds. I wouldn't drink any and if you ever get it on your skin, just wash off with water and soap/detergent.

Read this.

 

Mike

[psfred]

Ink does NOT contain aniline, although it may contain aniline dyes (that is, azo dyes made with aniline as one of the components that react to make a dye). Aniline is quite toxic AND reactive and is not present in the final product.

 

Inks contain dyes, flow modifiers (which may be glycols), detergents, and pH stabilizing compounds. Noodler's bulletproof inks contain cellulose reactive dyes (not aniline based, I believe) and probably some compounds that accelerate the bonding reaction with cellulose. I don't know what those are.

 

Bottom line, there is very unlikely to be anything in the ink that will be absorbed through the skin in amounts that are harmful, and getting ink in your mouth (if, for instance, a child puts a fountain pen in their mouth) is very unlikely to cause any problems beyond ink all over things. I've not tasted any inks deliberately, but I'd guess they taste terrible, so you won't have any trouble with children drinking them, etc. Just mess.

 

You should be able to obtain an MSDS for any commercially available ink, listing any hazardous materials in it. Only the biocides are listed on the ones I've seen, the rest of the contents are considered non-hazardous.

 

Again, there is NO aniline in fountain pen ink. If the ink contains aniline dyes, they are non-reactive colored compounds made using aniline as a component and are no longer aniline.

 

Peter

[Possum Hill]

Acute embarrassment from discoloration may result if you either imbibe ink or get a significant quantity on your skin. You won't die from it, but you might wish you could.

[lapis]

Ink does NOT contain aniline, although it may contain aniline dyes (that is, azo dyes made with aniline as one of the components that react to make a dye). Aniline is quite toxic AND reactive and is not present in the final product.

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!

Of course there is no aniline in FP inks. Aniline itself is a phenyl group paired onto an amide (C₆H₅NH₂) and many multiple aniline-grouped rings represent aniline dyes, the most predominant and/or original of which was the dye/color made of indigo.

Sorry for that premature explanation above.

 

Mike

[Mille]

I Watermans blueblack once out of curiosity. Very little of course but it did not taste anything.

[The Grim Sheaffer]

I lick my nibs to start a pen. Have licked many nibs and many different inks. Diamine has the best taste, in case you were wondering.

 

No side effects yet, apart from blue tongue.

[Chris]

I don't know how you can say that when I look at the way you mow your lawn! :roflmho:

 

Chris

[nigelg]

I'm pretty sure that if there were anything remotely hazardous in inks made in the EC, our Eurocrats would require warning notices plastered all over the packaging.

 

Nigel

[orangos]

No side effects yet, apart from blue tongue.

 

I wouldn't say 'blue tongue' where a government veterinary specialist can hear you. The side effects might be worse than you think...

[RLTodd]

I would guess that it would be somewhere close to the LD50 (lethal consumption for half the sample population) for water.

 

The rat LD50 for water is 90mL/Kg, so you can figure it out for your weight.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

In general, fountain pen ink is not poisonous - but it can be highly addictive in some people! Beware!

 

I have noted that spilling a substantial amount on one's self can produce an involuntary and spontaneous set of verbalizations that may shock those with delicate ears. It's purely a chemical reaction, I'm sure.

 

Years ago when fountain pens were the pens you'd always get a grammar school kid who would drink a bottle of ink on a dare. I've never heard of any terrible results from the ink. All bets are off, of course, regarding what the teacher or the kid's parents might have done to him later on.

 

Also in ye olden days the biocide of choice was phenol, which turns out to be a carcinogen. AFAIK they don't put phenol in inks anymore.

 

And as one who is stained with the stuff much of the time I can say that it's harmless on the skin, except for that addiction thing.

[lapis]

.... I can say that it's harmless on the skin....

Yeah but it's not harmless on the wallet.

 

Joe No Dough

[ladyambrosia]

Well.my friends and I once played the ink in tea joke on eachother from The Patriot....and erm just like in the movie telling of the story we just got black mouths vs anything happening.. :roflmho: