My Dip Ink Is Too Wet... Help Please :)

[something creative]

I was recently given some black ink powder. So I boiled my distilled water and mixed in some of the powder (enough to give me a dark grey color, which is what I wanted; I've got my saturaed fp ink for black black). But it's running off my glass dip pen too wet. It just pours onto the page and feathers where it really shouldn't be feathering. This is my first experience with dip inks, but I'm assuming I need to thicken it and make it drier. So do I just add more and more powder until it's thicker? Or should I pick up some gum arabic? Thanks for your answers

[jbb]

I've been playing around with homemade iron gall ink powder a lot lately. One thing I'm finding is that sometimes I just need to let some of the water evaporate to get the ink to the right consistency. There seems to be a "sweet spot" for the consistency. Gum Arabic might help. I don't know if this is true for the powder you're using but my homemade iron gall ink powder takes a few days to become properly ink-like... it's not instant.

Edited May 26, 2013 by jbb

[something creative]

Hmm... Okay, I'll try letting my bottle sit out open for a few days haha thanks, I'll update you with my findings

[DanF]

All leaving it open for a few days will do is concentrate it, so you might as well just add more powder, which will do the same thing, but without having to wait for days.

 

Your ink was undoubtedly designed to show as black, which means that there is a good chance it will behave better when mixed to specification. Mixing in some gum arabic should help, but may not be necessary if the ink is full strength.

 

It may also be that your glass pen is too wet. Have you used it with other inks, and does it behave better with them?

 

Dan

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Also, ensure the pen is free of grease, oil and residual surfactants that may linger after using pen cleaning solutions, especially washing-up liquid.

 

Bye,

S1

[something creative]

All leaving it open for a few days will do is concentrate it, so you might as well just add more powder, which will do the same thing, but without having to wait for days.

 

Your ink was undoubtedly designed to show as black, which means that there is a good chance it will behave better when mixed to specification. Mixing in some gum arabic should help, but may not be necessary if the ink is full strength.

 

It may also be that your glass pen is too wet. Have you used it with other inks, and does it behave better with them?

 

Dan

Hmm... okay, thanks. And I only have fp inks. This is my only dip ink. My glass dip pen flows very wet with all of my fp inks.

 

Hi,

 

Also, ensure the pen is free of grease, oil and residual surfactants that may linger after using pen cleaning solutions, especially washing-up liquid.

 

Bye,

S1

Will do. Thanks

[something creative]

Update:

 

Okay, so letting it sit out wasn't changing anything.

 

So, I added more powder, almost doubling the concentration of powder in there. I let that sit for a few days. It seems to have improved only slightly. It looks blacker on the page, but there is still feathering and bleedthrough for the first line of writing after I dip. The viscosity is slightly thicker but still has a watery and wet feeling to it.