Iron-Gall Ink For Fountain Pens

September 21, 2014

Oldane, I'm cheering you on to try other ferrogallic inks.

If you can get a hold of Akkerman # 10 Ijzer-galnoten blauw/zwart, I think you may like how this ink darkens. You get a clever filling device in the bottle, to boot. Not inexpensive, but IMO worth it.

As an alternative colour IG ink to my usual blue blacks, I nearly always have a pen filled with Scabiosa.

With a regular flushing routine, there should be no damage to your pens. Enjoy!

September 22, 2014

Oldane, I'm cheering you on to try other ferrogallic inks.

If you can get a hold of Akkerman # 10 Ijzer-galnoten blauw/zwart, I think you may like how this ink darkens. You get a clever filling device in the bottle, to boot. Not inexpensive, but IMO worth it.

As an alternative colour IG ink to my usual blue blacks, I nearly always have a pen filled with Scabiosa.

With a regular flushing routine, there should be no damage to your pens. Enjoy!

I have Akkermann #10 (it's easy for us Europeans to order it from Akkermann in Den 'Haag) and I agree that it's a good ink, but it demends a higher degree of maintainence than Salix (the blue "brother" to R&K Scabiosa), and Salix flows better too in my pens. I have a clear demonstrator which I use for testing inks that I'm not 100% comfortable with, because that pen let's me see any sedimentation/staining etc. at a very early state. And with Akkermann #10 there's a tendency to setting an I-G sediment on the inside of the pen which can be difficult to remove - even with vinegar - without taking the pen apart. In the pen shaft, it's cosmetic, but the same hard to remove sedementation will happen in the feed as well and can gradually reduce the flow (I have experienced this and also a stiffening of the piston action), eventually neccesitating to knock out the nib and clean the channels in the feed with a needle.

The same can happen with other "heavy duty" I-G inks such as Diamine Registrars and ESS Registrars (but not with a "light gauge" I-G inks as Salix and Scabiosa). There seems to me to be some batch variation, so the question is if the difference between the brands that people sometimes describe is more a batch variation. At least Diamine Registrars and ESS registrars are made to the same official UK specs for permanent ink. My sample of Akkermann #10 seems to have less I-G that Diamine and ESS, but another forum member had very clear opposite experience. One bottle of Diamine Registrars did set much more sediment than another bottle of the same ink bought 1 year later.

Yes, the Akkermann bottle is really something. In fact, I emptied the contents of the Akkermann bottle into another ink bottle and instead filled it with Salix which I use at the moment.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Oldane