Scribes' Inks ?

[markh]

At the L.A. Pen Show, someone was selling "Scribes' Inks." Unfortunately, I didn't write down his name, and there is no contact information on the box or bottle.

 

His story was somewhat unusual. He decided that he couldn't find the ink he wanted, at the price he wanted. No one he could find would tell him formulas to use. So he did a bunch of research, and mixed his own ink. I said "like in your kitchen?" He replied "in my office." I got the impression that he was in his place measuring, stirring, and decanting into bottles.

 

Our discussion didn't include concepts like longevity, corrosion resistance, mold resistance, pH, density, flow, etc... He said he just mixed what he liked.

 

The price was certainly right - $3 for a 4oz bottle. I think there was black, blue, red, and maybe green.

 

He gave me a free bottle after our discussion, with a request to tell him what I thought of the ink, which will be hard to do without any contact information.

 

I'm surprised that I can find no reference on fpn. Anyone tried it?? Anyone have company information/contact??

 

I haven't quite had the nerve to put it in a pen yet.

 

thnx,

 

 

.

[Cyber6]

Is John Marks of Scribe’s Pen.

 

 

 

C.

[rockydoggy]

I bumped into him at the LA show as well. And once I saw the $3.00 a bottle sign, I sprung for 5 bottles--2 brown, 2 "dark blue," and 1 black. He also had a green and a red that I passed on; I now regret not getting those as well.

 

I been using the blue for a few days and the most noticeable thing is how water-resistant it is. I just now did swabs of the brown and the black, and they too hardly budge when doused. The flow is good but I need to reserve judgment on the overall performance of the inks til I play around with them some more. In appearance, the brown (a sepia with a reddish tinge) and the blue (more of a blue-purple) look fine though they seem to have a very slight chalkiness like what I've seen in a few of the Noodlers bulletproof inks. And a word about the plastic container that the ink comes in: it's oval-shaped with maybe the largest mouth of any ink bottle I've encountered; as a result, it's easy to fill from. In sum, I'm impressed thus far. And given that he's right in my backyard here in SoCal, I'll try to keep track of his ongoing efforts on the ink front.

 

FYI: Here's his contact information: Scribes' Pens / John A. Marks / john@scribespens.com

His website is <www.scribespens.com> but it's not all that helpful--eg, there's no listing of his inks yet.

[markh]

I would be concerned about the potential for damage due to very high or low pH, or some other factor.

 

I don't think he considered ideas like this. Those inks that are made by pen makers (Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman, etc...) have had a long history of figuring out what works well, and what causes them to get stuck repairing their pens.

 

 

Glad you like the ink - I may find a low risk pen to try it in.

 

 

.

[vicknish]

I purchased the green ink and only had a chance to sample it with a dip nib, glass pen and cotton swab for my ink notebook. Will have to try it in a fountain pen before i can give you my full opinion. But with both the dip pen (really wet) and glass pen (drier), the green feathered like mad... which was kinda disappointing. I love the "sharpie" smell of the ink, the rather muted green color, and the $3 price tag, but once I saw the feathering, I honestly didn't bother to try it in an actual fountain pen. I guess I should give it a fair chance before passing final judgement. I may put it into a preppy this weekend. Stay tuned...

[BetwixtTheLines]

I purchased the green ink and only had a chance to sample it with a dip nib, glass pen and cotton swab for my ink notebook. Will have to try it in a fountain pen before i can give you my full opinion. But with both the dip pen (really wet) and glass pen (drier), the green feathered like mad... which was kinda disappointing. I love the "sharpie" smell of the ink, the rather muted green color, and the $3 price tag, but once I saw the feathering, I honestly didn't bother to try it in an actual fountain pen. I guess I should give it a fair chance before passing final judgement. I may put it into a preppy this weekend. Stay tuned...

I bought the green ands brown. I'm having the same issue as you with the green - crazy feathering and bleed through. I loaded it in my own last night and unloaded it the same night in fear of ruining my pen. I also liked the slight dishwashing soap smell.

 

Disappointed because I do like the color. This is kn black n red. It's probably worse because I loaded it into a flex pen. I will give it a shot in a preppy as well.

 

Edited February 19, 2015 by BetwixtTheLines

[rockydoggy]

Quick follow-up:

 

The blue ink is doing ok thus far in a fine-nibbed pen. However, I'm having the same feathering issue with the brown in a cheap Dollar demonstrator with a nib that's probably medium-fine. You would definitely not want to run this ink in a pen with a broad nib or one with a wet medium one.

 

I hope that the maker (John Marks) is following this thread. It's nice to see new players emerge in the ink market (eg, Organics Studio, KWZI) and this feedback can help him improve his product.

[ac12]

For an ink that feathers and bleeds through like that, I think you need to use a DRY pen, to slow down the ink flow.

 

I ran into a similar situation with a Noodler's sample that I got. It feathered and bled through on everything I wrote on. But when I put it into a DRY pen, it behaved quite well with no feathering and bleed through.

Edited February 19, 2015 by ac12

[amberleadavis]

I have samples of each of the colors. I've emailed John and asked him to login and talk with us.

[rockydoggy]

Great--thanks so much.

I was planning on reaching out to him that this weekend.

 

Meanwhile, I've been using the black, brown, and blue inks for several days now. In the right pen (fine nib, dry-ish writer) and on the right paper, they're fine; the water-resistance continues to be impressive. Otherwise, I'm still seeing a feathering problem, though somewhat less so with the black but I'm not sure about that.

 

Hope he joins the conversation.

[scribes]

I am John Marks of Scribes' Pens. I started looking in to making my own ink about a year ago. As, I found that there is no set way to make fountain pen ink - the perfect formula. I was unable to talk to or find out who manufacture fountain pen ink. With a friend of mine who is a chemical engineer we started to develop the ingredients. After many months and many failures we came up with an accessible formula. We came up with five colors - Black, Dark Blue, Green, Brown and Red. The Fountain Pen Ink is non-toxic and pH neutral, Lightfast, Water Based, Flows smoothly and is fast drying and has all natural dyes.

 

As states before, I have been tweaking the formula based on giving samples to various pen users over the last six months and felt it was time to put my inks on market and get comments - good or bad. I will continue to tweak my formula in search of the best affordable ink. I sent Amber an attachment on a friend writing with all 5 color inks, but I could not attach to writing. If you email me directly I will email you this attachment. There seems to always be a problem with feathering -bleeding, I have attached below from Pendomonium website some thoughts on Fountain Pen Inks.

John Marks

john@scribespens.com

This page last updated 5/16/14

Ink is a fascinating part of fountain pen use and many seem to be on the quest for the perfect ink. The following contains some random thoughts on the inks we carry and ink properties in general. We get asked a lot of questions about ink and we hope this section on inks will answer many of those questions and help you on your quest for your perfect ink!

PLEASE NOTE:

This page is truly a work in progress and something we do just because we love inks as much as you do! We have pages and pages of handwritten notes on inks that eventually will make their way here. We're still working on getting our thoughts and ramblings on all of the different brands we carry from paper to website. We're at 400+ different colors of ink and counting as of April 2008, up about 200 inks from July 2006 when we started this little section. Seems like more are being introduced all the time! Mainly this is a page we do for fun and love of ink, and unfortunately we don't get quite as much time to work on it as we would like. Not that it is unimportant, but there are just an awful lot of other pages on the site that take priority over it. Thanks for your understanding!

Color Variances

Ink colors can vary greatly due to several factors. The width of the nib you use affects color perception - broad nibs put down a much more colorful line of ink than a fine nibbed pen because you *see* more ink on the paper. White paper will make colors appear the truest, ivory or other colored paper may make the ink appear differently. Also, different papers may absorb ink better than others resulting in color variance.

Paper and Feathering

There are a wide range of papers available in the world today. Fountain pens can be very persnickety about which paper they perform best on. Most expensive does not necessarily equate to better paper for fountain pen writing. Ink may feather on paper for several reasons including the humidity level in your particular geographic area. The moisture can draw ink further into a piece of paper thus causing feathering. Broad or wet writing pens may be more prone to feathering. Certain inks seem to agree better with certain papers for no obvious rhyme or reason. The bottom line is you are going to have to experiment a little to find which of your pens and inks are compatible with which paper. We offer a wide variety of fountain pen friendly stationery and papers including Clairefontaine, a favorite of many.

Fountain Pen Ink Permanency

One of the questions we are asked most frequently is which of the inks we carry are waterproof. NO fountain pen inks are waterproof or permanent. They are ALL water based inks, as they must be in order to work properly in your fountain pen. Some inks have more water resistancy than others, but none of them are permanent. Many older inks, especially Sheaffer Skrip and Parker Quink inks from the 1930s - 1950s indicated on their labels whether they were washable or permanent. This does not apply to their permanency on paper, but to how easily they would wash out of clothing. We carry Pelikan Fount-India inks which are safe for fountain pens and exceptionally water resistant.

HINT: If you're concerned that envelopes addressed in fountain pen ink might get wet and the address smeared, try rubbing a plain white candle over the address area. You can't see this and the address is protected.

PLEASE NOTE - Some of the above info on permanency has changed a little bit due to the research and efforts of The Noodler's Ink Company. We now have available truly permanent (still water based) fountain pen inks that employ cellulose reactive dyes. These dyes are completely water soluble in your pens and in the bottle, but the cellulose reactive dyes react with the paper and when dry are totally waterproof and permanent. Great invention! All three of our Pendemonium Exclusive colors have the "bulletproof" designation.

What is Fountain Pen Ink?

Fountain Pen ink is composed of water, dye and surfactant, a detergent based agent used to help control flow in your pen. NOTE: Drawing and drafting inks contain shellac which can be harmful to your fountain pens. There are also several inks out on the market marked Calligraphy Ink and further marked for use in fountain pens. We suggest you check these carefully, we've found most of the Calligraphy Inks to contain shellac and unsafe for fountain pens. Never use any ink other than those made specifically for fountain pens in your pen. If in doubt about a particular ink, feel free to contact us.

Inks& Pens Can be Quirky!

Not all pens and inks are created equally! Sometimes it takes a little experimenting to find the right pen-ink combo, you know what I'm talking about - the perfect flow and color in just the right pen. So remember a few basics because to achieve this you need to remember that this is a little bit of science with a lot of common sense thrown in. Don't panic if Ink A doesn't flow the same as Ink B in your favorite pen, clean out your pen, go back to Ink A or try another ink and put Ink B in a different pen! Did ya'll follow that?

*** Not all inks work equally in all pens ***

Each ink, even inks of the same brand, are formulated just a little differently from each other. Same goes for fountain pens - each one is a little different. Even two fountain pens exactly the same can behave vastly differently. Fountain pens are not like ballpoints, they require lots of TLC and some maintenance just like your car. Always remember to clean your pen with room temp water (NOT hot water& NO chemicals) when you change inks, it's a good idea to do this every few weeks even when you're not changing inks just to keep them up to snuff!

Cartridge vs. Converter

In many modern day fountain pens you have an option of using an ink cartridge or a converter. Cartridges can be very convenient to use since all you have to do is plug one in. However, I recommend you use bottled ink whenever possible and even if you're hopelessly addicted to cartridges, try to use a few converters full of ink from time to time. When you use a cartridge ink flows only OUT of the pen, but when you use a converter and bottled ink, ink is pulled INTO the pen as well as pushed OUT of the pen - this offers some small measure of cleaning action and helps to keep pens flowing properly.

Ink Staining and Dyes

Just a few comments on ink staining in pens. Inks contain dye and dyes can stain. Red, violet and pink inks (red dye) will be more prone to staining than most colors. We suggest you give some thought prior to using the red dye based inks in clear or translucent pens. Blue inks are generally least apt to stain.

Pigments - There are NO pigments in Fountain Pen Inks! Just a pet peeve of mine - fountain pen inks contain dyes, but not pigments!

Ink Removal

My fingers tend to get pretty inky over the course of the day and since it's my full time job to fiddle with pens and inks, inky fingers don't bother me much. But, I know that many of you prefer clean fingers. All sorts of thinks will remove ink from your skin: bleach, pumice stone and heavy duty soaps. I find that shampoo works splendidly, it's rare that I still have inky fingers after shampooing my hands.

Ink Mixing

Many people enjoy mixing inks to find unique and unusual colors. 99% of the time different colors and different brands of inks mix together perfectly with no ill affects. However, we advise you to mix in small batches initially since every now and then two inks can react poorly with each other creating an undesirable sludge! Also, best to mix by drops initially, since a small amount of color can make a big difference! Try to keep track of your measurements ratios so when you end up with the color you're after, you'll remember how to mix it the same way in the future. Small batches also mean you'll waste less ink as you experiment and I can almost guarantee you will come up with some ugly ones along the way!

The

www.handprint.com

website has extensive information on color mixing, color wheels and complementary colors, all of which are the basics for how to make new colors successfully!

Gunk in your Ink

ACK! There is something in my ink that shouldn't be there! Ink doesn't cost very much, compared to the price of your pen. If there is something floating in your ink or something stringy for that matter anything other than just plain 'ol ink, we suggest you flush that ink bottle.

Old Inks in Your Pens

Many people ask us if they should use old ink and we believe this is another one of those common sense issues! We use 50+ year old ink frequently in new fountain pens and vintage fountain pens with excellent results. Before using old inks, you need to take a few precautions.

Vintage Ink Precautions:

• 1. Check to make sure there is no sediment, mold or other non-ink substance floating around or in the bottom of the bottle. Solids don't flow well, keep them in the bottle and out of your pens.

• 2. Look at the color of the ink, if it has taken on an odd hue that just doesn't look right - keep the ink in the bottle.

• 3. Unscrew the lid and take a little sniff, if you notice any unusual odor, screw the lid back on and refrain from using the ink.

Vintage Blue and Blue-Black Inks

These seem to have survived the years better than other colors of inks and are a pretty good place to start if you're looking to try vintage inks. Older Sheaffer Skrip, Parker Quink and Carter's Inks are generally pretty stable inks and we've had good results using these.

Never, never, ever use Drafting, Drawing or India Inks

in a fountain pen - these contain shellac which can gum up the insides of a fountain pen quickly. Early iron gall based inks can also be very corrosive to a fountain pen and I urge that you try them out with a dip pen or glass pen instead of a fountain pen.

MYTH

: From time to time people are told that they should buy a fresh bottle of ink at least once a year and that ink only lasts a year. This is nonsense! As long as your bottle of ink looks and smells good, keep using it, no need to toss out perfectly good ink.

 

 

 

[lsmith42]

We will be playing with these inks at the SF Pen Posse gathering tomorrow... stay tuned!

[amberleadavis]

Exciting!

[amberleadavis]

These are the images that John sent to me.

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2015-Inklings/Scribes1.jpg

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2015-Inklings/Scribes2.jpg

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2015-Inklings/Scribes3.jpg

[ac12]

Loren

I'll bring my DRY Pilot 78G.

[ac12]

At the SF Pen Posse, a few of us test the inks with a glass pen.

What I noticed.

• Paper makes a difference.
  • The new notebook that I used acted like blotting paper . I am dumping that notebook as unsuitable for FP use.
  • However, 2 others (Rhodia and Apica) wrote just fine with no feathering.
• colors:
  • the red had an orange tint.
  • the brown has a red tint
  • the black looked good, a nice black
  • the dark blue looked good
  • the green looked like it would be good, have to wait for a FP test

Note that the tinting of the red and brown could also be a result of the lighting in the room, which was not daylight.

 

I took a few samples with me to test in a fountain pen, vs the testing glass pen. I plan to do this over the next few weeks.

[ac12]

OK here is my sample testing of the Green ink.

 

The attached images are

#1 my test of the ink on 4 different papers, using my standard test pen a Morriset dip pen with M and XF nibs.

#2 nib writing comparisons of different nibs, other than my standard test pen

#3 a comparison of the test page for Dianmine Sherwood Green, so you can see the difference in the ink line on #1. This shows how much the Scribe ink does blot on my standard testing papers with my standard testing pen.

 

note that for some reason, the color and sharpness displayed here do not match the scanned image.

 

In summary,

• As was reported, the ink does blot. However even though the ink was rather wet, I liked the ink.
• It was easy to control the blotting by using a dryer pen such as a Lamy Safari/joy as shown on the 2nd pix, or one could adjust the pen to make it write dryer.
• The color was a mid green, which I liked. It wasn't burn your eye bright, nor DARK.
• I like the ink enough to warrant buying a bottle of it when he comes to the SF Pen Show.

Edited February 25, 2015 by ac12

[freddy77]

Thanks for this thread, folks. I, too, was at the L.A. show and purchased a bottle of the black ink but have not had a chance to put it through its paces and this thread was very helpful.