Failed Experiments Starting With Dye Powders And Distilled Water

[amberleadavis]

Wow ... I'm stilling learning (and occasionally mixing ink tablets, but not making my own cheerios).

[Corona688]

Stumbled on this while looking up iron gall stuff. The US "standard" iron gall recipe actually includes two blue dyes - Methyl Blue and Water Blue, both bio-lab staining agents which @OP might have.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Corona688

[Corona688]

Not that I'd put it in fountain pens, but I'm pretty sure we have the ingredients in the lab to make an iron/tannic acid ink. I might use it in fountain pens if 1. I could filter the results and 2. I could buffer it so it wouldn't eat the metal parts in some fountain pens.

I've fought with that some myself and now understand why the old inks were so acidic. Until they figured out to use iron sulfate minerals, they were using iron dissolved in acid, which requires LOTS of excess acid and doesn't have any good way to neutralize or purify it.

[DrSam]

Got any Fluorescein? That could be an interesting one, either red or green depending on concentration.

I tried that by adding it to regular ink to give it some UV glow. Results were poor.

Edited April 15, 2018 by DrSam

[DrSam]

I think cobalt chloride would make a fun ink dye. I do not have any, or else I would try it.

[daviszs]

I've been working with bromocresol purple, gum arabic and Photo-Flo 200, and have made a reasonable ink with it. While a bit dilute (only 0.05% dye), it hasn't dried out in the pen, nor does it have nib creep. It does feather a bit, so I still need to tweak the recipe.

Edited June 28, 2018 by daviszs

[amberleadavis]

Making great progress.

[Corona688]

I think cobalt chloride would make a fun ink dye. I do not have any, or else I would try it.

It changes color with humidity, not sure that's the fun you had in mind.