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Water Resistance Of Some Iron-Gall Inks Compared

A Smug Dill

By A Smug Dill
in Ink Comparisons

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lionelc Extremely Rare

lionelc

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thanks smug - very useful, glad now i bought a supply of the platinum classics for my scribbles.

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A Smug Dill Museum Piece

A Smug Dill

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Now that I have a few more iron-gall inks, and a simple long-term test in mind, I bought a bunch of fountain pens of the same model — fitted with steel nibs (for no other reason than cost consideration), and spring-loaded inner caps to combat ink evaporation when the pens are unused — and filled them with every iron-gall ink I have, plus Lamy Benitoite because there seems to be some conjecture and rumour online that it has iron-gall content.

 

While this is no part of my little project, I decided to write on a test sheet with each of the pens, then soak one third of each set of lines in plain water, and another third in bleach (specifically household / supermarket grade bleach diluted 1:20).

 

(My main motivation was actually to test Pelikan 4001 Blue/Black's and Lamy Benitoite's responses to bleach, because there was a slim possibility I got those the labelling of the pens containing them mixed up, but the ink marks they make look awfully close to each other except for different wetness due the pens themselves, and I can't even tell the inks apart by chromatography using plain water as the solvent.)

 

Here are the results:

 

large.1887692655_15iron-gallinksaftersoakinginwaterandbleach.jpg.0a42b30e7c5ba58f37c48ac4a3f1dd70.jpg

 

 

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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ENewton Collectors Item

ENewton

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3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Now that I have a few more iron-gall inks, and a simple long-term test in mind, I bought a bunch of fountain pens of the same model — fitted with steel nibs (for no other reason than cost consideration), and spring-loaded inner caps to combat ink evaporation when the pens are unused

 

What is the pen model, and what is the nib width?  I have used Scabiosa for over five years and feel that I still haven't found just the right pen to showcase the ink.   

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TSherbs Donor Pen

TSherbs

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Dill, I love that kind of comparison. Thanks very much for doing it. I also love that my Hero 232 fared better than most! I am a fan of the 232....

 

Not all IGs perform similarly, for certain!

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A Smug Dill Museum Piece

A Smug Dill

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6 hours ago, ENewton said:

What is the pen model, and what is the nib width?

 

The pens are all of this type:

large.307698596_DaisoPreppy-wannabepen(Sky)unpacked.jpg.88663f371ef79f00813f58a8e0363029.jpg

 

although, now that I've studied the pens more closely, I think I'm going to stop calling them the Daiso Preppy-wannabe. ;) 

 

The nib width on these pens are unspecified, and quite frankly could well be inconsistent from pen to pen, although I'm not using the same ink in all of them and so can't judge them fairly in that regard (at least for now). Alignment of the tines — which aren't all perfect out of the blister pack across the 17 units I have — and geometry of the tipping make a difference to the line width outcome, of course; about half of the pens required minor adjustment to align the tines, three of them have (as they appear under a loupe) visually narrower tine gaps than the rest, and a small number of them have slightly lopsided hemispheres of tipping.

 

On average, they can put down 12 parallel and (as best as I could manage) distinct horizontal lines and 10 vertical lines within a 5mm square area on Rhodia Dotpad 80g/m² paper, so I'd say they write like Fine nibs.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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ENewton Collectors Item

ENewton

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4 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

The pens are all of this type:

large.307698596_DaisoPreppy-wannabepen(Sky)unpacked.jpg.88663f371ef79f00813f58a8e0363029.jpg

 

although, now that I've studied the pens more closely, I think I'm going to stop calling them the Daiso Preppy-wannabe. ;) 

 

 

Thank you for answering my question.  I wish you a revealing experiment.

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Muncle Extremely Rare

Muncle

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That's disappointing about the KWZ Aztec Gold. I don't usually care about water resistance, except for one important record. I can use whatever colour I want, but it is a backup to a digital gradebook, so I don't want to lose those. I was hoping to include AG in the mix, but I'm not so sure.

Thanks!

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Dimy Extremely Rare

Dimy

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swabs are in and I will let pic do the talking. The images of swabs are quite different and the dark in KWZ far exceed Sallix.....Sallix feels muted down in comparison, well aside from that swabs are in....finally.large.967698746_Swab1months.jpg.3e7291a74c1e1c3ab8a9469b86a78469.jpg

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amberleadavis Pen Dust

amberleadavis

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How long did you let the ink dry before you performed the water test?  I wonder if waiting longer makes a difference?

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Smug Dill Museum Piece

A Smug Dill

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6 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

How long did you let the ink dry before you performed the water test?

 

Were you asking me, or @Dimy?

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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