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Bible Ink (iron gall) review


yazeh

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I was introduced to this ink, by the mighty Swan  :)

 

It is an iron gall ink sold by the Museum of Guttenberg in Mainz, Germany. They also have a line of Aniline inks, dip pen inks (including a dip pen (quill) iron gall ink), handmade paper, papyri, notebooks etc. Enough that will make stationary junkies salivating. 

However, this all comes with a hitch: the shipping. They use Fedex, so it’s very expensive. Through happenstance and a mysterious internet glitch, I got hold of this ink, my third iron gall ink after Scabiosa and Salix.

 

Photo of bottle - The Herbin bottle is to give an idea of scale - The other inks are dip pen ink bottles from the same shop

1666410285_BottlePhoto.thumb.jpg.3797e57172075bc48b0873d815906784.jpg

Ink

It’s a true blue black. It oxidizes to a very dark colour over time. With absorbent paper, it turns almost black instantly but with other papers it can retain some of the blue dye. A drop of ink on paper can turn into black, but on a paper towel it is sky blue. It’s waterproof, dry and it has a funky scent. If I didn’t know better, I would say it’s similar to Essri, but as I’ve never used it, I can’t say.

 

Blue dye in the transparent section:

Section.thumb.jpg.c909173206d8fa257ad0a496c64699ff.jpg

 

A drop of ink on Midori

Drop.jpeg.26cf9198aadde5791505c03cb591d4cf.jpeg

I’ve been using this ink for the past month, exclusively. For a long time, I have wondered why people gravitate towards blue blacks. I now understand.  I have used almost half of the bottle. If I had only to take one ink with me on a desert island it would be this or something similar. I have almost abandoned all of my other pens and ink. This ink shines in vintage flexy pens. The combination is magical. It feels as if the pens are inhabited by the ink they were meant to right for. 

 

·  Shading: Yes

·  Ghosting:  Rare

·  Bleed through: On copy paper…. 

·  Flow Rate: Good

·  Lubrication: Dry

·  Nib Dry-out: not noticed.

·  Start-up: No

·  Saturation:  Yes.

·  Shading Yes

·  Sheen: No

·  Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Nope

·  Nib Creep / “Crud”: Sometimes

·  Staining (pen): Easy to clean

·  Clogging: Nope

·  Dry time: between 15-30 seconds.

·  Water resistance: Waterproof

·  Availability: Only in bottle 25ml bottles

 

Video Writing Sample with Unic vintage flex

 

 

Chromatography

 

843037545_Biblechroma.thumb.jpeg.19389c087a0bdfe8398ad870bb82b4f6.jpeg

 

Comparisons with Salix - 
Top line - Salix fude - Middle Bible Ink - Vintage flex- Bottom - Salix medium

 

1750613516_BiblevsSalix-Day4.thumb.jpeg.e6f815ccdd5e2b8685ed67abfc56f0ab.jpeg

 

For this review, I used five pens: A Pilot Metro (fine nib), a Jinhao 450 medium nib, A Kaweco knock off with a true Kaweco italic nib, A Conway Stewart 330, with a flexible OB nib, and finally a vintage French pen (Unic) with a wet Noodle flex.
Writing experience was least pleasant with the Pilot. It truly writes like a nail. Ironically with the Chinese Kaweco knock off when I wrote with an EF wet nib it was more pleasant (I later changed the nib to an italic). It is still surprising to me  how with time this ink turns darker.

As I said before, this ink shines in vintage flex pens. The combination is magical. It feels as if the pens are inhabited by the ink they were meant to write for. It has completely tamed the Unic wet Noodle.

 

The text is from Willis Barnstone's translation of the New Testament. 
Each two lines is written by a different nib:
Fine, Medium, OB flex, Italic, Flex wet Noodle.

 

Rhodia

857158769_BibleINk-Rhodia-Front.thumb.jpeg.8b5a1098875c6021600a8c9f91bd6a3b.jpeg

 

963461594_BibleINk-Rhodia-Back.thumb.jpeg.f83504f75585b67ea169e232d686e01c.jpeg

  

3 days after

173644732_Bible-Rhodia-3daysafter.thumb.jpeg.d428f4b6166549a6d3be5f1b565beb2f.jpeg

 

After 30 seconds of water

1568045988_Bible-Rhodia-3daysafter-Watertest.thumb.jpeg.bc52d6bd2f330d65d851719ddbed7e29.jpeg

 

Midori - Front / Back / a week later....

Note how it retained the blue. This is not reflective of the normal pages of Midori. On a normal page the oxidization happens very fast. 

 


2042723726_BibleINk-Midori-Front.thumb.jpeg.5cb539c72977ec05fa5dd962c083522a.jpeg

1131536016_BibleINk-Midori-Back.thumb.jpeg.4ad1be54bed5eb7a184c58d0e0778197.jpeg

 

 

1519792218_BibleInk-Midori-1weekafter.thumb.jpeg.30cebdf99fcc58bf211ef2b0f7fb82f5.jpeg

 

Tomoe River

49377629_BibleINk-Tomoe-Front.thumb.jpeg.7108578049a1d28359bf7ec13f086197.jpeg

1076145613_BibleINk-Tomoe-Back.thumb.jpeg.3746392bc8d72380e612c08ff3178a2c.jpeg

Taroko Design Front and Back (Tomoe River 68gr) 

32159253_BibleINk-TarokeDesign-Front.thumb.jpeg.5b2b4ca5d952dadb973d32cb6fa4ea10.jpeg
798769089_BibleINk-TarokeDesign-Front2.thumb.jpeg.6c983d2c2616a6cd0863e9beb25b59a9.jpeg

 

Now two notebooks which are not fountain pen ink friendly:

First Midori Cotton:

376619034_BibleINk-MidoriCotton-Front.thumb.jpeg.550bd4441406a2cc0c04d69850450b09.jpeg

 

1530390227_BibleINk-MidoriCotton-Back.thumb.jpeg.0a3df205d5f71023a433fad4bfb1740d.jpeg

And finally Field Notes:

145463848_BibleINk-FieldNote-Front.thumb.jpeg.a05f5b4a0e4d762d5779c42880aceadd.jpeg

1731104062_BibleINk-FieldNote-Back.thumb.jpeg.001b5410f28307c3dc7c180e44b87b58.jpeg

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

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You've done a great job reviewing a rarely acquired ink that's almost legendary. :) Thank you!

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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Thanks for this review. Your good amount of actual writing shows a lot. But what about the wetness/flow/lubrication (the ink itself, not just the nibs). E.g. ESSRI is very dry, IMO only bumped off by Registrar's.

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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2 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

You've done a great job reviewing a rarely acquired ink that's almost legendary. :) Thank you!

Most welcome, Dill :)

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27 minutes ago, lapis said:

Thanks for this review. Your good amount of actual writing shows a lot. But what about the wetness/flow/lubrication (the ink itself, not just the nibs). E.g. ESSRI is very dry, IMO only bumped off by Registrar's.

Karmachanic beat me to it. 

Short answer:

I would say it depends on the pen. 

If you have a wet pen it's fine. If it's a dry pen awful. 

If you don't like dry inks, stay away from it :)

 

Long answer:

Pilot Metro is almost unpleasant to write with. 

Ironically as I said before, the Kaweco knock off Chinese pen, wrote decently with EF nib. That's why I didn't bother with it, because the lines were wider than the Pilot fine, hence swapping the nib to the Kaweco Italic. 

Conway OB, perfect fit. NO feedback, nothing, pure bliss. 

Unic, wet noodle, which could not handle Diamine Syrah (ink puddles!) is perfect with this ink. It has feedback, sure, but after having written with it for the past month constantly, I don't reach for any other pen, beside the Conway. 

 

Hope it answers your question :)

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32 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

Yes. I am interested. It's on my list for next ink. Right now, I'm waiting for the warmer weather :)

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Great review - thank you :)

 

It looks very interesting, and I love the colour, but I'm put off by the dryness. I wonder if it would take flow-aid?

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5 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Great review - thank you :)

Thanks :)

 

5 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

 

It looks very interesting, and I love the colour, but I'm put off by the dryness. I wonder if it would take flow-aid?

I don't know. Anyway, unless you live in Europe, the shipping is quite steep (even there). Personally I would use it only in a wet flex vintage. And I've come to appreciate some feedback.... :)

 

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6 minutes ago, RJS said:

Nice review, thanks!

Welcome :)

6 minutes ago, RJS said:

What do you think causes the effect where some lines and some words are saturated and others are extremely pale?

I'm not sure if I understand correctly. 

Each page is written with 5 different pens (Fine, Medium, OB flex, Italic, Flex wet Noodle). Every two lines, I changed a pen :)

 

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14 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I'm not sure if I understand correctly. 

Each page is written with 5 different pens (Fine, Medium, OB flex, Italic, Flex wet Noodle). Every two lines, I changed a pen :)

 

I was referring to how some words are an extremely light grey, and then some words the ink starts flowing again and they look nearly black. It isn't so much shading as it appears to be lack of flow or something else? For example:

 

 

040CD118-996C-4D95-817F-B3473069ADB4.jpeg

901A931D-4FBB-4B7A-8D85-263F41D6824F.jpeg

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1 minute ago, RJS said:

Could that pen perhaps just not keep up with the flow required? I've had similar issues with IG inks even in pens that are TOO wet.

Yep. It's a question of flow. For some reason the ink would stop flowing in the Conway. I'm not sure if it's the pen or ink. As there's a gap between the feed and the section.... But it would stop writing after 1 1/2 pages (a5). If I primed the feed or kept it nib down it would be working again ;)

 

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Salix and Scabiosa have done that to me, in my wettest pens. They never dry up, but it's as if only the water content of the ink is still reaching the nib after I've written a page and a half.

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