Bible Ink (iron gall) review

[yazeh]

4 minutes ago, Intensity said:

It's probably a marketing strategy, the name.   

A large percentage of the world population holds the bible in great esteem, and some non-trivial percentage does things like bible study, which includes writing quotes from the bible, notes on them, etc.   "Bible Ink" has a ring of endorsement to it, like this is the ink you should use, it's somehow more authentic.  I don't personally subscribe to that school of thought, but I can see the Guttenberg Museum marketing team thinking it was a good idea to name the ink that way.

I wonder if that was their marketing idea, then why did they go for such exorbitant shipping costs

 

[lapis]

Also, they should have....

1. offered that ink in a bigger bottle (than 25 ml), and
2. included same in a dark brown glass bottle and/or a nice cardboard box to protect it from any excess light.

 

[yazeh]

3 hours ago, lapis said:

Also, they should have....

1. offered that ink in a bigger bottle (than 25 ml), and
2. included same in a dark brown glass bottle and/or a nice cardboard box to protect it from any excess light.

 

That I agree. Mine is close to the end. 

I wonder if they make it themselves or its by some other company. 

Their dip pen iron gall ink is quite nice too. Writes a beautiful and turns into a glossy black...

 

[A Smug Dill]

5 hours ago, yazeh said:

I wonder if that was their marketing idea, then why did they go for such exorbitant shipping costs

 

How much is the shipping for a single lot (of multiple bottles) of this ink that it would take to copy (or rewrite) a bible?

[PAKMAN]

When I visited the museum, I don't remember seeing this ink or I would have bought some! Great review! I did pick up a bottle of Gutenberg Ink Konigsblau.

[lapis]

7 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

How much is the shipping for a single lot (of multiple bottles) of this ink that it would take to copy (or rewrite) a bible?

Har, har, that's a good one. Well, to rewrite a bible this size, one whole 25-ml bottle should suffice.

[yazeh]

12 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

How much is the shipping for a single lot (of multiple bottles) of this ink that it would take to copy (or rewrite) a bible?

Lapis beat me to it...

5 hours ago, lapis said:

Har, har, that's a good one. Well, to rewrite a bible this size, one whole 25-ml bottle should suffice.

While drinking a bottle or bottles and keeping a copy of this for inspiration...

Though, I'm not sure if what they sell falls in the category of bad wine or not

 

 

[yazeh]

On 3/6/2021 at 10:27 PM, PAKMAN said:

When I visited the museum, I don't remember seeing this ink or I would have bought some! Great review! I did pick up a bottle of Gutenberg Ink Konigsblau.

Thanks.

Do you mean from  their Aniline ink collection? 

[lapis]

You might want to distinguish between the Gutenberg Foundation (Gutenberg Stiftung) connected with the Gutenberg Museum, in Mainz, west of Frankfurt... and Gutenberg GmbH (Läufer & Gutenberg) in Burgdorf, near Hanover, a company dedicated to selling stationery products.

 

The Gutenberg Foundation is connected with their Gutenberg Shop, which sells their inks and other products associated in part with the museum. These inks include their Bible Ink, Natural Inks, and other inks. The Bible Ink and Natural Inks are not manufactured by the Gutenberg Stiftung and/or the Gutenberg Shop themselves but by a different ink manufacturer further up North in Germany.

 

The Gutenberg Shop also sells four "ordinary" (aniline) inks made for Gutenberg GmbH (Läufer & Gutenberg). It is this Gutenberg GmbH company which delivers their own practically black iron gall ink Urkundentinte G 10; the Gutenberg Shop does not offer that ink, at least for the time being. (The five "student inks" which the Gutenberg Shop does offer are originally distributed by yet another company... Lindauer.)

 

P.S. A citation substantiating the Gutenberg Shop's prices -- above all their shipping costs -- seen up top in their homepage is as follows:

Donations and purchases!

The Gutenberg charity shop has proved an invaluable aid to museum funding for over 20 years. Each article sold includes a donation which we pass on to the Gutenberg Museum. The shop is chiefly run by volunteers which helps us to keep costs down.

You may also make a donation without buying anything.

[yazeh]

Thanks Lapis for the clarification and the info, especially on the charity aspect of the store. I still think that if they had better shipping policy, they would make more money for the Gutenberg museum. 

 

 SO basically there are three companies:

1) Guttenberg foundation, which has the natural and Bible ink made in Northern Germany for Gutenberg shop. 

 

This is written only on the bottles of "Natural" ink, Bach's ink, but not on the Bible ink. 

 

 

2) Läufer & Gutenberg or Gutenberg GmbH, which makes the Aniline inks for Gutenberg Museum shop (but they also make the famed Urkundentinte G 10, which is not sold at Gutenberg shop)

3) And finally Lindauer, which produces Gutenberg shop's, student inks. 

 

 

[lapis]

11 hours ago, yazeh said:

I still think that if they had better shipping policy, they would make more money for the Gutenberg museum.

⇨ I agree completely!

 

This is written only on the bottles of "Natural" ink, Bach's ink, but not on the Bible ink. 

⇨ The name "Bach" in this case does not apply (as I had originally conceived) to Sebastian (or Emanuel) Bach but to a current Bach with his "Ink Workshop" in Eastern Friesland (East Frisia). His inks are apparently manufactured solely out of old/aged/ancient sorts of vegetables and/or bovine breeds.

 

⇨ Have you tried out their (his) Natural Ink "Ferro-gallic ink (black)" [which I think reads Eisengallus on the label]?

 

 

[cellmatrix]

Fascinating discussion. The Bible ink looks similar to diamine registrar which is my daily go to ink. But I want to try a bottle of that bible ink anyway to check it out. It looks so good, on the excellent review. Next time I make it out from the states to Germany (let’s hope Covid gets under control soon) I will look for it.

[yazeh]

@ lapis Or Johann or C.P.E.

Yes, I've tried most of their inks. I'm yet to do a review. 

The walnut is truly nice. Indigo quite muted. Uustira is interesting shade of red. 

Their iron gall ink is quite good. But I can only use it with a quill or glass nib pen. I don't want the ink to corrode the iron dip pens. 

It writes almost a sky blue and then oxidizes to dark blue black. The more the ink, the blacker it will become. With a quill it turns into a glossy black.

 

 

 

This is with a quill pen, both inks. They're almost identical. 

[yazeh]

1 hour ago, cellmatrix said:

Fascinating discussion. The Bible ink looks similar to diamine registrar which is my daily go to ink. But I want to try a bottle of that bible ink anyway to check it out. It looks so good, on the excellent review. Next time I make it out from the states to Germany (let’s hope Covid gets under control soon) I will look for it.

I was planning to use Diamine's Registrars but my sample is somewhere stuck in the post for the past 2 months

 

[lapis]

15 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I was planning to use Diamine's Registrars but my sample is somewhere stuck in the post for the past 2 months ...

... that's because it's the driest IG out there... (Sorry, just couldn't resist....)

 

[yazeh]

11 minutes ago, lapis said:

... that's because it's the driest IG out there... (Sorry, just couldn't resist....)