Questions about a (possibly vintage) ink

October 17, 2021

I went to an estate sale this morning (one of those "you have to get up at 0 dark 30 and hope you're one of the first 25 people in line" sales) because in one of the photos for the listing I spotted what looked like MIGHT be a box for vintage Pelikan ink. Unfortunately, they only had a picture of one side of the box, which said (under the Pelikan logo and imprint) "AUSZUEH TUSCHE" and then in very small letters "PERLTUSCHE" and then the color indication "SCHWARZ".

I ended up buy the bottle, which was mostly full small 1 oz. bottle with a tall skinny neck. The English language side of the box says "Pelikan WATERPROOF DRAWING INK". So presuming that it *might* be India ink but not precisely sure (the other two sides of the box are in, respectively, Spanish, and French). There's a sticker on the Spanish language side of the box which says, "TN" and then next to that in smaller letters, "for ACETATE, TRACING LINEN, PLASTICS." On the bottom of the box there is a number on a circle which says "517" and above the circle says "[illegible] D'ALLEMAG" [illegible] which I expect is the German version of what it says in English below the circle: "MADE IN GERMANY".

Clearly not something to stick in (most) fountain pens (there was a ruling pen on the box, but I probably still have mine from college in a drawer someplace, and hated the thing so much I'd be hard pressed to come up with a reason to use it). The reason I say "most" though is that a couple of years ago (at an estate sale of someone in my neighborhood who apparently been an artist and illustrator) I picked up an Osmiroid "India ink" pen, which came with a gadget to pull the nib or feed for more thorough cleaning. There is also a sticker on the bottle itself, which gives instructions (in English) how to prep acetate or plastic as a writing surface (along with how to dilute the ink with "Pelikan Thinner V" and notices to read the [long gone] instructions and to "BEWARE OF FROST"

So my questions are these:

1) Is this ink actually India ink?

2) Would this be safe to try in that Osmiroid I've got, or is this a dip pen/ruling pen ONLY ink?

No pix, sorry -- it'a after midnight here, and even with a three hour nap this afternoon, I'm not caught up on my sleep (especially after a couple of very stressful days), and I haven't figured out how to upload photos with the new format for the site yet.

Thanks in advance.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

October 17, 2021

October 17, 2021

India Ink and this type of drawing ink contain shellac. It's not something that will play nicely with any internal channels of a fountain pen. it's the type of drawing ink that you might use in a Rotring Isograph/Radiograph type pen.

October 19, 2021

Well, the reason I was considering the Osmiroid is that it's supposedly designed to be used with India ink. But yeah, the Noodler's Boston Safety might also be a good option.

OTOH, my brother-in-law was saying a week or two ago that he'd like to learn calligraphy at some point. I could always gift him with the ink and a Speedball dip pen for Christmas....

I figured that since the bottle was only four bucks it was worth picking up, just to play with (wonder if I still have any dip pens from college). I knew a guy (not a student, just a guy who hung out on weekends at the campus coffee house, who didn't understand why I didn't use India ink in my Rapidographs but I mostly used mine for drawing, not as ruling pens, and I actually liked the Koh-i-Noor ink for that purpose, even though it wasn't a super black color.

At the sale I also got a replica figure of a medieval chess set, similar to that of the Isle of Lewis set, although sadly they didn't have the entire set; I think it might be one of the rooks -- it's the guy holding up his sword next to his face while gnawing on the top of his shield, and is similar looking to the ones from the Lewis set but with a different design on the shield and the sword in a different position.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth