Diamine Registrar's Ink

[dcwaites]

Diamine Registrar's Ink

 

Another review of this Iron-Gall ink.

I have been wanting to try this ink for some time, and since it was time to put in a new order at Diamine, I took the opportunity to get a small (30 ml) bottle. Admittedly the small bottle is relatively pricey, but there was a pre-Christmas discount, and even before that discount, it was still half the price of my glass mushroom of Visconti Blue...

 

This is my limited understanding of iron-gall inks. The ink is a solution of Iron ions. When you put the ink on the paper, oxygen in the air gets at the iron ions and oxidises them to black. (There are different types of iron oxide, with different colours. Rust Red is for old cars, Blue and Brown are for guns and knives and Black is for ink and swamps.)

 

However, the basic solution is a very thin colour, and hard to see when you first put it down on paper. So, a blue dye is added, and you see the blue as you write, which then turns black as it dries and oxidises. Hence the name Blue-Black. However, this is not to be confused with modern Blue-Black inks which are made of dyes only, and look like a darkish Blue with Black overtones. Perhaps we should call the modern inks Blue-Black, as they are a mixture of Blue and Black, and the Registrar's ink Blue->Black, meaning Blue turning to Black.

 

The name Registrar's Ink comes from the fact that inks made to this formula were mandated to be used by Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Britain until recently.

 

It is a thin and watery ink, that looks dry, but only because the colour that goes down looks so thin. It actually is a very wet ink, in that quite a lot of ink comes out of a dip pen onto the paper, and so the pen doesn't write for as long between dips as it would with, say, Sailor Jentle Blue or Parker Quink Black.

 

It is also a `watery' ink in that it behaves just like pure water on the page. Normal inks have wetting agents that, to a greater or lesser degree, help the ink penetrate into the paper. These inks will penetrate into both hard, smooth papers and soft, rough ones. The Registrar's Ink, though will penetrate into the fibrous papers, but sit high and proud on the smooth ones.

 

This ink really likes a wetter pen, so that you get the full, rich, thick blackness of the ink when it dries.

 

I have not been able to make this ink feather under any circumstances, even with my wettest dip pens on my cheapest paper. I have been able to get the ink to bleed through to the other side, but that took really thin, cheap paper and an overloaded dip pen. In normal use there is no bleeding and little to no show through, depending on the translucency of the paper. Writersblok bamboo notebook paper is probably the worst I have in that regard.

 

Because this ink is so well behaved, even on marginal paper, I can start using all those `failed' notebooks that have been gathering dust in a pile in the corner. If I use a dryish Platinum Preppy I can even write on both sides of the thinnest and cheapest of Asian papers.

 

On the better (i.e. thicker) notebook papers I can use a wettish dip pen and get the full, deep, lustrous black that this ink can produce, still without any bleeding or feathering.

 

I have tried three fountain pens so far, a 0.3mm and 0.5mm Platinum Preppy and my Jinhao Chinese Red Army Long March FP. All three write a greyish line, rather than black, but that feature makes them work with even more marginal notebooks. The Jinhao, OTOH, does produce some nice shading, with black highlights on a dark grey line.

 

An earlier review suggested that this ink doesn't work that well with hard, smooth papers like Clairefontaine. In my case, I found no such problem, although the Registrar's ink does really like papers that have a little roughness to them.

 

While this ink works best in my dip pens, I am not at all comfortable in leaving the bottle open while I dip. Air that gets into the bottle can oxidise the iron and there is already a little sediment of iron oxide on the bottom. I will have to find a small, sealable container I can use as an inkwell.

 

Next day's observations.

 

One interesting feature is that the Registrar's Ink gets better with age. The more time it has to oxidise, the darker/blacker it gets. Things that I wrote last night, and looked acceptable after drying, look much better this morning.

 

It also seems that you get better results using a wetter pen on harder, smoother paper and a somewhat drier pen on more fibrous paper.

 

Summary

 

All in all, I am very impressed with this ink. It is very flexible, working in both dip and fountain pens with no problems, and goes down on the full range of papers, from the cheapest to the highest quality with no feathering or bleeding. And as Mr Ford said, it comes in any colour you want, so long as it is Black.

 

And now for the piccies --

 

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_g_oFvX9K3R0/S0K9P8iIo4I/AAAAAAAAAaM/QGPPhzWvXo4/s800/DRI-Jinhao.jpgFrom Reviews">

 

This is the standard ink review form, printed on cheap and fibrous copy paper. I used this paper to show the usefulness of this ink on cheaper paper.

Click on it to go the the stored file, and then click on the little magnifying glass at top right to get a somewhat magnified view.

 

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_g_oFvX9K3R0/S0LAQUsbYoI/AAAAAAAAAas/qh61CfJ6DZo/s800/Feathering.jpgFrom Reviews">

 

This blowup shows the lack of feathering on this paper with the Registrar's Ink. In fact, the inkjet printer feathered more than the Registrar's ink when it printed the line.

[Pictrix]

Thanks for the review and all your observations. This ink has been on my list to obtain the next time I get the opportunity. I look forward to trying it.

 

And I have quite a few "failed" notebooks around here in want of some type of usefulness

[dandelion]

Thank you David for this awesome and thorough review - a state of the art! There has only been one other review of it here and I have been longing to get more perspectives on it - always wanting more than one opinion. I also ordered a registrar's during their Christmas discount and haven't got it yet, and your review surely makes me more impatient.

[Ed Ronax]

Thanks for sharing, excellent review.

[Gran]

Thank you very much for your thorough review. The color looks beautiful.

[dcwaites]

Just another little point. On this website, they are advertising a Parker Vector for use with their Registrar's ink.

 

I just happened to have one so I tried it.

 

Well, initial finding was that the 1970's vintage squeezy converter's sac had a hole in it ( I have the Blue, rapidly turning to Black thumb to show for it).

I found another converter, and the Parker Vector really does work well with this ink. The nib is marked (F), and it writes nicely on all the papers I tried, from cheap, fibrous paper to Clairefontaine and Rhodia.

[MikaLa]

I had a big bottle of the stuff in my last Diamine order. I tried it with Lamy Al-Star and Esterbrook J, but terrible flow and dry writing when I eventually got a line out. Need to try this one with a paintbrush, I suppose. M.

[dcwaites]

I had a big bottle of the stuff in my last Diamine order. I tried it with Lamy Al-Star and Esterbrook J, but terrible flow and dry writing when I eventually got a line out. Need to try this one with a paintbrush, I suppose. M.

 

As I said in the review, it does need quite a wettish pen if you are going to use it in a fountain pen. So far, the most useful fountain pen I have tried is my Parker Vector.

 

Otherwise a good dip pen with a reservoir like a Perry Iridinoid 26 or 105. Also, the better the paper (smoother, harder) you have, the wetter the pen, for some reason. Slightly fibrous paper seems to suck the ink out of the nib to give you a nice, dark line.

[MarkTrain]

Just another little point. On this website, they are advertising a Parker Vector for use with their Registrar's ink.

 

I just happened to have one so I tried it.

 

Well, initial finding was that the 1970's vintage squeezy converter's sac had a hole in it ( I have the Blue, rapidly turning to Black thumb to show for it).

I found another converter, and the Parker Vector really does work well with this ink. The nib is marked (F), and it writes nicely on all the papers I tried, from cheap, fibrous paper to Clairefontaine and Rhodia.

 

For those of you who check out the link referred to above and are wondering, the ink sold at www.registrarsink.co.uk is not the same as diamine as refered to in this thread

Edited January 6, 2010 by MarkTrain

[Ada]

Another nice review, dcwaites. I am a big fan of of this ink, and I agree that it is ideal for bad paper and works best in wetter pens.

[altair]

Otherwise a good dip pen with a reservoir like a Perry Iridinoid 26 or 105.

 

Registrar's Ink is made for fountain pens and is a bit thin for convenient dipping. Check out oldworldink.com for a well regarded iron gall ink designed for dip pens.

 

In a fountain pen, Registrar's is one of the driest inks I have ever encountered. But, if you can tolerate its quirks, and find a pen with suitable flow and corrosion resistance, it is amazing - fast drying, non-feathering, water proof, fade proof, legible on the poorest quality paper.

[Ondina]

Excellent review, dcwaits, the color, properties and behavior of Diamine Registrar's make it one of the most interesting and worth inks in the market. I agree is best served by a wet pen, as all iron-gall inks I know. Thank you for taking the time to make such a well done exposition.

[epv]

I like it very much also. It seems to work really well with vintage flexible nibs, producing lovely shading.

[Loddonite]

Thanks for the thorough review.

I had dismissed this from my wish list but it seems I was a bit premature.

[adam11]

Nice ink-it doesn't look to dark. Thank you for the review.

[dcwaites]

Nice ink-it doesn't look to dark. Thank you for the review.

 

How dark it is depends on the pen and the paper. If you put down a lot of ink, it turns a very hard, solid black. The Jinhao I used is more dark grey after the ink has dried and oxidized.

[gillyohan]

I wonder how diamine's iron gall BB compares to other brands' iron gall BB inks. I'm interested in trying out Diamine's, but I already have a bottle of Lamy BB and don't know if I'm gonna see better performance or characteristics.

[cocojj]

Does this ink stain hands/clothes/pens?

[Ondina]

I wonder how diamine's iron gall BB compares to other brands' iron gall BB inks. I'm interested in trying out Diamine's, but I already have a bottle of Lamy BB and don't know if I'm gonna see better performance or characteristics.

 

All iron gall based inks I've tried have slight differences in color, and level of dryness. R&K Salix is the driest, Diamine Registrar's the relatively wettest.

 

Does this ink stain hands/clothes/pens?

 

No, it will not stain, just flush the pen regularly ( once every couple months works well for me).

[gillyohan]

I wonder how diamine's iron gall BB compares to other brands' iron gall BB inks. I'm interested in trying out Diamine's, but I already have a bottle of Lamy BB and don't know if I'm gonna see better performance or characteristics.

 

All iron gall based inks I've tried have slight differences in color, and level of dryness. R&K Salix is the driest, Diamine Registrar's the relatively wettest.

 

 

 

Thanks for the info.