What Am I Smelling In Kwzi Inks?

[Icywolfe]

I.have my bottle of orange and turquoise. Orange smells like carrot mixed with some herbs to make a tea. While turquoise smells like menthol.

[amberleadavis]

Hey, I kept writing about it.... I don't know what it is... it's pleasant... but I don't know what it is.

[Prolix]

I recently got my first bottle of KWZI ink (IG Gummiberry, which is delightful), and upon opening it, I knew that I had smelled this aroma before. Today it came to me: it smells exactly like thyme extract. And, funny enough, thymol is a biocide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymol

 

I'd bet you good money that this compound is the cause of the smell.

[kwzi]

I recently got my first bottle of KWZI ink (IG Gummiberry, which is delightful), and upon opening it, I knew that I had smelled this aroma before. Today it came to me: it smells exactly like thyme extract. And, funny enough, thymol is a biocide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymol

 

I'd bet you good money that this compound is the cause of the smell.

 

Very close

t has almost the same smell as thymol - but it is not thymol

[lapis]

Phenol? Just guessing.... I don't have any of your inks and I've not yet smelled any....

 

Mike

[kwzi]

Phenol? Just guessing.... I don't have any of your inks and I've not yet smelled any....

 

Mike

 

Phenol have different smell and because it toxicity I do not want to use it in my inks.

[lapis]

Thanks, good to hear!

 

Mike

[Canopus]

If it's a sweet and tart smell like blackberries it's the tannic acid, gallic acid has almost no smell. If it's a chalky/waxy smell then it's the dyes. With time the smell gets a bit more citrus like

 

Kwzi, what do you use as a preservative? Currently I'm using salicylic acid, but I've found it almost impossible to solubilize, I've tried cloves but they are too inconsistent as well leak a bit of oil into the ink.

 

Phenol is a bit of hot-topic, I've read arguments from both sides and it basically boils down to concentration on the ink and exposure, all I can is that I'm glad it's not a heavy-metal... I don't want to get close to some soluble metallic salts. The real and non-arguably danger is for whoever is making the ink since we are dealing with lots of the pure substance.

[kwzi]

I do not like to tell what is in my inks

 

But I can tell you that salicylic acid is not super effective preservative - if you have only IG components and a bit of dyes in ink than it will still suit you well - if you have more dyes and/or something more on which microbes can use as nutrient than you will have to significantly increase either concentration or use other/additional biocide. Also some dyes are going to inhibit preservative properties of gallic and salicylic acid.

 

You probably have salicylic acid purified by sublimation - than you have to recrystalise it from boiling water or dissolve it always in hot water.

[Canopus]

I do not like to tell what is in my inks

 

But I can tell you that salicylic acid is not super effective preservative - if you have only IG components and a bit of dyes in ink than it will still suit you well - if you have more dyes and/or something more on which microbes can use as nutrient than you will have to significantly increase either concentration or use other/additional biocide. Also some dyes are going to inhibit preservative properties of gallic and salicylic acid.

 

You probably have salicylic acid purified by sublimation - than you have to recrystalise it from boiling water or dissolve it always in hot water.

Come on! It's not like I'm asking the ratios, just saying what is in instead of how much and how to put it there is not even a tenth of what is needed Meh! Ok I've run a lot of that lately, at least you was cordial to answer me so I really appreciate that. I can understand the feeling, the amount of self-study and discovery I've had to do means a lot on itself to me.

 

Yes it's iron gall, but I've found that I do like a fair bit of dye, it helps a lot with the final color unless I try to really push the limits of solubility of gallic acid. The salicylic acid I have says it's 99.8% pure and it comes is white crystals. I will try the hot water method, it also helped a lot with the gallic acid.

 

My iron-gall inks are pretty much sorted out, I just need to work on the color palette. But I still want to dwell on normal inks and to make one that sheens, so far not a lot of success but I at least manage to get a short list of the potential dyes and causes.

[jmccarty3]

Why is everyone so scared of phenol? Islay single malt scotches are full of it--just taste Laproiag.

[Prolix]

 

Very close

t has almost the same smell as thymol - but it is not thymol

 

Interesting! Well if it's not thymol, perhaps carvacrol. Whatever is in there, it's a damn fine ink and smells tasty. I can't wait to try more of your superb concotions!

[kwzi]

Why is everyone so scared of phenol? Islay single malt scotches are full of it--just taste Laproiag.

 

Even higher concentration is in Ardbeg for comparision, but everything is about concentration - in Ardbeg there is at top 0,025% of phenol by mass. In ink for preservative you would have to start from 0,5% depending on pH and other factors - this means that in ink there have to be at least 20 times more phenol than in whisky, and probably even more.

So to put so much phenol in ink you have to operate with pure substances - phenol in contact is corrosive and cause severe burns, it is also volatile and it is easy to intoxicate just by briefing vapors of it. If there is 0,5% in ink there is no problem for final user of ink. But operating with phenol might be a problem for the person who is actually preparing the ink.

[Tas]

KWZI whatever you put in your inks just promise us all that you'll keep doing it. WE LOVE THEM.

 

(And, doesn't everyone smell their inks before inking up?)

[Buzz_130]

I agree with the comment on the outstanding quality of KWZ Inks! I've found recently that I always have one pen inked up with a KWZ Ink in addition to one pen always inked with Iroshizuku Asa Gao. I just haven't noticed the smell... too much blue and blue-black in my collection.

 

Buzz

[amberleadavis]

 

Interesting! Well if it's not thymol, perhaps carvacrol. Whatever is in there, it's a damn fine ink and smells tasty. I can't wait to try more of your superb concotions!

 

 

I love this smell!

[penswordnoassemblyrequired]

Now I'll have to go open a bottle and sniff!

[inkstainedruth]

Why is everyone so scared of phenol? Islay single malt scotches are full of it--just taste Laproiag.

No offense, but I *have* tasted Laphroiag.... (I don't mind my single-malts tasting like iodine, but I put my foot down at having them taste like they got dug out of a peat bog.)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lapis]

That's why I prefer a good bourbon or even more, a CC.

[jmccarty3]

I'll be the first to admit that Laphroiag and the other Islay malts are an acquired taste. We visited friends last night who offered me something much more approachable, a Glenlivet 25. It was magnificent.

 

http://i.imgur.com/2yVDvnA.jpg