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Hi There, This is my first post and I made the account to ask this question. This is my homemade ink which I call "Iron Tea: An Englishman's Home", born of experimenting at making a waterproof and lightfast ink using only things that might be found in any English home: I am very please with the colour. It goes on very light and binds to the paper in a much darker shade of brown. There is a lot of variation in the shading and feels very 'homely'. But I have discovered a problem with it. It won't dry. At least, not after 36 hours... which I can only think is a chemical problem as I would expect even the wettest of inks poured onto the page direct from the bottle to dry before then. Specifically, the ink won't dry on anything except cheap newspaper like materials. The images here are from a Clairefontaine notebook. To say it won't dry may not be accurate however, rather, it feels 'tacky' or 'sticky', much like you might expect a thin layer of tree sap to feel like. It is smudgeable, which I discovered by accident like so: My question is, what could be causing this. I can safely eliminate contaminated tools/materials as I have tried on a few and hold myself in the proudest rank of 'clean freaks'. So it may be that something I have put in it is causing it to take forever to dry. The ingredients are as follows: - 10ml apple cidar vinegar steeped nails for few days - 10ml balsamic wine vinegar - 200ml tea (made from boiling down 500ml of tap water with 5 ordinary black tea bags) - 10ml port (for preservation and fun of course (red wine would work just as well I suppose)) - 10ml "100% pure honey" None of these ingredients were measured beyond lazy precision and may be off by a bit. Filtered through a coffee filter before writing. If I had been forward thinking I would have made more iron sulphate solution so that I could just make more and experiment with taking things in and out to see if there are any changes, but since I didn't I figured I'd ask here. I will have to wait a few days before trying again. I have read historical examples which include honey and wine, so my insinct that they are the problem doesn't sit right. Perhaps the apple cidar vinegar? but I can't see why. Is there some chemical in any of the above which which would cause this? Is it just 'honey' doesn't dry ever and will sit on the Clairefontaine paper forever until moved, whereas it would have been absorbed by more historical writing surfaces? I know tea on it's own will dry very fast as I have used that before. Should I have got rain or distilled water, is there some chemical in tap water (chlorine) which causes it to stick and stay wet forever? Is there something natural I can add to it to assist the drying? Should I dilute it? Is there some overlooked process which obviously prevents this exact problem which I haven't seen before? I have done some research and cannot find anything really. Most search engine results are a maze of 'why is the ink drying in my fountain pen' or 'how to make my fountain pen dryer'. *sigh*. Any experience people have making their own inks with any of the above ingredients is much appreciated. (on the plus side, on the cheap stuff it is waterproof and doesn't move a jot even when run under the tap so something must be right there at least). A few closing notes: - Fear not the nature of the ink. I know it is more acidic than a Soviet rainstorm in 1986 and will bore holes in the Nostromo faster than you can say "Jonesy". Don't worry about it - I have been using iron gall inks almost exclusively for over a decade and am well aware of how overblown their danger is on the internet. - Shouldn't I have used pure green Fe (II) sulphate? No because that was not the point of the experiment. - Shouldn't I have used gum arabic instead of honey? No because that was not the point of the experiment. - Won't honey cause it to rot and attract mould etc? Maybe but I don't mind as it is literally cheaper than chips these days and I don't mind if my entire batch of ink or what I write with it catches fire. - What about iron galls, they have much better tannin content and less bad things in it than tea, shouldn't you have used them instead of tea, No because that was not the point of the experiment. This was made for fun and is going to be imperfect - don't worry about it . Help, ideas and inspirations all appreciated! Thank you all!

My original review was deleted thanks to the server problem. So, I'm reposting it. Another great ink for Iron gall ink lovers. The name is quite a mouthful. Thanks to @christof for introducing them to me. They are made in Germany and exclusively sold from this site, by the maker, Thomas Bergmann. https://www.kalligraphie-shop.com/ep...roducts/32000T They come in 2 colours: red and blue. Both inks are water resistant. The blue one is slightly more. The price, plus shipping to Canada for two bottles was 16€. That's 8€ a bottle. The bottles look a lot like De Atramentis', bur smaller. As you can see the labels are very elegant, though not very clear. I can discern: the name: Büroservice Bergmann Iron gall ink 30 ml/ 1 fl oz. I hope some of our German speaking members can translate the surrounding text: Note the beautiful red dye: Now about the red IG ink. It's a wet ink, slightly dry, i.e, it's not lubricated like Doyou Chroma: The ink write a bright red, which in time darkens in a gorgeous dark burgundy Writing samples Tomoe River 68 gr: (Fine/ Flex/Medium/ Fude/ Broad) Midori Rhodia: Apica: This is by no means waterproof but it is quite water resistant, depending paper, how long the text has been written: Mnemosyne paper: (immediately after drying) Waiting after two days: (before /after) Very absorbent cheap paper: 2 days after - Not so good enveloppe better I have no ink close to this ink, while the Kala looks similar in the scan, it's more of a purple/brown, while BN is Dark burgundy and finally, I'll leave you with an artwork, I did part of Inktober. The top background is the IG blue which has turned black, the middle is the IG red and the bottom is Gutenberg Urkundentinten G10. The paper is a Canson watercolour paper. · Pens used: : Noodler’s Ahab /Jinhao 450 Medium & Fude / Lamy Safari Broad · Shading: Lovely · Ghosting: On thin/cheap paper, maybe · Bleed through: I doubt it. · Flow Rate: Wet · Lubrication: Quite good for an IG · Nib Dry-out: No. · Start-up: Not noticed. But it could be a bit sluggish with dry pens like Safari. It would be best in a well sealed pen. · Saturation: Nicely saturated… · Shading Potential: Really good. · Sheen: None · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not noticed · Nib Creep / “Crud”: No · Staining (pen): No, · Clogging: Nope. · Water resistance: Good. The red component washes away depending paper and time. See images. · Availability: 1 oz/ 30 ml bottle Comments appreciated....

I had no idea that this blue-black vintage ink was permanent. But I should have known as the ink looked saturated. I bought this ink a few years ago but mainly for the box and never used the ink. About 2 weeks ago I organized my inks and decided to us it. I filled my PenBBS 456 vacuum filler with it. It worked just fine until a few days ago when it had hard starts. Yesterday I could not get it to start so I pulled the plunger up a little bit when I pushed down on the plunger the pressure resistance caused the piston seal to pop off. I took the pen apart and found that the feed was all clogged up. I still have the feed soaking and will see if I can get a good pic of the feed. The ink is not marked as permanent so I just now decided to test it. Regular copy paper. I used the blue-black and the Pilot ink as control sample. Soak the paper in water: Added some foam antibacterial and washed it off: Let dry: Result: Montblanc vintage Blue-Black is permanent as all get out. So unlike me you now know, be careful which pen you use this ink with.

What’s a ‘Serial Review’? Instead of tackling a comprehensive review of four inks in one shot with the result that I’d probably never do it, I’m creating a review with smaller, bite-size chunks. I plan to add more parts of the overall review in the future, all in this thread. In future ‘episodes’ I plan to show writing examples with fountain pens (Japanese fines, most likely, and perhaps some flex nibs) and on different papers, examine each ink’s properties (flow, feathering, sheen, etc.) with some detail, color change over time, and compare with other iron gall inks I have. Episode 1: Background & First Impressions I have several PenBBS inks and inks from the Ostrich Flower series and I've been very happy with those products, with very few exceptions. I have been super-curious about inks that are not widely available outside of China and have been exploring various brands the past few months. The latest exploration is four Ostrich blue-blacks, supposedly all iron gall, made by the Tianjin Ostrich Ink, Co., an ink maker that has been in business since 1935: 223 (48 ml bottle) 313 (55 ml bottle) 553 (60 ml bottle) 903 ‘Tianjin Museum’(60 ml bottle) I’m not sure but I believe this may be the first non-Chinese review of these inks. Background I noticed Ostrich’s four blue-black inks online when researching their Flower series inks a couple years back. I wrote the company, asking which of their blue-blacks are iron gall. The somewhat vague initial response was, in part, “We have two types of blue black ink.” so I replied with the same question. This time, the response was “All blue black of ours are made of iron gall. Only the differences of formulations.” [sic] Many of their ‘normal’, workhorse writing inks – blues, blue-blacks, blacks, reds, and a green – have been available off and on from the Lazada and Shopee shopping sites here in Thailand. Lazada and Shopee are Amazon.com-like sites, with country-specific sites in many SE Asian countries (and I see that Shopee has spread to some South American countries plus Mexico & Poland). The price has been OK – while low, still a bit expensive for workhorse Chinese inks – and it wasn’t until recently that I saw prices that were low enough that my curiosity could be satisfied with minimal guilt about spending money on ink I really don’t need. I ordered from Lazada, here. (Link is not an affiliate link - I make no money.) The lower price bottles – 223, 313, & 553 – range from about $2.50 to $3.00 USD, with a fairly similar price per ml. 903 is about $5.25 USD, with a significantly higher price per ml than the others. The total for the four bottles shipped and after a small promotional discount was the equivalent of ~$13.25 USD - approximately $0.06 USD per ml, which is quite low (and with proportionally low guilt). You can find at least some of these inks on AliExpress, but at higher prices. I put in the order 7 days ago, the inks shipped from China, and they arrived today, which is a typical amount of time for goods purchased on Lazada and imported from China to arrive here. Since I live way out in the country, about as far away in Thailand from Bangkok as I possibly could, it typically takes an extra day or two. Packaging The boxes look ‘classic’, not cheap, with professional-looking labelling that is nothing like many of today’s ‘boutique’ inks. Same for the bottles, all of which are classic-looking stout, glass bottles that are unlikely to tip over. Each bottle has a single label. You might have noticed that there are emus rather than ostriches on the labelling. (While I do like the name ‘Ostrich Ink’, I think ‘Emu Ink’ has a better ring to it. That said, the Chinese word for emu is a bit drab …). 223 and 313, which have similar caps that come off with a mere 2/3 of a turn, were packaged in clear plastic, zip-lock bags inside their boxes. Packing was adequate - the boxes arrived with no damage and there was no leakage. Box Front & Back Box Top & Bottom Box Sides Bottle Front & Back Bottle Side & Top Odor Note: I have a slight cold so take these with a grain of salt, please: 223 – To my nose it is a pungent & sweet odor very similar to the smell of Hero 232, another Chinese iron gall blue-black ink. 313 – Not very pungent and sweeter than 223 but not as sweet as the Rohrer & Klingner iron galls, Salix and Scabiosa, and Pelikan 4001 blue-black, another iron gall ink. (These German-brand iron gall inks all smell like some kind of sweet liqueur, at least to me.) 553 – Same odor as 223. 903 – Supposed to be “teak” scented but my nose isn’t picking that up. The least pungent and most sweet of these four Ostrich inks. But not as sweet as the Germans. Enough Boring Stuff: On With the Show I pulled out a dip pen with a “1” nib, a glass pen, a piece of Kokuyo Campus loose-leaf paper (WCN-CLL1110 – I believe this might be the old version of Kokuyo’s Sarasara, their smoother paper. It’s a fairly creamy color.), and a Rhodia pad and went to town. You can see the results below. Mobile phone photos in indirect afternoon sunlight. (I believe I must have had Hero 232 on my mind …) Kokuyo Rhodia Color and Behavior on Paper: Initial Impressions Notice that 223, 313, & 553 look the same! My initial impression is that there might be some differences in flow between these three and then there’s the different odor of 553 but, given that the Ostrich rep indicated to me that there are two types of blue-blacks, it very well could be that they are pretty much the same. I’m confident we will find out more about this in a future episode of this serial. 903 is, however, very different. While much darker it seems much more a very rich blue than a blue-black. Not a stealth black, however. Note 903’s feathering, which is unacceptable on the Rhodia paper and a little on the Kokuyo. There’s also lots of bleed-through (not shown here) and 903 has a thicker line than the others, even with the glass pen. Don’t be quick to judge - the dip pen really lays on the ink, as can the glass pen. And, on initial impression, 903 has a quick flow. Again, we’ll see more about the feathering, bleed-through, etc. in a future episode. Fading I am writing this review episode about 3 hours after I used the ink and there is very little, if any, fading of the blue color in any of the inks. I think this may be quite different than the other iron gall inks that I have experience with. Hero 232 fades towards grey much more quickly, for instance. Sheen All these inks have visible rosey gold sheen, much more prominent on the Kokuyo than Rhodia, as expected. 903 has relatively much brighter sheen, which, unlike the others, seems to tend to spread out and make more of a halo effect. All the images below are from the Kokuyo example. 223 313 553 903 [Lighting conditions changed during the last photo.] Chromatography Just ‘poor man’s’ chromatography for this pilot episode: a drop of ink on a napkin. Again, 223, 313, & 553 look the same. Also, based on this rough chromatography, I believe there is a good chance that all these inks use a single dye. Water Solubility Iron gall inks have a reputation for permanence. About an hour after I finished writing the Rhodia sample I got a small paintbrush, repeatedly dipping it in water to keep it wet, and I brushed the large numbers written with the dip pen and all the glass pen writing. Only a slight bit of 223, 313, & 553’s dye is moved – pretty amazing. More of 903’s dye is moved by the water but plenty of the ink remains in place. Watch this thread for new Ostrich blue-black review episodes!

The name is a mouthful. I discovered this ink thanks @christof. Another good ink for Iron gall ink lovers. They are made in Germany and exclusively sold by the maker Thomas Bergmann. https://www.kalligraphie-shop.com/ep...roducts/32000T They come in 2 colours: red and blue in De Atramentis type bottles. This is an almost black ink, in the true IG sense. If you’ve written with dip pen IG inks (Like Bach’s which turns into a glossy black), this one comes close, depending on the amount of ink concentration. Here is a comparaison with two other famous IGs. It has an interesting chroma While I enjoyed using it, I prefer the Red to this. Mostly because it has not the waterproofness of Essri (and I don't mean LizEf's endearing Snek . If you’re looking for a perfect waterproof ink, go for the big three Essri, Akkerman IG, or Diamine Registrars ( I haven’t tried KWZ blue black/ and Hero 232, so I can't comment on that). I rubbed the sample text (on the cheap paper), with a wet Q-tip. This was after 24 hours. Essri didn't budge. The blue component of Bergmann ink smudged. I also did the Q-tip test on a week old text on Tomoe River paper, the blue component smudged. Writing samples: TR 68gr Midori Rhodia Apica This I did with reverse medium Jinhao, which is close to an Ef, I hope (Paper is Rhodia) Field Notes (Not for Fps but the ink behaved flawlessly) This was done on atrocious, cheap, very thin, absorbent paper. Ink turned instantly black. While there seems to be ghosting and bleed through, it doesn't look as bad as the scan Here is a little fun sketch I did for Inktober on a Fabiano sketch pad: The background is all done with the IG ink. • Pens used: : Jinhao 450 (Medium/fude) /Jinhao X159 – F / Conway Stewart 330/ Pilot Kakuna • Shading: Yes • Ghosting: Only on cheap paper. It didn't ghost on Field Notes, an unfriendly FP paper. • Bleed through: No • Flow Rate: Wet • Lubrication: Quite good for an IG • Nib Dry-out: On the badly sealed X159 yes. • Start-up: On the badly sealed X159 yes. • Saturation: Nicely saturated… • Shading Potential: The ink turn almost black. Butshades • Sheen: None • Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not noticed • Nib Creep / “Crud”: No • Staining (pen): No, • Clogging: Nope. • Water resistance: Good. But not as good as Essri. • Availability: 1 oz/ 30 ml bottles Comments appreciated!

Introduction and Elephant in the Room KWZ inks at this point don’t really need an introduction of themselves so all I can say is about page on KWZ website is the best friend here. Bottle is dark glass bottle, good for inks. Now to elephant and well there are 2 different things that I noticed here, First the ink comes in a plastic wrap around the bottle, nice touch really as this prevent many issues that can arise. Second, is entire ink smells like vanilla and that was nice (typical of KWZ)....it made me want to eat ice-cream though so that’s bad. Jokes aside I can see some real practical benefit of inks condition and easy to spot any issue in ink if it arises (by smell) and that is a big plus for many. Each ink is handmade as mentioned by KWZ and might have some variations in them, take it as may that is a what it is. Variation are understandable if on asks me and I don’t think there will be any change in base formula or nature of ink, as comparison lets take processors, there is difference in each processors wafers when made and this has no real impact on processor itself but if you are overclocking the processor then it matters not for normal case. In short for most part, there should not be enough difference in actual ink nature of ink itself and that is the goal of this analysis. Ink review section Test papers include 75gsm sectra copy paper 70gsm and 85gsm nightingale paper 52gsm classmate copy paper (dot bleeds at end seen) 100gsm JK Cedar bond papers. Random books back sides and some unknown real cheap papers (slight bleed on cheap ones). Ink properties Bleeding/Ghosting – very slight on cheap papers. Feathering – None observed. Saturation – Good. Flow – Wet ink. Dry time – 5 sec to 20 sec approx. This above is when ink has been given 1 hrs to dry before pics were taken 10 day dry time has been given to ink. The color came out to be remarkably what it really is, very dark blue-black almost black in color. As with all the pea shooter phone camera at full works. This will serve as 1st case of testing, more below on that. Water Resistance – Very High. Although the dye tends to bleed out of page, content survive just fine and colour mostly. this is 10 day dry time given paper 1 min tap run, page has not been given time to dry but cloth was used to try removing ink using as soak for water and not rubbed. Pressed with cloth. The square lines have been soaked for 2 hrs in water and then crushed with dry cloth in attempt to remove ink. Color in these 3rd images is way off the mark, its little darker and paper is white, but dye loss is visible and that was intent, sadly due to nature of test its not possible to recreate the colors if one wants to I will perform another one but results will take 10 days at min...cos well 10 day time The ink is wet writer but very well behaved, I did not find any running issue even on wet pens of mine but all nibs I use are Fine ones so there is that, but I don’t think it will give trouble on this front. It does show very small bleed on cheap papers (in my experiment, the paper with bleed were some random 40 ish GSM pages which are very absorbent in nature and on 52 GSM classmate copy paper which showed dot bleeds) All in all a normal paper will not have any issue including copy pages. Cleaning well........will require hard work and regular interval is suggested as with all permanent inks. Ink is very dark blue-black and is on edge of black over blue. The beauty lies in it being blue at start and then quickly darkening to blue-black with inclination to blue for first 2 hrs or so while the real dark blue-black color takes another 2 days to fully show. No significant change after this.....yet. Personal take This ink has been on many people hit list and for obvious reasons of being liked in color and being an IG ink which also raises many questions on maintenance of ink and its general oxidization over time and this comes especially true for people like me who are burned by Sallix if I may be so bold as to say. While sallix tends to show signs of losing color this one it too early to say what changes will be. The main highlight for me was that it will darken as age, now I don’t think it will become black from already very dark, almost black color, but I hope to see it darker then sallix as it ages, The ink on box shows blue black and I suspect that is the final color of the ink (after properly oxidized). Lubrication is good, the last part of multiple pen test was left here and oliver used has some issues during testing. Dried ink for 1 hrs. 7 day dry for same page. below part of page came a bit wrong.....thanks pea camera lol.... This page will serve as second case. (more below about case). Reasoning behind other post of same ink Now begins the game of waiting and real reason to separate this post from other Blue black IG. Over the concern for IG ageing in time in current environment and uses, plus paper and well general skepticism of IG ink fade over time faster then most What I intend to do is simple, record the way the ink changes its color over the course of entire year with the way paper would be normally handled in normal situation. The tests will have 3 categories planned for testing on how the page is kept First- this is one where the page will not be used for any reference and will be opened for bare minimum like taking pics and observing the ink, but paper will lie outside shelf and wardrobe making it exposed to all weather paper might suffer. Second- Same as above but stored in wardrobe. Third-one small page will always be exposed to light of room and daylight abid diffused one to see general nature of inks movement. Possible due to east facing room with complete open windows, attempting to recreate a well naturally lit room. Fourth-Page opened and referred often to as notes, these are my geography notes. The first page of this will be posted along with others later. Oh and this is kept outside wardrobe...cos well its in constant use and I am too lazy. this is third case test page.

Hello fellow FPNers, I'm a longtime lurker around here, but I've only recently became a member. I'd like to make a contribution to the FP community, and I need your help. Last year I began compiling a comprehensive list of Iron-Gall-based fountain pen inks, simply because there was none. I want this list to be constantly updated so as to be as exhaustive as possible. Please contribute updates, corrections and suggestions! The list is available here: https://gdoc.pub/doc/1po8jfMHv-Uz_ioZ9-2DQzASb1FNs-RSfmkkR4GaZ23g#heading=h.vydniszftb1n Since English is not my native language, grammar and spelling suggestions are naturally welcome. I am fascinated by Iron-Gall inks, and find it baffling that so many people are scared by it to the point of not trying for themselves, and letting hearsay become their opinion. Iron-galls are fun and are a category of their own! I don't mean of course that every single FP user should love IGs, but I think it's important to try for yourself Cheers! TM

After seeing some posts about KWZ killing some of their iron gall inks, I emailed them for clarification. This was Agnieszka's response: So, if you are a fan of Blue #3, as I am, time to stock up.

Platinum Citrus Black Review Note: Due to file size constraints, I was unable to add high resolution photos of the inks. For the high resolution images, please click here to be redirected to my blog. Platinum Citrus black is an extremely unique, fascinating ink. A brand new offering from Platinum as part of their Classic Ink series, Citrus black is an iron gall ink with fantastic color and some fascinating features. The ink comes in the standard cardboard Platinum box—which is actually rather ornate as far as ink boxes go. The paper itself is textured and the box is coated in an ink which is a very close facsimile to the ink itself. The 60 mL bottle is likewise well-crafted. It has a wide neck and a nice, easily storable, rounded-cube shape. Inside the bottle is an inner ink-cone whose purpose is supposedly make filling easier at lower levels. If I have one gripe about the bottle, it is this cone. It is so narrow that by the time the nib has gone fully into the cone, there is really only 0.2 – 0.3 mL of ink left to fill—so—a complete fill requires flipping the bottle and refilling the cone two or three times. Fortunately though, the cone is easily removable, so I can’t be all that mad. Now—the ink. Citrus black is easily one of the more fascinating inks I have ever gotten to use. This is all due to its properties as an Iron Gall—namely—its color-shifting. When it goes onto paper, the ink is a bright, candy yellow color. However, within seconds, the ink starts to shift towards a more light-olive shade.For a video of this, click here And, I have to say, the final color is actually quite pleasant. While I wouldn’t necessarily advise it for business correspondence, it is easy on the eyes and perfectly legible (which is a rarity amongst yellow inks). On top of this, the ink also has fascinating shading—parts of characters can go from a pale yellow-olive to a dark green-amber hue. The ink also has some pretty interesting sheening—a gold sparkle—however, it really only shoes if the ink is irrationally heavy on the paper. Although, I have not yet had the chance to test it on Tomoe River, so I will update the review when I manage to get my hands on some. The ink is also quite water resistant—actually, there is a decent chance that the ink will eat through the paper before it ever has a chance to fade. (As is to be expected with an iron gall). And the ink is decently quick drying—it’ll take around 20 seconds. The ink is also very well behaved on less expensive papers. On newsprint, the ink barely feathered (although it did bleed a bit). On cheap copy paper, however, the ink didn’t even bleed through at all. Although, when you write on absorbent papers, the ink goes straight to it’s olive color, so you lose the shifting and the shading. However, there is one extreme negative about the ink—its corrosiveness. I tested this ink in a gold-nibbed Pilot Custom 74, where there were no problems. However, there were quite a few problems in the converter. The CON-20 had started to stain a dark yellow, and the ink looked like it was about ready to start eating away at the converter. Although, this was after leaving this ink in the pen for a week without cleaning. Nevertheless, I would advise caution and not use this pen with steel-nibbed pens—its better to be safe than sorry. On the whole however, I heartily enjoyed this ink, and, if you have a gold nib, I highly recommend giving it a shot. It comes in a 60mL bottle will be available soon from Goulet Pens for $25 in the US or for €24 from La Couronne du Comte in the Netherlands. If you enjoyed this review, please consider visiting my website and subscribing—I promise not to spam your inbox, and every subscription counts.

Platinum Classic Ink — Cassis Black #15 Review (Note: Due to FPN's compression standards, I've had to compress the images to less-than-favorable quality. To view them in full, high resolution, please click here to be redirected to my blog.) Platinum announced a new series of Iron Gall Inks—the Classic Inks—in January with six colors: Cassis black, Forest black, Citrus black, Khaki black, Sepia black, and Lavender black. And ever since they came out earlier this month, I’ve wanted to give them a try, and I could not have been more happy with them. The first ink of the bunch is Cassis black (#15), a really pleasant magenta-red ink that over time fades darker, and over a period of years, should fade to black. The ink, although sold by Platinum, was actually created by an iron-gall mastermind by the name of pGary who had created a blue-black iron gall for Platinum in the past. Modern iron-gall inks are a bit of an enigma. For the most part, they are safe for use in pens, but often are some of the more high-maintenance inks available, as, without cleaning, they can corrode the metal of a pen or leave a really difficult to remove sediment in the feed. For a really detailed read on IG inks written by the creator of KWZ inks, click here, (I highly recommend it). Anyway, the ink itself comes in a very pleasantly-designed 60 mL bottle—Its shape resembles that of a tall rectangle with convex sides, and it is very nice for storage (similar to Noodlers). The bottle also has a decently wide neck, so most pens should fit inside. However, there is a plastic secondary reservoir which might prove a bit of a challenge for larger pens—although it is quite tall so most nibs should be able to fit inside. Nevertheless, it can be removed if you find it annoying. The ink itself is astonishingly pretty. Going in, I—based off of my previous experiences with iron-gall ink—was rather pessimistic as I thought the ink would be rather dark and dreary. However, the Cassis is almost the opposite. Named for the liquor made from a blackcurrant, the ink is quite colorful and vibrant without being eye-piercing. Cassis black has very nice shading (but no sheen) and is extremely well behaved on almost all papers (I have used it on papers anywhere from Clairefontaine to news-stock and, even on the worst paper possible, it didn’t feather at all and it barely bled through. As a student, this particularly helpful as, often, the paper made available to me is over a rather low caliber—but this ink tackles it without an issue. The ink is also decently water-resistant, and likewise, I found it somewhat difficult to wash is both off my hands and my desk when it spilled (so try to keep it safely inside the pen at all times). However, far and away, the coolest thing about the inks its color change. The ink looks like a bright red from inside a converter. However, after touching paper, the ink rapidly transforms from an almost cherry-candy red to a deep magenta. (The entire process takes about forty seconds or so to go through fully). However, on more absorbent papers, the effect happens immediately so it is not as obvious. On top of this, the ink also shades beautifully in any nib from extra fine to double broad. The ink is currently available only in Japan (I purchased it from Rakuten who ships to the US). However, it seems to be coming soon to the US by way of Goulet Pens. The ink costs ¥2160 on Rakuten or $25.00 from Goulet when available (Goulet also will also have samples for $1.75). If you’ve enjoyed this review, please consider taking a look at my blog and subscribing—every subscription helps immensely and I promise not to spam your inbox. Also, if you subscribe, you’ll also be alerted of giveaways (I plan to give away a couple samples of this ink so click here to be notified. I hope you’ve enjoyed this review.

Disclaimer first: This test does not focus on fading under direct sun or UV exposure, it focuses on normal change in color that will be observed on these inks in what I assume is how most keep their work. Also I will try to keep things as consistent as I can but some variations may occur during the span of testing. I will try to update on any key variations other then weather outside. Storing and approach taken (inputs appreciated) The way the pages will be kept will be as follows : the pages will be kept in closed notebooks and will be used from time to time to see or check for color or such changes, the notebooks themselves will be kept outside the wardrobe in a well lit room. The works will mostly be closed for the test period otherwise. The results will be posted every month to see the change on all papers, point being to observe if page type will lead to any significant change. Any new ideas for the keeping of pages and such are welcomed and appreciated as it is long term test. Introduction and Idea The idea comes from general fading of IG inks and the way it becomes worry for obvious reasons. The subjects under analysis are KWZ IG Blue-black (the ink also is subject to more thorough analysis in other test, pls refer to ink review for that one) and other being R&K Salix as said in intro. The R&K Salix is not being analyzed the same way here as KWZ IG mostly due to net result being known, but the inks performance variation on different papers is not known so the test still serves some purpose (for me at least). Now the net result will also be published and matched along with other test result if someone wants to see them, else not much point as inks analysis is being done anyway. inks nature ( a personal take here on how each write) KWZ IG blue-black - A wet ink in all sense, minor bleed on cheap papers and no feathering seen. Very high water resistance. R&K Salix - Dry ink. Flow sees no issues, no hard starts or skipping seen during writing despite being dry ink. Works on all papers and shows no bleed or feathering on any paper. Pretty much water proof and sees no sign of even discoloring. Krishna Paakezah - Balanced flow ink, no skips or hard starts seen, no bleed or feathering on normal papers. Waterman Serenity blue - Balanced flow ink, no skips, hard starts. no bleed or feathering on normal papers. Some have noted bleed on very cheap papers and that is the case. Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai - Balanced flow, tending to wet. No bleed or feathering on papers. No skips or hard starts. The ink shows some feedback of nib and gives pencil like effect in nibs I tested, its very nice feeling when writing. Pens used the pens in order from left to right along with their respective characteristics rough idea Platinum preppy 'fine nib' - Writes dry, no skips and such just dry (some tuning was done to get such result thus statement of tuned in writing). Ink here is KWZ IG blue-black. Wality 69 EB Fine nib- Writes balanced and is and ED pen. Ink here is Krishna Paakezah. Oliver Exam demonstrator, Kanwrite FIne nib - writes wet. Ink used is R&K Salix. Camlin Trinity Fine nib- Feed modded for very wet flow. Ink used is KWZ IG Blue-black Ranga Slim Bamboo, Ranga Fine nib- 3in 1 using convertor in this test. Writes Balanced with tending to wet. Ink used is Pilot Iroshizuku shin-kai. Kanwrite Heritage, Fine Flex nib- Piston filler. Writes wet. Ink used in Waterman Serenity Blue. Intent behind using a dry and wet pen for KWZ ink is to create some level field for testing as direct comparison R&K Salix runs dry even on wettest of pens, the test aims to see what happens if ink on paper is reduced by significant margin and what happens if a wet ink is given a very wet pen, and if same ink is given dry pen. R&K Salix, being a dry ink as it is, I feel will yield poor result on dry pens in terms of ink quantity on dry nibs, I have not tested the ink on dry nibs and I won't either as chances of poor results in long term testing are feared, making idea of aging redundant. Papers used (and their respective nature) From poorest performing paper to best (pages from Nightingale are in no particular order as they all are good in their own way, my ranking thus comes from my requirement of no bleed or ghosting as top priority over other characteristics) I have or will add withing span of a week. Also companies are good at marketing and skipping important details.....that is to say they in many have not given GSM of notebooks 😠 I will approx for those pages, from what I know about them, corrections are welcome. Classmate copy register (50 approx GSM)- not FP friendly paper, highly absorbent nature, no sheen or shading seen here....this was really a disappointment considering all the marketing they do.... Taj White copy register (approx 60 GSM) - OK paper for FP for normal use only. Absorbent in nature, sheen and shade is minimal to absent. Nightingale 70 GSM- FP friendly to some extent, its quite smooth to write on, in a way that half decent inks don't bleed here. Absorbent paper and shows, low shading seen and sheen is seen but not much. 75GSM A4 spectra (office paper in all honesty) - OKish for ink pens...I guess. Bleed and feathering is not seen for normal inks. Absorbent paper by nature. Sheen is seen, not too high but present and Shade is low....(the result will be added in 2 days or so...I need to buy them, my bundle is finished so will add them later). Results added. Navneet youva (approx 60 GSM)- This one surprised me to some extent as I did not expected it to behave properly. Ranks higher for not showing bleed or ghosting on most inks. Still absorbent nature. Sheen is not seen, shade is minimum. It could be near 70 GSM by thickness of paper...they don't mention it so will give benefit of doubt. JK Cedar 100 GSM - FP friendly paper to good extent here. No bleed or feathering on any inks I have tested so far. Not too absorbent in nature. Sheen and shade are visible nicely. Its also my personal standard testing and using paper. Most I have are non standard papers so I apologies for that, thus is the reason for adding this section in particular. If anyone cares among these pages for daily, my recommendation is to go with higher GSM pages of nightingale or Classmate if wanting one of them, the option is there one has to look for it. Test itself All tests in this post are 5 min dry except for JK Cedar which was given 2 hrs to dry. All images are done with pea shooter camera and corrected to as close as possible. Images are quite close to real, not exactly same but close. 50 GSM Classmate copy test, dry time 5 min. pic taken on 7 jan 2021. Taj White 60 GSM approx paper. 5 min dry time. Pic taken on 7 jan 2021 Nightingale 70 GSM paper, dry time 5 min. Pic taken on 7 jan 2021. Navneet youva, 60 GSM approx, could be 70 GSM. dry time 5 min, Pic taken on 8 jan 2021 75 GSM Spectra copy paper. Dry time 5 min. Sheen is visible here, not too much but visible nonetheless for shading its still low. Black lines are Platinum carbon black. JK Cedar 100 GSM. dry time 2 hrs. Pic taken on 7 Jan 2021. Some Niccolo Machiavelli quotes just for fun of it and give some idea of writing (i know my writing is not good but its improving I promise...its now readable from whatever it was before 😅) Whats next and my limitations Apart from office page which I will add this week. I plan to write some more pages with both ink on JK cedar and keep them the same way I am testing if someone is interested I will do them, else not much of personal interest. I have never done a swatch sample before but I want to ask if I should add one for at least R&K Salix and KWZ IG Blue-black.....I probably wont do that for others, too much of personal hassle, but 2 main IG should be fine. Do tell if interested. My limitations are quite obvious, I lack any other nib variation apart from fine nibs and EF nibs so thats one main down. Second is lack of most common FP papers used like tomoe, Rhodia,etc. They are not economical here for me at least and I write a lot so I never bought them personally, I did have some in past but all are used now. Thank you for sticking with this one.

I'm surprised this has not been reviewed yet. This is my favourite of KWZ's iron gall inks. Still close enough to a more traditional iron gall in terms of water fastness, colour change, dry time and performance, but with enough blue remaining to make it not just another blue-black. Dry time for normal handwriting is closer to 5 seconds, but a broader, wetter pen will be longer, hence the heavy swatch test. Dry swab was after 20 minutes, wet after 2-3. Paper is Rhodia dot.

Akkerman IJzer-Galnoten #10 lapis https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/220349-akkerman-ijzer-galnoten-blzw/ Chesterfield [no longer available] Archival Vault fibredrunk https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/178914-chesterfield-archival-vault-ink-review/ Diamine Registrars politovski 2 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/260738-diamine-registrars-ink/DanielCoffey 2 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/250802-diamine-registrars-ink-high-flow/politovski https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/241410-diamine-registrars-blue-black/Mafia Geek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/232072-diamine-registrars-blue-black-written-review/DanielCoffey https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/219909-diamine-registrars-ink/dizzypen https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/203891-diamine-registrars-blue/Old Codger https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/109472-diamine-registrars-ink/dcwaites https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/138102-diamine-registrars-ink/dandelion https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/142915-diamines-registrars-ink/carpedavid https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/166955-diamine-registrars-ink/visamitra https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/293820-diamine-registars-ink/mhphoto https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/288715-diamine-registrars-ink-blueblacka-handwritten-review/bokaba https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/351635-diamine-registrars/ ESSRI SketchHood https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/247269-essri-brief-written-review/Sandy1 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/205705-ecclesiastical-stationery-supplies-registrars-ink/visamitra https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/312769-ecclesiastical-stationery-supplies-registrars-ink/ Gutenberg Gutenberg Urkundentinte G10 schwarz (As of 18 May 2020 not yet reviewed here) Hero 232 kl122022 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/317200-hero-232-ink-review-with-hero-303-fp/visamitra https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/321099-hero-232-blue-black-ink/ KWZ Blue #1 Tas https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/313856-ink-rambling-kwz-ig-blue-1/Blue #2 dave321 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331713-kwz-ig-blue-2/Blue #4 namrehsnoom https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/329478-kwzi-ig-blue-4/Blue #5 xty https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/303185-kwz-iron-gall-blue-5/Lgsoltek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/307987-kwzi-iron-gall-blue-5/Blue #6 KyleKatarn https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/303976-kwzi-ig-blue-6/Green #1 crahptacular https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/327319-kwz-ink-ig-green-1/Green #2 lgsoltek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/327463-kwz-ink-iron-gall-green-2/Green #3 Lgsoltek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/313424-kwz-ink-iron-gall-green-3/Green #5 Lgsoltek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/313795-kwz-ink-green-5/Gold Lgsoltek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/301919-kwz-ink-iron-gall-ig-gold/Light Aztec Gold Lgsoltek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/316124-kwz-ink-iron-gall-light-aztec-gold/Red #3 Lgsoltek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/313797-kwz-ink-iron-gall-red-3/Violet #2 Alexandra https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/313882-kwz-iron-gall-violet-2/Violet #3 visamitra https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/296244-iron-gall-violet-3-kwzi/ Lamy [old formula: no longer available] Blue Black madeyourink https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/248032-lamy-blue-black/Mafia Geek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/228042-lamy-blue-black/Ad_Astra https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/225644-lamy-blue-black/Sandy1 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/202183-lamy-blue-black/Owner of a Lonely Heart https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/196836-lamy-blue-black/orange lamy https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/175258-lamy-blue-black-iron-gall/The Noble Savage https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/1544-lamy-document-blue/Goodwhiskers https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/7636-lamy-blue-black/Rasendyll https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/44423-lamy-blue-black-quick-review/kadymae https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/47299-lamy-blue-black-iron-gall/Breck https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/90362-handwritten-review-of-lamy-blue-black/visamitrahttps://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/293585-blue-black-lamy/ Montblanc [old formula: no longer available] Blue-Black (in the 50-ml shoe, was available up to ca. January 2010) Sandy1 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/208379-montblanc-blue-black/woodworker https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/112449-review-montblanc-blue-black-ink/HenryLouis https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/135371-montblanc-blueblack-ink-review/ Midnight Blue (Blue-black iron gall, 60-ml shoe, January 2010 - September 2013). Note that after that, their Midnight Blue was again reissued in a 60-ml shoe but as a non-iron gall ink. lapis https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/146793-mbs-new-midnight-blue/Sandy1 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/147140-montblanc-midnight-blue/tenurepro https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/231194-montblanc-midnight-blue/Mafia Geek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/232078-mont-blanc-midnight-blue-written-review/ianmedium https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/161512-montblanc-midnight-blue/Owner of a Lonely Heart https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/194847-mont-blanc-midnight-blue/Sandy1 (cartridges) https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/199390-montblanc-midnight-blue-cartridges/ Organics Studio Aristotle visamitra https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/283740-aristotle-organics-studio/amberleadavis https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/253087-organics-studios-aristotle-iron-gall-informal-review/ Pelikan 4001 Blue Black bokaba https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/352106-pelikan-4001-blue-black/Hutecker https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/248690-pelikan-blue-black/saskia_madding https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/246533-pelikan-blue-black-discontinued-in-usa/mucephei https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/218728-pelikan-blue-black/Owner of a Lonely Heart https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/194828-pelikan-blue-black/Sandy1 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/192761-pelikan-4001-blue-black/SteadyHand https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/47375-pelikan-blue-black/?pid=481253chuancao https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/63970-pelikan-blueblack/bphollin https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/86277-pelikan-4001-blue-black/chkuo https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/100441-pelikan-blue-black/Ondina https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/137998-pelikan-blue-black/carpedavid https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/168825-pelikan-blue-black/visamitra https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/305297-blue-black-pelikan-4001/ Pharmacist [no longer available] Blue Black LostinBrittany https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/217526-pharmacists-iron-gall-ink/gmrza https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/217209-pharmacists-iron-gall-ink/spot https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/216064-pharmacist-iron-gall-ink/Darkening Absynthe MarneM https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/263880-pharmacist-inks/Essensia https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/225773-pharmacists-darkening-absinthe-iron-gall/Jimmy James https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/221735-pharmacists-iron-gall-inks/Oriens Occidens LostInBrittany https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/220579-pharmacists-oriens-occidens-iron-gall-ink/Purpura Imperialis Essenssia https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/225771-pharmacists-purpura-imperialis-iron-gall/Terra Incinerata MarneM https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/263880-pharmacist-inks/youblue9 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/225183-pharmacists-terra-incinerata/Jimmy James https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/221957-pharmacists-iron-gall-inks/Turkish Night MarneM https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/263880-pharmacist-inks/Essenssia https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/225772-pharmacists-turkish-night-iron-gall/Urkundentinte Document Ink jcb0531 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/232174-pharmacists-urkundentinte/sirach https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/230309-pharmacists-urkundentinte/fibredrunk https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/221316-pharmacists-urkundentinte-document-ink-review/ Platinum Blue Black Ad_Astra https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/226398-platinum-blue-black/kadymae https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/202543-platinum-blue-black/girllieg33k https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/41268-platinum-blue-black/bokaba https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/351543-platinum-blue-black-ink/Cassis Black caleb https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/319275-platinum-classic-ink-cassis-black-iron-gall/Citrus julia239 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/321486-platinum-classic-ink-citrus-black-iron-gall/Forest Black caleb https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/322297-platinum-forest-black-classic-ink-11/Lavender Black julia329 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/320878-platinum-classic-ink-lavender-black-iron-gall/Sepia Black julia329 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/321116-platinum-classic-ink-sepia-black-iron-gall/ Rohrer & Klingner Salix politovski https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/260806-rohrer-and-klinger-salix/requiescat https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/251478-rohrer-klingner-salix-handwritten-review/jgrasty https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/233843-rohrer-klingner-salix/mhphoto https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/231152-rohrer-klingner-salix/MafiaGeek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/232086-rohrer-klingner-salix-ink-review/stefanv https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/229498-rohrer-klingner-salix/carpedavid https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/218869-rohrer-and-klingner-salix/Schuttwegraumer https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/5957-rk-salix/Sandy1 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/160998-rohrer-klingner-salix/dandelion https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/162431-rohrer-klingner-salix/CaptainAnnoyed https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/307474-review-rohrer-and-klingner-salix/LizEF https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/353653-efnir-rohrer-klingner-salix/ Scabiosa FP_Ink_Geek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/289324-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa-review/politovski https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/260808-rohrer-and-klinger-scabiosa/amberleadavis https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/252557-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa-informal-review/attika89 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/246625-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa-handwritten-corrected-scans/pictogramax https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/234538-scabiosa/Mafia Geek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/232087-rohrer-klingner-scarbiosa-ink-review/stefanv https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/230273-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa/lwtwayne https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/227326-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa/josiah https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/225560-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa/carpedavid https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/217965-rohrer-and-klingner-scabiosa/dizzypen https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/177072-rohrer-and-klingner-scaboisa/tburke0 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/10314-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa/dandelion https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/119488-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa/Sandy1 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/161028-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa/chingdamosaic https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/302872-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa-iron-gall-ink/CaptainAnoyed https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/307432-review-rohrer-and-klingner-scabiosa/Lgsoltek https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/287775-rohrer-klingner-scabiosa/ TWSBIBlue Black -- For reference, there is a comprehensive maintained list of Iron Gall inks by Thiago Medeiros.

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 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: A drop of ink on Midori 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 Comparisons with Salix - Top line - Salix fude - Middle Bible Ink - Vintage flex- Bottom - Salix medium 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 3 days after After 30 seconds of water 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. Tomoe River Taroko Design Front and Back (Tomoe River 68gr) Now two notebooks which are not fountain pen ink friendly: First Midori Cotton: And finally Field Notes: Enjoy!

Since several intriguing and passionate posts about blue black inks were posted, I thought I'll add some historical context. When steel nibs were created and soon replaced goose quills (in early XIX century), in order to deal with the corrosive nature of iron gall inks, ink makers added dyes to the iron gall ink, which apparently tempered its corrosiveness. This made the written word legible in blue before the ink oxidized and turned black. Often iron gall ink writes in a pale, pasty grey colour until the oxidization process happenes and turns into the black colour. and overtime to brown.... I am sure many of the esteemed members with scientific background can explain it in more detail. Note on the bottle: This ink writes a clear blue and changes to an intense Black. Please feel free to add, correct or comment

As far as I can tell Hero 232 Blue-Black seems to be getting scarce from my online sources. (I recently ordered a bottle Hero 232 & 233 and was sent 2 bottles of 233 instead. Then the seller promptly raised the price to over 3x what I had paid ...) Hero 202 is still readily available. I did a search here: the evidence - while there's not a lot of it - seems to suggest that Hero 202 is likely iron gall. Has any more evidence turned up recently? I'll probably take a chance on it since it is so inexpensive but I need more ink that I won't use like I need a hole in my head.

Is there such a thing as a fountain pen friendly iron gall *recipe*? Not a mass marketed commercial ink. I assume it would have to be without gum arabic at least.

Hello Today I come to ask you how an iron gall ink should be stored correctly since I have had inks of this type that when they come to me they look good but then they are precipitated in a short time. For example, I had bought a large bottle of diamine registrars ink and emptied it into a 30 ml empty lamy ink bottle that had been washed very well and I refilled with a pen and it worked excellent without flow problems, I checked the bottle the following days and everything looked all right. But on the fifth day the bottle looked ugly with things stuck on the walls and sludge on the bottom of the bottle, the pens that were used with the ink in that state do not write at the first stroke and little pressure and that is annoying since I write with a light hand. I emptied a little more of the main bottle into an airtight bottle and it didn't look bad in that bottle but it didn't work well. I checked the main bottle and at the bottom it was like a centimeter of precipitate well glued XD. The same has happened to me with a bottle of essri that I had in the past that stuck these things on the walls of the bottle and hard starts. From what I have noticed in my experience they arrive well but in a short time after I open them they begin to form that precipitate and consequently flow problems. I keep them in dark drawers.The climate where I live is hot and humid. If someone knows a way to keep them in good condition for a longer time, I will gladly accept their advice, and more than today I just received 3 bottles of essri that I didn't even remember XD. By the way if you ask why I like these, it is that iron galls work so well on cheap paper but they expire quickly with me.

These are the Iron Gall inks that I curently use. I thought people new to IG inks might find it helpful to see how they look, especially compared to each other. I haven't included Scabiosa or any of Konrad's colours because I tend not to use them, and also because the colours themselves distinguish them adequately, in my view. I am still waiting on a couple of bottles of Hero 232 to arrive, and will update the image when I have had a chance to try it. All lines have thoroughly dried/cured. Paper is Rhodia Dot Pad 80 gsm. The image is a pretty good reproduction of the colours, with the exception of the difference between 4 and 5. The IG Blue #3 does have a distinctive blue hue.

I'm curious to know if anyone has had experience with using an iron gall ink such as R&K Scabiosa/Salix, KWZ, or Hero 232 in a vintage Parker Vacumatic with the transparent rings in the barrel. Does an iron gall ink stain or will the standard vinegar solution remove any residue that might accumulate in the barrel? Thanks, Cliff

Hi Folks, I have a number of Platinum short pens with both 18K and 14K gold nibs. Do you think these pens would be safe with Diamine Registrar's ink? Wondering about the ink attacking something inside the pen. These pens work with a cartridge. Cheers, GreenMountain.

Lavender Black is one of the six colors in Platinum's new Classic Line of iron gall inks. The press release for the Classic Line says that they placed emphasis on shading and the color change "with the aim to enhance the joy of using fountain pens." Each color is meant to start bright and then fade/darken to black over time.I didn't see a significant color change with Lavender; it does change, but it is slight and happens fairly quickly. I didn't realize it was happening at first because my hand was casting a fairly dark shadow over my writing & by the time the shadow was off, most of the color change had already happened. Over the next few days, there was a slight darkening, but it remains the color in the review. (I never saw the somewhat electric purple in the color swab under the bottle in the promotional image.)There is some fairly significant color variation between pens, which I am somewhat at a loss to account for. I know it looks like the MB on Tomoe River had water in it, but I had been using for a while before that; that combination just didn't show well. The very dry Vanishing Point also didn't seem to bring out the best in the ink.Overall, I found Lavender Black to be most pleasing on more absorbent paper, like Rhodia, with wetter and more flexible nibs. Writing Samples on Rhodia Dotpad Writing Samples on Tomoe River Writing Samples on Clairefontaine Triomphe

https://youtu.be/P582srfq_14 Fantastic fun chemistry! I enjoyed that Brian uses red wine as an anti-microbial putting a different spin to the term vintage ink I want what he's drinking, err.. writing

I recently went down to an antique shop and I happened to find some 'Swan' Ink bottles, made by Mabie Todd & Co in Sydney Australia. One bottle was labeled "PERMANENT BLUE BLACK" while the other was "VIVID RED". They appear to have what is most likely dried ink in them, though there is a chance that the permanent blue-black one contains iron oxide sediment at the bottom considering it is most likely an iron gall ink. Is it possible that I could receive some information on them (there doesn't appear to be much about it online), as well as whether it is safe to reconstitute the ink inside of them? Also. since there appears to be rust on the caps, how would I open the bottles without having to smash the glass or any other method that involve s the destruction of the bottle? (Or should they stay closed?)

The pen that I'll be reviewing (or discussing) today is: "The Universal Pen Conway Stewart London No.489" I have had this pen for a bit over a month now, have used it everyday, and have found it to be a reliable writer. I managed to pick this pen up after doing some antique shop hunting, and managed to get it for only $23AUD. On that note, I think it is actually much better to go vintage pen hunting in person rather than online. It's more fun that way, not knowing what you'll find, and you probably end up with a nicer price, provided you're willing to do some relatively easy restoration work. This pen was made in England, in the late 1930s, so this is when fountain pens were generally moving away from the olympic-split style flex from the earlier period, and started featuring what I see as being *stiffer* nibs (though they still can produce very admirable amounts of line variation). It is made from a hard rubber, judging from the fact that what used to be black rubber has now faded to a dark brown, and also if you were to rub your finger on a patch of the pen and smell it, it should smell like old tires. It has a no.1, 14 carat gold nib, with what I see as a medium point (there's no markings in terms of size), and produces nice amounts of line variation. It also has an ebonite feed. Note how wide and deep the feed channel is. This means that this pen is an extremely wet writer (almost a firehose). This was very typical of vintage pens, requiring larger amounts of ink to accomodate for "flex writing". Also note the cutouts on the side. This allowed for any ink that had leaked out to be held, without dripping down the nib and forming blobs on the paper. I believe this was an attempt to mimic the spoon feed design from earlier Waterman pens, which were incredibly successful, and which was mimicked by many other pen companies. It also has a sac, very typical, and was filled via a lever on the side of the barrel. Also very typical. The pen itself is quite light, and is 131mm long capped, and 161mm posted. This pen can be posted very comfortably and securely, though whether you do so is all up to personal preference. a few notes: No, this pen is not for sale. This pen has been put through its paces, and has proved it's reliability by non-stop writing for 2 hours in English Exams, and a further 1.5 hours in that afternoon. It is VERY reliable. The iron gall ink used in the pen is wholly appropriate, due to many inks of the period being iron gall inks. Do not worry about the pen's current condition; it is part of a rigorous maintenance schedule, and is flushed out every single week. In addition, the ink used is formulated to be gentler on pens, and the pen itself, containing no metal parts excluding the gold nibs, easily stands up to it.