Read all about it. Diamine Registrars Ink.......

[nigelg]

I've just started using Diamine registrars ink one of my daily rotation pens - a CS28 with a wet, fine-ish nib and have been fascinated with the way the ink starts off quite blue while wet and then as it dries turns a wonderful dark blue-black before your very eyes. When I tried it out in my Moleskine notebook - standard, lined 5x8 type - imagine my surprise when I noticed no feathering or bleedthrough at all. Pretty much every other pen/ink combinations I have tried will feather and/or bleedthrough to a greater or lesser extent, much as many other people have found. But not this ink.

So my questions are: have others noticed this, does this happen with other iron gall type inks, for example MB blue/black and is this perhaps a characteristic of iron gall inks?

 

Nigel

[Akumar]

I've just started using Diamine registrars ink one of my daily rotation pens - a CS28 with a wet, fine-ish nib and have been fascinated with the way the ink starts off quite blue while wet and then as it dries turns a wonderful dark blue-black before your very eyes. When I tried it out in my Moleskine notebook - standard, lined 5x8 type - imagine my surprise when I noticed no feathering or bleedthrough at all. Pretty much every other pen/ink combinations I have tried will feather and/or bleedthrough to a greater or lesser extent, much as many other people have found. But not this ink.

So my questions are: have others noticed this, does this happen with other iron gall type inks, for example MB blue/black and is this perhaps a characteristic of iron gall inks?

 

Nigel

 

 

where can one buy it?

[Lloyd]

From my experience, this is typical for iron gall inks.

[Ondina]

From my experience, this is typical for iron gall inks.

 

Iron gall based inks average behavior normally is excellent in any pen and paper I've tried.

[Ondina]

where can one buy it?

 

Mont Blanc and Lamy are widely available at Europe's Brick and mortar stores. probably the MB Boutique has it in stock where you live. R&K Salix and Scabiosa from Germany. Diamine Registrar's, in many places, including www.thewritingdesk.co.uk or its bulk version from here http://www.registrarsink.co.uk/

Herbin's Encre authentique from www.penandco.com or from fellow member Caligula.

[JakobS]

On all paper I have used, Diamine Registrar's ink does not feather or bleed through, it is one of my most well behaved inks! So I am not surprised there is no feathering or bleed through on your moleskine paper. I love how its oxides from indigo to blue black over a few days, and how not a dot of ink washes off when exposed to water, its tenacious as a waterproof ink. It's high on my favorite ink list!

Edited August 6, 2009 by JakobS

[Gehaha]

From my experience, this is typical for iron gall inks.

 

Iron gall based inks average behavior normally is excellent in any pen and paper I've tried.

 

Hello,

 

I agree! It's a bit drier than other Diamine inks in my experience.

 

Best,

Anna

[tknechtel]

It sounds wonderful, and I like the other Diamine inks I've tried. My only question: is iron gall at all harmful to pens, especially vintage ones? Thanks!

Tom

[Defacto]

where can one buy it?

 

 

At Diamine's website. Diamine ink

[hari317]

My only question: is iron gall at all harmful to pens, especially vintage ones? Thanks!

 

Tom, I have been using the Diamine Registrar's ink exclusvely in my vintage celluoid 144 without any problems.(Akumar, I bought the 100ml bottle from the Diamine website mentioned in the post above). A wonderful ink that dries black on the paper that I use. Since the ink is acidic, it is better to use it in a gold nibbed pen without any section trim rings which can corrode. I am planning to use it next in my 149.

 

Best Regards,

Hari

 

[encremental]

Just wondering what the evidence is that the ink from the www.registrarsink.co.uk is actually Diamine?

 

As a big iron gall fan, I have found the R&K and Lamy superior, in that I got a bit of clogging in my M1000 after a few days with the registrars ink.co variety, which I have never had with the others. I haven't bought any Diamine branded iron gall, so can't make a proper comparison.

 

John

[Ondina]

It sounds wonderful, and I like the other Diamine inks I've tried. My only question: is iron gall at all harmful to pens, especially vintage ones? Thanks!

Tom

 

Vintage iron gall concoctions were highly acidic. Today's ferrogalic inks are mildly acidic, as many other regular inks are, and safe for any pen, specially if the metal parts are gold. Furthermore, most blue blacks that you see coming out of those vintage pens are iron-gall inks. And even left to dry for decades, we still flush those pens, change sacs, and enjoy them in fairly good condition. And once for all: having a neutral pH is no guarantee that other components in the ink will not be even more damaging that a weak acidic -or alkalyne- ink. I have no concern whatsoever to use modern iron gall formulated inks in vintage pens, which cannot be said about some others.

[Ondina]

Just wondering what the evidence is that the ink from the www.registrarsink.co.uk is actually Diamine?

John

The only reference I can link you to are previous threads here at the forum.

[tknechtel]

Thanks, Hari and Ondina!

[encremental]

Ondina - hmmm, it's a bit like the general acceptance of the idea that MB and Lamy blue blacks are one and the same as well. I wonder about that, sometimes.

 

If I didn't have enough iron gall to see me out, I might buy more bottles and do a comprehensive test. I've looked in the comparative review index and can't see one, which given the forum's obsession with the stuff, is a bit odd! Have I missed it somewhere?

 

John

[Gehaha]

It sounds wonderful, and I like the other Diamine inks I've tried. My only question: is iron gall at all harmful to pens, especially vintage ones? Thanks!

Tom

Hello Tom,

 

No, no issues at all. I'm using Diamine, Lamy/Montblanc and Rohrer & Klingner iron gall inks and they work very well in my vintage pens.

(Most of my fountain pens in daily use are vintage).

If you will flush your FP's carefully and don't let them dry out, you should be happy with these inks.

 

Best,

Anna

[Ondina]

Ondina - hmmm, it's a bit like the general acceptance of the idea that MB and Lamy blue blacks are one and the same as well. I wonder about that, sometimes.

 

If I didn't have enough iron gall to see me out, I might buy more bottles and do a comprehensive test. I've looked in the comparative review index and can't see one, which given the forum's obsession with the stuff, is a bit odd! Have I missed it somewhere?

 

John

 

Maybe we can politely ask member that have both registrar's inks to do such a comparison.

[mstone]

Ondina - hmmm, it's a bit like the general acceptance of the idea that MB and Lamy blue blacks are one and the same as well. I wonder about that, sometimes.

 

If I didn't have enough iron gall to see me out, I might buy more bottles and do a comprehensive test. I've looked in the comparative review index and can't see one, which given the forum's obsession with the stuff, is a bit odd! Have I missed it somewhere?

The index has some gaps & the search function is useless--so it may well be that there is a comparison, but nobody can find it. :-) http://www.rmimaging.com/projects/inks/inks.html suggests that the two inks are different, but googling is tough with search terms like "montblanc lamy blue black" so it's hard to find anything definitive.

[Possum Hill]

Ondina - hmmm, it's a bit like the general acceptance of the idea that MB and Lamy blue blacks are one and the same as well. I wonder about that, sometimes.

 

If I didn't have enough iron gall to see me out, I might buy more bottles and do a comprehensive test. I've looked in the comparative review index and can't see one, which given the forum's obsession with the stuff, is a bit odd! Have I missed it somewhere?

 

John

 

Maybe we can politely ask member that have both registrar's inks to do such a comparison.

+1

 

I've been wanting to try iron gall ink for a while and would find such a comparison very interesting.

[Chris]

I have both HSS and Diamine Registrars Ink. I cannot claim to have done a comprehensive test or comparison but I use both when writing in my Allan journal (very fine paper and after one year I'm only half-way through - not my only notebook though).

 

Both have the same slightly dry/non-lubricatng feel but that is in comparison to very diffent inks and pens with medium or broad nibs. These inks are used in an old Waterman W5 with a semi-flex gold nib that is, to me, quite fine. The lines of the Allen journal are 4mm apart.

 

Both inks show through the very thin paper but neither bleed through at all. The show-through does not prevent me writing on both sides of the paper and everything remains perfectly legible.

 

When I return to pages written some weeks or months previously, I can tell which ink was used - the HSS remains darkened blue-black after going on medium blue whereas the Diamine has darkened further to almost black.

 

I therefore am inclined to say that these inks are not one and the same, but I do not know for certain and what I see may simply be batch variation.

 

Chris