Homemade Ink!

[foxtail1]

All of those strange chemicals in a fountain pen? 0_o And where to obtain them...

 

Ah, but in the 1960-1970s they were in the chemistry sets used by all science geeky kids.

 

Uh, actually, I'm still a science geek, and have many of those chemicals on the shelf in my lab.

[weemeng]

this is most interesting, food colouring as ink.

can pls let us know how's the fade resistance of the ink?

thx!

[watch_art]

well, it's not water proof at all if that's what you mean. i don't know about how long it will last. i've only used it a few days. guess i could put a sample up in the window against some other inks...

 

see how the sun treats it.

[gro]

I have a bottle of gum arabic, I bought it to mix up my own spotting colour for spotting traditional black and white photo prints. I've just read up on it on wikipedia and it seems to be beneficial to add to a homemade ink, I'm gonna try this. Will be back with the result.

Edited July 14, 2010 by gro

[watch_art]

oooh very cool. can't wait to hear. maybe that makes it slightly more water proof?

[Biber]

Moderator: maybe this thread should be pinned as a success story?

 

b

[smk]

I have a bottle of gum arabic, I bought it to mix up my own spotting colour for spotting traditional black and white photo prints. I've just read up on it on wikipedia and it seems to be beneficial to add to a homemade ink, I'm gonna try this. Will be back with the result.

 

I am far from an expert in the subject but my understanding is that gum arabic is used for pigment inks where tiny particles of pigment need to be suspended in the ink to make it uniform. I'm not sure if water soluble dyes will benefit from the addition of gum arabic in the solution.

 

Also, you might want to conduct some research on the suitability of using "gum arabic'ed" ink in fountain pens. Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can chime in.

 

Salman K.

[gro]

I didn't have any food colourings at home, so I gave tea a try. Boiled some really strong tea, reduced it, filtered it, mixed it with some photo-flo and gum arabic. Result! It worked very well with a dip pen (but then again, what doesn't?), not so good in a fountain pen (hero 329), to thin and unsaturated line. It was actually quite water resistant. More so than Quink red. No idea if this was because of the gum arabic or the tea pigment. I named it 'Camel Gold', since the tea was called camel tea, some Arabic label. The colour was a vibrant shading golden brown, although a bit low on the saturation side of things. So, how to get to work better with a FP? Tried reducing it more, to get it more saturated. Well, don't reduce stuff with gum arabic in it, okay kids, it just doesn't work. Became a syrupy slimey concoction. It did still, however, work in a dip pen, and gave a more saturated feeling. But leaving the pen for a few minutes made a mess out of the nib. Had to give it a rinse in dish washing fluid mix. It came of really easily, although it initially looked as it might have needed a jack hammer to get it clean.

 

So what does this teach us? Nothing really, just had a fun time in my kitchen! Since gum arabic is really water soluble it shouldn't be an issue in a fountain pen. But as the former person wrote, it is probably not beneficial in a dye based ink (such as food colour based ones), but might be beneficial (or crucial) in pigment based inks (such as tea and coffee based ones).

 

Happy cooking!

[watch_art]

try it again w/o the gum arabic to see how it would work. i don't see why you couldn't use that safely in your fountain pens. and if you made it strong enough the color should be saturated enough. you know, like 30 or 40 teabags to a quart of water?

[etoyoc]

I used to have students test caffeine concentration in tea using an HPLC. Even thought the students were using tea bags, there are small micro particles in the water that had to be removed with a microfilter or they would ruin the HPLC column. I would be concerned about the same particles causing problems over time with the feed.

[USMCMom]

oooh very cool. can't wait to hear. maybe that makes it slightly more water proof?

 

Yes, very cool! I'm waiting too .....

[gro]

try it again w/o the gum arabic to see how it would work. i don't see why you couldn't use that safely in your fountain pens. and if you made it strong enough the color should be saturated enough. you know, like 30 or 40 teabags to a quart of water?

 

I used a full size 12 fist of tea leaves in about a pint of water. And then boiled it down to around 50 ml. So it was pretty dark. Think very very strong espresso. But tea. Reminds me of Lincoln, "if this is coffee please bring me some tea but if this is tea please bring me some coffee".

 

I'm a bistro press kind of guy, so I didn't have any coffee filters, used a few layers of kitchen wipes in a funnel. Better than a sieve. It was a lot of particles in the "ink" after filtering, so I wouldn't use it long term in a fountain pen no, but it wouldn't be the gum arabic that would have been the problem if it clogged.

 

I'm heading for a rock festival in a few hours, so I won't have any time to experiment until sunday. It would be fun to try some serious mixing. You know, like breaking down a real ink recipe into it's functional components. Since I have a dark room, I have some basic chemistry equipment, and some chemicals. Like if I needed buffering to any specific pH or whatever, or if I needed a base or an acid there would probably be something in there that could be used. It would be fun to make real useful waterproof inks in a few colours. Buying ink sure is fun, but if I had to buy all of the colours I want, I would have a lot of explanation to do to SWMBO. I have looked through the pinned ink recipe thread here in inky thoughts, and I really find it a bit disappointing. Just recipes for mixing bought ink. That's like if cooking would be all about mixing ready meals, blending tv-dinners. Or maybe it's just too damn hard, or maybe the dyes themselves are to expensive and too hard to come by to make it worth while. Forgive my ranting.

 

I hope this thread will continue to be optimistic and full of experimentation, I will try to contribute more when I get back home.

[USMCMom]

try it again w/o the gum arabic to see how it would work. i don't see why you couldn't use that safely in your fountain pens. and if you made it strong enough the color should be saturated enough. you know, like 30 or 40 teabags to a quart of water?

 

I used a full size 12 fist of tea leaves in about a pint of water. And then boiled it down to around 50 ml. So it was pretty dark. Think very very strong espresso. But tea. Reminds me of Lincoln, "if this is coffee please bring me some tea but if this is tea please bring me some coffee".

 

I'm a bistro press kind of guy, so I didn't have any coffee filters, used a few layers of kitchen wipes in a funnel. Better than a sieve. It was a lot of particles in the "ink" after filtering, so I wouldn't use it long term in a fountain pen no, but it wouldn't be the gum arabic that would have been the problem if it clogged.

 

I'm heading for a rock festival in a few hours, so I won't have any time to experiment until sunday. It would be fun to try some serious mixing. You know, like breaking down a real ink recipe into it's functional components. Since I have a dark room, I have some basic chemistry equipment, and some chemicals. Like if I needed buffering to any specific pH or whatever, or if I needed a base or an acid there would probably be something in there that could be used. It would be fun to make real useful waterproof inks in a few colours. Buying ink sure is fun, but if I had to buy all of the colours I want, I would have a lot of explanation to do to SWMBO. I have looked through the pinned ink recipe thread here in inky thoughts, and I really find it a bit disappointing. Just recipes for mixing bought ink. That's like if cooking would be all about mixing ready meals, blending tv-dinners. Or maybe it's just too damn hard, or maybe the dyes themselves are to expensive and too hard to come by to make it worth while. Forgive my ranting.

 

I hope this thread will continue to be optimistic and full of experimentation, I will try to contribute more when I get back home.

 

Have fun at the concert. If you have an old knee high or old hos (stocking type), you can use that as a filter. I've used paper towels, knee highs ... anything that liquid would go thru, that had tee-niney holes.

[dcwaites]

If it helps, you may want to look at the discussion on this page and subsequent posts. I made a permanent ink, a relative of iron-gall, using tea leaves, steel wool and cleaning vinegar.

[Biber]

watch_art - can you post an update on how your mome made food coloring ink has stood up? Any lasting repercussions?

[ihtzazqamar]

I just stumbled upon this thread and realized that I am not alone. Last week, I put some instant coffee in water, added some gum and made myself a coffee colored ink for dip pen use. Shades and smells great. Thought I would share.

 

 

regards

Ihtzaz

[Ipno Tizer]

what could i add to the 'ink' to keep it from molding?? something from the kitchen maybe?

I've got some Vivapen black ink cartridges and the bag they're in stinks of TCP, so you could try that. I's related to phenol which is the traditional ink preservative.

 

Chris B.

 

 

[fiberdrunk]

Wow, that's really pretty! Gorgeous shading, too!

 

I just stumbled upon this thread and realized that I am not alone. Last week, I put some instant coffee in water, added some gum and made myself a coffee colored ink for dip pen use. Shades and smells great. Thought I would share.

 

 

regards

Ihtzaz

[Uncle Red]

And much cheaper than buying De Atramentis

[danieljndube]

In re: potential mold. A little salt, or perhaps chitosan capsules that are sold as dietary supplements. Chitosan is said to be the active ingredient in 'Clear Shell Mold and Mildew Inhibitor' by Zep.

 

Keep us posted on your ink developments.

 

Daniel, Maine