Ink Dilution Recipes

[mrloco]

I commented on diluting Hero ink here. You can't get much cheaper than that -- bottle of ink cost roughly 2.50 and after adding water you are looking at maybe $1.75/60ml for a nice gray-ish blue-black.

 

I reviewed Williamsburg powdered ink here - also very inexpensive though I'd hesitate to use a powdered ink in a good pen. Been using both the blue and red mixtures in my inexpensive pens for a long time now without problem.

 

My friend bluemagister recommended (and I tried and concur) a 3:1 Bad Belted Kinfisher and Water.

 

Finally, I have seen many posts about diluting Noodler's Bulletproof Black and I've done so. Diluted bbb (20% h20) still leaves a very dark line and is less likely to be a hard-starter in a fine pen than undiluted.

[Dr Cardinal]

Results of Whaleman's Sepia and distilled H20 2:1 dilution:

 

Great so far! Was a bit skeptical as it still skipped a bit at first. Generally would start writing well after that. I put it in a Sheaffer's Balance with a fine point #3 nib with no flex at all (golden brown striated, so I thought that would be appropriate). It sat all weekend long and, to my suprise, started writing right away! Didn't expect that at all. The ink is a dark grey-brown with slight purple tones, just like most others have described. Shades a bit and dries fairly quickly for a saturated Noodler's ink. Overall, I'm liking it so far and will continue to write with it until this pen is empty. I will then try it in a medium or broad point. Thumbs up to the 2:1 dilution so far!

 

--Phil

[encephalartos]

Results of Whaleman's Sepia and distilled H20 2:1 dilution:

 

Great so far! Was a bit skeptical as it still skipped a bit at first. Generally would start writing well after that. I put it in a Sheaffer's Balance with a fine point #3 nib with no flex at all (golden brown striated, so I thought that would be appropriate). It sat all weekend long and, to my suprise, started writing right away! Didn't expect that at all. The ink is a dark grey-brown with slight purple tones, just like most others have described. Shades a bit and dries fairly quickly for a saturated Noodler's ink. Overall, I'm liking it so far and will continue to write with it until this pen is empty. I will then try it in a medium or broad point. Thumbs up to the 2:1 dilution so far!

 

--Phil

 

That sounds good. My bottle just arrived and I've noticed there was no shading at all as it comes straight from the bottle.

 

Here's a recipe I've tried for thinning out Noodler's Rachmaninoff. (Russian HOT PINK)

1 part distilled water to 1 part ink

 

Normally, I do this by adding each of the ingredients to the convert with a syringe,

water first. Then clean the syringe by filling and emptying about 3-4 times with tap water. Most of the water can be removed from the syringe by pulling the plunger up when it's empty and pushing out the last traces of water.

 

The tap water around here is VERY mineral laden. If you let a drop dry on a counter, it leaves a white ring (probably calcium and magnesium compounds). Besides that are whatever chemicals are added to make it allegedly safe for human consumption.

 

I got a couple of the little plastic lab-type bottles from container store to keep some distilled water in for diluting. (The gallon jugs it comes in are more than a lifetime supply, I think.)

[xxloverxx]

Yesterday I diluted Quink blue at around 1:1 (well, I had half a bottle left and filled it up with boiled water) in the hopes that it would stop that thing that happens with dip pens where all the ink runs off the nib and onto the paper, making a huge mess. Not sure if it helped or not…

[Dr Cardinal]

A follow up on Whaleman's Sepia dilution: works great if you use the pen daily. However that's not how I use my pens. After sitting for about 5 days in a thoroughly flushed OS Balance the WS had basically solidified in the feed. A good soak cleaned it without me having to take it apart. Ive now shelved it and will probably sell it to someone who doesn't mind the higher maintenance. Cacao du Bresil has been a nice well behaved substitute so far. Please understand, this is not a knock on Noodler's. I've had Zhivago in a Pelikan M400 for several months without drying a bit. I've let it go just to see how long I can keep it going with sparse use!

[TMA]

I have been experimenting with Private Reserve American Blue and DC Supershow Blue as replacements for some old Parker Penman Sapphire I still have.

 

The PR ink colours are close to Sapphire, but the inks are richer, and bleed and feather a little more.

 

I decided to try simple dilution. 20% water was too much, the inks turned into more of a sky blue. However 10% water in PR DC Supershow Blue is just about right. The colour is almost identical in the same pens, and the behaviour is almost identical. The blended Supershow is a tiny bit lighter, indicating that there is a little bit too much water, and feathers a tiny bit more, indicating that there is a little bit too little water. Consequently 10% water seems to be a good compromise.

 

The differences can only be seen under close examination with a loupe. With the naked eye, both the colours and feathering/bleeding performance are identical.

 

Some on this board have said that the DC Supershow Blue seems to vary from year to year. In that case, use the American Blue, which seems to be a little more constant.

 

It is absolutely essential that you compare results by putting the inks in the same fountain pen.

[xxloverxx]

A follow up on Whaleman's Sepia dilution: works great if you use the pen daily. However that's not how I use my pens. After sitting for about 5 days in a thoroughly flushed OS Balance the WS had basically solidified in the feed. A good soak cleaned it without me having to take it apart. Ive now shelved it and will probably sell it to someone who doesn't mind the higher maintenance. Cacao du Bresil has been a nice well behaved substitute so far. Please understand, this is not a knock on Noodler's. I've had Zhivago in a Pelikan M400 for several months without drying a bit. I've let it go just to see how long I can keep it going with sparse use!

 

Why didn't it solidify in the bottle?

[Dr Cardinal]

 

Why didn't it solidify in the bottle?

 

Not sure. The bottle is sealed, the fountain pen cap, of course, has vents and maybe it was that. Maybe there were trace amounts of ink still in the feed, but I doubt that, as I flush my pens thoroughly and use the Ron Zorn salad spinner centrifuge. Whatever the reason, I'm not using that ink anymore as I've never had any other ink do that to me, except for a certain highly saturated famous bright blue ink that has gotten a lot of mention on these boards! That, however, was before I really flushed my pens out thoroughly and I will take responsibility for that "feed clogging" as I'm sure it mixed with something incompatible.

[Mountolive]

so no one sells ink that is more concentrated, to save of shipping? flakes would be wonderful, you add water, and only use what you need. bulk discount, anyone?

 

I recently bought some walnut ink crystals from John Neal Booksellers. You can find them here: http://www.johnnealbooks.com/prod_detail_list/9/2. The ink it makes is rather nice, too, but it only comes in brown.

 

One caveat: I've only used this ink with dip pens, and although I would guess that it is fountain pen safe I'm not positive of that.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Mountolive

[Hohn]

I have been regularly diluting my Noodler's inks 2 ink : 1 distilled water. I find that this helps shorten the drying time without compromising a lot of the color saturation. An added bonus is that it makes my bottle of Noodler's last twice a long.

It only makes the bottle last 1.5 times as long.

 

I see I'm not the only pedantic one on FPN

 

 

"Give a hoot; don't dilute". Or something like that....

 

JH

[Sailor Kenshin]

The Untouchable Elites of our WA warned us we were going to be inflicted with brown water.

 

This coincided with me needing to clean out a pen which was loaded with some thick PR blue, and the cart was all but empty. But I had to put it off until the water was out of danger.

 

Instead, I pipetted into the cart almost a full load of bottled water, resulting in like 10 percent ink, 90 percent water.

 

It resulted in a nice surprise: a light, bright, perfectly legible blue along the lines of Waterman FL Blue.

 

Thanks, WA Overlords!

[chris.hale]

I decided to give this a try last night after I bought some Oxford notebooks and found that BSB took so long to dry on the Optik paper that I was smudging it. (LH over-writer) I tried a 2:1 ink to water mix and even though there is virtually no difference in the colour, it dries a lot faster. So much so, that I am able to write in my notebook with no smudging.

[The Good Captain]

I have dilluted Diamine Majestic Blue to 80%.

Since I have dilluted the ink it does no longer clogg my pens.

 

 

I have Diamine Majestic Blue at 50% for my wetter pens.

 

 

As I understand it, diluting some inks can make them a bit drier and less prone to smearing. This is a problem I have with Majestic. Also, my memory of school chemistry classes is rather sketchy after 40 years so con someone explain these two dilutions. OK, the second one is easy; half and half! It's the first one that just confuses me a little.

Is there a simple guide to dilution terminology in this forum that I've missed?

Perhaps I should just use more tonic water with it after all.

[fraafreg]

I have dilluted Diamine Majestic Blue to 80%.

Since I have dilluted the ink it does no longer clogg my pens.

 

 

I have Diamine Majestic Blue at 50% for my wetter pens.

 

 

As I understand it, diluting some inks can make them a bit drier and less prone to smearing. This is a problem I have with Majestic. Also, my memory of school chemistry classes is rather sketchy after 40 years so con someone explain these two dilutions. OK, the second one is easy; half and half! It's the first one that just confuses me a little.

Is there a simple guide to dilution terminology in this forum that I've missed?

Perhaps I should just use more tonic water with it after all.

 

If 80% refers to the ink component then it should be 4 parts ink to 1 part water. 4/5*100 = 80%

50% is 1 part ink to 1 part water.

[The Good Captain]

I have dilluted Diamine Majestic Blue to 80%.

Since I have dilluted the ink it does no longer clogg my pens.

 

 

I have Diamine Majestic Blue at 50% for my wetter pens.

 

 

As I understand it, diluting some inks can make them a bit drier and less prone to smearing. This is a problem I have with Majestic. Also, my memory of school chemistry classes is rather sketchy after 40 years so con someone explain these two dilutions. OK, the second one is easy; half and half! It's the first one that just confuses me a little.

Is there a simple guide to dilution terminology in this forum that I've missed?

Perhaps I should just use more tonic water with it after all.

 

If 80% refers to the ink component then it should be 4 parts ink to 1 part water. 4/5*100 = 80%

50% is 1 part ink to 1 part water.

That's great - thanks very much. Time to get out the syringe!

[mrt77]

My bottle of Noodlers Navy always has had trouble flowing, no matter what pen I use it in. It's one of my favorite colors, but difficult to use. Anybody have a good water to ink ratio for increasing the flow?

[Bill Wood]

As suggested on the Richard Binder website - I'm going to try some Photo Flow to some PR inks. My recollection is that Photo flow is the answer to a distilled water, and mild detergent mixture. Although I'm certain water and detergent can be used from time to time. I'm going to dilute PR Black Magic Blue for starters. I'll post here again with my results.

[Anne S. Gray]

Does anyone have recommendations for Private Reserve Ebony Purple? I love the shading in the PR Ebony Green and Ebony Blue, but the Ebony Purple doesn't have the same shading.

 

I've been playing with diluting the Ebony Purple and adding some DC Supershow violet, so far I haven't been able to get much shading from this ink, even when using stub nib.

[Dimitrios_P]

I do dilute only when I want to have a better brown color.

I use Diamine Chocolate Brown and sometimes I want to make the deep/rich color a little lighter with the method of: 5 parts ink and 1 water.

 

I made that choice because I wanted just a touch of lighter tone.

[edbsbc]

Very Informative topic for a Newbie.

Thanks guys