Ink mixes that didn't work

[amberleadavis]

Yes, comparatively, NAV is a tad dry and it doesn't feather. Also, you can make one of those rich blues.

[amberleadavis]

BTW, have I ever mentioned that QSH should not be mixed with anything?

[SahilGulati]

Baystate Blue and Quink Black

 

It just...stops flowing, The colour is inconsistent and seems a little gooey.

But I liked the Blue-Black that I got initially.

[dcwaites]

Baystate Blue and Quink Black

 

It just...stops flowing, The colour is inconsistent and seems a little gooey.

But I liked the Blue-Black that I got initially.

 

Nathan Tardif does say not to blend any of the Baystate inks with anything but each other.

[Miz Black Crow]

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium + Old Manhattan Blackest Black produced sludge in the sample vial after a few weeks. I was getting what I thought was nib crud, which isn't unheard of with NLE, but when I went to refill...

 

Don't worry, the pen's okay. I gave it a good clean and all's well. (Also, the mix failing has a happy ending; I had forgotten just how beautiful NLE is all by itself. I refilled with the pure stuff, and it made me extremely happy--it's such a lovely color that I forget why I mixed it in the first place!)

[Brian1]

A long time ago I mixed a sample vial's worth of 50/50 1670 Blue Ocean and Bad Blue Heron. Initially the mix seemed to work well. To my eyes the 1670 had a purplish tinge and the Bad Blue Heron was greenish. Mixing the two resulted in an ink which looks much more true blue in color and also I found that the mix was more water resistant than either ink separately. I used it for a while and then eventually mixed a half bottle of the mix. It sat on the shelf for about a year unused and yesterday I filled a pen and found the ink had become very dry. Looking at the bottle later I noticed that it had produced sediment. So, short term the mix worked but longer term (somewhere between a month and a year) it is not stable.

[BayesianPrior]

Perhaps this is already well documented, and if so, I only hope this post can help some poor soul like me who didn't already know.

 

I have a bottle of the washed out grey variety of Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black. It is so very well behaved...and such a dreadful colour. So I decided to mix it with some Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black.

 

Don't do it.

 

A month later, and after flushing my Lamy Studio section for a good ten minutes, it is still expelling black 'ink dandruff'. It is now soaking in a jam jar (full of water, not jam, otherwise the black particles may be strawberry pips!) and continues to cough up flakes of matter. The pen was writing well, so I think I've dodged a clog. Lesson learnt.

[amberleadavis]

Thank you for the warning.

[justaninker]

Bad Blue Heron and Pilot Namiki Blue cartridge shouldn't be mixed. I got lazy and stuck on the cartridge in a pen that used to have BBH, without flushing. 30min later it became completely clogged. Flushing produced numerous ink "dandruff". After 20 bulb syringe flushes the feed was still 50% clogged. I may try ammonia next, but the bottom line is, for the love of pens, don't mix them.

[Grafeus]

Trying to find a way to darken Pilot Blue I added a little Diamine Oxford Blue. The resultant concoction did darken but also had different viscocity (I guess). It seemed as if it was a stickier version of either component. I quickly flushed and washed the pen and placed the ink bottles far apart on either side of my drawer 😆

[dcwaites]

Trying to find a way to darken Pilot Blue I added a little Diamine Oxford Blue. The resultant concoction did darken but also had different viscocity (I guess). It seemed as if it was a stickier version of either component. I quickly flushed and washed the pen and placed the ink bottles far apart on either side of my drawer

 

I had the same problem, so I mixed some Pilot Blue, with Pilot Blue-Black. The resulting colour is reasonably well-behaved, is mostly waterproof and permanent (there is a small blue component in the Blue-Black that is washable), and is a nice colour, intermediate between the two original inks.

[Grafeus]

 

I had the same problem, so I mixed some Pilot Blue, with Pilot Blue-Black. The resulting colour is reasonably well-behaved, is mostly waterproof and permanent (there is a small blue component in the Blue-Black that is washable), and is a nice colour, intermediate between the two original inks.

 

Thank you for the tip, definitely sounds promising. I have a bottle of Pilot Blue Black and I 'll try your recipe.

 

BTW a mix of Pilot Blue + Pilot Black I tried earlier gave me a definite Blue Black. What I want, I guess, is to still get a Blue which is, however, darker/contrastier than regular Pilot Blue.

[CEHL515]

I've tried mixing De Atramentis document inks into other inks I whose shading I like better (Iroshizuku, J. Herbin) to add some water resistance (just in case), but they seem to cause flecks to precipitate out. I imagine that's because the document inks are pigmented. Have others experimented in this vein? I also got some of the document ink thinner, so this may help.

[NotPiffany]

A 1:1 mix of Noodler's Polar Black and Noodler's North African Violet I made last night has produced sediment that's sticking to the sides of the plastic sample vial. I'm not putting it in a pen, obviously.

[amberleadavis]

That's a bummer, but I've heard you can add NAV to HOD and get a great ink. The VMail series has warnings about not mixing them with non VMail inks. If you want an amazing blue, mix NAV with Midway Blue.

[dcwaites]

That's a bummer, but I've heard you can add NAV to HOD and get a great ink. The VMail series has warnings about not mixing them with non VMail inks. If you want an amazing blue, mix NAV with Midway Blue.

 

And here I'm thinking I have enough blues, and I don't need another VMail ink. And in one fell swoop, you have destroyed my illusions. And I have just found out that Robert Oster has some new blues, that seem to be just what I've been looking for.

You Inky Enabler you...

 

Wishing you and yours an inky fingered Christmas :D

[Chrissy]

I've tried mixing De Atramentis document inks into other inks I whose shading I like better (Iroshizuku, J. Herbin) to add some water resistance (just in case), but they seem to cause flecks to precipitate out. I imagine that's because the document inks are pigmented. Have others experimented in this vein? I also got some of the document ink thinner, so this may help.

 

De Atramentis document inks can be mixed together, but not with other water/dye based inks. They have the special thinner because they are pigmented inks that can't be thinned by adding water like water & dye based inks can. So none of them will mix with P.I. or J.Herbin inks or any other brands.

[Martolod]

Anyone have advice on this? I mixed four different Birmingam ink samples with a few mls of red J Herbin ink. Their names are lost to me but it smells like petrol and beads up in the sample vial. ~~ it still writes though. Would adding water help or better not to use it at all?

[amberleadavis]

Try mixing a little in a vial. (NOT your whole bottle)

[Flaxmoore]

I've had terrible luck with Noodler's of any form in a mix. I tried to make a more durable blue-black with Pilot Blue and HoD, became jello basically immediately. Anything with BSB, obviously. Dregs of a bottle of 54th with plain Skrip blue gets mushy.

 

It's why my dregs bottle has a rule- no Noodler's at all, nothing iron-gall, no reds or greens. I keep a perpetual stock of gray/blue/black on hand with that precaution.