Ink Mixing Experiment

[madzaxmax]

I live in one of the suburbs of Mumbai, and I have just about gone nuts visiting stationery shops in my area trying to find blue-black ink. I'm a noob to FPs so I don't want to shell out big bucks on ordering an expensive brand off of Ebay, etc. All I could find was Camlin Royal Blue, Permanent Black and Scarlet Red.

 

So I woke up this morning and started thinking... and thinking... and decided "Why not mix my own"?

 

I have attached the results of my experiments. All mixes are in a 1:1 ratio. Inks used are the Camlin ones stated above (available at Rs. 15, i.e., US$ 0.20 for a 60 ml bottle).

 

Please post your comments or suggestions.

 

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/134/img001vg.jpg Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[soum]

Lovely colours. I like the red+black mix that you created. How does the resulting ink flow?

 

I've mixed a few Bril inks and have good results so far. I mixed red:black in 10:1 for a magenta which works well for editing.

 

Blue black as 3:2, blue:black, both Bril.

 

I've also mixed a burgundy and a teal.

[madzaxmax]

Lovely colours. I like the red+black mix that you created. How does the resulting ink flow?

 

I've mixed a few Bril inks and have good results so far. I mixed red:black in 10:1 for a magenta which works well for editing.

 

Blue black as 3:2, blue:black, both Bril.

 

I've also mixed a burgundy and a teal.

 

Thanks!

 

The Red+Black flows quite well. I will be using it quite a bit in the coming week.

 

Please post the recipe for the Burgundy and Teal.

[UDog]

I love that blue-black. Heck, I want to buy it.

[madzaxmax]

I love that blue-black. Heck, I want to buy it.

 

I have no profit motive (not yet, anyways).

 

You can buy the blue and black ink bottles from Fountain Pen Revolution (no affiliation!) and mix it yourself in the ratio you like. I think it would cost you about US$ 15 with shipping.

 

I'd love to help you in sending the bottles directly from India (the cost per bottle is actually 25 cents). But then the shipping itself would be more than US$ 10 plus the packaging yada... yada...

 

I have re-discovered FPs after years. Currently I am planning to procure some hand-made pens made by Indian artisans. Provided I can find sufficient free time, I would love to help these small manufacturers market their products abroad directly. Again, no profit is intended. All this can happen with the support of senior FPN members, of course. But all in good time.

[soum]

I mixed Red:Blue:Black in the ratio 3:1:1 for a purple. By changing the proportions you could get a violet (little more blue) or a burgundy (little more black).

I mixed Turquoise:Black:Green in the ratio 9:2:2 for a dark-ish teal. You could remove the black for a more greenish hue. Play around with the colour by adding a hint of blue to it. For this one, I used Chelpark inks, but Bril should work really well too.

May just be a preference, but I tend to think that Bril inks seem to mix better than Chelpark.

[Uncle Red]

The mixes look great, especially the red + blue.

[madzaxmax]

The mixes look great, especially the red + blue.

 

Thanks. That recipe is in regular use.

[ishameek]

Brilliant idea. Thank you

[wastelanded]

Excellent!

[amberleadavis]

Very pretty. Thank you.

[ac12]

I like the red/black ink.

I've been thinking about a dark red.

 

But this also got me thinking about a green/black mix.

 

Thanks for getting my brain thinking about ink mixing.

[amberleadavis]

I was mixing some color two nights ago. What a mess. The result was so thick that I had to paint with it. Oh well.

[Opooh]

Too risky business for me, I never mix two or more components with unkwown composition.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Opooh

[Revolution]

@madzaxmax

 

Good job!

[ac12]

Too risky business for me, I never mix two or more components with unkwown composition.

 

I would do it for inks of the same brand where there is more likely to be compatibility, but I would not mix between different brands.

Example, I would mix Sheaffer inks with each other, or Waterman inks with each other. But I would not mix Sheaffer ink with Waterman ink.

[Revolution]

I see no harm in mixing same brand.

And Camlin is very expensive ink too.

[Revolution]

I tried to mix Red and Blue Camlin ink recently.

And got Violate and saw no problem.

But,sadly I will never get other color like Green,Turquoise Blue,Orange from these three Blue,Black,Red Camlin Inks.

[dr saleem ali]

good experimentation ! how can i have these inks here in Pakistan ?

[Thier.]

I really love your red & blue mix. Exactly the color I'm looking for since months .... I'll try to have a mix with the inks I can find here in Belgium and first use it in a cheap pen as I've heard that mixing inks could be "dangerous" for the pen because of lake of compatibility of the different components .....