Mrs. Stewarts Concentrated Liquid Bluing

[mhosea]

Probably it's safe enough, but it's like somebody told me how delicious spit-roasted grasshoppers really are. I'll file it away for potential post-apocalyptic use.

[Dioxazine]

HEY EVERYBODY LOOK AT MEEEEE!!!

I'm genuinely surprised I'm the only one here in love with this stuff, it's excellent.

Still not having a single problem, and still chugging along with it. Although I used overly-diluted ink when mixing up the blue-black ink pictured below.

Drew these while waiting for stuff to be done so I could do merchandiser stuff in a big concrete warehouse. The blue-black had been in my pen for a few days by now. I was mildly displeased to see that the blue was darker than the blue-black, and more overpowering (and it penetrated the paper more - sometimes that's a good thing, but it's not what I wanted today). I did add more undiluted prussian blue and slightly diluted Visconti Black, and mixed it into my pen, but I didn't see a huge change. Or any. But I lived.

I later realized it was better for sketching than my blue pen.

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n519/191970/FPN/1310_samsclub0001-01.jpg
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n519/191970/FPN/1310_samsclub0001-02.jpg
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n519/191970/FPN/1310_samsclub0001-03.jpg
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n519/191970/FPN/1310_samsclub0001-det1.jpg
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n519/191970/FPN/1310_samsclub0001-det2.jpg
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n519/191970/FPN/1310_samsclub0001-det3.jpg

When I get a vial open, I'll mix up some prussian blue with a magenta.

 

BTW, I stood up with a capped hero 329 in my lap. It fell capfirst onto the hard, concrete floor, but it just got its cap (sticking out - something wrong inside of it) forced on real good, but I got it back off (it still won't go on the way it should afterwards, though - so nothing's changed). Hero pens with steel caps are surprisingly sturdy! I can't even see where it hit. $1.50 pen, ladies and gentlemen.

Edited October 5, 2013 by Dioxazine

[scrivelry]

I've been looking for this locally cause it costs a lot more if you have to mail order it. Does anyone know who carries it in Northeast US?

 

T

[bbwriter]

I remember my Mother saying that Mrs. Stewarts bluing was used as an emergency ink when she was in school between 1921 and 1938. She used pen staffs at school and home. When other ink wasn't available she and her brothers and sisters would use Mrs. Stewarts bluing to do their homework until they could get the ink they regularly used.

[amper]

Sorry, I never came back to this thread for so long, but just as a quick update, I've been using the bluing in two Platinum Preppy 05 pens for the past 2.5 years, now, and my pens are both fine. I have decided to acquire a Pelikan M205 (stainless nib), and use it in that, as well. Neither of my Preppys has clogged or given me trouble in any way.

I haven't read all the links, but overall this has been fascinating reading. Especially from someone who found HS chemistry class boring to the extreme. Possibly because there were only two other girls in the class, and a lot of the guys were all stinky from having just come from gym class -- because of a scheduling conflict (they declined to sign me up for a MATH class which was required for 4 years in NYS) I had to rearrange my entire schedule and ended up with chemistry at the end of the day). And possibly because the guy who sat next to me (and thus became one of my lab partners as a result) was a redneck jerk who smoked menthol cigarettes in his spare time between classes). And possibly because the teacher was a schmuck.

So, amper, have you tried the lampblack addition yet (and just what ARE the chemical components of lampblack -- which I have actually seen made at a calligraphy workshop/demo -- other than carbon? (Lampblack, for the uninitiated, is basically soot.)
...

I passed chemistry just fine and I think I did pretty well on the NYS Regents exam -- but it was an unpleasant enough experience to bypass physics altogether as a senior, and to not take any science classes in college; I took the bare minimum of required courses as a HS senior as it was -- only a half year of social studies classes, and only the English AP class was enough to make me actually take the exam (I liked Calculus but I sucked at integrals, but since I had a high enough grade from the first half of the year to be in the top 8 in the class, plus was in the National Honor Society, I was allowed to skip taking the final -- which was good because I probably would have flunked it -- and there was no way I was taking the AP exam). Instead, I hung out as much as humanly possible in the art department (Painting was a two period class).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Ruth, I never did try the lampblack, which is indeed simply elemental carbon. I'm happy enough with the colour of the bluing as is.

Since you mention that you are from NY, you might be interested to know that I went to Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, the famous math & science specialised school. I went on to Carnegie-Mellon for Music Theatre and then Theatre Design, but I'll never lose those math & science roots.

I really wish I had the courage to try the bluing with a gold nib, but I'm not risking my vintage Pelikan M800.

With Love and Squalor,

Gemma Seymour (aka "amper")

[inkstainedruth]

Sorry, I never came back to this thread for so long, but just as a quick update, I've been using the bluing in two Platinum Preppy 05 pens for the past 2.5 years, now, and my pens are both fine. I have decided to acquire a Pelikan M205 (stainless nib), and use it in that, as well. Neither of my Preppys has clogged or given me trouble in any way.

 

 

Ruth, I never did try the lampblack, which is indeed simply elemental carbon. I'm happy enough with the colour of the bluing as is.

 

Since you mention that you are from NY, you might be interested to know that I went to Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, the famous math & science specialised school. I went on to Carnegie-Mellon for Music Theatre and then Theatre Design, but I'll never lose those math & science roots.

 

I really wish I had the courage to try the bluing with a gold nib, but I'm not risking my vintage Pelikan M800.

 

With Love and Squalor,

 

Gemma Seymour (aka "amper")

Huh.

I grew up in Northern Westchester County. And my husband went to CMU (but his degree is in Applied Math [at the time they didn't have a major in Computer Science -- that was just a grad school program]. A friend of ours did do theatre stuff there, though (not sure what her degree is, but she was a techie).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[amper]

Just a quick update. It's now been six solid years of me using Mrs. Stewart's Concentrated Liquid Bluing as my sole ink, and I have never once had a clog or a problem with it that didn't involve me attempting to write while driving and inadvertently disassembling the pen while trying to get the cap off... So, now one of my favorite skirts has a blue stain on it that is never going to come out.

I never did buy that Pelikan M205, but about 18 months ago, I discovered TWSBI, and now I own four TWSBI Ecos, three of which are filled with Mrs. Stewart's. I no longer use any other pens, but I did buy a bottle of Sailor Sakura Mori for cherry blossom season, and plan to keep a seasonal pen around in addition to my usual Prussian Blue.

[wallylynn]

Nice. Did you find out if the writing is light-fast or not?

 

I got myself a Noodler's Safety Pen which can be disassembled and scrubbed out. I was using BSB in it, but oh the spreading and feathering... (and it was already diluted too!)

[SamCapote]

I say have fun with your Mrs. Stewarts! It's your pens, and this hobby is for each of us to enjoy. You are doing the sensible thing using that pen. What fun!

[Alexandra]

I couldn't help but try this so I loaded up a Pilot Ergo Grip with my new friend Mrs. Stewart and the flow is good. I prefer water resistant inks so I did a one minute soak test and she stayed put almost as well as De Atramentis Document ink. To look at the scan there is no bleeding but the water I used had a slight bit of bluing. I used an index card for this text. There is no feathering and despite the fineness of the nib there is visible shading though slight.

[amper]

All of my old photos that I linked in my old posts are gone, because the Dropbox account where I had them hosted got wiped. Someone recently asked me for a writing sample of Mrs. Stewart's, so I made one quickly while I was in the middle of making some notes while I was playing my favorite mobile game. This was written with a TWSBI ECO with a 1.1 mm stub italic nib on a Staples house brand mini legal pad.

I've been using Mrs. Stewart's as my primary daily writing ink for over 10 years now. From 2013-2017, I used Platinum Preppys, and since 2017, TWSBI ECOs.

I decant the ink from the plastic bottle to vintage (pre-Reunification, "W. Germany") Pelikan 4001 and Mont Blanc bottles for use. The pigment does settle, eventually, so with a clear glass bottle, I can periodically shake the bottle until the pigment is in suspension once again, before filling my pens. In 10 years, I have never had a pen clog with Mrs. Stewart's, and I do not bother with cleaning my pens, unless I want to swap nibs or change colors (which has happened exactly twice since 2017, one nib swap, and one color change).

 

[carlos.q]

@amper  In an earlier post you mentioned adding gelatin. Are you now using the liquid just as it comes from the bottle or do you dilute it?

[amper]

5 hours ago, carlos.q said:

@amper  In an earlier post you mentioned adding gelatin. Are you now using the liquid just as it comes from the bottle or do you dilute it?

 

The gelatin was only for use with dip pens. For fountain pens, I use it as it comes from the bottle. Gelatin would clog a fountain pen.

[carlos.q]

Where is the “Thank You” button when you need one? 🤔

[JonSzanto]

4 hours ago, carlos.q said:

Where is the “Thank You” button when you need one? 🤔

[Sailor Kenshin]

Love the ink color!  🥰

[amper]

3 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Love the ink color!  🥰

Other than black, Prussian Blue is my favorite color. It is a brilliant blue that is nearly black in masstone. It also has the distinction of having the second smallest pigment particle size after carbon black, so it flows through fountain pens without clogging, and it was the first synthetic inorganic pigment ever discovered.

[XYZZY]

3 hours ago, amper said:

Other than black, Prussian Blue is my favorite color. It is a brilliant blue that is nearly black in masstone. It also has the distinction of having the second smallest pigment particle size after carbon black, so it flows through fountain pens without clogging, and it was the first synthetic inorganic pigment ever discovered.

"masstone" -- I have a new word; thank you!  I'm not sure if there's an antonym for this.  At first I thought "undertone", but apparently that includes other colors not visible just in the masstone?  I never thought to ask about terminology like this, but it seems relevant to fountain pen ink since FP inks nearly never achieve their masstone in ordinary use.

 

I'm curious about the source for the statement about the pigment sizes.  This statement seems too simple and unequivocal.

[txomsy]

Thanks for the picture and the recipes. It is most inspiring.

[amper]

On 10/30/2023 at 5:58 PM, XYZZY said:

I'm curious about the source for the statement about the pigment sizes.  This statement seems too simple and unequivocal.

 

I can't remember where I got that information off the top of my head, but I found it while researching pigment particle sizes in the hopes that I could find other pigments that would be usable in fountain pens.

 

I used to be the purchasing manager for a fine artists' material firm, and one of the things I've done over the years is study quite a bit about the properties of artists' materials.