Diamine Registrar's Ink (And Other Modern Iron-Galls)

[Sandy1]

 

Thanks You might not know everything, but you do seem to have a lot of experience with inks, and ESSRI / Iron Gall. There are other members here too, like Pharmacist, who actually makes his/her own inks, and someone called Pterodactylus who seems to use IG inks a lot.

 

I've been comparing posts between quite a lot people, and they are just too far apart to draw any definite conclusions. You say, flush every week. Others say, just don't let the ink dry. Flushing after a few refills (up to three months of refilling, some say) will be fine. Everybody seems to have a different opinion.

 

I'll stick to one week, at least in the beginning.

 

The one thing I see that you contradict, and which surprised me, is using dish washing detergent; it's recommended... like... everywhere, also on FPN. Luke-warm water with a drop of dish washing detergent seems to be the nr. 1 recommendation to flush a pen. Some people even recommend to put a drop into dry ink to make it wetter. What could be in it, causing you to recommend to avoid it?

 

=====

 

With regard to the sediment, I assume it will sink to the bottom and stay there. This will be the setup:

 

- Split up the 110ml ESSRI bottle into 4 bottles of 27.50ml, marked 1 through 4. (I hope this will create four very thin layers of sediment, instead of one huge one. I hope it will make decanting ink easier.)

- Fill from Bottle 1, topping that one up using Bottle 2, then 3, then 4, if the nib doesn't submerge anymore.

- Before topping up Bottle 1, move the ink to a new bottle making that one the 'new 1', leaving a thin layer in the 'old 1', where all the sediment is. Clean that one out. Also, leave a thin layer in Bottle 2, 3 and 4 when drawing ink to top off Bottle 1.

 

Moving the ink will be done by using a decontaminated syringe.

 

With regard to taking care of the pens:

 

- Ink only one fountain pen at a time.

- After filling, wipe the nib, and feed. Wipe the section with a damp paper towel until no ink comes off. I can't really believe that the ink leaves stuff that damages the pen even after it was wiped off.

- Write until empty, or until one week passes after last fill, even if not empty.

- Flush the pen and convertor liberally, using luke-warm water. (Maybe, with 10% white vinegar in it, like Pharmacist suggests, when using IG?)

- Put pen in storage, and pick up next pen (I have three now; at the end of the week, at least).

 

I'm not concerned with the loss of ink (wipe-away, flushing the convertor, garbage to avoid sediment); a bottle of 110ml should easily last me for about six to eight months; probably longer.

 

Hi,

 

I've been using I-G inks for years with nary a problem, which gives me a large comfort zone, but I do not mistake I-G inks for simple aniline dye inks. My first bottle of I-G ink came bundled with an MB149, so I was very careful not to put that pen in peril, especially as it was a gift.

 

Ah, err, when I mentioned that you'll be OK flushing every week or so does not mean that a person cannot go for much longer periods if the I-G ink is matched to a suitable pen and appropriate steps are taken to avoid dry out and ink stagnation/concentration. I use the [extreme] example of my trial with the Plumix: over two years without maintenance/cleansing. But that pen is used regularly and isn't left sitting around uncapped; the pen has a simple collector+feed, the reservoir has a small capacity which needs to be filled about once a month (flushing with fresh ink); and the cap forms an extremely tight seal and there's little headroom in the cap so the ink doesn't dry out when at rest.

I would certainly not suggest that such trials be taken as a green light to keep I-G ink in a pen for years on end - especially as the trial is ongoing.

 

One reason I do not support long-term use of washing-up liquid is that the ingredients and potency can vary tremendously. Other reasons have to do with the inclusion of 'grease cutters' which may be quite aggressive, especially for vintage/sac/diaphragm pens; and the persistent 'finishing agents' that give a spot-free shiny appearance can make for problems with ink flow by altering the ink chemistry (contamination) and/or the surface properties (wet-ability) of the nib, feed & collector. (1)

 

I rather doubt an acetic acid rinse will be needed after one week. When you start the clean-up regimen, flush the full-strength ink from the pen by using the converter, draw water into the pen by using the converter, then empty that into a plain white saucer/plate to check for wee bits - just in case.

 

It seems your steps for dealing with the sediment and pen handling have low exposure to risks that could cause problems with the ink or the pens.

 

Can you tell that I prefer to err on the side of caution to enable inky enjoyment?

 

Bye,

S1

 

__ __

1) MSDS for Ultra Dawn : http://www.pg.com/productsafety/msds/fabric_and_homecare/dishwashing_products/Ultra_Dawn_MSDS_Jan_2014.pdf

Edited May 20, 2014 by Sandy1

[FloatingFountain]

 

Hi,

....

I would certainly not suggest that such trials be taken as a green light to keep I-G ink in a pen for years on end - especially as the trial is ongoing.

 

 

I won't; in the beginning, I'll be sticking to the one week flushing regimen.

 

 

One reason I do not support long-term use of washing-up liquid is that the ingredients and potency can vary tremendously. Other reasons have to do with the inclusion of 'grease cutters' which may be quite aggressive, especially for vintage/sac/diaphragm pens; and the persistent 'finishing agents' that give a spot-free shiny appearance can make for problems with ink flow by altering the ink chemistry (contamination) and/or the surface properties (wet-ability) of the nib, feed & collector.

 

Hm. I can understand, but find it strange that nearly everyone recommends cleaning a pen that way.

 

Maybe it would be good to switch from tap water to distilled water, even though I'm in the 'softest' part of the Netherlands. There is almost no calcium or other stuff in the tap water here. (I actually have German water. I'm so close to the border that my kitchen and living room are almost in different countries.... if I trip when walking out of my front door, I'll probably come down in Germany.)

 

 

 

I rather doubt an acetic acid rinse will be needed after one week. When you start the clean-up regimen and have flushed any remaining ink from the pen, draw water into the pen through the converter, then empty that into a plain white saucer/plate to check for wee bits - just in case.

 

 

According to Wikipedia, vinegar contains about 8% acetic acid. I assume that this is the reason why Pharmacist recommends to use a 10% to 20% white vinegar solution to rinse the pen.

 

Now... what 20%?

 

Take 5 parts of water, and 20% (1 part) of vinegar; this solution will actually have 20/120*100=16.67% vinegar. Or, take 4 parts of water, and 1 part vinegar. That solution will be 20% vinegar.

 

OKOK, they're both in the 10%-20% range....

 

 

Can you tell that I prefer to err on the side of caution?

 

 

Uh, yeah. Can you tell that I'm trying to make things too permanent and long-lasting?

 

I already did so for my music, ebooks, and pictures (saving them in as lossless a format as possible) and even secured a backup computer for my current one, running Windows 7, stowing away some activated images, so I can run my 1992 software and games in 2031 should I want to. (It's the reason why I refuse to buy activating software, except for Windows itself, because I need that.)

 

Maybe I'm overdoing the planning.

 

My fountain pens are for daily use. I don't mistreat them, but I also don't intend and don't want to excessively baby them. If the iron gall ink will destroy them in a time span of like 100 or even 50 years of continuous use, I don't really mind, but I'd prefer not to have my Duofold fall apart in the next five years because of the use of iron gall ink. That's a bit much.

 

Then again, the pens from the 20's and 30's were as expensive as a Duofold is now (relatively speaking), and iron gall inks were normal back then, and much stronger than they are now. Many of those pens are still around in great shape, almost 100 years later. I'm not even taking into account that the materials used today are probably much better.

Edited May 20, 2014 by FloatingFountain

[FloatingFountain]

 

I rather doubt an acetic acid rinse will be needed after one week. When you start the clean-up regimen, flush the full-strength ink from the pen by using the converter, draw water into the pen by using the converter, then empty that into a plain white saucer/plate to check for wee bits - just in case.

 

 

That is what I normally do. However, I don't flush using the convertor. I have a syringe onto which I mounted an empty cartridge (one for each pen brand) , so I can do a 'power flush.' Works the same as using the convertor, but with a 10ml syringe instead. A bulb syringe also works if you can make it fit.

 

Do you mean that at the end, I should flush with a small amount of water, and that I could actually SEE residue or sediment or something, if I deposit it into a white dish?

 

 

It seems your steps for dealing with the sediment and pen handling have low exposure to risks that could cause problems with the ink or the pens.

 

I sure hope so.

 

Maybe I, and many others, are overhtinking the use of iron gall ink. Maybe, it indeed *IS* enough to just maintain a disciplined cleaning regimen and be done with it.

 

Thanks for all the information. I'll await the ESSRI, and the first pen I'll load is my Sapporo. That one seems to be the perfect pen to test with: it can be dismantled down to its components by just unscrewing (the Sonnet can, too), it does not have a trim ring on the bottom of the section, and has a 14K gold nib.

Edited May 20, 2014 by FloatingFountain

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

A Plan is a good thing to have, though I've found that reality doesn't always cooperate, so things will change along the way. Sometimes that's progress, other times not so much. So long as you take steps to compensate for deviations from the Plan the goal of inky enjoyment is well within range.

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

Bye,

S1

[inkstainedruth]

One thing that I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned yet: iron gall inks tend to be on the dry side, so they do well in wetter pens. I have a firehose of a Parker Vector, and IG inks tame that tendency. The fact that it's also a c/c filler makes it a bit easier to clean when switching to another ink, *especially* a non-IG one, because IIRC they are more acidic than non-IG ones.

And yes -- you *do* want to do a vinegar solution rinse before using an ammonia solution rinse (with distilled water in between). Okay, it sounds as if you maybe don't have super hard water -- I do, and I really am much more concerned about those minerals in my water clogging up my feed than I do with any modern formulation IG ink (and I tend to be fairly OCD about flushing). As with any ink, don't let the pen sit for weeks on end without using it. You may want to flush (at least with water) between fills even if you're going to be using the same ink again -- but then someone started a thread awhile back where they were going to experiment with a cheap Esterbrook and just refill when needed without bothering to flush between fills. Don't know if that experiment is still going on or not.

I have not tried ESSRI. I was disappointed in both Diamine Register's and Organic Studios Aristotle, because they were more blue-grey than blue-black (in fact, I saw almost no blue component in Aristotle at all -- it went down more or less grey and stayed that way). I do like Salix (it stays more blue) and Scabiosa, and I really like ones I've tried that Pharmacist has made (for a blue-black iron gall ink that really *is* blue-black, I'd personally pick his Urkundentinte over any of the commercial ones I've tried, because the ink seems to be more saturated; I do know that he stated that he has a higher ferrous component than -- at least some -- of the commercial brands).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[FloatingFountain]

Thanks

 

I always flush between fills, so I'm good with that. IG is drier, I know. It doesn't really matter to me. I like thin lines, and write-out is probably longer. I don't really care about the ink color, as long as it dries to blue, dark grey or black. You do know that IG color is highly dependent on the paper used?

[FloatingFountain]

Today I've received the ESSRI. It was a bit disappointing that the postman had to ring for it, because it wouldn't fit into the mailbox. They already have a bottle that can't be used to fill a fountain pen from, so maybe they could have tried to find an even flatter one.

I've decided not going to extremes regarding ink and pen care; I'll just maintain a disciplined weekly flushing schedule. If I didn't write the pen empty on Saturday or Sunday, I'll flush my current fountain pen and convertor, and replace it with the next one in rotation regardless of how much ink I have used. This way, the 110ml bottle will still probably last at least 8 months or even longer.

I thoroughly cleaned out a Diamine 80ml and a Pelikan 30ml bottle that I had sitting around. Then I decanted the ink into those bottles, using a decontaminated syringe sporting a 4 inch blunt needle. The Pelikan bottle will be the one I'll be filling from.

The first thing I noted when I opened the ESSRI bottle was: "Hey. I know that smell." This really jumped out at me. It smells just like the ink I ended up using in my Sheaffer pen for 10 years (1991-2001), because that was the cheapest in the store. Could I have been using Iron Gall ink for 10 years back then, without actually knowing it? The ESSRI smells differently to the Waterman and Diamine inks I have, and for me, it smells like the quintessential fountain pen ink, like I remember it to be.

I've also cleaned out my Sailor Sapporo thoroughly, even going so far to taking the entire section, feed and nib apart. (I accidentally unseated the feed while unscrewing the nib/feed from the section, so I discovered they're friction-fit into the collar. I removed, cleaned and reseated them, but I don't want to make this a habit.)

Then, I doomed my Sapporo into oblivion by loading it with ESSRI and wrote some stuff on different papers. The first observations are:

1. The Sapporo now writes one size thinner than it would normally do with Waterman Black, South Sea Blue, or Diamine Asa Blue. It's a Japanese Medium, but now it looks like a Fine. I'm now dreading to load up the Duofold and Sonnet, which should arrive tomorrow; they are Parker Fine, which is 0.1mm thinner than Sailor Medium.

2. The ink goes down in a light blue-grey color (it looks like as if you're writing with a watery, diluted blue-black), and dries to a dark blue-grey color in a few seconds. After a few minutes, it's dark grey with hints of blue. The saturation and amount of ink put down depends on the paper. On very good paper, the Sapporo Medium leaves a hair thin line. On cheap paper, it writes like Diamine Asa Blue on good paper.

3. Depending on paper type and nib size, this ink can shade quite a bit.

4. I don't know if it's dryer or wetter than Waterman Black, South Sea Blue, or Diamine Asa Blue. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I don't feel any difference when writing, at least not in the Sapporo.

5. The line width will vary per paper type, but the ink will always draw thinner lines than the mentioned Waterman and Diamine inks when used on the same paper.

6. This ink seems to have taken some vows:
- Thou shalt not feather.
- Thou shalt not bleed through.
- Thou shalt not show through.
- Thou shalt resist water.

 

7. When copying it in my laser printer/scanner, the writing becomes black. It copies perfectly.

Summarized: this is THE PERFECT INK for me.

It's cheap, it writes perfectly on even the lowest-end paper, without feathering, bleeding or showing through, and it is highly water resistant. If I don't encounter any problems when keeping to my weekly pen flushing/rotating scheme, I will standardize on this ink (or, after trying, another Iron Gall ink, assuming they behave similarly).

I'll probably still try the Diamine Registrar's ink, and the RK Salix and Scabiosa IG's, just to have some more sources to obtain this type of ink. That will have to wait though.

Now I'll keep it in the Sapporo for a week or so, and if I don't encounter any problems, the next pen will be the Sonnet. If that goes well, I will, with some Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, load it into the Duofold.

Some writing (and yes, I'm not cheating: I DID touch the IG with the same amount of water as the Asa Blue):

No-Name paper, lowest quality notepad I have:

 

No-Name paper, but better quality:

 

Office Essentials paper, best quality I have:

 

HP Everyday Laser/Inkjet paper, 80gsm.

Edited May 24, 2014 by FloatingFountain

[wallylynn]

I'm late to this party so much has already been said by others.

 

I'll just add: transfer the ink to a glass bottle. Plastic is porous. Air will slowly migrate through the walls and oxidize the ink.

If you write a lot, I guess it won't be a problem. If you're like me and have the bottle sitting for a year or two, then you'll stop getting that nice blue-then-black color change and a layer of sediment in the bottle.

[FloatingFountain]

The ink was already transferred to a glass bottle: one for storage, and one for filling.

 

As I will be flushing and refilling at least weekly, it comes down to this:

 

Two 1ml Parker convertor.

One 0.6ml Sailor convertor.

 

Average capacity: 0.87ml.

Then there will be some nib and bottle (rim) wiping loss. Let's make that 0.13ml, for convenience, but it'll probably be more.

 

I'd use 1ml of ink per week, at least. Thus, this 110ml bottle would last two years, maximum, if I write less than one convertor per week.

 

If the ink lasts a maximum of 18 months, as ESS stated in some posts, I'd possibly lose 6/24, or 25% (27.5ml) per two years. With ink this cheap I can live with that. The loss would be €3.25 per two years. I think I can afford that =)

Edited May 24, 2014 by FloatingFountain

[Sandy1]

[RudyR]

@Floating Fountain,

 

If sediment is your biggest concern, then how about a little insurance. I am a big advocate of using the Montblanc square shoe bottle. It is designed to address sediments. The two chambers, a charging chamber and a reservoir, have a glass dam between them that prevents sediments from entering the charging chamber. As you tilt the bottle towards the charging chamber, the sediment is trapped by the dam as long as its done with ease and not abruptly. This is perfect for Iron Gall inks and those saturated inks that settle out and could also clog your pen.

 

To ease your mind a bit, I have no problems in loading up my Montblanc 149 with my favorite IG ink, the legendary and discontinued Midnight Blue Iron gall formula. I have no problem loading up with any of my other Iron galls either (Platinum, Lamy, R&K, ESSRI). As for flushing, I treat it like I treat all others. If I am going to switch inks, I thoroughly flush. If the ink is to be used continuously, I flush every three months.

 

Modern materials used in pen manufacturing by the big names are very impervious to the effects of iron gall inks.

 

Of course all bets are off if you use cheap pens.

[FloatingFountain]

Thanks for the information Today my Duofold and Sonnet, both with Fine nibs came in.

 

To see how the ink would react, I've flushed the Sapporo and it's convertor (ditching a third of it in the process), and everything seems to be fine. I didn't notice anything weird during the flush, which I did as I would normally do; flush the convertor with blunt-needle syringe, and the nib with a cleaning syringe using boiling water augmented by a bit of Vesuvius lava. (Eh... luke-warm water, with a bit of white vinegar in it, I mean.)

 

Because I saw nothing wrong, i flushed the Sonnet a few times and loaded a few drops of ESSRI into its convertor. Nothing wrong there either, though the pen does seem to have some problems. It skips on upstrokes if I don't apply enough pressure while writing. Weirdly enough, my previous Sonnet did this as well, but it stopped doing that after some time, and it became *very* sensitive, almost spitting ink onto the page as soon as it came near. Maybe it just needs some more flushing. (I've read that the non-premium Parkers are now made in China... which seems it can mean that they can come out of the box with manufacturing oil and/or debris inside.)

 

I flushed this pen as well, and went straight for the Duofold. Nothing wrong there either. That pen writes beautifully out of the box. (But durned, it's a baseball bat when posted, when compared to the Sonnet and Sapporo. I'm glad I *didn't* go for the even bigger and fatter Centennial.)

 

Somewhere next week, the Sonnet's nib will be replaced by an 18K NOS duo-tone nib. I'll flussh it a few hundred times and then try that pen again.

 

Another update on the ink itself: While it feathers MUCH less on low-quality paper than the normal Diamene and/or Waterman inks would do, it still puts own a fatter line. There definitely is a big difference between good and low-quality paper, even when using IG ink. The IG ink makes the low quality paper more easily usable, but this doesn't take away the fact that the Fine nib on low quality paper puts down a line that would be equivalent to a (thinnish) Medium on good quality paper.

 

However, if the paper quality is 'too good' (could that be?) I mean, paper that is good enough to prohibit normal inks from feathering, then the ESSRI IG will put down a hair-thin line.

Edited May 24, 2014 by FloatingFountain

[Cepasaccus]

My recommendation at the moment is:

• Don't fill EG ink into pens with clear ink windows as they may become gray.
• Don't fill EG ink into pens which are very difficult to disassemble, e.g. a "51".
• Don't fill EG ink into pens which easily dry up. (Actually it is the best to not use them at all.)
• If you are unsure about EG inks, use a pen which you can easily disassemble fully, e.g. with ink sac and removable separate nib and feed. That way you can use a tooth brush or similar to mechanically clean everything.
• Use vinegar for cleaning. (An acid helps to get the iron into solution.)
• Perhaps fill und use it sometimes with a royal blue ink (which is acidic).

For the last item I am doing at the moment an exeriment. I filled a demonstrator pen with a high concentration EG ink to let it dry up. Once it has dried up, I will try to get it clean with a royal blue ink.

 

Cepasaccus

[Mafia Geek]

You are right in that there is a lot of misinformation and hype surrounding iron gall inks. The reason iron gall inks are a potential issue is because they contain dissolved iron. When the ink reacts with oxygen, be it in air, water, or another source, then it drops out of solution. This means that if the ink that is in the pen is allowed to react with the air (i.e. dry out) then there will be sedimentation in the feed. The sedimentation that occurs in the bottles is from the ink reacting with the air in the bottle, the higher the air/ink ration (less full of a bottle) the faster the sedimentation will occur. It is unlikely that what sediments do fall out of solution in the inks will get into the pen when filling unless you shake the bottle of ink or are using the very last little bit of ink.

 

There are four things that I keep in mind for using iron gall inks (I use Salix regularly).

 

1) Don't use in any pen where the ink will touch any iron (even stainless steel). This is because there is a chance of corrosion to the iron. I personally lean towards only using it in pens where the ink will touch no metal other than gold. This could be a gold plated steel nib or a gold nib without any plating, either will do for me. Having said that, I know that many old pen manufacturers blue-black inks were iron gall (Lamy, Sheaffer, Mont Blanc, and a few others I expect) and they all have/had pens where the ink will touch iron. The old style iron gall inks were MUCH stronger than todays. The ones made today are fairly mild I believe.

 

2) Only load it in pens that are used regularly. If the ink is flowing through the feed regularly, then it's almost certainly not a problem. If the pen is sitting full of ink for several days to a week (unless it has a VERY good seal on the cap, a la Platinum Century) then consider flushing it with water. Much like pigment inks, if it dries it's unlikely you'll be able to get it out of the feed. I actually like using hooded nib pens for this. I have Salix in a vintage Kaweco V12 that is great for this, the hood prevents the ink from drying out and the 14K nib resists corrosion very well. The pen also has a good seal in the cap and not much clearance between the nib and the end of the cap, meaning less air for the ink to react with.

 

3) Clean the pen out every other filling using de-ionized water (not distilled, but de-ionized, same stuff you put in a car battery) and a pen flush. My cleaning regime is as follows: flush with de-ionized water until it's running almost clear; flush with pen flush a few times, letting it sit in the feed for a minute or two between flushes; then finally flush with clean de-ionized water again to get rid of any pen flush. I then let the pen dry completely before re-filling. Pens that come apart fully are good for this as you can make sure they are fully dry. Again, the Kaweco is good for this as the nib and feed can come out easily and the piston rod unscrews easily from the back of the pen. A Parker 51 is a little tricky because it's likely to never get fully dry unless you can fully take it apart and wipe it dry, it's designed specifically not to dry.

 

4) Try not to use pens that have a really big ink capacity. This is only because then I'd go too long between re-filling or flushing, though really you could then just flush it before every fill rather than every other fill. Just means that ink is likely to be in the feed longer without a proper flushing, that's all. This is likely a paranoia a little bit, but easy enough to avoid, so I do.

 

 

I know the hype around iron gall inks can be a little over the top, but I'm willing to take to risk, even with some of my high end pens (Pilot Custom 74 with Soft Fine nib from Japan, Platinum Century 3776 Sai Demonstrator, vintage 1960's Kaweco Sport V12, and Parker Vacuumatic) because they really are some of the best performing inks I have ever used (I've tried A LOT of inks). They also have really unique colours that I haven't seen in any other type of ink really. Scabiosa, as far as I can tell, has no other ink that's quite like it, sure there are lots of purple/blacks, but nothing quite like that.

 

Hope that helps somewhat.

[perrins57]

I love Iron-gall inks. I regularly use Diamine Registrars and Rohrer and Klingner Scabiosa in both my vintage and modern pens (see which pens in the signature below). I've never had any issues, BUT!!! I frequently swap inks and wash the pens in between. All pens that I have used iron-gall in are written with regularly so little chance of them drying/seizing up.

If you have pens that you use infrequently then I wouldn't risk it in those. Also if you know how to take a pen apart then it should be easy to flush out afterwards, but one of my vintage pens has a stuck nib/section, I have avoided putting iron-gall in that one.

[cybaea]

Hi,

 

[...]

 

 

we are not worthy! Thank you so much Sandy1. Someone should pin this one

[FloatingFountain]

Thanks for the answers, everyone

 

I've been cleaning and rinsing my pen each Sunday before switching to a different one. This works without problems, but one: I can't get the ESSRI out of the convertors. Even soaking in warm water doesn't help, so I tried the least aggressive version of Steradent. (That's the stuff used to clean dentures / false teeth.) I disassemble the convertor, and soak it in a cup of warm water that has a quarter tablet of Steradent in it. Within half an hour, the convertors are clean.

 

Obviously, I rinse them liberally with clear water.

 

Now, I only hope the insides of the pen don't have the same problems as the convertors....

Edited June 15, 2014 by FloatingFountain

[setriode]

Floating Fountain, thank you for the Steradent tip, I have a little residue from ESSRI in the CON 70 convertor I use in my Pilot Custom 74.

 

Apart from enhanced shading qualities, I find the line quality of iron gall inks differs from other inks: IG inks tend to remain within the boundaries set by a nib's tines whereas other inks have a slight tendency to spread outside the area drawn by the nib. The result with IG inks is a much cleaner and crisp line.

[FloatingFountain]

Floating Fountain, thank you for the Steradent tip, I have a little residue from ESSRI in the CON 70 convertor I use in my Pilot Custom 74.

 

Apart from enhanced shading qualities, I find the line quality of iron gall inks differs from other inks: IG inks tend to remain within the boundaries set by a nib's tines whereas other inks have a slight tendency to spread outside the area drawn by the nib. The result with IG inks is a much cleaner and crisp line.

 

I don't have any problems putting the convertor into Steradent, but I wouldn't dare flushing a pen with it.... I'm just hoping that the insides of the (relatively expensive) pens are more resistant than the €4 convertor.

 

You're right about the cleaner lines. It's the reason why I switched to iron gall full time. It refuses to feather or bleed, and it shows through very little, even on very thin paper. It is the ultimate 'bad quality paper' ink. I think this stuff would actually work on a newspaper to fill out puzzles using an F or EF nib.

 

In a post above, it was said that Sheaffer made IG ink in the past. In that case, I think I've been writing with IG ink between 1991 and 2001; I had a Sheaffer pen, and only used Sheaffer ink, and it smelled EXACTLY like the ESSRI I use now. I never had any problems with that Sheaffer (until I destroyed the nib by dropping it), nor with ink feathering, bleeding, or showing through.

[Sandy1]

 

we are not worthy! Thank you so much Sandy1. Someone should pin this one

 

No pinning! I am not a voodoo doll.

Though I have been giving blondes a bad rep since birth.