Thistle - Ink Powder - Blue Black

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Oh, a new thread on Thistle Blue/Black ink! How grand.

 

I got some packs of Thistle Blue/Black ink powder when it was the new thing here on FPN some years ago. The person in Australia sold out within a week, or less, of us finding out about it here.

 

I had planned on an entire long reply to the original thread, but I ended up with one of my long absences from FPN right about then and I never did get back to that thread as much as I'd wanted to.

 

Don't worry, I won't do the entire song and dance semi-planned years ago in this thread.

 

The first thing I have to ask is where did you get the brown ink in that first poster? Is anyone selling brown ink powder? If they are I still shouldn't buy any. I have recently fallen off the not buying stuff wagon, and I need to haul myself back up on it.

 

The Thistle Blue/Black ink was said to be from “before the war.” But the phrase before the World War was used. And that phrasing made me wonder, which World War? It's pretty old stuff even if it's from before the late Summer of '39.

 

It was a working ink of the day, not intended to impress anyone. It was just something you wrote with in the days when writing was done by hand or by typewriter and ink flowed. I suspect that all sorts of bureaucrats and workers used this stuff daily. Offices would have mixed it up every so often when they needed more ink.

 

And it was intended to be put in ink pots and used with dip pens. The instructions to mix one packet with one quart of hot water will produce a quite dilute ink. And it's just what one would want to use with dip pens, which was what people were largely using back in those days. For places like banks they'd have dip pens on chains and an ink pot for filling out forms, signing checks, etc. There are many old time radio jokes about guys who were so cheap that they'd refill their fountain pens at the bank.

 

The one packet to one quart formula produces a very dilute ink though. Most of us who tried it years ago didn't like the weak ink at that level of dilution for fountain pens. What I ended up deciding on was mixing up a batch of about 315 mL of the ink. As I recall, the instructions called for putting the ink powder in really hot water. So I boiled just under 11 ounces of distilled water, and really boiled it for a while. I then let it cool down a bit. I recall someone at the time advising against mixing the powder into actual boiling water. And so I let the water cool down to maybe 180 ° F. and then poured that into a plastic bottle I'd prepared for this adventure.

 

You have to be careful with the water because you can get hurt if you spill any on yourself.

 

I poured the very hot water into the bottle, and the bottle shrank. This can happen with some plastics. After I got some hot water in there I put the ink powder in. Well, that wasn't the neatest process in the world.

 

Some tiny grains of ink powder fell onto the sink. Some drops of water got onto those grains. Well, the white plastic sink turned a serious and ugly green/yellow where the hot ink was. My wife was not 100% pleased with this operation.

 

Eventually the ink cooled down and I poured it into a glass bottle. I've still got that bottle of ink. And I've still got some of that ink left, although in the next year or two I probably need to mix up another batch of this stuff.

 

I use it to test pens with. It is very inexpensive. I also have a Hero 616 that I fill with it. And I have a Thistle Blue/Black : Noodler's Black ink mixture that I use for some things.

 

Given the economy of this ink I like it a lot .

 

[visvamitra]

Interesting find.

[amberleadavis]

 

The first thing I have to ask is where did you get the brown ink in that first poster? Is anyone selling brown ink powder? If they are I still shouldn't buy any. I have recently fallen off the not buying stuff wagon, and I need to haul myself back up on it.

 

 

 

 

Nope, not brown, just extreme amounts of the ink. The entire poster is just one giant review.

[Cyber6]

Apologies for some blurriness.. cell phone pics below...

 

 

 

on Fabriano Paper..

 

 

On Tomoe Paper

 

 

 

Look at that shading....

 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

Wow, great stuff! Thank you!

[Cyber6]

Wow, great stuff! Thank you!

 

 

Oh you... enabler you !!! Thank YOU!!!!

[Finalist]

I haven't had a chance to try my sample yet, but why does it turn brown when it is used on paper really thickly? Is it rusting, an illusion or something else? If it is rust is that bad for a FP?

[penultress]

Is the brown the sheen? I noticed when I wiped my nib that I had just inked with a blue ink (can't remember which now) onto a napkin, there was a brown sheen to it!

Edited June 19, 2014 by penultress

[dcwaites]

You see the same reddy/brown sheen in the threads of Parker Quink Blue-Black bottles. Just lots of dried ink piled up till it interacts with the wavelenghts of light.

[Tas]

Yippee.

Amber, your envelope popped through the letterbox bright and early this morning.

How that pipette arrived in one piece having travelled 1/2 way around the world is a small miracle indeed. Great idea.

OK, first thoughts.

Mixed 1:1 water I found it too dark to shade when used in my weapon of choice (an old gold Wahl) so I diluted it 1:3 and now although the lovely sheen has gone, it gushes easily out of my pen and shades beautifully.

Your massive review with the "eye" beguiled me into requesting a sample but feel guilty now as it's a bit too lary for me when washed over but I'll use it for writing no problems.

I LOVE the fact that so many people have now been able to try your ink and I REALLY like the idea of ink powder. I'll keep a look out for other colours.

Amber thanks again for your kindness and generosity.

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_ambers_thistle_1.jpghttp://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_ambers_thistle_2.jpghttp://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_diamine_twilight.jpghttp://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_ambers_thistle_3.jpg

Now I must go water that plant in the corner . . .

[amberleadavis]

Wow this review is incredible. And this really wouldn't have been possible without DCWaites how gave me the powdered ink.

[dcwaites]

Just to confuse things, simply because we aren't involved with enough projects at the moment, I might revive the thread on food dyes as inks...

[measond]

Wow, these reviews are a hard act to follow. Mine aren't as scientific. I started out on the right track, followed instructions about separating ink, etc......but should have kept notes. After the third dilution I lost all track of what I was doing because I was so overwhelmed at the beauty of this ink. I love it for it's color and shading. I do not see sheen on any paper I tried, Rhodia, 32# copy paper and Levenger. Maybe I'm not looking in the right lighting or maybe my papers don't show sheen.

 

The ink was diluted 3x using a copperplate fountain pen but I saw very little change in color as I increased water. I did experience dry out as the dilution increased but I don't know what caused it. The header is undiluted with a dip nib.

 

 

To this bit I added a lot of water to stretch the ink as much as I could to try with dip nibs. Not a very scientific approach, just having fun.

 

 

The more I play the more I'm loving this ink. Thank you both Amberlea and dcwaites for the opportunity.

The photos don't do this ink justice, it looks so much better in person.

[amberleadavis]

Wow these are amazing....

 

DCWaites, the Ink Unobtanium sample had some of the dye that I mailed to you back in spring.

[amberleadavis]

Cyber6 gave us this inky comparison.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WfPsGBaQq_0/TJojhkFbJ4I/AAAAAAAACVw/hEIZXJcuyf0/s1600/Twilight.jpg

[Cyber6]

Cyber6 gave us this inky comparison.

 

edit..... "Cyber6 **find** us this inky comparison..."

 

 

Credit to PocketBlonde..

[smk]

I finally had a chance to sit down and play properly. It was a lot of fun.

 

My findings are similar to the ones reported earlier:

 

- There is a sheen to the ink at higher concentrations.

- Fountain pens give better results at double strength.

- The recommended dilution works well for dip pens (as they put down a lot more ink than FPs)

 

I quite like the shading characteristics. It is an easy ink to clean out of the pens and that is always a plus - especially for someone like me who likes to change inks frequently.

 

Here are the results - apologies for the poorly lighted pictures.

 

Notes:

The 'T' is drawn with an FP containing the ink at double strength.

The text on the first line is written with an Parker Vector Calligraphy pen with the B nib containing double strength ink.

The word 'Powder' is written with an Esterbrook 356 with recommended strength ink. The same nib is used to draw the little vine at the top.

The decorative line is again written with the Parker mentioned above.

The Italic wording is written with a WM Mitchell nib with the recommended strength ink.

 

 

 

... and the full page:

 

 

 

- Salman

[amberleadavis]

Wow WOW Wow

 

Thank you.

[fiberdrunk]

I've been playing with the 2 pipettes that Amberlea sent me. My scans/photos of the inks do not do the writing samples justice colorwise, but this will give an idea. I used Sugarmade (sugarcane) paper for both samples

 

Thistle #1 Scan:

 

 

Thistle #1 Photo (colors look too pale in this photo):

 

 

Scan of Thistle #2 (aka Blue Amber)) --looks too blue in the scan... in reality, it is a lavender and not blue:

 

 

Thistle #2 (aka Blue Amber) photo (looks way too pale compared with reality, but it gets a little closer to the lavender color than the scan did):

 

 

 

Both colors were quite water resistant-- I ran water over them and rubbed them with my finger. They're still legible. I'll post again tomorrow and see how the inks do in my Rotring Artpens, to see if there are any start-up issues.

 

My daughter and I had an absolute blast with sample #2... I've seen plenty of iron gall inks go from blue to black, but this was the first ink I've ever seen that goes from a pretty blue to a pretty lavender as it dries! That was so cool!!!! Will this be offered for sale any time?

Edited July 1, 2014 by fiberdrunk

[amberleadavis]

Wait, double check the pipettes, the Thistle is definitely a blue-black with hints of green. The one labeled "Do Not Steal" is probably a mix or even Blue-Amber. Do you see any other markings?