Fpn Galileo Manuscript Brown Recipe

[rickygene]

 

My first ink mixing efforts of note are above. After a very exciting couple of weeks after orderingI recently received the FPN Galileo Manuscript Brown (there was a little surprise sample with it - thanks Amber! - but I'll leave a review of that for another day).

 

After reading the reviews of the FPN Galileo Manuscript Brown I was expecting it to be on the red side, but I was a little disappointed to see that for me it was more red than brown. I found it almost similar in look to Diamine Oxblood or even Ancient Copper, but not as dark. It is lighter than the picture indicates. While it is a very well behaved ink with excellent properties I just couldn't see myself using such a light reddish colour as a daily writer.

 

After reading all of the reviews and seeing that someone suggested adding black, I tried a bit of mixing. My first was 3:1:1 Brown:Black:Water and as you can see above was quite dark - a little too dark for my taste. The second effort was 5:1/2:1 Brown:Black:Water. I used Noodler's Black because I felt it was best to stick to the Noodler's bulletproof to minimise the chance of any adverse reactions. I have added added a few ink colours down the side for comparison purposes. Pictures are from a camera phone with indoor lighting.

 

I've been using it for a day now and am very pleased with the result. It writes very well from my Pilot Custom 823 with a very lubricated and quite wet line with no evident feathering or bleed through on the papers I have tired. It does feather on Staples Sticky notes but then, pretty well everything else (apart from Noodler's Black and Iron Gall Inks) does too. I love the colour and the shading and I am very happy that I am able to tailor the colour quite easily by the addition of black in various ratios. The added bonus is I have now effectively extended the life of my bottle of FPN Manuscript Brown.

 

Below are a couple of pictures showing my tryouts on Tomoe River cream paper and a picture of the pen.

 

 

Edited March 25, 2015 by rickygene

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Many thanks for the show and tell!

 

I've often suggested dilution of Black ink to a very very Dark Grey when used in a recipe, but as I don't use Black FP ink, I have no experience in doing so.

 

I am glad that your recipe worked so well for you. I'm impressed that you're able to retain the shading properties in your blend.

 

I took quite a different approach to 'cool down' the warmth of Galileo's Manuscript ink, using Lexington Grey instead of dilute Black, which gave a much more pale result - 'Gal-Lexi'.

 

Wheee!

 

Bye,

S1

Edited March 25, 2015 by Sandy1

[Cyber6]

Hi,

 

Many thanks for the show and tell!

 

I've often suggested dilution of Black ink to a very very Dark Grey when used in a recipe, but as I don't use Black FP ink, I have no experience in doing so.

 

I am glad that your recipe worked so well for you. I'm impressed that you're able to retain the shading properties in your blend.

 

I took quite a different approach to 'cool down' the warmth of Galileo's Manuscript ink, using Lexington Grey instead of dilute Black, which gave a much more pale result - 'Gal-Lexi'.

 

Wheee!

 

Bye,

S1

 

Can we see?

 

 

C.

[Sandy1]

 

Can we see?

 

 

C.

 

Of course : https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/234049-noodlers-lexington-gray-galileo-manuscript-brown/

[Cyber6]

 

Of course : https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/234049-noodlers-lexington-gray-galileo-manuscript-brown/

 

 

THANKS!!!!

[inkstainedruth]

Wow. Nice job.

Someone in my local pen club had a bottle of GMB from the last go round and I was really disappointed when I saw just how red it was (not what I was expecting from the color name at ALL). The Noodler's Black really made a difference, and I'm now wondering how other black (and grey -- and maybe even a dark blue or green) inks would work (I have a bottle of Noodler's Old Manhattan, but don't tend to use black ink much; Old Manhattan is listed, IIRC as an "Eternal" ink).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[rickygene]

Hey thanks Ruth and Sandy.

 

I looked at Sandy's excellent and very thorough work with Lexington Grey and realised my efforts were somewhat less scientific! No looking for precipitation, no resting in the bottle for days, no cleaning of the pen. I just rushed in ( where angels fear to tread?)😊

 

Anyway, I've been using the ink at work today with no ill effects on the pen, paper or writer😊. It certainly is not a subtle ink. It's quite a bold saturated Brown with great shading. It is wet and makes the Pilot medium seem more like an European medium nib. I think it might be time for a nib Engineer/Artificier to look at crafting a narrowish stub for this pen. I did notice that my mix feathers a bit on dodgy paper so the next iteration might have a bit more water in an attempt to fix that.

 

I appreciate the feedback from such experienced inky artisans and I hope to be able to contribute more as I find the time. After all, I've been reading everyone's reviews for years (you know who you are) and they have helped feed my ink obsession. Time I helped feed yours!

 

Cheers to all inkophiles out there,

Rick

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

My approach might seem a bit more 'scientific', though that's mostly because I didn't keep adequate records when I started blending inks, which made it tricky to repeat or fine-tune my recipe.

 

Also, I now tend to try a few different 'ranging' blends, then take a break of a few days (or more) then see what next steps will be taken, rather than trying for a final result at one go. That also gives me time to consider other pen+paper combos.

 

Bye,

S1

[rmullins]

this is weird....I just received the new Galileo Manuscript Brown and I'm seeing nothing but pink here.....

See the end of page three here...

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/271453-fpn-inks-are-we-lost/page-3

[rickygene]

Try some mixing. You might get lucky like I did and get a really lovely ink.

Rick

[rickygene]

Thanks Sandy. That's good advice. My journey with this mix certainly isn't over.

Rick

[rickygene]

OK. It's been a few weeks now and I have exhausted my first fill of the ink. I use a Pilot 823 which holds a lot of ink. As you can see from the attachments I am very happy with this recipe. I love the colour and the shading. It's behaviour is very good except for a tendency to feather on bad paper and nib creep. It creeps over about half the nib but it doesn't worry me as it looks quite good against the gold and matches the body of the pen. I guess I would be a bit less enamoured if it were blue.

 

The ink washed easily from the pen, which is good as the 823 is not the easiest to clean. It shouldn't be an issue for me as I think I will be sticking with this recipe for a long time.

 

I did a water resistance test and found that the pink component washed out leaving a grey black line. Other have commented on the pinkish colour of this ink and I can confirm it's definitely there as that's the colour of my fingers! The darker components seem to leave skin easily but not the pink.

I've also attached a mini ink review of the mix. My printer paper is terrible for fountain pens and most inks feather on it. This ink is OK but you can definitely see some feathering. On quality paper is not a problem.

[rickygene]

Now for some amateur chromatography...

You can see that it looks like there is a large component of magenta with a little yellow dye in the FPN GMB. Looking at the mix with Noodler's Black and water and the result for Noodler's Black alone seems to confirm this assumption. All my recipe seems to have done is darken and dilute the original. This is good news as it means that a wide range of warm reddish browns should be available just by changing the amount of black and water added to the original ink.

Interestingly, if you look at the label on the GMB bottle it looks like the painting of Galileo is done in this ink and has been washed with a wet brush bringing out those same dye components.
I've had a quick look on the web at images of Galileo's manuscripts and the reddish brown of the GMB looks a good match for those redder and more faded looking images.

What would be interesting is to see what the addition of a little more yellow would show. Maybe something more Sepia? This is all very speculative as you can fit my knowledge of colour theory on a post-it note in 26 point type I don't have a yellow ink so I can't try out this idea.

I have made a lot of assumptions about what the amateur chromatography is showing and I would welcome any ideas as to what is going on with this ink.

I can't believe I am spending so much time on this ink, but I have recently become fascinated with brown.

Edited April 12, 2015 by rickygene

[watch_art]

Did you shake the bottle first? This ink separates and needs to be shaken to look brown. My wife liked the pink so my bottle has been still for a while.

[rickygene]

Hi Watch_Art.

 

Yes, all bottles and ink mix shaken first - I am used to Noodler's Ink settling.

If you look at the chromatography you can see the first two inks went down as brown on the paper. The pink is one of the components separating. It's quite a nice colour if you like pink, but I can't see myself using it at work

My GMB looks brown, but it's just a bit too red for me in its normal state. A bit of black gets it to the darker brown that I like, and it's a bit more sober-looking (some might say boring) for work too.

 

Cheers

Rick

Edited April 12, 2015 by rickygene

[SujiCorp12345]

Very nice mix. I love that shade of brown.

[rickygene]

Very nice mix. I love that shade of brown.

Thanks Suji. I'll try and keep everyone up to date as I learn more.

Cheers Rick

[Sandy1]

OK. It's been a few weeks now and I have exhausted my first fill of the ink.

...

 

I've also attached a mini ink review of the mix. My printer paper is terrible for fountain pens and most inks feather on it. This ink is OK but you can definitely see some feathering. On quality paper is not a problem.

 

Hi,

 

Many thanks for the ongoing updates!

 

I find that ink-jet compatible printer paper is amongst the most FP-hostile papers - feathering, line-width gain (spread) and bleed- show-through galore.

 

One variation on your recipe that just might tighten-up the line quality would be substituting water with Noodler's Blue Ghost.

 

Bye,

S1

[rickygene]

 

Hi,

 

Many thanks for the ongoing updates!

 

I find that ink-jet compatible printer paper is amongst the most FP-hostile papers - feathering, line-width gain (spread) and bleed- show-through galore.

 

One variation on your recipe that just might tighten-up the line quality would be substituting water with Noodler's Blue Ghost.

 

Bye,

S1

Thanks for the tip Sandy. I find the ink does write wide and as my handwriting is quite small I would be happier with a crisper line in the Pilot 523 medium nib. My next Goulet order will have Blue Ghost in it and maybe a yellow of some sort too.

 

I have just ordered another Pilot 523 with the intent of getting a narrowish stub ground as I think this ink will be fantastic from such a nib. This is the first time I have ordered a pen to suit an ink. It's much cheaper to do the opposite!