Dip Pen Ink In Eu. Is Rohrer & Klingner Drawing Ink Good Enough?

[vPro]

Hello everybody

I got my first oblique nib holder today, and I'm really looking forwards to many hour of calligraphy fun. One thing that I noticed very fast, is that I can't use fountain pen ink for my dip pen. Do any of you have an idea of dip pen suited ink that's cheap and effective? Not looking to pay more than £15.

 

My local pen&book shop carries Rohrer & Klingner Zeichentusche (Drawing ink), is that good enough for use?

 

Thank you

[vPro]

Spent £18 and got myself 4 new Leonardt Principal EF nibs and Winsor & Newton Black Calligraphy ink. Thanks =)

[KenS]

Not specific to your thread, but I have found that Namiki Blue fountain pen ink works well. I am just goofing off with a Speedball oblique holder, and Zebra G nib though. The problem I'm finding is that with an oblique nib, it's tough to find a bottle that will allow dipping the nib due the size of the opening in the bottle.

[vPro]

I actually went the whole way and got an oblique holder with an adjustable flange.

If I'm not mistaken, inks made for calligraphy/dip pens have a wider opening

[Pterodactylus]

 

 

(Brause 361 ..... Rohrer & Klingner Ausziehtusche Gold)

 

It´s really difficult to get a picture as this Gold is so bright (especially with artificial light), most of the time you can´t see anything on the picture.

[Randal6393]

@Pterodactylus, you are making us jealous again of your skill. Great work!

 

Hi, vPro, Hope you are enjoying your time at FPN. Looks like you might be. When you go for dip pens, it is an entry into another world for certain. Here's a few tips to make it work out better.

 

Usually, fountain pen inks do work with dip pens but are not as satisfactory as the inks made for use with dip pens. Would recommend setting a portion of your ink aside and clearly label it as dip pen ink. Then, if you wish to add gum arabica to make it smoother or whatever, you won't have to worry that you may inadvertently put it in a fountain pen. That could be hazardous to your fountain pen's health. Best inks for flex calligraphy are usually iron-gall inks, such as Blots, McCaffrey's Old World, and so on. Give a special character to the work. For broad-edged calligraphy, I love sumi inks, walnut inks, and iron-gall. Pretty much in that order.

 

Many an inkwell that is too narrow for oblique holders (and most broad-edge work) works great if you use an eyedropper or small artist's brush to transfer ink to the nib of your pen. Don't try to use the same brush for both paints and inks, usually doesn't work out too well.

 

There are many threads devoted to dip pen use on FPN, YouTube, and the Pointed Pen Bulletin Board. I forget the PPBB's official name. Study and reading a bit is almost a necessity to acquire knowledge in the field.

 

Best of luck,

[Noihvo]

Actually, if I am not mistaken, Rohrer & Klingner's Schreibtinte is made with the intention for it to be used with both fountain pens and dip pens. Obviously their range of Zeichentusche, Antiktusche and Ausziehtusche were made intentionally with dip pens in mind, and would be more risky in fountain pens. I have also on several occasions dipped in Akkerman's inks to great effect.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Noihvo

[Pterodactylus]

Actually, if I am not mistaken, Rohrer & Klingner's Schreibtinte is made with the intention for it to be used with both fountain pens and dip pens. Obviously their range of Zeichentusche, Antiktusche and Ausziehtusche were made intentionally with dip pens in mind, and would be more risky in fountain pens. I have also on several occasions dipped in Akkerman's inks to great effect.

Never ever use ink which is not designed to us for fountain pens in your FP !!!!

You will damage or destroy your FP's with Tusche (it's India Ink)

[Noihvo]

Never ever use ink which is not designed to us for fountain pens in your FP !!!!

You will damage or destroy your FP's with Tusche (it's India Ink)

I am aware of that… easy.

 

I am just saying that R&K's fountain pen ink has been formulated (as opposed to inks from some other manufacturers) to also be used well with dip pens. Besides, I have used acrylic ink (Liquitex Carbon Black) for several months in a pen, sitting unused for more than a week, and that pen wrote and cleaned out perfectly.

 

But india (or china) ink is different, and should never be used in a pen that you intend to keep functional. It is a well known fact, that the best way to make someone to something, is to tell them not to do it. Might as well advice them to use a cheap or disposable pen while they learn their lesson.

[AAAndrew]

R&K Salix works wonderfully, as do pretty much any Iron Gall ink that can also be used in fountain pens, or at least the half-dozen I've tried, including a couple of KWZI inks. I use Salix and Diamine Registrar's all the time. These are my go-to inks for dip pens as they seem to work well on the widest variety of papers. I've also tried R&K's Scabiosa and it works well, but their Alt-Goldgrun seems a bit watery. But dilute it about half-half with water and it behaves much better. Sometimes when an ink is too wet, adding some water helps. I use Monteverde Burgundy ink that I've diluted by half all the time as it works wonderfully and has good shading.

 

J. Herbin also makes many inks that seem to work well with dip pens.

 

As Randall points out, it's a whole different (but related) world. Welcome and hope to see your efforts!

[Goudy]

With a Leonardt Principal EF, you should definitely be exploring the iron galls. The "safe for FP" varieties are good but what will really make that nib stand up and dance is a traditional iron gall like Blots (blotspens.co.uk). It's inexpensive and it comes in wide mouthed bottles that should fit your oblique holder. The one drawback is that this kind of ink separates out to sediment (which won't redissolve). That's why it's unsafe for fountain pen feeds.

[dcwaites]

First, any of the India inks or Acrylic inks will be suitable for dip penning.

However, with fountain pen inks, many modern FP inks have a high dye load, and consequently have a relatively high amount of wetting agent in them to keep the ink flowing through the FP feed and nib. This makes them unsuitable for dip pen use as they just run off the nib and blob onto the paper.

FP inks made to a more 'traditional' formula (low concentration of dye, little wetting agent) will work nicely with dip pens. Examples are Parker Quink Black, Sheaffer Skrip Black and Blue, Sailor Jentle Blue, as well as any of the iron-gall inks (R&K, Diamine Registrar's, ESSRI).