Thornton Ink

[Charles Skinner]

So far, the ink has not clogged the second pen I used it in. Nice color. C. S.

[bob_hayden]

WARNING

 

During the past couple years, pen 'n' more has sold Thornton ink in bottles at very low prices if you bought in quantity. Typical quantities were 1, 2, 4, 6,12, The main photo always showed how many bottles you got. Now there are at least a couple of sellers who seem to be using the same photos, but the quantity you get is NOT as shown in the photo. In one case the photo showed four bottles and I got one. In anoth4er it showed 12 and I got two. Thus the price was about the same as Diamine or Sheaffer or other much better known inks.

[sodul]

Ouch Bob! Thanks for the warning as I would be very disappointed. On the cheaper inks side, if you exclude yellow that they are trying to dump, the Thorntons inks do not seem price competitive anymore compared to Noodler's or Diamine that start in the $0.11/mL and $0.19/mL ranges. Camlin can be had for around $0.06/mL shipped from India at reasonable volumes but there is only red, black and blue. Hero ink, round bottles, is around $0.08/mL but only in Blue or Black, and the Carbon Black is to be avoided in nicer pens as it has carbon sediments.

 

I'm already very well supplied in blue and black inks so it will probably be a while before I make more ink purchases.

[bob_hayden]

There are no bargains left that I can see in Thornton bottled inks but cartridges in several colors are available on eBay at about $0.06/ml in quantity (around $7 postpaid for 12 packs of 12).

 

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/Thornton.jpg

 

The purple is a bit on the light and bright side. The turquoise goes on likewise but is duller than the scan when dry. The brown is more orange in real life. The scan is accurate for the pink. This is on a sheet of paper that accidentally got mixed in with the good stuff which accounts for the feathering. The colors were the same on other papers.

[bob_hayden]

Over on the Inky TOD thread for orange someone wanted to create their dream orange by mixing two readily available oranges. This led to a request for tips on ink mixing, and the suggestion of a thread for Frankeninks. Looking around FPN I saw that there is a thread for making inks that includes mixing already mixed inks as well as inks from scratch. Now I have already shared some Thornton mixes here, and thought of posting more mixes over there, but a ground rule is one ink per thread. I'm not sure that's working as a typical thread there consists of a single post, usually with no picture, and no replies. In any event, my scans show many inks per page. Since most of them are mixes of Thornton inks, and I had already posted some Thornton mixes here, I thought I would add more to this thread.

 

First I have two pages that show a variety of colors, especially attempts to make a bleed-free Always Greener and a perfect blue-black.

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t26ja18.jpg

 

The scan minimizes the differences among the greens. In real life the 4:1 is barely legible, the 7:2 is close to Always Greener, 3:1 is less yellow, and 2:1 and 1:1 are a blue-green (though not far from some inks sold as green). The 1:2 at the bottom of the page is even more so. None of the green mixes bleed!

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t19fb18.jpg

 

In general the mixes containing blue or turquoise are darker three and a half weeks later, though the 7:2 yellow:green is about the same -- great as it's my favorite!-) The original Thornton Blue and Turquoise also show this pattern of writing ever darker as they sit in the pen. The ink I called "Dishwater" was a surprise. I don't remember what I was shooting for but I got a very pale grey. After sitting around for a while it is now a very nice dark grey. I also liked the 1:1 yellow:red mix.

 

The Thornton inks in bottles are mostly still available, but not at the bargain prices in effect when I began this project. Cartridges are still quite cheap and I have been slurping black ink out of their Lamy cartridges for mixing as I have very little in bottles.

 

Happy mixing!

[bob_hayden]

Here's more on the various greens in various pens (and misc. other colors).

 

 

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t22oc18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t21mr18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t05nv18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t05mr18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t13fb18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t15oc18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t06mr18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t04ap18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t05oc18.jpg

Edited December 25, 2018 by bob_hayden

[amberleadavis]

Very nice mixes!

[bob_hayden]

To a first approximation, you can get blues as dark as you like until you can't tell them from black by mixing blue and black ink. Mixing turquoise and black gives colors similar to classic blue-blacks though more black gives the appearance of greater saturation. There are many examples above. One exception to these patterns is this mix of blue and black that looks like a saturated version of a classic blue-black in this XF calligraphy nib. (That's XF compared to other calligraphy nibs.) It's darker and murkier in real life.

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t20dc18.jpg

Edited December 25, 2018 by bob_hayden

[bob_hayden]

Brown mixes

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t24fb18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t11nv18.jpg

[miwishi63]

I purchased a set of Thornton's disposable fountain pens about a year ago. They all work well. The ink samples posted here appear to closely match what I have.

 

-Mike

[bob_hayden]

When Thornton inks in bottles ceased to be on sale at clearance prices I ordered some in Lamy-style cartridges. I'd had OK experiences with all but the black cartridges, but black was exactly what I was short of for mixing. (So far I have not seen in the mixes the flow issues I'd had with the black ink in Lamy cartridges.) These cartridges hold 1.2 ml of ink. I snip the end off with wire cutters and slurp out the ink with a syringe. It's a bit of a nuisance, but you can measure the proportions in your mix just by counting.

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/TLamy.jpg

[bob_hayden]

The mixes based on Lamy-style cartridges includes some attempts at a burgundy or wine colored ink. In general these came out more brown than I would like, which perhaps is not surprising as the readily available premixed burgundies are more brown than I would like. While Binder Burgundy is not exactly what I had in mind, either, it is unusual in avoiding brown. Here are some more of my attempts.

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t15ap18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t07mr18.jpg

[bob_hayden]

Time for misc. starting with a shot at Dark Lilac.

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t10dc18.jpg

 

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t25nv18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t20dc18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t16fb18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t06fb18.jpg

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/t06dc18.jpg