What Pens Do You Put Your Iron Galls In?

[Left Elvis]

Howdy friends!

 

So I'm delving into the alluring world of iron gall inks, and I was just curious how ya'll like to use your IG's. Do you keep them in just one pen or share the love? Do you use a certain type of nib exclusively, etc.

 

Personally, I like to keep at least one Pelikan M200 with a springy F nib inked up with R&K Scabiosa as my EDC

 

What is your favourite pen to ink up with IG's?

[ScienceChick]

With KWZI IGs, any of them - vintage and modern.

[Abner C. Kemp]

To be honest, I wouldn't really worry about putting modern IG inks in any of my pens. Perhaps I would be a bit careful with some of my vintage pens with sacs but even those would be fine with good pen maintenance. That said, I prefer keeping my IG inks dedicated to a cheaper pen so that I don't necessarily have to practice perfect pen maintenance. My Lamy Al Star Copper Orange is always loaded with KZW IG Orange and I have a few cheaper pens (hero, jinhao, exc.) that I'll load my Sciabosa into.

[majolo]

I've been sampling a few IG inks (currently scabiosa and Diamine Registrar blue-black) and I want to add to the question: I gather these can be drier inks, so do people usually pair them with a wetter pen? I feel like the ink sometimes goes down lighter than I'd like (I know it will darken some as it dries) and I wonder if I should be looking for particularly wet writers, if that would help. Maybe I'm just more used to dark saturated inks.

[GardenWeasel]

I have a Pelikan M400 B nib that is practically too free flowing for most inks...but it is perfect with Akkerman's Blue-Black Iron Gall ink. It is now dedicated to this IG ink.

[Buzz_130]

I starting using pens that I could easily disassemble, clean, and/or repair. I read all of the literature here on FPN about iron galls and had several concerns. So my Parker 45s and Esterbrook Js became the test beds for Diamine Registrars and KWZ Inks. I was pleased with all of the results and have begun expanding to more pens. My Visconti HS writes so wet that it's now a test bed for my IG inks, and I've recently filled one of my user grade "51"s with KWZI as well. I like these inks, and I find they perform very well in all of my pens.

 

Buzz

[BayesianPrior]

I have a Lamy Studio dedicated to ESSRI. I love the ability to 'hot-swap' the nib from F to 1.1.

[ENewton]

I have a Platinum Balance that I dedicate to Scabiosa.

[mooshi]

I just carry a VP these days. It's been inked up with Chesterfield Archival Vault exclusively for near a year now.

[dfo]

Whatever pen you use with IG ink, just make sure to use it often and never let it run dry. I use KWZ ink in my Lamy 2000 and have never experienced any problems. In fact, IG inks are some of my favorites.

Edited February 7, 2016 by dfo

[Gudi]

I have a Lamy Studio dedicated to ESSRI. I love the ability to 'hot-swap' the nib from F to 1.1.

Same here. I dedicated a Lamy Studio for iron gall inks for the exact same reason. Additionally, it can be completely disassembled for cleaning or replacing parts. I know some people use IG inks on vintage pens, but I prefer to use only "safe" inks on them.

[Arkanabar]

The cheap ones. I'm not really the most fastidious about pen hygiene, and I fret about the possibility of letting it dry out. So for me, thus far, it's been a stainless Baoer 388 and a Noodler's Nikita Eyedropper(predecessor to the Charlie; it has a blind cap the same color as the cap and section that screws onto the end of the barrel). I know I can pull the feed and nib out of the Nikita pen bare handed, and I'm pretty sure I could do it to the Baoer with just a Goulet Grip.

And frankly, IG inks don't really float my boat (at this time). I bought a bottle of Chesterfield Archival Vault. I tried it in two pens. It stained them both. The color didn't do anything for me. And I was getting perfectly adequate performance from Noodler's Heart of Darkness.

 

I do regard blue-black as one of the six essential colors. But the top contender for my blue-black ink is Pilot BB, and it's a total workhorse, which may well be even more fade-resistant than typical modern IG inks.

Sure, there's a bit of pen geek in me that found it kind of cool to be using the same sort of ink technology that monks used to save civilization. But I have better options than they did. I suppose if I had a firehose I needed to tame, and Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black didn't do it, I'd have to consider an IG.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Arkanabar

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Here's few thoughts on choosing pens for use with I-G inks, plus musings on care and feeding:

№ 17 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/266828-diamine-registrars-ink-and-other-modern-iron-galls/?p=2997172 and links therein.

 

Bye,

S1

[inkstainedruth]

I like IG inks a lot, but I tend to put them into inexpensive pens and/or ones that are easy to flush. So mostly I've used a variety of Parker Vectors, which are c/c pens. Several of mine are fairly wet writers and since many IG inks are on the dry side it has worked well for me. I did put some of FPN member Pharmacist's Terra Incinerata in a cheap Hero pen that was a squeeze filler (616? Knockoff of a 616?) a couple of years ago and that pen seemed to do okay as well.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Tweel]

Whatever pen you use with IG ink, just make sure to use it often and never let it run dry.

 

+1

 

Hi,

 

Here's few thoughts on choosing pens for use with I-G inks, plus musings on care and feeding:

№ 17 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/266828-diamine-registrars-ink-and-other-modern-iron-galls/?p=2997172 and links therein.

 

I'd be very cautious using iron-gall ink in pens with plated metal sections, plated rings on the nib-end of the section, or for that matter with gold-plated steel nibs.

[ItwasLuck]

All 3 of my daily writers have been inked with Akkerman #10 Ijzer-Galnoten Bl/zw (#10) and KWZ IG Ink with no problems. With reference, here they are..

No staining issues thus far on the London Fog yet!

I clean and flush all 3 pens twice a month even if they are inked with IG.

 

 

http://imgur.com/a/7nCaf

 

Did I mention I don't use any vinegar or ammonium solutions? Just pure distilled water =) Don't worry about modern IG inks, they are quite amazing. Not to mention back in the day we would only have blue-blacks to choose from but now thanks to KWZ, we have a huge variety of colors to choose from when it comes to IG. =)

Edited December 21, 2016 by ItwasLuck

[lgsoltek]

With KWZI IGs, any of them - vintage and modern.

 

I was gonna say the exact same thing!

[Ada]

I like IG inks a lot, but I tend to put them into inexpensive pens and/or ones that are easy to flush. So mostly I've used a variety of Parker Vectors, which are c/c pens. Several of mine are fairly wet writers and since many IG inks are on the dry side it has worked well for me. I did put some of FPN member Pharmacist's Terra Incinerata in a cheap Hero pen that was a squeeze filler (616? Knockoff of a 616?) a couple of years ago and that pen seemed to do okay as well.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

 

I do much the same these days -- iron gall inks go in pens that are easy to clean and don't dry out quickly (Preras, Sailor 1911M, and a vintage eyedropper which probably was filled with iron gall ink long before I ever owned it). I used to use it in my Phileai, but it would eventually clog the nib, probably because those pens dry out more quickly then my other pens.

[alexander_k]

I have just the one iron-gall ink, in a Parker 51, which has given me no trouble over a period of three years or perhaps more.

[lapis]

I use IGs in all my pens, as just mentioned also in my 51 since the 60s. Also, as mentioned all over, clean your pens regularly, whatever may have been in them. As of yet, no problems. Of course, I don't use any inks anymore which are older than that pen (meaning that I'm convinced that no IGs made since decades are harmful)....