Food Coloring As Ink?

[EH86055]

I filled a Jinaho X450 with blue food coloring and it works very well. Just thought to let everyone know.

[OCArt]

It's always fun to experiment. Folks have used food coloring, ink jet printer ink, coffee and more.

[inkstainedruth]

Well, there's food coloring and then there's food coloring. I presume you mean the liquid stuff that generally comes in four packs in different colors at the grocery store, and you mix one drop of red to 8 drops of blue to make your cake icing X color, etc.; I myself tend to use paste or gel food coloring myself, and there's no WAY I'd put that in any pen, even a really cheap one....

But I'd check and make sure to read the ingredients list to make sure that there's nothing like alcohol in it. My understanding is that alcohol is really bad for some barrel materials and feeds, from some of the discussions on FPN about whether it's safe to clean stained barrels, etc.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lectraplayer]

I use the McCormick stuff in the bottles sometimes as well. Makes a great ink to play around with but as soon as you start torture testing it, you'll see a big difference in how it holds up to commercially available inks.

 

I also like to use polkberry wine. Too bad it doesn't hold up either.

[FrMark]

I tried modifying pokeberry by changing the pH with vinegar and bicarbonate and both were bad for ink longevity and it didn't change the color much. I used it (much to thick) as a way to print a photo from a positive by bleaching in the sun. I lived in PA then and left it in a window for 6 months (all winter etc) before I got the contrast I wanted. A thinner coat and stronger UV would probably bleach it out faster.

 

I'd use it with a brush or a dip pen, but not a fountain pen unless I had much better filtering technology. It is quite fugitive if you try to modify it. I've heard that in closed letters and journals it fades to brown over a period of years/decades but I have no experience with that.

[FrMark]

Another thought: I looked at food coloring bottles, be careful of the liquid ones too. Some (Wilton, perhaps others) have materials like corn starch powder in them that’s likely to make a mess of a fountain pen. McCormick doesn’t, or at least the bottles I saw.