Seeking User Experience With Stipula Iron Gall Inks

[Intensity]

Possibly due to the steep price, along with relatively recent release, I cant find any reviews of Stipulas Ferrogalico inks. Im especially interested in the Seppia IG ink. I was going to add a sample to my online ink sample order, but Seppia is only available in full bottle at that vendor (I can get a sample of black, but not interested in black).

 

Anyone here with any experience with Stipulas IG inks, and maybe also with some other IG inks for comparison purposes?

 

http://www.yafa.com/iron_gall_page.html

[Intensity]

Bumping this just in case someone who's had experience with Stipula IG inks can respond. They are the only company, as far as I know, who offer black IG ink, and I'm interested in their Sepia version. The inks are rather expensive to buy blindly, and while I can get a sample of IG Black, there's no sample of IG Sepia available. The IG Red might be interesting as well.

 

EDIT: just noticed that Pen Chalet lists some information from the box:

 

"

About the Stipula Iron Gall(70ml)

The Stipula Iron Gall fountain pen ink has a balance of chemical components with purity over 99% and Tuscan oak galls. Created from four basic components: various plants, vitriol or iron sulfate, resin or Arabic gum and water. The iron gall ink creation has been passed on for generations and has been used in ancient Rome since 8 BC. Stipula has developed a new formulation of iron gall ink that is a modern ink with superior quality and standards.

The Stipula iron gall formula is compatible for use with fountain pens. The formula lays on a light ink color that will darken as it oxidizes and dries becoming an permanent ink on the paper for at least 1000 years."

Edited June 21, 2018 by Intensity

[JakobS]

Their black doesn't look much different than what you would find with Diamine Registrars, ESSRI, or KWZ IG Blue #1, or IG Blue Black looking at its color swatch.

 

You can get a 4ml sample of blue, black and sepia from Vanness Pens.....

Edited June 21, 2018 by JakobS

[Intensity]

Their black doesn't look much different than what you would find with Diamine Registrars, ESSRI, or KWZ IG Blue #1, or IG Blue Black looking at its color swatch.

 

You can get a 4ml sample of blue, black and sepia from Vanness Pens.....

 

Oh, thank you! Somehow I overlooked Vannes.

[Noihvo]

[sciumbasci]

Been chasing reviews of it for a while - no results locally either!

[truthpil]

Been chasing reviews of it for a while - no results locally either!

 

Same here....so nobody has even tried a sample of Stipula's IG Sepia, seriously?

[Intensity]

 

Same here....so nobody has even tried a sample of Stipula's IG Sepia, seriously?

 

Seems to be the case! I'm about to order my sample from Vannes, and I will report back when I get it and try it out.

EDIT: order placed, and tracking number already received. I got various KWZ and Platinum iron gall inks too in the yellow-brown category, so I'll do a comparison (and also Platinum Pigment Sepia Brun).

Edited June 26, 2018 by Intensity

[truthpil]

 

Seems to be the case! I'm about to order my sample from Vannes, and I will report back when I get it and try it out.

EDIT: order placed, and tracking number already received. I got various KWZ and Platinum iron gall inks too in the yellow-brown category, so I'll do a comparison (and also Platinum Pigment Sepia Brun).

 

You are my sepia hero! Silly me, because the sample option on Vanness doesn't come up unless you open the ink's page, I thought they were just selling the whole bottle (like everyone else who carries this ink). Anderson Pens also didn't have a sample of the sepia available, but had the other iron galls. I'm REALLY looking forward to you comparison!! I'm particularly keen to see if the yellow component is also water resistant, which I doubt.

 

Platinum Pigment Sepia was a huge disappointment for me, not only because of the bland chocolate brown hue, but I think I got a bad bottle because particles are floating in it and it clogged my pens pretty bad. I really like the bit of yellow in the Stipula.

[Intensity]

My ink sample set is here, and I've done some swabs and writing on Tomoe River, Rhodia, and Col-o-Ring paper and will now wait for a week or two to see how the inks fare over time.

 

Here are some crappy quick snaps, unedited, a bit dark, sorry. The colors look pretty close to what I see in person for all the inks, so they are fairly accurate. I will make much better pictures in a week as well as test for water resistance properties and will create a dedicated thread.

 

2 things:

- the writing was done with a dip pen, and my dip nib holder is going bad, so the nib is wobbly. That affected my writing

- I apparently live in the past--it should say 6/28 not 6/27 on the Col-o-Ring cards.

 

Full photo album: https://imgur.com/a/QSZfoLW

 

First impressions:

 

Platinum Sepia Brun pigment ink: pretty nice, on the red-brown side. I think it will look best with a flex nib or a high flow pen for better shading. The color is pretty flat, unsurprisingly.

 

Platinum Khaki Black IG : my favorite of the lot. It does indeed change from olive green to brown, but in an unpredictable manner. I.e. some areas stay quite olive green, while others become almost red-brown. You can see that in the close-up in the photo album below. Will be getting a full bottle.

 

Platinum Sepia Black IG : nice ink, comes out greenish brown, dries to greenish brown, not as complex as Khaki Black. If you like complexity and some color variation in your brown, pick Khaki Black.

 

Platinum Citrus Black IG : yep, very cool ink, comes out almost fluorescent yellow and about a second later darkens dramatically. Excellent ink, I see a full bottle in my future.

 

Stipula Ferrogallico Sepia IG : this one was a surprise! It's the most saturated of the lot by far, but it also has this orangey vibrancy to it, almost a glow. I don't have Diamine Ancient Copper, but from the photos I've seen, this ink somewhat reminds me of it. Pretty cool, I will be testing it more. No visible color shift--perhaps it takes time. Depending on its water resistance properties, I might actually splurge on a full bottle.

 

KWZ Aztec Gold IGL : the most dramatic color shift of the KWZ lot that I got--goes from light warm yellow to pretty dark quickly, shifting to greenish brownish gold. Yes, even the IG formulations of KWZ inks are vanilla-scented I like this one the most out of the KWZ inks here.

 

KWZ Orange IG : comes out kind of a murky faded orangey-red, dries to murky brown. After the inks above, this one left me unimpressed.

 

KWZ Mandarin IG : pale to start, dries dark. As with Orange, meh.

 

KWZ Gold IG : This one reminds me of my favorite Papier Plume Pecan gray-brown with some green tint once dry.

 

Overall: KWZ inks were difficult to use with a dip nib--they rolled off quickly, I had to dip often. Stipula IG Sepia was the most highly concentrated and on paper was most similar to Diamine or Robert Oster inks in behavior. Platinum Citrus Black, KWZ Aztec Gold are the most dramatic color shifters of the lot. The concentrated pooled up Platinum inks dry to a matte finish, Stipula IG Sepia has a bit of silvery sheen around the edges of the pooled up swab. All the KWZ inks have a high gloss finish on the pooled up swabs and some silvery sheen; they actually look like they are still drying, but they are completely dry.

 

Scans (more flat than in "real life", less vibrant, don't show the nuances, but gives a representations of overall hues):

 

 

 

The Platinum Pigment Sepia is not pink as shown below. The above scan is more accurate for that ink.

 

Edited June 29, 2018 by Intensity

[truthpil]

Wow! Thanks for the nice preview!!

Our tastes seem to be similar, my favorites of the lot are the Stipula and Platinum Khaki Black. The latter reminds me of R&K Sepia which is also a favorite of mine whenever I'm feeling deep murky brown.

 

Really looking forward to the results of the water tests. I may just grab a bottle of the Stipula as well, it seems like a nice compromise between Diamine Ancient Copper and Herbin Lie de The.

[Intensity]

These are a lot of fun, and I plan on actually using up some of these samples. Already inked up a Charged Green Lamy Al-Star (1.1mm nib modified for high flow) with Platinum Citrus Black. Khaki Black will be next.

[Intensity]

After 24 hours of drying time, here are some water tests on Tomoe River:

 

(Droplet of water sitting in the top left corner, finger rub with water bottom left of each grid)

 

 

Summary: Platinum pigment Sepia is completely water resistant. Platinum Citrus, Khaki, and Sepia Black IG inks fare the best out of the IG inks on the page--only a small amount of ink washes off, most of it remains. Stipula fares the worst.

 

After dabbing away the droplets sitting in the top left, I can rate the inks' water resistance as follows, from best to worst:

 

1. Platinum pigment Sepia Brun

2. Platinum Khaki Black and Citrus Black (since Citrus Black has such a pale yellow wash)

3. Platinum Sepia Black

4. KWZ Orange IG and Gold IG

5. KWZ Mandarin IG / KWZ Aztec Gold IGL

6. Stipula Ferrogallico Sepia IG

 

 

 

Also here's the "finish" and sheen of the inks: Sepia is very flat, as are the Platinum "Black" IG inks. Stipula has some silvery sheen around the edges, and all the KWZ inks dry to a high gloss finish with silver sheen

 

 

To be honest, I'm starting to wonder if there's any iron gall in my Stipula sample at all... I've sent a question to the vendor to make sure I didn't get a mislabeled sample.

Edited June 29, 2018 by Intensity

[truthpil]

Great comparison!!

Although I like the color of the Stipula, that complete lack of water resistance is very disappointing.

I can definitely foresee Platinum Classic khaki black in my future.

[Intensity]

Great comparison!!

Although I like the color of the Stipula, that complete lack of water resistance is very disappointing.

I can definitely foresee Platinum Classic khaki black in my future.

 

Yeah I'm still waiting for a reply from the vendor I got my sample from, hoping that it's a mislabeled vial.

While you get Khaki Black, do get a sample of Citrus Black--that ink is just too much fun with a juicy nib, especially something like a stub or italic.

Edited July 4, 2018 by Intensity

[truthpil]

To be honest, I'm starting to wonder if there's any iron gall in my Stipula sample at all... I've sent a question to the vendor to make sure I didn't get a mislabeled sample.

 

Were you able to confirm that the Stipula sepia you got was indeed the IG version?

[Intensity]

 

Were you able to confirm that the Stipula sepia you got was indeed the IG version?

 

I've sent my photo album to the vendor and discussed my results. They did their own tests, and while I'm unclear if we saw the same thing in terms of water resistance tests, I did ask to confirm that the color looks right and that my vial came from a Stipula Ferrogallico Sepia bottle, which they did confirm.

[truthpil]

 

I've sent my photo album to the vendor and discussed my results. They did their own tests, and while I'm unclear if we saw the same thing in terms of water resistance tests, I did ask to confirm that the color looks right and that my vial came from a Stipula Ferrogallico Sepia bottle, which they did confirm.

OK, thanks. I guess Stipula just skimped on the IG.

[truthpil]

I just ordered a sample of the Stipula IG Sepia along with Platinum Classic Khaki Black so I could get free shipping on my Vanness order.

I'll let you know my thoughts once I can try them out. I'm really, really hoping the lack of water resistance with the Stipula IG was a fluke or something. I'd like to have an orange-leaning sepia like that.

[Intensity]

It's just an odd ink--not sure if you will share my impression of it being far more like standard saturated dye ink or not. To me it behaves just like something from Diamine or Robert Oster, not like a typical IG content ink.