Interesting Stephens Ink Purchase

[Dip n Scratch]

A very recent purchase. I am not quite sure about the age of this item. It looks like it was supplied to Post Offices or Goverment agencies by the Crown mark and HMSO stock code.

There are stoneware bottles that once held the liquid ink with the HMSO marks in what looks like a normal label.

I intend to do as the instructions suggest, but with distilled water. Maybe weigh the powder and make a portion of it to see what it looks like.

 

I am assuming this ink is a very fine dye powder. No iron-gall content.

What do any members here know? Just wondering if the powder is likely to be usable.

[white_lotus]

Two or three years ago a few of us, the PINKS, were into experimenting with any powdered inks we could obtain. I wasn't involved in actually mixing them up, but got the chance to use some of them. Hopefully one of the mixing folks will chime in.

 

I remember some consensus that following the direction on the labels led to somewhat weak inks. You might want to experiment with smaller amounts first. And I think a lot of these inks were intended for use with steel nib dip pens. I remember an article from the 1940s on USPS experiments on the different inks, and they were supplied in powder form, as they wanted/needed a permanent ink. And how that ink used up steel nibs.

 

I wouldn't assume that this powder isn't an iron gall formula.

[Dip n Scratch]

Someone who knows British powdered inks will have to put in their opinion. the ink was also sold in large quantities (large containers). It seems that they were for office supplies, schools etc. Stephens is a brand that faded out before I started school and reached the point that writing with a pen was introduced, when we started 'joined-up' writing). The school ink I remember was not Stephens.

[afkbrb]

The only Stephens Blue Black that I know of is the iron gall blue black. Supposedly the recipe was bought and is now ESSRI http://www.registrarsink.co.uk/

[Colourfingers]

Looking at the instructions I'd say this was meant for Dip pens rather than Fountain Pens.

Fountain pens have a delicate feed and I wouldn't want mine clogged up with powder.

[amk]

The reference to 'wash out ink-wells before refilling' backs up your idea that it was intended for dip pens, I think.

[Colourfingers]

Totally AMK not only do I see but I also observe.

[Dip n Scratch]

I have re-constituted the ink, but with only half the amount of (distilled) water. I crushed all the lumpy powder with the rounded end of a screwdriver standing in as a pestle thus it all was a fine powder. The container for mixing was a plastic jug with some green glass marbles to help with getting any sediment to dissolve.

 

I have used this ink with a Ranga dip pen. They have an ebonite feed as an ink reservoir.

The text in the picture was not written with the dip pen. It was likely to have been my Conway-Stewart 475

Edited July 26, 2020 by Dip n Scratch