Gutenberg Urkundentinte G10 schwarz (iron gall)

[yazeh]

Gutenberg Urkundentinte G10 schwarz (iron gall)

 

This ink is made by  Gutenberg GmbH (Läufer & Gutenberg). They make four other aniline inks. 

 

According to google translate, Urkunden means certificate, and tinte, ink, so Gutenberg is a certificate ink. It is waterproof. 

 

It reminds me of home-made iron gall inks. It is watery, lacks lubrication and will not work in all pens. My EF experience was unreadable. However, I can always blame it on the pen. 

 

It’s a brown black. 

 

It’s not an easy ink to buy for people outside Europe. But not impossible. I recommend it only to iron gall aficionados, dry ink lovers, or those who like inks that reminds them of leathers, cigar and might as a well a drop of whisky (whiskey or bourbon)

 

 

·  Pens used: Unic wet Noodle vintage flex, Conway Stewart 330, Oblique, Pilot Metro Fine, Sheaffer Calligraphy medium wide, Generic Chinese EF and stub.

 

·  Shading: Yes 

·  Ghosting: None

·  Bleed through: None. 

·  Flow Rate: alright

·  Lubrication: Absent

·  Nib Dry-out: Nope.

·  Start-up: No problem.

·  Saturation:  Unsaturated 

·  Shading Potential: Yes.

·  Sheen: Unless you poor a drop. 

·  Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: None. 

·  Nib Creep / “Crud”: None

·  Staining (pen): Nope. Easy to clean…

·  Clogging: Nope

·  Water resistance: Waterproof 

·  Availability: Only in bottle 30 ml and I believe 1100 ml. Only place worldwide soldan.de.

However, buying is not straight forward. You buy one. They send you an invoice for bank transfer. You tell them it costs a lot. They send you to a different department. They give you a PayPal address. You send them money. And then they send. And you need a German translator. For Europeans it’s easiest. The US also have more options. 

However, their service is topnotch. My first bottle was corrupted. They replaced it immediately. 

Bottle:

 

 

Written sample on TR 68 gr

 

This is an earlier writing sample: Note EF is not legible. The stub, might been affected by salix. While I rinsed and clean the pen the trace inks seem to have affected the ink. 

 

 

Written samples on cheap Hilroy notebook

Back: no ghosting on this paper

Chroma (disclaimer) my first bottle had gone slightly off. This is the chroma of the first bottle... I didn't bother with the new bottle. 

 

 

High resolution scan of a drop on Hammermill paper

 

 

 

I don't have anything in that range:

 

 

 

Sketch done with a fine pilot metro:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a whimsical one...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LizEF]

Great review, @yazeh!  Have you considered adding something like glycerine to get some lubrication?  Might help flow, too.  The chromatography results are interesting.

 

PS: I hope that's a necklace or something in that last picture and not a giant oily tick!

[yazeh]

12 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Great review, @yazeh!  Have you considered adding something like glycerine to get some lubrication?  Might help flow, too.  The chromatography results are interesting.

No. I tend to find way a way around the inks

 

12 minutes ago, LizEF said:

 

PS: I hope that's a necklace or something in that last picture and not a giant oily tick!

Well, when I did a research on Makhabesh, I got a funny translation from google translate, it means 'spider' in Hebrew. SO that's my attempt as a spider marking... hence the name

 

[LizEF]

37 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Well, when I did a research on Makhabesh, I got a funny translation from google translate, it means 'spider' in Hebrew. SO that's my attempt as a spider marking... hence the name

Huh!  And here I thought I made it by mixing up some characters and syllables of names extracted from a very large customer list.  (This is one way I come up with names for fantasy stories - extract names, then change letters and / or swap syllables.)  Never imagined I morphed something real!   My googling finds a singer of some middle eastern country (didn't feel like diving deep to figure it out).

 

Meanwhile, googling revealed a site (kzbin.info) that appears to be some sort of Russian front end or copy of YouTube, including all its comments - with all my videos.   No idea what to think of that.

 

45 minutes ago, yazeh said:

No. I tend to find way a way around the inks

  Yeah, I tend to think if you can find a combo that works, that's far better than adding stuff to the ink every time you use it.  Callifolio Bleu Equinoxe (5) may be an exception for me unless I find a pen it really likes - that ink is one of those that I really like without quite being able to explain why.

[PithyProlix]

Great review. If anything it's an interesting ink!

[yazeh]

27 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

Great review. If anything it's an interesting ink!

I knew you would like it, hence my reference to cigars

[yazeh]

15 hours ago, LizEF said:

Huh!  And here I thought I made it by mixing up some characters and syllables of names extracted from a very large customer list.  (This is one way I come up with names for fantasy stories - extract names, then change letters and / or swap syllables.)  Never imagined I morphed something real!   My googling finds a singer of some middle eastern country (didn't feel like diving deep to figure it out).

Yeah. I came upon that too. But it's the title of the song. I tried different wordings, as the kh can be pronounced different ways, but after wavering between stuffed and stoned, I abandoned the search. Plus google wanted to constantly translate from Zulu.  

 

15 hours ago, LizEF said:

 

Meanwhile, googling revealed a site (kzbin.info) that appears to be some sort of Russian front end or copy of YouTube, including all its comments - with all my videos.   No idea what to think of that.

 

15 hours ago, LizEF said:

 

  Yeah, I tend to think if you can find a combo that works, that's far better than adding stuff to the ink every time you use it.  Callifolio Bleu Equinoxe (5) may be an exception for me unless I find a pen it really likes - that ink is one of those that I really like without quite being able to explain why.

Those are the best type of inks. The sing to the heart

 

[PithyProlix]

3 hours ago, yazeh said:

I knew you would like it, hence my reference to cigars

 

 

What is it that Freud said about fountain pe ... uh, I mean cigars?

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, yazeh said:

Yeah. I came upon that too. But it's the title of the song. I tried different wordings, as the kh can be pronounced different ways, but after wavering between stuffed and stoned, I abandoned the search. Plus google wanted to constantly translate from Zulu.  

Ah, see, you dove deeper (or thought longer) than I did!   I've also found google translate to be an interesting way to try to invent words or names - I'll pick a relevant English word and translate it into obscure languages and if I find one I like, I'll use it or tweak it.  (Yes, I'm weird.)

 

3 hours ago, yazeh said:

Those are the best type of inks. The sing to the heart

[Edo98]

Hi yazeh, that was an excellent review 👌,that ink looks quite interesting.

Is the online store that you mention in your review the only place where you can buy that ink and that they make international shipments?

For example, can you buy directly from the manufacturer or only through their distributors?

By the way, how much was the international shipping cost for that ink?

[yazeh]

15 minutes ago, Edo98 said:

Hi yazeh, that was an excellent review 👌,that ink looks quite interesting.

Is the online store that you mention in your review the only place where you can buy that ink and that they make international shipments?

For example, can you buy directly from the manufacturer or only through their distributors?

By the way, how much was the international shipping cost for that ink?

I believe that's the only store that sells to Canada or worldwide. 

US have a couple more options. 

Europe much. 

[Edo98]

23 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I believe that's the only store that sells to Canada or worldwide. 

US have a couple more options. 

Europe much. 

Thanks! 😊

[yazeh]

1 hour ago, Edo98 said:

Thanks! 😊

You can try this one too. My order was cancelled but maybe that was because of covid. 

It's more user friendly.... but the site is only in German. You can use google translate or if you're on Mac, safari translate some pages...

https://www.wenzel-buerobedarf.de/exklusive-accessoires/gutenberg-urkundentinte/

[txomsy]

It's a pity I do already have too much grey ink. That looks like a very interesting one.

[lapis]

Four notes here:

1. The company issuing this ink is, as yazeh already said in the first post here, Läufer & Gutenberg GmbH, which was formerly owned and/or run solely by the Gutenberg company itself until it was taken over by Läufer. 'GmbH' is a German abbreviation essentially equivalent to 'Ltd' in the English language.
2. Here is a non-Google translation of the short texts present in Läufer & Gutenberg's site. To the left, under Produkte, hit Jedes Büro (Each and every Office) > in the middle, hit Tinten (inks) > and then Gutenberg Füllhaltertinte (Gutenberg fountain pen inks) = Your handwriting is your own card. Gutenberg's fountain pen ink has been respected for years due to its vivid and brilliant hues. Its special consistency ensures a fast drying time and at the same time avoids any clogging in your pen. Gutenberg Urkundentinte (Gutenberg certificate ink) = The exclusive Gutenberg certificate fountain pen ink is still manufactured by hand and something for a special moment in life. This ink penetrates deeply into the paper and in that way creates an imperishable document. It is practically unerasable. Moreover, by means of its formulation, it also remains impervious to attacks by chemical agents.
3. In that website page, I see an orange plastic bottle (with a black lid). The three bottles of this ink I've run through over the years were all black bottles, and a phone call to the company assured me that there is no difference in the inks.
4. Don't confuse or merge this aforementioned Gutenberg company with the "company" issuing the Bible Ink (a blue iron gall ink also reviewed by yazeh here on February 22, 2021). That "company" is a store belonging to the Gutenberg Stiftung (Gutenberg Foundation) which has to do with the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz (20 miles WSW of Frankfurt am Main). They (the Foundation's store) are keen on selling products related, of course, to the legacy of Johannes Gutenberg, the German inventor who introduced the mechanical printing press. Their main aim is thus to increase the level of funding for the museum.

[yazeh]

10 hours ago, txomsy said:

It's a pity I do already have too much grey ink. That looks like a very interesting one.

This is definitely not grey. It's brown/black.....

 

[yazeh]

Thanks lapis for the clarification. Sehr geschätzt (hope google translate was correct)

[lapis]

You're very welcome. One last point -- which I didn't forget, but thought might be too off-hand -- maybe should  be made before it's too late....

Some members, I see, aren't sure about buying this ink... (or are  sure that they shouldn't). A bit of research revealed that the company almost went bankrupt in 2011 but is now again on course, but AFAIK not all that thriving.

Sooo... if anybody thinks they might want to check it out someday, I'd start preferably earlier than later, before it is too late. I find the ink good, it is a "good" IG ink, it is a nice brownish black (practically an anomaly as re IG inks) and not all that expensive, apart from the shipping, which likely is quite expensive. No, I don't work for 'em, either.

 

[yazeh]

Thanks.

then I'm glad I got it. It's an unusual ink. Great for people who love shading...or who like Iron gall. 

I tried to convince another 'German' company to sell it but they weren't interested, they said R&K and DeAtramentis do the same job as well. 

Would the right marketing they could corner a 'small'  niche IG market worldwide. And this and the Bible ink would've done much better. 

Pity people are still afraid of IG inks. I guess companies want to cover themselves. 

Given so many vintage pens still in circulation, I believe the pens have outlived their owners, despite all the IG ink they guzzled  

 

 

[Mercian]

On 5/8/2021 at 8:41 PM, yazeh said:

It reminds me of home-made iron gall inks. It is watery, lacks lubrication and will not work in all pens. My EF experience was unreadable. However, I can always blame it on the pen. 

 

It’s a brown black.

 

A Brown-black ink you say? 🤔
On your photos it reminds me of the ink used by Leonardo da Vinci on his sketches (the Royal Collection here has loads of them. Lots of them were put on display at galleries around the country to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death, and I was lucky enough to get to two of the exhibitions).

So, my interest has been piqued by this stuff (presuming that I can find any vendor who is willing to ship it to the UK, and can get it past HMRC at a non-obscene price. Ha!).

My only other experience of iron-gall inks to-date has been with R&K Salix & Scabiosa (both of which I understand to be relatively 'low-iron' inks), so I would like to ask some questions about this Urkundentinte before I try to buy it:

1) does it darken further over time, or do your photos show it at in its final, darkest, shade?

You say that it doesn't work in all pens, and I see that you are using it with flex pens, so:
2) Would you say that would only work in the very-wettest pens - e.g.s pens with an ebonite feed, flex pens, or vintage pens?

3) Would you rule it out from use it in piston-fillers (as I believe the 'other' Gutenberg does on their description of their 'Bible Ink')?

4) I am thinking of using it in an early-1970s Parker 45 Flighter that has a 14k gold nib.
The pen can be fully disassembled for cleaning, and contains only plastics, stainless steel, and the 14k gold of the nib, so I am not afraid of corrosion, and not very worried about the prospect of the pen's feed becoming clogged. That said, my memory of that pen is that it is not tuned to be a very 'wet' writer.
Do you happen to own a Parker 45? Do you think that this Urkundentinte would work well in it?

Or would you recommend that I invest in a vintage pen with an ebonite feed in order to get the best out of the ink?

My thanks in advance for any answers that you can give to me.

 

Slàinte,
M.