IG ink recipe for fountain pens?

[Claes]

Formerly, I have played a lot with ink recipes, intended for dip nibs.

They all called for more or less Gum Arab.

 

Is there anyone who has formulated an iron gall ink meant for fountain pen use?

It can't be as simple as to just leave out Gum Arab??? Or?

 

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

 

 

 

[InesF]

Hi @Claes.

 

Iron gall precipitates inside the feed capillaries are permanent. If that happens, you have to remove the solids mechanically.

The binder in permanent (or document) ink will be permanent (as the name says). if it dries inside your feed capillaries, you have to remove it mechanically.

In both these cases, you will need to dismantle your pen.

Knowing this, I will never ever use nor recommend to use either of those in any pen that can't be dismantled completely.

 

Gum Arabic is water soluble. It stays water soluble, even when it dries inside your feed capillaries. You may need to suck your pen for a week or for a month, but you will always get the Gum Arabic out without need of fully dismantling your pen.

 

A traditionally formulated self made iron gall ink is not such a good idea to use in a modern fountain pens that you can't fully dismantle. But this is not because of Gum Arabic, it is because of potential iron precipitates (and maybe a bit because of the hydrochloric acid, but don't worry about this too much).

 

I made several iron gal inks, with tannins, ellagic acids and gallic acids from oak, chestnut, quebracho, valonea, sumach and black tea. They all have slightly different colours, which makes such experiments quite interesting. However, I do not even think about using such an ink in a fountain pen. And for dip pens, it is of advantage to increase viscosity, preferably with Gum Arabic and maybe also with glycerol. (btw.: using sugar is not a good idea)

 

Modern iron gall formulations, such as Pelikan 4001 BlueBlack or R&K Salix or Lamy Crystal Benitoite contain only a minor amount of iron gall which is furthermore stabilised with complex forming agents (maybe EDTA or citric acid, probably others).

Making iron gall inks fountain pen friendly is not an easy task. I can recommend to dive deep into the theory and make many practical experiments, including storage stability (slow oxidation), to get an idea about what suits and what not.

[Claes]

Morning, Ines,

Thanks for your reply.

 

Just for fun, here are some notes from my early (1978 and onwards) ink recipe experiments.

https://www.cecilia-letteringart.com/algonet/algonet/algonet/inkrecip.htm

 

Addendum:

> In both these cases, you will need to dismantle your pen.

What pen would be easiest to dismantle? A Twsbi?

 

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

 

 

[InesF]

22 hours ago, Claes said:

Addendum:

> In both these cases, you will need to dismantle your pen.

What pen would be easiest to dismantle? A Twsbi?

To my experience with TWSBI Vac 700, Vac mini and Precision, none of those can be easily dismantled for mechanical cleaning of the feed slits (with a toothbrush).

Among those I own, a full dismantling is possible with:

all Santini pens, Parker Sonnet, FPR Himalaya, Gravitas Kyuseido, Stipula Adagio and La22, Eboya Kobue, Lamy 2000 and all Lamy pens with standard shaped nibs.

 

I was not able to remove the nib from the feed of my other pens, even if they use standard Jowo nib housings. If you can't separate the so called triple (screwing unit holding nib and feed inside) into all three parts, don't use classic iron gall inks with them!

[Claes]

Danke vielmals, gnädige Frau!

 

MfG
Claes in Lund, Schweden

[Claes]

Servus!

 

Noodler's Ahab is also easy to clean.

In January you sent me a valuable Excel sheet (would January be Jänner in your country?). Have you added more inks since then?

Do you know anything about wet/dry properties of Kaweco's inks?

 

MfG
Claes in Lund, Schweden

[InesF]

Hi @Claes.

The Excel sheet has grown a bit, not enough to justify an update.

From bottles I know only Sunrise Orange which is rather dry and Kaweco Blue (very dry) and Black (only a bit more wet) from cartridges.

[Mercian]

If anyone would like some i-g ink recipes, they could look at the following post by sansenri…

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/354070-fountain-pen-friendly-iron-gall/?do=findComment&comment=4334563

 

…and the posts that follow after it.

 

Slàinte,

M.

[Claes]

Hera are some of my early ones. Note: NOT for fountain pens.

https://www.cecilia-letteringart.com/algonet/algonet/algonet/inkrecip.htm