Fountain Pen Inks - Adjusting & Custom Colors

[John in Covina]

I just wanted to sort of revisit this one.

I found recently that one of the inks I was using wasn't flowing as good as it should.

I blended in some distilled (purified) water to improve the flow. It worked well on my blend of Private Reserse Velvet Black & Tanzanite Purple. The flow is really good now.

Any one else have adjusting or blending tales for Fountain Pen Inks?

 

[Shangas]

I mix inks, but that's about it. I can never find a dark blue that I like, so I used to mix my own.

 

[JayGatsby]

I've yet to find a dark blue that I like as well. Is ink mixing only for reservoir pens? Or can you somehow put it into a cartridge?

 

[Icthruu74]

You could purchase a cartridge converter that allows the use of bulk ink in a cartridge pen

 

[bburtner@moran]

Never entered my mind John in Covina,black or blue,many moons ago you could buy green.Black is required when I sign any documents at work.

 

[dnjan]

I use green ink for editing. Skrip brand. I get it at the local University bookstore.

I don't use high-end fountain pens - just Parker 95's. One for black and one for green. The Skrip ink seems to work well for me.

 

[Shangas]

Skrip (proper spelling) ink has been around since the 1920s and if I recall, the formulation has hardly changed in 90-odd years. Same with Parker Quink, another old school fountain pen ink. They've been refined and perfected after nearly a century of chemistry and experimentation. You really can't go wrong with either brand. But it is nice to experiment with some of the newer inks, such as Visconti (the Royal Blue, I believe it's called, is apparently very nice. I should buy myself a bottle). Waterman's ink is another old ink-brand. Waterman's Pens & Inks used to sponser the popular 1930s-1940s radio show "Gangbusters".

 

[Terry292]

I've been known to re-fill cartridges with an eye dropper. It can get a little messy, but if you have old cartridge pens, like Wearever, and can't get cartridges for them, it's worth the time and trouble. I don't mix inks, per se, but sometimes I'll combine almost empty bottles just to see what comes out of it.

 

[DBurch]

I haven't used distilled water to help flow but have had success using just a drop or two of pure glycerin in a 62ml bottle of Pelikan ink. Particularly the Blue-Black they used to sell into the US was a bit dry, even in my Pelikan M200 piston filler.

In Germany it is popular to mix 1:1 the blue-black and royal blue. I still have some blue-black from a recent trip but am saving it now. So my duplicate is to use 12:1 royal blue to brilliant black. This looks almost identical to the intended mix.

I also, like mixing Pelikans brilliant black and green. A 1:1 mix if you want it dark or double the green for 1:2 if you like just a dark mossy green look. Very similar to a lot of postcards I have from the period. Now did the ink look that way 70 years ago? hmmmm..... But at least I can tell they had a green base to the black. Anyway, I have done a lot more mixing but these are my favorites.

 

[John in Covina]

You could purchase a cartridge converter that allows the use of bulk ink in a cartridge pen

Cartridge converters are made to fit specific styles of cartridges. In Europe they have the style that montblanc uses in a short length and there is a long one that other german makers use. The size of the part that pierces the cartrige may not fit at all. I have a pen that i accidentally dropped the converter in with others and now can't locate the one that actually fits. It is just a little different. Also over all length comes into play. There are some smaller pens that are too short to take a converter.

However it is worth a try.

 

[John in Covina]

Never entered my mind John in Covina,black or blue,many moons ago you could buy green.Black is required when I sign any documents at work.

There are a number of brands that have a tremendous number of colors. Private reserve is designed so their inks can be blended with out fear of a bad reaction such as particles forming and precipitating out. They actually have a mixing kit.

 

[John in Covina]

I haven't used distilled water to help flow but have had success using just a drop or two of pure glycerin in a 62ml bottle of Pelikan ink. Particularly the Blue-Black they used to sell into the US was a bit dry, even in my Pelikan M200 piston filler.

In Germany it is popular to mix 1:1 the blue-black and royal blue. I still have some blue-black from a recent trip but am saving it now. So my duplicate is to use 12:1 royal blue to brilliant black. This looks almost identical to the intended mix.

I also, like mixing Pelikans brilliant black and green. A 1:1 mix if you want it dark or double the green for 1:2 if you like just a dark mossy green look. Very similar to a lot of postcards I have from the period. Now did the ink look that way 70 years ago? hmmmm..... But at least I can tell they had a green base to the black. Anyway, I have done a lot more mixing but these are my favorites.

I have heard of people taking the tip of a tooth pick and getting a dot of dish detergent to mix into some inks. Something about the attractive nature of the detergent as a wetting agent helps with the flow.

 

[John in Covina]

I mix inks, but that's about it. I can never find a dark blue that I like, so I used to mix my own.

Some people have their secret formulas. I posted one for a blue I really liked Can't recall the mix right now.