Hello! And I have an ink question!!

**Pterodactylus** · January 12th, 2019, 12:35 AM

Originally Posted by linearMN

One thing you might try, a small trial first, is gum arabic. It is used with watercolors and when I made iron gal ink it was also one of the ingredients. Perhaps use a bit of gum arabic and then thin down with water. It might smooth things out, right now I don't think I would even use it with a brush. Suggested by a retired art teacher. Gum arabic can be found in art supply stores, probably in the watercolor area.

Never ever use gum Arabic in fountain pens !!!

Gum Arabic can be used to thicken inks when when using a dip nib.

**calamus** · January 16th, 2019, 06:12 PM

Originally Posted by jar

Originally Posted by ivandublin

whats a stump and a spell!!?? sorry!

For stump, think about camping and pulling up the end of a log to sit down. To set a spell ... In English there is sit and set, similar words but different usages and meaning, you sit down but you set down a package. Spell once meant an indefinite period of time.

"set a spell" has meaning to set aside your cares and woes for an indefinite period of time.

I'm not entirely sure that, in the words of Inigo Montoya, that word means what you think it means. Or those words. I'm quibbling to an extent, but as a writer and an editor, I value precision in the use of words to a degree that often annoys people. A stump is, in actual fact, the part of a chopped-down tree left sticking out of the ground after the rest of it has been cut down. It's not a log, not even one that's been turned on end. To "set a spell" is a widely used rustic colloquialism that means to sit for a while. Unless you specify an object; i. e., set your cares aside for a spell, you can't expect anyone to assume that such an object is to be understood. Pulling up a stump is a colorful bit of wordplay (and I congratulate you on using it) because stumps ain't pullable, leastways not lessen you gots yerself a mule er a tractor. I'm sure you feel a proprietary interest in the phrase "Pull up a stump and set a spell," since you use it so often, and I don't care to get into an argument about it, so do please forgive me if you find me a pedantic, insufferable, meddling, irritating, arrogant curmudgeon.