Ig inks & Urushi

[Iacobus]

I use iron gall inks in my pens without any problmes (both with stainless steel and gold nibs), rarely (every 5-6 months) flushing them, if inks and colours aren’t changed.

Not so long ago I bought a nakaya for myself and after reading the following passage on Endless Pens I started to doubt if I should use ig inks in it.

„It is best not to use these types of inks in any pens that have precious materials on the barrel, like urushi lacquer. Regular steel nibs (i.e., not stainless steel) may also suffer more corrosion, especially if you’re using iron gall inks with stronger formulations.” ( https://endlesspens.com/blogs/the-su...iron-gall-inks )

There’s not much information about ig inks and their influence on urushi lacquer on the internet, so, well, I decided to ask you, forum members, if you have any experience or comments on the issue.

What I know is that i haven’t found any information on nakaya website or on a leaflet accompanying the pen any information that ig inks can’t / shouldn’t be used with nakaya pens. Moreover there were 10 cartridges of platinum blue-black (ig ink) in the box.

[Yazeh]

Hello and to FPgeeks. Can you precise what type of IG ink do you use?

[welch]

A bottle of ink costs much less than a Nakaya. If an ink worries you, then use something else. There are too many inks to take a chance on something that worries you.

[Chrissy]

I personally value my pens far too much to use an ink containing iron gall in any of them so any slight concern would be enough for me to choose something else.

I happened to look at the Cult Pens site to see what they said about Platinum inks and they mention the same warning.

They also mention that Platinum Blue-Black is actually a fairly standard blue colour so as there are probably hundreds of similar ink colours in that range available why would you need to take any potential risk? If you use it in your Nakaya and it's damaged as a result the manufacturer has an easy get out.

[Iacobus]

Hello and to FPgeeks. Can you precise what type of IG ink do you use?

Platinum Blue-Black, KWZ IG Blue-black and Salix. I'll reach out to KWZ and R&K to see if they can provide any information.

[Iacobus]

A bottle of ink costs much less than a Nakaya. If an ink worries you, then use something else. There are too many inks to take a chance on something that worries you.

Agreed. That's what I did. However it leaves us with an unsolved problem, so let's wait and see what KWZ, R&K and may be Nakaya has to say about it.

[Iacobus]

I personally value my pens far too much to use an ink containing iron gall in any of them so any slight concern would be enough for me to choose something else.

I happened to look at the Cult Pens site to see what they said about Platinum inks and they mention the same warning.

They also mention that Platinum Blue-Black is actually a fairly standard blue colour so as there are probably hundreds of similar ink colours in that range available why would you need to take any potential risk? If you use it in your Nakaya and it's damaged as a result the manufacturer has an easy get out.

Nakaya sells Platinum Blue-Black on their website (pigmented inks as well), so I believe they're safe. KWZ or R&K then? I don't know, formulae of every manufacturer are probably not exactly the same. On the other hand I haven't found any reports / complaints on the internent stating that IG inks destroyed urushi. For now I'm staying on the safe side not using KWZ Blue-Black, though its combination of ig and wetness seems perfect for my SF Nakaya.

[Yazeh]

Hello and to FPgeeks. Can you precise what type of IG ink do you use?

Platinum Blue-Black, KWZ IG Blue-black and Salix. I'll reach out to KWZ and R&K to see if they can provide any information.

I doubt Salix will have any problem. It's not a "real" IG. You can stick with that....

[Iacobus]

And the reply came faster than expected - though KWZI’s owner doesn’t have a nakaya himself he’s convinced, that knowing the pens’ quality, there’s no reason to avoid using his ig inks in them. Moreover, known to him customers using KWZI ig inks in urushi pens haven’t so far reported any problems.

Of course there’s no absolute certainty, but taking into account ink manufacturer's information and the fact that Nakaya recommends using Platinum's ig ink, it’s enough for me not to be afraid of inking urushi pen (providing it’s properly applied urushi, just like stainless steel should be real stainless steel) with KWZI or Rohrer and Klingner ig ink.