Making my own inks, any interest?

[JTokash]

I know I'm pretty new here, so I thought I'd let you know a bit about me and also mention that I'm starting to make my own inks now.

I'm a Ph.D. scientist with my own garage mad scientist's lab that lets me play around with all sorts of stuff that I can't do at work. My background is in physics and electrochemistry, so I play with chemicals all day and have been working on making inks once I get home in the evenings.

I guess I'm just curious if there would be any interest in my inks? These are super high purity since I buy ACS grade chemicals instead of " technical grade" ones. I'll upload some photos tomorrow since I'm on my phone now and can't seem to figure out how to post them in this mobile version of the forum.

If there's enough interest, I'd consider sending some test samples to get feedback so I can make them as good as possible... at this point I'm still in the development phase. They are all neutral or near-neutral pH and I'm just tweaking the viscosity and surface tension to get proper flow characteristics. The inks are dye-based and I have seven base colors so far, which will let me blend custom colors in the near future. The base colors (from the raw dyes) are: black, blue-black, red, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

I hope this is the right place to post this... I've been talking with the infamous S.B.R.E. Brown and Azizah (GourmetPens) on Twitter and via email, and Azizah suggested that I post here to see what everyone thinks.

Thanks for your attention if you've read this, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. If interest is really high, I'm hoping to turn this into a side business and I would always welcome input so that my inks could be as good as they could get.

Kind regards,
Justin

[Jon Szanto]

Hello Justin, and welcome!

Certainly an intriguing pursuit, and it seems like there are a fair number of smaller 'artisanal' ink creators popping up these days. I'll certainly keep an eye out for your posts, and would be interested in working with some test samples. Ahead of that, I look forward to seeing photos of your work.

Well, that's that. Night!

[JTokash]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I'm fairly new to the fountain pen scene, but I've jumped in with both feet. To me, this is fun trying to get the mixtures just right. I'm a perfectionist... one of the side effects of my 9 to 5 job... so I really look at this as a work in progress. My main goal is to make very high purity inks since I don't like the idea of unknown impurities.

I have a rather packed day at work tomorrow, which will be a 12 hour day, so I'll try to get out of my lab and into my office to scan in some writing samples. If I don't get to that tomorrow, it might be until Monday since I'm off work on Friday and my scanner at home isn't working.

[Jon Szanto]

No rush on my part, certainly. I'm out of town on business all day tomorrow anyway!

[dobemom]

I'm envious of your background! My background is in studio art and either ink formulation wasn't part of my 'materials and techniques' class or I slept through that part of it ( doubtful! ).

I can't wait to see where this journey takes you and I'll be checking in to see how it progresses. I think it's a great idea and I wish you every success.

[KrazyIvan]

The more ink there is to go around the better. Count me in to at least sample and review. I like blue inks that lean green along with reds, browns and greens. I would love to see some swabs.

Posting pics via mobile is easier if you have a photo hosting service like Flickr or Photobucket. They have free accounts. I use Flickr. They have a n Android app that makes it easy to upload photos. Once you do that, just copy the BBCode sharing link they give your photo and paste it into a reply box here. If you need any further help don't hesitate to PM me.

[Laura N]

Good for you. Here's the only advice I can give you, and it may seem like a downer, but it's meant well: make sure to test the inks extensively before you sell them to the public.

This is based on two experiences. The first was with Pharmacist on FPN. He came up with some iron gall inks in unusual colors. He tested them extensively to make sure they had no issues before selling them. He makes small batches and sells them directly. He then improved the colors based on customer feedback. Even though many people worry about iron gall inks, his have performed flawlessly for me even after more than a year.

Another member of FPN started a conventional ink company (as a side business) that has since grown. These inks now are sold through some prominent online pen stores. Before he started distributing them through stores, I bought two or three inks from his first batch. The original bottles were poorly suited for ink, and one leaked during transport, though not all the ink was lost. But after a month or so, a different one of the inks developed a problem where it separated out in the bottle and left a bunch of gunk on the bottom. I threw all of them out. Sadly, I won't buy from that company again, because based on my experience, they didn't put enough time or research into determining if the ink will be safe for long-term use. I don't want to take that chance with my pens.

[caribbean_skye]

Hello and welcome.

I think you've come to the right place, we all love our pens and ink and who doesn't love seeing new and different ink colours.

[AndyT]

I'll certainly be interested to see how this progresses.

[Feardorcha]

Count me in

[JTokash]

Thanks for all of the positive feedback so far.

I bought the raw dyes in 250 gram amounts and then portioned them out into small vials... Lesson #1 - my girlfriend didn't like seeing the mess I made in the kitchen, which is why this got moved to our garage.

Keep in mind that the inks below are the same color as they are now, but I've adjusted the viscosity quite a bit since those inks were way too runny.

Evidence of the mess:


Black:


Blue-black:


Red:


Yellow: Not shown (it didn't photograph well).

Green:


Blue:


Violet:


Here's a poorly lit photo from my cell phone camera since I'm running late and can't seem to get the scanner to work here either:

[cwent2]

I am interested also.

[fncll]

Count me in as a tester/reviewer if you need more...

[GourmetPens]

Woo hoo! Well you already know I'm in

[carlos.q]

You may be interested in FPN's S.P. Colfer's story about his attempt at becoming an ink manufacturer:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...rer/?p=2767030

[JTokash]

Quick update: I've got seven people interested in testing/reviewing my inks so far, two of which are overseas:

John Szanto
KrazyIvan
Feardorcha
cwent2
fncll
GourmetPens
sbrebrown

I think that's pretty good for now. I've been tweaking the viscosity, surface tension, and pH lately and I'm getting very close to the initial test release. Speaking of pH values, they have all been adjusted to pH 6.6 to 7.2, which is within the range of just about any household drinking water in the world, so these won't be aggressive towards corrosion. I do intend on performing accelerated and long-term corrosion tests just to be sure.

Please keep in mind these are "test inks" and not the final product. You guys will be helping me so much, so please tell me what you like and what you don't like (is that phrase copyrighted by S.B.R.E. Brown?). I won't be offended if you say the inks suck - that just means I have something to improve. One thing I know I need to do is to micro-filter the inks to get any undissolved dye out. I have a vacuum flask filtration setup that can remove any particles larger than 1 micron (0.001mm or 0.00004"), so I'll do that before sending anything out.

Here are some pictures of my latest inks with their corresponding dyes (these are the raw dyes, no blends yet):





Quick writing sample (Pilot Varsity) and paintbrush swabs:

[KrazyIvan]

This looks really cool. Can't wait.

[cwent2]

yes, what CI said, always hard to tell from a computer screen but what I see as presented pops, or is vibrant. I too am eager to test em.

[dobemom]

Looking good! I'll be awaiting the results from the panel.

[JTokash]

Hi again,

Just a quick update. I've managed to filter the inks, but that didn't do much since the dyes are quite pure. The bad news is that the red and yellow dyes are giving me some problems. The red one is getting thicker as time passes and the yellow one is separating into two liquid phases like oil floating on water. I contacted my dye supplier and he said the red dye is actually a mixture of red and some other yellow and that particular dye has had problems. He also told me that the yellow is processed with an oil but it is "cleaned" by the manufacturer... well, it's not cleaned very well in my opinion. My supplier apologized and is sending me a new red and yellow that don't have the same problems, so I'll get those sometime this coming week. He is sending them for free, so I think that says a lot for his service and I will gladly buy from him again... just next time I'll ask if the dyes are well behaved first. I didn't expect dyes to act like that or else I would have asked initially.

Sorry for delaying this, but I don't want to send out inks that change over time. I'll make new red and yellow, wait a week or so and then see how they behave. On the bright side, all the other inks are working quite nicely in my testing.