Gary's Classic Inks

By now the news are well-known—-Platinum has released a new family of inks by the name of “Classic Inks”. In Japanese, “classic ink” means iron-gall (IG) ink, and this is what these new inks are—iron-gall inks.

The initial announcement was made through the website of the stationery shop Nagasawa, in the city of Kobe. This shop had the privilege of an early release of these inks on January 27th. The general release will be on February 10th (2017).

Picture taken on February 10th 2017 at a well-known stationery shop in Tokyo. These is the new series of inks by Platinum. Six inks with iron-gall formulation. But, are they really new?

But are these inks really new? They are, in fact, new to the general market, but these inks are not new to the pen community in Japan. The mastermind behind them is a fellow stylophile by the name, in fora and blogs, of PGary (Gary).

It all started some years ago, around 2010, when Gary decided to create his own IG inks frustrated as he was with the limited selection of colors available in the market for IGs. At that time, the only non-blue-black IG ink was Rohrer & Klingner’s Scabiosa.

Gary never made a secret out of his developments. He published his recipes on YouTube and on his blog and even on the Japanese pen magazine Shumi-no Bungubaku (16, p. 66; 23, p. 106). The Wagner group of pen aficionados took good note of those inks and asked him to make some inks for the annual pen fair celebrated in Spring in Tokyo. That was in 2012, when the chosen colors were red-black and blue-black.

Some inks made by Gary.

Since then, Gary has received the same request on following years, and Wagner group members have stocked –and enjoyed—a number of his IG inks.

And now it was Platinum contacting him for the creation of this new “Classic Inks” composed by six new colors: Cassis black, Forest-black, Citrus-black, Khaki-black, Sepia-black and Lavender-black. Note the absence of a blue-black ink—Platinum already had an IG ink of this classical color.

Writing samples of the previous inks. The ink flow determines how dark the ink looks after the oxidation took place. All the writing on this test, save that of the 2012 Red-black ink, were made with a glass pen.

This Yellow-black ink shows a brighter hue when laid with a fountain pen with a more controlled flow. This ink was one of the 2013 Wagner inks.

As a matter of fact, Platinum is the only Japanese maker still making IG inks, and there is some kind of logic in this new move to expand its selection of inks.

Platinum now has three different types of inks—dye inks (red, black and the Mix Free line), pigmented inks (Carbon-black, Sepia, Blue, Pink), and iron gall (blue black and the Classic Inks line).

The problem of these new IG inks comes with their price. It is JPY 2000 (plus tax) for 60 ml, which is significantly more expensive than that of the pigmented inks (JPY 1500, plus tax). The old and well known blue black IG ink is a lot cheaper—JPY 1200, plus tax.

Strange pricing policy, I would say. But all in all this is, most of all, another sign of the increasing influence of the stylophile community in the market of fountain pens.

My thanks to Gary. And my congratulations!

Pilot Custom Heritage 92 – Gary’s Red-black (Wagner ink 2012)

Bruno Taut
Nakano, February 8th 2017
etiquetas: tinta, Platinum, Gary, mercado

Home Made

What can you do when you were not satisfied with any ink in the market? Make it yourself is the immediate answer. Or, at least, if you had the knowledge to do so.

That was Gary’s approach. He was particularly frustrated by the very limited availability of ferrogallic inks. These, with the exception of Rohrer & Klingner’s Scabiosa, come only in blue-black, and he thought he could do better.

He started by creating the basic ink mixing by mixing Iron Chloride and Gallic Acid. Initially transparent, this ink quickly darkens upon being laid by means of the oxidation of the Iron ions by the atmospheric Oxygen. Then, the following step was to add some dyes to the basic ink to provide some color from the very beginning. Gary uses mostly food colorants to create about half a dozen different ferrogallic inks. Finally, some additives were used to control viscosity (Glycerin and Diethylen Glycol) and to prevent the growth of mold (Phenol). The recipes are published (Gary’s blog in English and in Japanese, YouTube channel, Shumi-no Bungubako no. 16, p. 66) and are available for anyone to try.

A number of pen aficionados are afraid of iron-gall inks due to a couple of reasons:

-- Rust. These inks are stable in acidic environment (low pH), and that could be the source of undesirable reactions between ink and metal parts of the pen. In fact, corrosion of the nib was the main argument to use gold, a noble metal. This is a fair concern, but proper pen hygiene does reduce this risk, and stylophiles enjoy performing these maintenance tasks on a regular basis.

-- The second factor is the difficulty to clean these ferro-gallic inks. Again, proper hygiene does take care of the this problem, and the use of diluted Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C) as a cleaning agent does the rest.

Therefore, although there exist a higher risk in using these permanent inks, it is nothing any usual stylophile could not deal with.

The fundamental property of these inks is that they are water-proof. Water, actually, washes the dyes away, but nothing can do to eliminate the mechanical bonds of the iron-tannic pigments with the cellulose fibers. The result, then, is a dark text with a hint of the original color.

Sailor pigmented Sei-boku ink and Gary's red-black ink. Both were immersed in water for over five minutes.

Gary's red-black ink and its resistance to water compared to several other inks. The piece of paper where I scribbled was immersed in water for over 5 minutes.

On my side I have tried and tested Gary’s red-black ink. Initially upon laid, this ink shows a bright red color that darkens as it dries up on the following minute. The final result is an almost black line, albeit with a hint of red. Dry blood is the best description that comes to my mind.

Fluidity and lubrication are on par with most other inks I have tried and I have had no major problem in any pen. The hardest of those was a relatively slow start of a Sailor pocket pen from early 1970s.

The main conclusion is that this home made ink is perfectly usable and, in fact, it actually adds some exciting elements to the present selection on permanent inks in the market.

A secondary conclusion is that the technology of inks is nothing truly sophisticated. It is there in the open for anyone –or any company— to try. The arguments for the prices we pay for many of them cannot be related to any delicate process or to any expensive research.

My thanks to Gary.

Push in celluloid, lever filler  – Pelikan Royal blue

Bruno Taut

September 15th, 2012

labels: tinta, Rohrer & Klingner, Gary, mercado