KWZ inks

I create inks for fountain pens since 2012. It all started when I decided to improve the saturation in one of my inks. During browsing forums and websites I came across various information about self-made iron-gall inks. I found that I should also try and soon after that I prepared my first iron-gall ink. Over time, I began to enrich inks I prepared with interesting colors, and tuned ink’s properties.

Creating inks is a great hobby. The possibility of creating ink of almost any color and setting properties of such ink according to my discretion gives a lot of satisfaction. Making new inks is not always easy, sometimes many attempts have to be made before specific color or property is achieved. There were many hard moments when well thought out formula didn’t give expected result or it came out as unstable and ink quickly degraded. But overall ink making is occupation that gives us plenty of satisfaction.

Production of inks on a large scale is not my goal, but instead we will focus on creating inks a little less common, something which can not be found elsewhere. I create my inks from scratch, by mixing raw chemicals which as a result give fountain pen ink. To ensure myself a bit of comfort during and increase repeatability in production of inks  I introduced number of improvements to my lab, but most of the work in the production of inks is still done by hand.

For a long time I have created inks were not widely available and the information about them were scattered on various websites and forums. I set up this site to gather information about KWZ Ink in one place and facilitate communication with me, so that my inks and information about them will be readily available.

Konrad Žurawski
 

Division of Iron Gall inks

Because the content of Iron Gall component in our inks vary, and  been divided into five subgroups:

Light Iron Gall inks (IGL) – those inks have the smallest content of Iron Gall  component. These inks have a small water-resistance and they will age only slightly slower in comparison inks based only dyes. Iron Gall component in those inks increase the depth of written text by more increasing both saturation of colour and shading of those inks. In the course of writing a clear change in the color of ink is observed. Light Iron Gall inks are intended to be easy use inks for everyday writing, lower iron content in those inks in comparison to other Iron Gall inks, causes that they do not require such careful maintenance.

Standard Iron Gall Inks (IGS) – inks with similar content of Iron Gall component were formerly used in everyday work and at home. This is a typical all-around ink for daily use when we want both interesting and saturated color and also durability of writing is a matter of concern. Inks of this group are partially resistant to the negative impact of light and demonstrate high water resistance – in the event of wetting Iron Gall component remains intact, and only a portion of dye may wash away, but even after that the text remains fully legible

Targamgall Iron Gall inks (IGT) – Inks of this type have different ratios of components compared to other Iron Gall ink. In terms of the content and type of the Iron Gall component, Targamgall Iron Gall inks stands between Standard, Archival and Synthetic Iron Gall inks. Targamgall Iron Gall inks have similar durability to Archival Iron Gall inks, but text written with those inks will not be as dark. One of greatest advantages of those inks is that they are compatible with greater range of additives and dyes in comparison to more classic Iron Gall inks, granting greater freedom in creating new inks.

Archival Iron Gall inks (IGA) – Inks of this type have very high iron content, much higher than almost all other ‘registar’ type inks which are present on the market. All the inks of this group after drying will have a very dark and deep colour, in most cases after some time period they will be practically black. When I created those inks, durability of written text was my main goal. If you would like to create or run family chronicle this ink is a good choice. Although because of very high Iron Gall component content more care is advised when using this ink, and regular flushing of the pen should be made.

Synthetic Iron Gall inks (IGN) – are not strictly Iron Gall inks in terms of composition, they are  rather conceptual development of classic Iron Gall inks, and they share with them similar mechanism of action. Synthetic Iron Gall inks have been developed in the course of work on the improvement of resistance to UV light Iron Gall inks. Because of their nature, Iron Gall inks have a natural tendency to fade due to prolonged exposure to light, by significant change in component this problem was limited.



Fountain pens and Iron Gall inks

The recipe I use produce to Iron Gall I developed in the first half of 2013. I constantly improve my inks and systematically introduce minor changes to the their recipe, but the basic shape of it has not changed significantly. There have been no cases of corrosion or blockage due to precipitation in fountain pens which were inked with my Iron Gall inks for their standard use. Although should be noted that in case of leaving Iron Gall ink in unused pen for a very long period of time, and depending on its drying out on many factors, it is possible occurrence of corrosion in the case of pens with nibs made of stainless steel. Nibs made of for example gold, titanium, palladium, platinum, silver, etc. are generally resistant to corrosion and it is not possible under any circumstances to have corroded by the Iron Gall inks or any other known to me type of ink.

Iron Gall inks are waterproof inks and require compliance with a number of recommendations, following these guideline will protect prevent any problems that might occur during the use of Iron Gall inks in fountain pens.

Iron Gall inks create a specific group of inks – brief description of the processes that take place in the ink goes beyond this short tutorial – there will be time for that later. User should be aware that well stored Iron Gall inks are true solution, there is no solid residue suspended ink ink . Only after application of Iron Gall ink on a substrate (ideally paper) and evaporation of most of the water reactions occur which give a products water-insoluble complexes of iron with an intense dark colour.

• The same reactions which are responsible for darkening and formation of insoluble in water complexes of iron are also unfortunately possible in the interior of fountain pen. This can happen in case if fountain pen is left unused for long time or if fountain pen has large tendency to fast drying out. Cleaning dried Iron Gall ink is not especially difficult, but it requires a lot of time and patience (especially if you can not or do not want to disassemble the pen). Iron Gall inks should be used in fountain pens that we use regularly.
• Do not use Iron Gall inks in pens that tend dry out when you leave them for relatively short period of time. It is normal that if fountain pen is left for a week or two than at beginning of writing it requires a bit of pressure or writes a little darker. However, if the pen dries after a day or two without use it dries out or should be write much – in those pens Iron Gall inks should not be used, either other highly water resistant inks.
• If Iron Gall ink stored in the tightly twisted bottle begins to form deposits of solid on the walls and bottom of bottle than it should not be used in fountain pen. Spontaneous formation of sludge in Iron Gall inks is caused by improper handling, contamination or by the not appropriate proportions of ingredients used in ink. Also inks that are not Iron Gall, but have a tendency to spontaneous formation of deposits in the inkwell should be used with caution.
• Fountain pen before inking with Iron Gall ink have to be thoroughly washed – especially if other types of waterproof inks were used in particular pen. Similarly, if we change ink in fountain pen from Iron Gall ink to a different type of waterproof ink we should wash them thoroughly. Iron Gall inks can interact with certain inks, which will result in the formation of difficult to remove sediment in fountain pen ink. Here are a few methods of cleaning from best to worst:

1. Disassemble fountain pen and wash it under running water or better in an ultrasonic cleaner with a bit of detergent, and assemble the pen after it was dried.
2. Rinse fountain pen with water with detergent, after that fill the pen with water with detergent. Then, leave the pen with the nib to the bottom touching tissue or other absorbing material so the water slowly flows through the pen. After that rinse pen with clean water few times.
3. Any other methods which rely on a simple rinsing the fountain pen, even if after rinsing, it seems that the pen is clean because water flashed out of pen – it only seems so. In the feed and canals in pen there is certainly a left some residues of ink. You can check it by filling the pen with water and leaving it for a day – I’m quite certain that water flushed out of pen will have some colour.
4. Changing ink in fountain pen without washing is not recommended and everyone who does it do so at his own risk. Different inks have different properties, and mixtures of inks may not wish to work together by creating difficult to remove the precipitate.

• If Iron Gall ink is left in unused fountain pen for long time, and it partially dried out, it should not be returned to the inkwell with ink – in this case, pen should be rinsed with water like before changing the ink. Returning old Iron Gall ink back into the bottle will reduce the stability of the ink that still remained in the inkwell. Iron Gall inks require stabilization to prevent them from premature formation of sludge and secure pen with metal parts in contact with the ink (eg. Nib) against corrosion. We use a set of several compounds with different action – thanks to the synergy between them we are able to achieve very good results while maintaining relatively not large concentrations of any of them. But stabilizing system can not run forever and ink left in the pen, which has free access to air and oxygen slowly undergoes degradation processes and compounds that stabilized ink lose efficiency. Returning old ink to the bottle will have a negative impact on the stability of such ink and may cause that formation of sediment in the inkwell.
• Produced by us Iron Gall inks will not cause corrosion in normal use in fountain pens with nib made of stainless steel or gold. But there are sometimes some nib pens made of ordinary steel, sometimes the nib is protected against corrosion, for example by passivation layer (usually chromium). With this type of nib, it is possible for corrosion, especially if the passivation layer is mechanically damaged. Most species of stainless steels will interact very little or with magnetic field – if the nib is attracted by a magnet, than with a high degree of certainty it can be concluded that it was not made of stainless steel or the steel was not properly processed.
• Iron Gall inks should be stored in a cool and dark place to protect them from the negative effects of light on their stability.
• Iron Gall inks should not be diluted with water from the tap – the water is rich in various salts and contains trace amounts of the compounds used for the decontamination of water (such as ozone, chlorine, etc.), those compounds will have negative effect on stability of ink. If we want to dilute Iron Gall ink distilled, demineralised water or boiled over water should be used.
• Past experience has shown that most of Iron Gall inks produced by me can be mixed with standard inks of my production, as well as some other manufacturers. In preparing mixtures of any inks adequate caution should always be taken. Most of red, brown and purple inks should not be mixes with Iron Gall inks.

It sometimes happen that after Iron Gall ink dries in fountain pen a residue of insoluble sediment might be left in pen. There are several methods that allow us to remove this residue of  Iron Gall inks from inside the pen:

• Rinse with water pen dish-washing liquid – a good solution to rinse the pen should be prepared by adding at least 2-3 ml of dish-washing liquid to 10-15 ml of water. This solution has a very low surface tension and easily penetrates all small nooks and crannies inside fountain pen. Rinse the pen with this mixture several times, then leave the pen for a few minutes and than rinse again. After that rinse the pen till there is no detergent in pen. Using ultrasonic cleaner ease up cleaning process. This method of rinsing can also be useful also for the cleaning pen residues from other inks.
• Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), – if the rinsing with solution of dish-washing liquid did not give satisfactory results, adding to the water with dish-washing liquid ascorbic acid (which may for example come from crushed tablets) and rinsing the pen with this solution several times, should remove any residues of Iron Gall inks from fountain pen.
• Many people use for cleaning fountain pens vinegar, ammonia solutions or ammonium acetate. I didn’t used those methods so I can not tell if they are effective or not, but rinsing fountain pen with ammonia water may have negative effect on materials in fountain pens.
• If there is a possibility, very good results will give washing disassembled fountain pen in an ultrasonic cleaner – it is worth adding a few drops of dish-washing  liquid to water.