c/fountain-pen-ink-alchemists

Back when I started mixing, I kept everything in old jam jars.

I used to just grab a clean spoon, dump some ink in, and hope for the best. My notes were scribbles on sticky notes that faded or got lost. The big change came about two years ago after a batch of what should have been a nice teal turned into a murky brown sludge. I got serious and bought a set of 5ml glass vials and a pack of those tiny plastic pipettes. Now I measure everything, even if it's just a few drops, and I keep a proper notebook with the date, ratios, and pen I tested it in. It feels less like wild guesswork and more like I'm actually learning something. Anyone else have a specific tool that made your mixing process way better?

I was at the old library in Springfield and they had a display of antique ink bottles from the 1920s.

My friend and I had a huge fight about adding dish soap to ink

Last week, we were mixing a batch of dark blue in my garage, trying to get the flow right for a flex nib. He swears by adding a tiny drop of clear dish soap, like 1 drop per 10ml, to cut surface tension. I think that's a bad idea because it can mess with the ink's pH and make it go bad faster, plus it might eat at some pen parts over time. He says he's done it for 3 years with no problems, but I had a batch turn weird and clog a pen after just 6 months. Who's right here? Is dish soap a legit flow aid or a ticking time bomb for your ink?

Overheard a weird tip about ink mixing at the local pen shop

I was picking up some paper at Pen Haven yesterday and heard a guy telling the clerk he adds a single drop of distilled water to his shimmer inks after they sit for a month. He said it keeps the particles from clumping at the bottom of the bottle without changing the color much. I tried it with a sample of a popular gold shimmer ink that had gotten thick, and after 3 days it flowed way better in my pen. Has anyone else tried this trick with other types of ink, like ones with sheen?

Serious question, is it ever okay to mix inks from different brands?

For a long time, I thought the only rule was to stick with the same brand to avoid bad reactions. I mixed a whole bottle of a popular blue from Brand A with a green from Brand B, about a 70/30 split, and it was fine for months. Then last week, I pulled out that pen and found a weird, gritty sludge in the converter. It totally gummed up the feed. I had to take the whole thing apart. That made me wonder if I just got lucky before, or if some brands really do play nice together while others are a hard no. What's your line on this? Do you have a list of safe combos, or is it just too risky to ever cross brands?

Found a quick fix for a clogged shimmer ink in my TWSBI

Had a sample of 'Emerald of Chivor' that kept clogging after a day. Mixed in a single drop of distilled water and a tiny pinch of dish soap. Flows perfectly now. Anyone else try this with other shimmer inks?

Warning: I keep seeing people mix inks without checking the pH first.

I was trying to make a nice purple by mixing a blue and a red, and it turned into this weird sludge after a day. The blue was a basic ink and the red was super acidic, and they just did not get along. I lost about 15ml of good ink because I didn't test them. Has anyone else had a batch go bad from a chemical clash like that?

Showerthought: A friend told me my ink mixes were 'muddy' and it changed my whole process

I mean, I used to just grab a couple of bottles that looked nice and mix them in a sample vial, maybe a 50/50 split. I thought I was making cool new colors, but a friend in the hobby looked at my swatch cards last year and said, 'Honestly, these all look kinda muddy.' She pointed out that I was mixing inks with totally different properties, like a super wet Pilot ink with a dry, dusty Noodler's one. The pigments or dyes were just fighting each other. So I started keeping a notebook, writing down not just the color names but the flow and dry time of each ink before I even think about mixing. Now I test tiny drops, like 90/10 ratios, and wait a full day to see if anything weird happens. It's slower, but my blues actually look blue now, not gray. Has anyone else had a simple piece of advice that made you stop and rebuild your method from the ground up?

Update: My ink experiment turned into a purple disaster on my desk

I was mixing a new batch in my kitchen last night, trying to get a deep plum color with a 3:1 ratio of a blue-black to a burgundy. The bottle slipped from my wet hands and shattered on the tile floor... sending about 30ml of concentrated dye everywhere. It looked like a crime scene. I spent the next hour on my knees with paper towels and rubbing alcohol, but the grout is still stained. Has anyone found a better cleaner for this kind of mess that won't ruin the floor?

Saw a weird ink mixing setup at the Portland Pen Show last weekend

Some guy had a whole station with 30 tiny vials and a digital scale. He was mixing Diamine Oxblood with a shimmer additive. Said it was for a 'blood moon' effect. Looked messy and the shimmer kept clogging his tester pen. Anyone else tried adding shimmer to dark reds? Does it ever flow right?

Just hit 27 distinct ink mixes using only the three basic Noodler's bulletproof colors. It's way more possible than people think.

I got bored last month and decided to see how many unique, usable writing inks I could make from just Noodler's Black, Navajo Turquoise, and Empire Red. I figured I'd get maybe 10. After hitting 27 confirmed, stable mixes in my swatch book, I'm convinced the 'you need a huge collection' mindset is holding people back. Most are just simple ratios, like 4:1 turquoise to red for a deep teal, or a 3:2:1 split of all three for a murky, interesting grey-green. The real trick was adding a single drop of distilled water to some blends to change the saturation without killing the permanence. Has anyone else done a deep dive with a severely limited starter palette? What was your count?

Warning: my friend in Chicago tried to 'help' by adding glitter to my iron gall mix

I found a vial of my custom sepia-black ink, now completely clogged with craft glitter, sitting on my workbench with a note that said 'thought it needed some sparkle'.

I had to pick between a drop of dish soap or a drop of glycerin to fix a dry ink, and I'm glad I chose the soap.

Looking back at my first ink mix from three years ago in my old apartment

I found the notebook where I wrote down my first try, a simple mix of 3 parts Waterman Serenity Blue to 1 part a basic black I got in Portland. Last month, I tried to make it again and it came out totally different, maybe because the black ink formula changed. Has anyone else had an old recipe just stop working like that?

My custom shimmer ink clogged my favorite pen after 3 days

I mixed a heavy gold mica powder into a sample of Iroshizuku Yama-budo last week, thinking it would be perfect for holiday cards. The ink looked amazing in the vial but completely gummed up the feed of my TWSBI Eco, and I had to take the whole thing apart to clean it. Is there a specific ratio or type of shimmer powder that actually stays suspended without causing these issues?

Update: I was sure shimmer inks would clog any pen, but a meetup in Austin proved me wrong

At the Texas Pen Show last month, I watched a woman fill a Pilot Kakuno, a cheap school pen, with a heavy gold shimmer mix she made herself. She said, 'It's all in the surfactant, a single drop of Vanness White Lightning in 30ml changes everything.' I told her that was asking for trouble, but she let me try it. The pen wrote smooth as butter for a full page, no hard starts, no glitter clump in the feed. I've been too scared to try it in my own good pens for years. Now I'm mixing a sample batch with a tiny bit of dish soap as a wetting agent. Has anyone else had luck with a specific recipe to keep shimmer flowing in fine nibs?

My attempt at a 'mossy stone' green went completely sideways

I tried mixing 2 parts of Diamine Sherwood Green with 1 part of a basic black ink, expecting a deeper forest shade. Instead, after letting it sit for a week, it separated into this weird, murky gray with green particles that clogged my TWSBI Eco. In my experience, you really can't assume all inks will play nice, even from big brands. Has anyone else had a specific black ink that mixes reliably with greens?

My 'vintage' ink buy turned into a $45 bottle of sludge

Found a cool looking bottle at a flea market, but it was totally separated and clogged my favorite pen for a week. Anyone know a safe way to salvage old ink, or is it always a gamble?

Just realized my buddy was right about adding a drop of glycerin

He swore it would smooth out my scratchy iron gall mix, and after a month of ignoring him, I tried it last night and the flow is perfect. Anyone have a good source for pure vegetable glycerin that won't break the bank?

My 'vintage' ink bottle turned out to be a total disaster

I found this cool old bottle at a flea market in Austin, cleaned it out, and filled it with a custom purple mix I call 'Grape Nebula'. The cap looked fine, but it must have been cracked because the whole thing leaked in my bag on the flight home. My favorite notebook is now a tie-dyed mess. Has anyone else had a container fail on them mid-travel?

Heard a guy at the pen show say 'all shimmer inks clog' and it got me thinking

I was at the Ohio Pen Show last weekend, just browsing the ink tables, when I overheard a guy telling a new collector that all shimmer inks will clog a pen eventually. He was so sure of it, like it was a law of physics. It made me pause, because I've been mixing my own shimmer inks for about two years now. I use a specific 0.5 ml pipette to add mica powder to well-behaved base inks, and I've found that if you keep the shimmer particle size consistent and use a wet-flowing base, you can go months without a single hard start. My daily writer, a TWSBI Eco with a broad nib, has been running the same custom teal shimmer mix since January. So is the problem really the shimmer, or is it just how people use it? What's your longest-running shimmer ink success story?

Shoutout to the cheap ultrasonic cleaner I got for $40

It saved a batch of shimmer ink that had completely clogged my pen, just by running it for a few cycles. Anyone have a go-to cleaning solution they like to use in theirs?

Rant: My friend said my ink mix was too safe and boring

I was really proud of this deep blue I made from 60% Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai and 40% a basic black, thinking it was a perfect professional shade. My friend in the group, Sarah, looked at my swatch card and just said 'It's fine, but it's just another blue. Where's the risk?' That comment stuck with me for a week. I've started adding a single drop of a sheening red, like Diamine Majestic Blue's leftover residue, to my 30ml batches to try and get a subtle halo effect. Has anyone else pushed past making 'safe' inks after some blunt feedback?

Honestly, everyone says you can't mix shimmer and pigment inks, but I've been doing it for a year with my old bottle of 'Midnight Sky' pigment base and it's been fine.

Tbh, I think the real issue is people not shaking the pigment base enough before mixing, because I've had zero clogs in my TWSBI Eco after 12 months of using a 3:1 ratio with a gold shimmer additive.

My friend told me to always add a drop of dish soap to fix flow issues

She swore by it for any ink that felt too dry, so I tried it with a mix of a blue and a black ink. It worked way too well and turned my pen into a firehose, ruining a whole page in my journal. I learned the hard way that 'a drop' means like, a toothpick tip's worth, not an actual drop from the bottle. Has anyone else messed up a batch by adding too much surfactant?