There is an ancient sorcery in the act of committing thought to paper — and the medium of that sorcery is ink. Long before the printing press rendered the scribe obsolete, monks and scholars laboured over iron gall formulations in candlelit scriptoria, coaxing tannins and vitriol into liquids that would endure for centuries upon vellum. That tradition, though transformed, has never truly ended. It merely migrated — into the hands of artisan ink-makers, of fountain pen enthusiasts, and, in this particular case, of a chemist who could not resist the urge to understand what happens at the molecular level when dye meets solvent, when ink meets nib, and when nib meets paper.
The Ink Laboratorium documents my forays into the formulation of fountain pen inks: the selection of dyes and pigments, the balancing of viscosity and surface tension, the pursuit of chromatographic behaviour that reveals hidden hues as ink separates upon cellulose fibres — secrets the naked formulation never announced. From iron gall recipes that honour their medieval ancestors to modern dye-based formulations calibrated for contemporary feed systems, the work here sits at the crossroads of colour theory, fluid dynamics, and a quiet obsession with the ritual of writing by hand. Reviews of commercial products will find their ways here as well.
This is where colour theory, chemistry, and a rather impractical devotion to the written word converge into something best not attempted in a white shirt.
