Blickensderfer ink idea

An idea: very cheap (or free!) ink that is widely available and ideally suitable for using on a Blickensderfer typewriter.

On this Blickensderfer No. 5, the 'tinkering machine', the platen was replaced with a new one. The paper is modern, sold as suitable for both inkjet and laser printers. For the type, we've a few original wheels and a near endless supply of new typewheels to optimise the type-design. Remains the ink - several were tried and they did work, but none were ideal.

From gun-cleaning felts and a bit of brass tubing, new felt-rollers can be made. A bit of superglue (slightly viscous, not the very runny) to the sides helps give the felt firmness and keep it in its shape. For the inking then, generally a stamping ink is used. Modern stamp inks are usually water-based, although oil-based metal-stamp inks are also available.

Water-based stamp ink does sort-of work on the Blickensderfer, however, the roller dries out very quickly (in a day). And with the level of inking that's needed to get a good imprint there will be bleeding of the ink through the paper. For example; here the reverse of a page with one line written with a water-based ink:

Oil-based inks are thicker and don't bleed through quite as easily.

However, oil-based stamp inks are less easily found and small bottles are surprisingly expensive. Oil-based black ink works on this machine, although still sensitive on inking-levels for the felt. The colored oil-based inks are all too runny with not enough colorant. I.e. the colored inks splatter; lots of small droplets around the typed character.

Thinking about the inking process of the Blickensderfer typewriter, it is perhaps a bit like a miniature paint-roller. Thick 'wall paint' rolled onto the type, before it gets pressed onto the sheet.

Not having the original specification of the Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company for the ink, it probably specified:

• an oil-based ink, 
• very dense in colorant, 
• very thick (high viscosity), much thicker than stamp inks,
• slow to evaporate, slow to migrate in dense felt,
• and probably, ideally a bit sticky.

Then had an idea! Where to find such an ink! This ink is everywhere and cheap too.

Ballpoint pen inks are oil-based, they don't run in water. They are dense in colorants (a very thin layer of it is deposited on the paper), they are highly viscous and a bit sticky too. What is more; ballpoint pen ink is widely available in small quanities for very reasonable prices! (Sometimes free.)

For much less than a Euro purchased a small amount of blue ink from a reputable brand.

The cartridge can be pulled out of the pen easily. Removing the tip from the tube varies per brand, some can be pulled off easily, some require a bit of 'chewing' with pliers before they come off. But then we have a small tube filled with oil-based ink.

This particular cartridge's internal diameter is about 1.8 mm filled with just over 100 mm of ink. I.e. it contains about 250 mm³ or a quarter cc of ink. (Whilst the price for this quarter cc is very ressonable, the price per litre is of course staggering. Fortunately we only need a quarter cc.)

A Blickensderfer ink-roller is about 7 mm diameter with a 2 mm bearing-tube in the centre and 8.5 mm wide, then the total felt volume is about 300 mm³. The amount of ink that can be absorbed into 300 mm³ of felt will be less than that. Ergo, one pen should contain enough ink for one, probably for inking two ink rollers.

Holding the tube vertical over the felt roller, the ink will drop slowly onto the felt.

To pause, place the tube horizontal again, the ink will stay/withdraw into the tube.

The ink very slowly infuses the felt - it will take a day to fully migrate into the roller.

Even with the ink only in the outside of the roller, the ink does stick to the type for printing onto the sheet.

After inking a roller or two, the tip can probably be pushed back onto the tube and fitted into the pen again. Ready for writing, or inking another roller.

More experimenting to be done, but it seems a promising source of ink for the Blickensderfer typewriter! After letting the ink diffuse into the felt for a day, may apply one more drop to it.

Some even cheaper pens or some free advertising pens still to be tried perhaps. (Although the quality control of a reputable brand feels good to have for this; the ink will be better, of consistent quality and be free from harmful components.)

And to experiment with colours! Some brands make these pens in many colours; finally a purple writing Blick, or brown, or ...

An idea!

(So silly not to have thought of this before. Oil-based ink was right there all the time, scattered all around the house!)