[Help] Magical inkmaking: the scent

[AlfrunGrima]

For a big personal and magical project I seek reccommendations how to put a scent in ink that I want to use with a fountain pen. It would be ideal if I get the scents of patchouli, sandalwood and sage in a ink. I tried to add essential oil to store bought ink, but it blocked the fountain pen and on some paper the ink starts to bleed through the paper.

Thanks in advance for advice! If people have other ideas about making ink, have book reccommendations or actually experiences, feel free to share also.

 

[Aldebaran]

wow that is a tough one and interesting!

What about using fountain ink (the kind that needs dipped into) and an old school feather quill pen. That would be incredibly neat to write in your grimoire with a quill feather pen and annointed ink. Good luck and please tell us how it goes.

 

[AlfrunGrima]

Thank you very much for responding! I want to use the ink in a serie of detailed magical drawings, drawing is not so easy with a quill feather pen. Tried it once when I was in high school... if I would make a grimoire, I never would use it either. The idea is romantic but not so practical. I am a lot more in love with the Metallic and Stardust Sakura pens. One can make really cool calligraphy and illuminated projects with it

There are scented inks online in webshops, but I like the idea of a ink that I customize myself a lot more. -->scents can annoy me when not exactly right.

 

[Aldebaran]

I think youre onto something. There is no reason you cant annoit your ink in the same way you charge anything else. There might be some weird environmental factors with your ink, but I doubt it.

I looked up 'Dip Pens' and found some. Not sure if that helps you.

You've got some real possibilities here with annoited ink and sigil or art magick! I'm excited for your possibilities. If you go down that road i hope you maintain a journal here.

 

[Morell]

How about opposite? Wet the paper with the essential oil and then use a pen on it.

Also for your own inks you might want to buy a dip pen. They are cheap, at least here they are if you don't buy sets but buy all the parts from specialized stores. Personally I must also note that if you are drawing with ink, you might want to consider glass dip pen, the head of it has a spiral that holds a lot of ink and since it is glass, no chemical reaction with any ink.

Post automatically merged: Dec 9, 2025

Dip pen requires some skill, but whenever it gets clogged by ink, you can simply clean it out or get another cheap dip pen head, the nib. If you want to do art with ink, calligraphy or sigils as you mention, it is better to use dip pen than fountain or ball pen, because of clogging. Dip pens are ancient and are the most tolerant to dirt in the ink. There are even sets for making your own ink for pens, especially ink for use with calligraphy brush used in Japan.

Spoiler: dip pen video

Spoiler: glass dip pen

Also you might need to research, or at least test, how to make ink properly so that it works well with your pen, you need different ink for dip pen and for fointain/balpoint.

personally I someday want to try UV ink. I already have glass pen, having UV ink would allow me to combine visible and hidden on one page, either for magic or an art.

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[Rowena]

You can make an alcohol extract of scents from raw materials - sage leaves for example - concentrate them simply by letting some of the alcohol evaporate off, and then add them to the ink.
This should be a light enough additive to stop clogging issues.

 

[AlfrunGrima]

How about opposite? Wet the paper with the essential oil and then use a pen on it.

Also for your own inks you might want to buy a dip pen. They are cheap, at least here they are if you don't buy sets but buy all the parts from specialized stores. Personally I must also note that if you are drawing with ink, you might want to consider glass dip pen, the head of it has a spiral that holds a lot of ink and since it is glass, no chemical reaction with any ink.

Post automatically merged: Dec 9, 2025

Dip pen requires some skill, but whenever it gets clogged by ink, you can simply clean it out or get another cheap dip pen head, the nib. If you want to do art with ink, calligraphy or sigils as you mention, it is better to use dip pen than fountain or ball pen, because of clogging. Dip pens are ancient and are the most tolerant to dirt in the ink. There are even sets for making your own ink for pens, especially ink for use with calligraphy brush used in Japan.

Spoiler: dip pen video

Spoiler: glass dip pen

Also you might need to research, or at least test, how to make ink properly so that it works well with your pen, you need different ink for dip pen and for fointain/balpoint.

personally I someday want to try UV ink. I already have glass pen, having UV ink would allow me to combine visible and hidden on one page, either for magic or an art.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

UV ink? Wow!..... thank you gor the input of the glass dip pens, I didn'tknow they exist... and I never thought the other way around to first apply oil and then start drawing. Time for experiments!

Post automatically merged: Dec 9, 2025

You can make an alcohol extract of scents from raw materials - sage leaves for example - concentrate them simply by letting some of the alcohol evaporate off, and then add them to the ink.
This should be a light enough additive to stop clogging issues.

That is actually a very good idea.... now my mind is spinning around because of all the possibilities that are now within my reach. Thank you!

 

[CJa444]

You can use a GLASS DIP PEN . It is easy to use and it work with any kind of ink based on alcohol , pigments , watercolour etc. but any liquid with added OIL ( like essential oils) will stop the velocity and the viscosity to work of the capillary action to ink flow with any nib. That's why fountain pen ink are different and they are very thin compared to other dip pen ink which is very thick and pigment based.
I guess You can add any liquid ( tincture extracts of herbs as patchouli, sandalwood and sage as mentioned ) as they are alcohol based extorters. I don't have any experience but I am guessing . There are ink based on water/ alcohol/ and shellac and added gum Arabic to adjust the velocity. Indian Sumi ink also has some thickening agent that comes from a Fish oil or something.
If you know about the oldest ancient ink DRAGON BLOOD RESIEN INK. use for grimoire , Sigils , and as anointing ink it uses wood raisins and gum Arabic and alcohol. So if you can find Sandalwood raisins ( if it is available ) and use some essential oil (non- organic and synthetic ) and use a combination of alcohol extract that can give a usable writing ink. But next problems is it can be only use by dip pen or father quills . and you have to find a proper paper to avoid fathering or bleeding. Fountain pen are out of the use in this topic. I know there are several seated fountain pen inks available in the market Under Herbain (French ) made. I don't know what synthetic scents they use. They are not organic chemistry they use for sure. They use industrial chemistry bases for the most ink.

 

[Keldan]

Any updates on the project? Most fountain pen inks are water based, so essential oils won’t mix well, they’ll separate. You could try a water soluble fragrance in a small test sample of the ink and see how it behaves? My only concern is that the scent probably won’t last very long.

I also had another crazy idea. If you cook and have an emulsifier, you will be able to blend essential oils into fountain pen ink with whatever scents you want. In theory, it would help the oil and ink stay mixed well, so there’s less chance of clogging the pen. But it’s definitely something you’d need to test first.

 

[AlfrunGrima]

Any updates on the project? Most fountain pen inks are water based, so essential oils won’t mix well, they’ll separate. You could try a water soluble fragrance in a small test sample of the ink and see how it behaves? My only concern is that the scent probably won’t last very long.

I also had another crazy idea. If you cook and have an emulsifier, you will be able to blend essential oils into fountain pen ink with whatever scents you want. In theory, it would help the oil and ink stay mixed well, so there’s less chance of clogging the pen. But it’s definitely something you’d need to test first.

In the end I did find a perfume that is water based and added it to the ink. Hubby is not in practicing occult things, but sees me making art things. His idea was it to just spray the perfume on a piece of kitchen paper, let it dry and put it in the book. The pages are scenting now.