metallic ink

There are two sources for small amounts of ink near the bottom of this thread, below my post:

http://www.briarpress.org/45040#comment-66929

I am assuming you do not want to make it yourself. (The golds are formulated with silver plus small amounts of yellow, rubine red, etc., and it is possible to make them if you have the Pantone bases, a scale, and you like a challenge).

[Pantone is a registered trademark]

http://www.southern-ink.com

Thanks! I sent them an inquiry.

Another quick question - I also touched base with my offset printer and they are able to sell me the PMS color, but did give me the disclosure that “these are inks that are specifically made for offset printing and we cannot guarantee that they will work for what you are needing or that they won’t damage machinery”.

Has anyone used Pantone offset inks on their letterpress with no issues? Is it recommended/OK to do so? If so, how is the clean up; what is used?

Thanks!

I believe everybody uses offset inks for letterpress, as there are very few inks remaining that are formulated for letterpress use (high pigments, short tack).

Frankly mixing a dab of Rubine Red into your gold metallic should be just fine, unless you have to meet an exact mix as defined by a client. Mixing ink is fun. Just note that most, if not all metallic inks are oil based and must be cleaned up directly after use, lest they dry onto your form and rollers.

Don’t forget that the rougher the paper you print the metallic ink on, the less metallic the ink is going to look. If you do a deep impression, it probably won’t look very metallic. You might be wise to do a test print to see if your client approves it.

If your client doesn’t like it, about the only alternative, (other than using very smooth paper with a kiss impression), is to hot stamp it.

thanks for the input! this has been helpful!