Where can I buy an archival ink pad?

[Yaakov Asher Sinclair]

Does anyone know wher I can buy and an archival ink pad for a rubber stamp? Many thanks YA Sinclair

[james norman]

it depends on what you mean by archival. i recently started stamping the prints that i send to HABS/HAER, and i was unable to find a single commercial source for an ink acceptable to the LOC. they mix their own ink in-house, and sent me some. the other aspect of this is the ink pad itself - they would not allow a normal pad, it has to be end-grain balsa wood. they also provide very detailed guidelines for using the stamp and ink. many of the HABS/HAER guidelines and standards are available on their website and/or the LOC site.

[Robert A. Zeichner]

What I believe you are looking for is Actinic ink. I bought some of this from University Products. I didn't have great luck with it. You can contact them at info@universityproducts.com Perhaps you will discover the secret to it's proper use.

[Richard C. Trochlil]

Ok, what's archival ink? Of all the problems facing us photographers, I had never thought of that one. Are we looking at ink fading or are we looking at ink eating through or what?

[Yaakov Asher Sinclair]

I saw an article in View Camera Sep/Oct 1999 which spoke about using a stamp on the back of the print and the author mentioned the use of an archival-ink pad. I guess it's ink which won't eat the print.