Ok, part of the world of inks is the fact they are acidic. That is a part of the makeup and reasons why ink works so well. Most manufacturer's do add a base to lessen the acidity, such as the suggestion above to use egg shells.
The way an acidic ink works, using iron gall for example, the acid works to "etch" the ink into the paper itself. It doesn't sit on top such as an acrylic. Without the acid in the thin inks such as iron gall and walnut and tons of other thin inks, the ink would never last and eventually fade on it's own.
There has been lots of talk here lately about the acidity of ink and I think we might be over thinking it.
Would it be great to have a non acidic version of McCaffery's, sure! But the ink would not last, your words you write would be lost and nothing would remain of it. Part of being a penman or calligrapher is the nibs being an expendable item. That is the way it is and the way it always has been. Is it more expensive than a rollerball or fountain pen to use, sure, but show me a rollerball which expresses your feeling and heartrate in the strokes!
The days of the vintage nibs are gone, the reason is a human (almost always women, too) sat in production lines, hundreds upon hundreds of them and all day long carefully and painstakingly produced and hand ground every single nib that went off the assembly line. In today's workplace that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and make nibs so expensive, no one could afford them, let alone someone crazy enough to invest the money into it. We are now left with good quality nibs at an affordable price and many people have spent countless hours trying to devise a way to machine produce the same quality and it just isn't possible without sinking a TON of money into a low volume product.
Bottom line is this....
A) Use the Ink you enjoy using!
B) Find a modern production nib you enjoy using
C) Buy extra nibs, cause they
WILL go bad from acid or the mechanics of use
D) If you happen upon vintage nibs at a decent price grab them up and enjoy using them until they are gone
E) Rinse nibs often in clean water and dry when your done
F) Enjoy what you write
G) If you really get upset by nibs of days past, make art out of all your used nibs and enjoy it all over, lol
Now quit worrying about the chemical composition of inks and go put something on paper! hehe 