Fountain Pen Ink Questions

[Spats McGee]

Oh, there's no question but that it's beautiful. I'll gladly use it for pleasure writing. It's just slightly too purple for my business use.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

His & Hers

I like to sign things, particularly correspondence with green ink in my fountain pen, although I've not checked whether this causes problems when signing cheques.
My wife uses Purple Ink for her letters.

 

[John in Covina]

Eternal Inks for protection.

For checks there is a great non-washable ink from Noodler's look for their 'Eternal" line which was also called Bulletproof in the early incarnations. They keep developing new colors so I don't know what the line up is like right now. I have some of their brown, the Legal Lapis a sort of blue was not a favorite of mine.

They have a chemical bonding to either wood pulp or linen based papers that once they have dried will not let them be washed out with either water nor any chemical concoction yet found without damaging the paper.

We did a test with warm water on a variety of type of paper showing the Legal Lapis & the Brown against a variety of washable inks from several manufacturer's. The others ran like water in the warm water while the Eternal inks stayed put and the wood pulp paper began to shred.

Hope this may help your ink choices for check writing with a fountain pen.

Another viable option is to get a dip pen and use India Ink for checks. Never use India or other drawing inks in a fountain pen as they contain drying agents and components that will permanently clog most pens.

 

[John in Covina]

FYI - LA Pen Show Sunday 2/15/09
see it in the events section.

 

[SweetieStarr]

Last year I started using a 20 year-old bottle of Pelikan 4001 (Brilliant Brown), and received many comments on its color. I recently starting using Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black, only because it was the last color available (and I believe on sale). It works very well in my Pen and Ink Sketch pen, but I wouldn't use it to sign documents, either.

Vintage ink is great, but just make sure to check for mold, strange smells or floating bits. If the ink has any of those, don't fill your pen with it!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ok, here's something that hasn't come up -- and I'm wondering if you pen experts have ever tried it.

I recently came across a vintage bottle of laundry bluing, and on the section of the label where Other Household Uses for the product were listed, I noticed a drawing of a fountain pen, accompanied by the advice "Use It For Ink!"

Now, I'm always one for cheap solutions to expensive problems, and $2.50 for a bottle of bluing beats $8 for ink any day in the week. But is this safe for pens? I tried dipping a dip pen in bluing, and it wrote a nice strong smooth line -- but I would be very hesitant to load up a pen with it unless someone who knows better has had success with it.

 

[John in Covina]

Instant Bluing - I have seen it used as ink but since I don't know what the PH value is would worry about leaving it in a pen for very long.

 

[SweetieStarr]

Ok, here's something that hasn't come up -- and I'm wondering if you pen experts have ever tried it.

I recently came across a vintage bottle of laundry bluing, and on the section of the label where Other Household Uses for the product were listed, I noticed a drawing of a fountain pen, accompanied by the advice "Use It For Ink!"

Now, I'm always one for cheap solutions to expensive problems, and $2.50 for a bottle of bluing beats $8 for ink any day in the week. But is this safe for pens? I tried dipping a dip pen in bluing, and it wrote a nice strong smooth line -- but I would be very hesitant to load up a pen with it unless someone who knows better has had success with it.

I would also worry about it in a pen. What you could do is continue to use it with a dip pen if you have the patience.

 

[High Pockets]

There are three shifts, or "platoons" on the Fire Dept, and each are required to maintain logbooks at the station,....heck, you can't mow the lawn and neglect to make a note of it in the logbook.
I work the "Red" shift. My entries are required to be in red.

I've been using a Lamy Safari and just recently found an ink made be Noodler's called Antietam. It is absolutely beautiful! The browned red that looks likes dried blood.

The story is; an old ink well was discovered at the Antietem battlefield, the dried contents reconstituted by an ink-maker and wallah: (Sorry. I can't spell French ) Noodler's Antietam!

 

[univibe88]

I've been using a Lamy Safari and just recently found an ink made be Noodler's called Antietam. It is absolutely beautiful! The browned red that looks likes dried blood.

One of my favorite inks!

 

[Spats McGee]

Ok, here's something that hasn't come up -- and I'm wondering if you pen experts have ever tried it.

I recently came across a vintage bottle of laundry bluing, and on the section of the label where Other Household Uses for the product were listed, I noticed a drawing of a fountain pen, accompanied by the advice "Use It For Ink!"

Now, I'm always one for cheap solutions to expensive problems, and $2.50 for a bottle of bluing beats $8 for ink any day in the week. But is this safe for pens? I tried dipping a dip pen in bluing, and it wrote a nice strong smooth line -- but I would be very hesitant to load up a pen with it unless someone who knows better has had success with it.

If you actually want to load it into a pen (as opposed to using a dip pen), I'd suggest buying a cheap converter-fill pen to try it with first. I certainly wouldn't trot out one of my really nice pens to run this experiment.

 

[DodgeDeluxe]

Can I use Noodler's ink in my Waterman Phileas pen with no worries? I notice the paperwork included with the pen says use only Waterman's ink, is that just so they sell more ink or is it for a real reason?

Dan

 

[John in Covina]

Can I use Noodler's ink in my Waterman Phileas pen with no worries? I notice the paperwork included with the pen says use only Waterman's ink, is that just so they sell more ink or is it for a real reason?
Dan

The moment you put another brand of ink in your pen it will disolve into a mist with a small thunderclap and the loss of several fingers! :eusa_doh:

It's a ploy to sell more ink. There may have been a time when there was inks specially formulated for a brand or specific pen. (Parker 51 had it's own ink at one time.) But in general all makes of real fountain pen ink should work in any regular fountain pen. That being said, if you try a variety of inks you may notice that certain pens work best with certain inks. Like a dry writer may do better with Private Reserve's Tanzinite Purple. It flows really well and has been noted to improve some dry writing pens.

Experiment!

 

[Mid-fogey]

Many years ago...

...the repair guy at Fahrneys told me to use Quink. He said that it cleans the pen and that long term customers who use it have few, if any issues. I write hundreds and hundreds of pages a year with my and have great luck with it.

I always use black. Years ago as a Lt, I wrote a performance report in the AF and signed it in blue. My Lt Col boss told me it had to be black. I showed him the regulation where it said sign in blue or black. That was one of my first lessons: the boss is always right.

 

[John in Covina]

A lot of people have there favorites and for certain reasons. I have heard some say stay away from Private Reserve, others say no problem with PR. Noodlers is much beloved as is Diamene. I like Aurora Black and Namiki blue a lot but hate Waterman's ink, I think it stinks, literally.

There were and are ink makers that do not make pens and there are pen makers that don't make ink. Actually most pen makers don't make ink at all, they buy from someone else that formulates for them special and have it private labelled.

I have friends that alter inks with distilled water or add a tiny drop of a specific dish detergent to get what they want so it's personal not just business.

All I can tell you is there's plenty to choose from and not many are badly made, because that's how you go out of business!

The thing is to find what works well and what you like color wise and hopefully they are the same ink.

Enjoy!