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What Ink Do You Use In Vintage Pens?


patfia

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I have not been on this forum for some time so I will apologize in advance if this question has been asked and answered many times. I generally default to Waterman Florida Blue (or whatever that shade is called now) for vintage pens with the exception of Parker 51's. I will go a bit farther afield with 51's but would not fill with Noodlers on a bet or highly saturated inks. What do any of you use for your vintage pens? For reference, I have 1930's Sheaffer's lever fills, 1940's Parker vacumatic and aerometric, 1940's Waterman, and 1950's Sheaffer's. In my ink stash, I have a few Noodlers, Diamine, Private Reserve, PIlot Iroshizuku, Aurora Blue, Mont Blanc Violet, previously mentioned Waterman Florida Blue, and a few De Atramentis.

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When I bought my first vintage pen from Susan Wirth at the Atlanta Pen Show, I was given a list of recommended inks: Parker, Waterman, Sheaffer, Pilot/Namiki, Sailor, Platinum, and Diamine. I do generally stick to this list for my vintage pens. It's not like I don't have other modern pens that will cope quite nicely with all those other inks out there. :)

Edited by swanjun
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I will echo a comment from Ron Zorn that red inks are generally bad for sacs in vintage pens. I had some MB Hitchcock red eat through a recently resacced Parker Lucky Curve.

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I have used Noodler's Manhattan Blue and Ellis island ink in all of my vintage pens dating from the first three decades of the last century for the past two years and never encountered any problems.

They came as a boon, and a blessing to men,
The Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen

Sincerely yours,

Pickwick

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Well, one of my "vintage" pens is ED, several have silicone sacs from David Nishimura, others have conventional latex sacs. In the ED (not hard rubber, rather a converted Parker VS after the sac nipple crumbled), I mainly try to avoid alkaline inks, which means no "archival safe" Japanese inks, and it goes without saying no Noodler's BSB. In all sac'd pens, I prefer inks that are easy to clean out, so these pens do tend to see inks like Waterman Blue, Montblanc Royal Blue, Noodler's La Couleur Royale, Waterman Purple, Noodler's Blue, J. Herbin 1670 Bleu Ocean, or Noodler's Army Green. Except for Noodler's Nikita in the Parker VS ED (which is really cool with the clear feed, BTW), I reserve reds for modern pens. Note that when I switched over from latex to silicone sacs in several pens, Noodler's Blue and Army Green had been over several months used, and there was no detectable sac degradation whatsoever. I do not believe that ink saturation has anything directly to do with premature sac failure, but perhaps some subset of inks that happen to be highly saturated are causing the problem one way or another.

I know my id is "mhosea", but you can call me Mike. It's an old Unix thing.

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I've had no issues with Noodlers Old Manhattan Black and Bulletproof Black and Eel Blue in my vintage Esterbrooks, Sheaffers, and Parkers; these particular inks are really well-behaved and the pens aren't fragile. However, I use MontBlanc ink in my 1970 149 and Waterman Black in my Waterman No.5. Pelikan works well in anything. So do Parker and Sheaffer inks, but I just don't like the inks.

 

Tim

Tim

 timsvintagepens.com and @timsvintagepens

 

 

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Thank you all for your responses and satisfying my curiousity. Good to know about red. I'll reserve any reds for the modern crowd. I will be interested to see if anyone has experience with De Atramentis in vintage. I've just bought some of this ink and like it in the modern pens.

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Hello Patfia, et al,

 

Personally, in vintage pens, I like to use the "gentler" inks- one of my favorites for vintage pens are the J. Herbin inks, what is more appropriate for a vintage pen than an ink from a company that has been around for several hundred years?

 

All the best,

 

Sean :)

 

Edit: While I haven't used any De A inks in my vintage pens (yet), I see no harm in using De Atramentis inks in vintage pens, (I'd avoid red and black). ;)

Edited by S. P. Colfer

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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I've some vintage Conway Stewarts and I use Diamine, Herbin and Pelikan 4001 in them. The same with the couple of old Pelikans.

The Good Captain

"Meddler's 'Salamander' - almost as good as the real thing!"

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I will echo a comment from Ron Zorn that red inks are generally bad for sacs in vintage pens. I had some MB Hitchcock red eat through a recently resacced Parker Lucky Curve.

 

Do you know whether this would include a vintage red, like Sheaffer Melon Red? I was looking forward to trying that in my Estie with medium stub.

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I am reading this thread with interest as I have more vintage pens than modern.

 

From posts in this thread - and elsewhere, some people have had no problems with the Noodler's inks and I have used Private Reserve inks in a few vintage pens, too, without any harm caused to the pens/sacs but because of strong reservations expressed by some respected pen restorers who probably see and deal with more pens in a year than I am likely to see in my lifetime (that probably is not an exaggeration :P ) I will not use Noodler's inks in my vintage pens and I no longer use Private Reserve inks in them either. I do use these inks in my modern pens and like them, especially PR inks, judging by how many bottles of PR I have acquired.

 

It is not as if I have an extensive collection of pens, but I do have some vintage pens from Parker, Sheaffer and Esterbrook and, thus far, one vintage Pelikan. I very happily use Parker, Waterman, J. Herbin, Pilot and Pelikan inks in them, and have not yet run into any problems using Diamine or DeAtramentis inks in them either, though I have thus far stuck to green or blue shades from those two brands. I don't have any Sheaffer inks as yet (my ink collection isn't all that extensive, either) but can't see that they would be a problem.

 

I look forward to reading more about the experiences other folks have had with various ink brands and their vintage pens.

 

Holly

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I ONLY USE BAYSTATE BLUE IN MY VINTAGE PENS.

 

:rolleyes:

 

Seriously, I use whatever ink I want, so long as it's a fountain pen ink.

fpn_1451747045__img_1999-2.jpg

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I only have a single vintage pen (Esterbrook J) - right now, and all it has had in it so far since I got it is Pelikan 4001 Blue Black. I am considering something a bit wetter as this is a fairly dry ink, combine that with the 9550 EF posting nib and it can be frustrating. Maybe a Diamine or something.

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

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Well call me crazy, but after consulting with Richard Binder and reading articles by Ron Zorn, Rick Propas and Greg Minuskin, I no longer use Noodlers or Private Reserve in any of my vintage sac pens. My personal experience with Noodlers Burgundy, Black Swan and Australian Roses and Noodlers V-Mail African Violet, in two new latex sacs in Estie J's, remind me of the gooey mess those sacs became. And yes, I regularly clean my pens. From experience I feel safe using Waterman, Pelikan 4001, Parker, Sheaffer and Diamine inks.

Edited by MKeith

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" Patrick Henry

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Sheaffer Script Blue and Parker Quink Blue-Black. In both cases, older bottles made in the USA are still rather easily to locate.

 

Byron

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I did confirm that Noodler's NAV reacts with Noodler's Blue, BTW. As I have said before, I would avoid NAV in sac'd pens, but if a person does want to use it, I would recommend flushing with (diluted) ammonia to remove it before using another ink. IME, water alone is not sufficient for flushing Noodler's NAV out completely.

I know my id is "mhosea", but you can call me Mike. It's an old Unix thing.

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I use Parker Quink most of the time.I do use some Sheaffer Skrip and Herbin.Here of late I have used some Diamine Blaze Orange ink in a Parker 51 vac pen with no trouble.

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I did confirm that Noodler's NAV reacts with Noodler's Blue, BTW. As I have said before, I would avoid NAV in sac'd pens, but if a person does want to use it, I would recommend flushing with (diluted) ammonia to remove it before using another ink. IME, water alone is not sufficient for flushing Noodler's NAV out completely.

 

In all honesty I don't find myself using NAV much anymore. It's a fantastic color, but you're right in saying it's hard to clean. Quite the understatement, actually. I usually use Waterman Purple instead.

fpn_1451747045__img_1999-2.jpg

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I don't use Private Reserve or Noodlers in my better vintage pens. I'll take the word of multiple experienced restorers over individual anecdotes any day. There are so many different "safe" inks available for the vintage pens and so many different modern pens to use with the PR and Noodlers that it's all good.

 

Mostly I just don't want to have to worry about it.

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Parker Quink Blue Black.

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