Best Black Ink For Your Lamy 2000

[Stowford]

Hi, a question for all the Lamy 2000 users, which black ink do you prefer to put in your pen? I've tried a few, Waterman Intense Black, Aurora Black and Pelikan Brilliant Black. I have a 2000 with a fine nib and I've found the Pelikan Black to give the truest fine line, although the ink itself has just a hint of brown in. The Waterman and the Aurora tend to write just a little too wet and give off more of a medium line, which isn't the best for note taking.

 

I'm looking for a true black that lays down a line that is true to the nib size in the 2000. I wonder if anyone could offer me any good alternatives to the inks I've mentioned. Any replies much appreciated.

 

Regards

[dragos.mocanu]

Noodler's Black gives the 'truest' line width, out of all the inks I've tried so far. Apart from that, it's indestructible!

[strictlyobiter]

My black ink of choice is Diamine Onyx Black. It's the truest Black I've tested. It sits in my fine-nibbed Pelikan for work and stays quite tight even on cheap paper.

[BlazeOrangeGuy]

For me, I use Sailor's Nano Pigment Black in my Lamy 2000. You get a good, consistent fine line on any paper and once dry, the ink is permanent for documents. This has been my experience, in any case.

[doggonecarl]

I don't get a true, fine line from my 2000. It's a Lamy! So I'm fine with Lamy black, which I think is under appreciated as a black. But in my " finest" fine, I use Sailor Black.

[proton007]

Pilot Black isn't bad either.

[athenian]

Herbin Perle Noir

[ravantra]

Herbin Perle Noir

+1 Perle Noir

 

I also like Noodler's Dark Matter and Iroshizuku Take-Sumi

[ac12]

First, what is "a line that is true to the nib size in the 2000?"

The tip of the F nib of my 2000 measures the same as the M nib of my old Parker and Pilot Metropolitan, approximately 0.028 inch wide.

Accordingly, to ME, the Lamy nib is comparable to a M nib.

For me, when I use a magnifier and watch the ink line as I write, if the ink line is about the size of the tip or a little less (depending on tip construction), then that is true to size of the nib.

 

Waterman is a wet ink, and that would tend to give you a wider ink line. In a wet pen like yours, you would have too much ink flow.

 

Pelikan is a dry ink, and would give you a thinner ink line. This works well in a WET pen, like your 2000.

I do not know what other inks are DRY.

Because the Sailor nano-particle ink is a pigment ink, I am inclined to think it is a DRY ink. But caution is advised on using any pigment based ink in a fountain pen not designed for such inks.

 

So based on your info, you want a DRY ink to slow down the ink flow.

 

Or send the pen and the ink of your choice to a nib meister, and have him adjust the nib so the ink flow matches what you want, within the limits of the nib size. But be advised that slowing down the flow of ink is more difficult than increasing it. Or he can grind the nib to a smaller size.

 

You could also send the 2000 to Lamy and get the F nib replaced with a XF nib. That would let you use the Waterman and Aurora inks. But there is no guarantee that the ink flow of the XF nib would be the same as your F nib. The opposite of your pen, the F nib in my 2000 is a DRY nib. Waterman ink in my pen flows OK but a bit on the dry side. I would have to adjust the nib to get MORE ink flow.

Edited April 20, 2014 by ac12

[setriode]

I find the Pelikan gives a richness of shades which tend to be dark purple. The only other black I have used in it is Lamy ink. While more wet, it exhibits a uniform black line of little visual interest. To me this is dull.

[xTwiinKy]

First, what is "a line that is true to the nib size in the 2000?"

The tip of the F nib of my 2000 measures the same as the M nib of my old Parker and Pilot Metropolitan, approximately 0.028 inch wide.

Accordingly, to ME, the Lamy nib is comparable to a M nib.

For me, when I use a magnifier and watch the ink line as I write, if the ink line is about the size of the tip or a little less (depending on tip construction), then that is true to size of the nib.

 

 

 

? Why are you measuring the tipping and not the line width? Is that accurate? Pelikan is known for putting ALOT of tipping material on their pens. The geometry of the Sabi-Togi nib tapers for a very small surface contact area.

 

Anyway so your saying your L2K Fine is 0.7 mm!?

My XF wrote a crazy thin line when I got mine. It somehow broke in and become much softer and wetter (no pressure on my part haha) and is a 8 on a flow scale pen with J Herbin Pearle Noire. I used a nibmeisters loupe at pen show and after having it adjusted I checked the size.... under 0.3 mm!

 

I would think with a flow-tine and ink adjustment I could get a much thinner line like when I first wrote with it. But its such a gorgeously smooth pleasant writer that the ink lubrication has to be helping haha.

[ac12]

 

? Why are you measuring the tipping and not the line width? Is that accurate? Pelikan is known for putting ALOT of tipping material on their pens. The geometry of the Sabi-Togi nib tapers for a very small surface contact area.

 

Anyway so your saying your L2K Fine is 0.7 mm!?

My XF wrote a crazy thin line when I got mine. It somehow broke in and become much softer and wetter (no pressure on my part haha) and is a 8 on a flow scale pen with J Herbin Pearle Noire. I used a nibmeisters loupe at pen show and after having it adjusted I checked the size.... under 0.3 mm!

 

I would think with a flow-tine and ink adjustment I could get a much thinner line like when I first wrote with it. But its such a gorgeously smooth pleasant writer that the ink lubrication has to be helping haha.

 

I measure the tip as a starting point to categorizing the tip. Call this step 1.

Yes, the tip of my F nib on my Lamy 2000 measures 0.028 inch or 0.71 mm wide. Measured using a dial caliper.

 

Step 2 is the SHAPE of the tip. And as you said, it is not the same. Here are 4 different tip shapes that I have run into.

- Shaped like a cylinder laying on its side, so the ink line would be about as wide as the tip.

- For lack of a better term, I will call these tips "slabs" as they are simply rectangular in shape, with vertical sides. And like a cylinder, the ink line is as wide as the tip.

- Spheres, where the ink line is narrower than the tip

- Wedges, with a wide top and tapering to a smaller contact patch, similar to spheres where the ink line is narrower than the tip.

The contact patch on a sphere or wedge is difficult to measure.

 

Steps 1 and 2 are independent of the variables of ink and paper.

 

Step 3 is the actual ink line on the paper, and this is subject to the variables of ink, ink flow, and paper.

- The first problem with measuring the width of the ink line is the measuring tools are harder to find than a simple dial caliper that I use to measure the tip.

One day I do plan to get a magnifier with a scale, so I can measure the ink line, but that is an expense that I have pushed out.

- The 2nd problem is ink flow: Here you could have a situation with 2 virtually identical nibs both marked F, both measuring at approx 0.028 inch wide tip, both with the same sphere shaped tip....but one nib is WET and the other dry. They would produce different width ink lines. I have a dry F and Stowford has a wet F.

- The third problem is changing any of the 3 variables mentioned (ink, ink flow, paper) could change the width of the ink line.

Example1 - a WET pen with wet ink and a sphere shaped tip on hard paper, could put down an ink line wider than the width of the tip, simply by the large volume of the ink that is put down on the paper.

Example2 - a normal to slightly dry pen with dry ink and a sphere shaped tip on hard paper, could put down an ink line narrower that the width of the tip. This is because only a small amount of ink is put down, and it does not spread much further than the contact patch of the tip on the paper.

Example3 - a normal pen with wet ink and a sphere shaped tip on porous paper, could put down an ink line wider than the width of the tip. This is because the paper would be blotting the ink and spreading the ink line out. Think of the rough porous fibery newsprint paper.

 

 

@ Stowford

That brings up another point. What you consider true ink line to match your nib will depend on the ink, your pen and the paper.

You have a wet pen, so that is a problem, as that will tend to make the ink like wider.

A wet ink in a wet pen will put more ink on the paper tending to spread the ink.

 

The paper used is the 3rd variable. Some papers will BLOT the ink, so your F nib will look like a M or B nib. I had some of this kind of paper, and got rid of it as being useless for fountain pen use. Harder paper will hold the ink better while it slowly penetrates and dries, so holding a narrower ink line. But ink dries slower on hard paper. When I was in college, I would have to buy a specific brand of paper that was fountain pen friendly. The bulk paper that my mother bought would blot the ink. Fine for pencil and ball pen, but bad for a fountain pen. And this situation of good and bad paper is still true today, and even worse in many places because many paper companies do not consider fountain pens when formulating the specs for papers.

 

As I see it, the main thing is, you need to slow down the ink flow with a dry ink to limit the amount of ink put down on the paper, and you need to use a hard surface paper to limit the spread of the ink on the paper.

[pencils]

I've been using Noodler's X-Feather in my Lamy Safari for a while now. It's not the destroyer-of-all-feathering that it's touted to be, but it's very reliable, and has no shading whatsoever.