Beginner Ink

[dbotts73]

Brand new to fountain pens...what are some good inks to start with? I am looking to convert some platinum preppy's to eyedropper pens and want some beginner inks to try. Thanks for the help!

[casualmerlinconstant]

What color do you have in mind?

Parker washable quink blue works on and in almost everything. Boring colour but no fuss.

Edited September 19, 2014 by superglueshoe

[Inkyfingerz]

Noodler's is a good brand to start with. Plenty of choices and reasonable prices.

[Notgatherox]

Any qualities that you're looking out for? Colours?

 

For a daily writing, "safe to use in all situations" kind of ink, Pelikan 4001 Black works okay for me. Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black is semi water resistant, if you care about such things. If you want permanence, go for Noodler's Black. It's more expensive, but 3oz will last for long! (The permanent version of a blue black would be Noodler's 54th Massachusetts.)

 

If one is looking for vibrant colours, Diamine Wild Strawberry has a striking red! Diamine Sapphire Blue is a bright purplish-blue!

 

Another safe ink would be Waterman Serenity Blue (Florida Blue). Haven't got any experience with that ink though.

 

Hope I helped.

 

 

~Epic

[ac12]

Standard starter inks that I know of are:

• Parker Quink
• Sheaffer Skrip
• Waterman
• Pelikan

I use both Waterman and Pelikan, depending on the flow characteristic of the pen.

 

Noodler's has some good stuff, but the product line is so broad and varied that it is confusing to many, which is why I shy away from recommending them as a brand. Maybe for specific inks, but not the entire line.

[ink-syringe]

Hard to go wrong with tried and true Florida Blue~ Easily available. Well behaved. Nice shade of Blue. Work & play.

 

 

 

Another safe ink would be Waterman Serenity Blue (Florida Blue).

[j.a.j.]

One possibility is to get one very dry and one very wet ink and experiment with their differences.

 

For example J. Herbin inks are quite wet and Pelikan 4001 inks quite dry. If water resistance is important then most Noodlers Bulletproof inks are semi dry and Polar Black inks are a bit wet.

[Christi0469]

I like Waterman inks as they are well-behaved and easily cleaned.

[ac12]

I do as j.a.j. mentioned.

I have Waterman (wet) and Pelikan (dry) inks.

I match the flow characteristic of the pen to the ink.

First I load with the wet Waterman ink. If the pen writes too wet, then I switch to the dry Pelikan ink to slow down the ink flow.

[mirosc]

Noodler's is a good brand to start with. Plenty of choices and reasonable prices.

 

I would hesitate to recommend Noodler's to a beginner - some nice inks, indeed, but also some that are difficult to maintain. One should be careful which ink he buys.

 

I'd rather chime in with Waterman or Pelikan inks.

A royal blue is a classic (in fact so classic that some think of it as boring), usually easy to maintain and mostly very well behaving. Very often even erasable.

[Huskysibe]

Noodlers is what I started with and I love it.

[Icywolfe]

I would say go for Pilot Iro inks only because they are well balanced ink. They are decently light proof and decently waterproof. And they tend to not feather but is very lubricated. Has awesome shading But..... the price is 29 USD per 50ml bottle.

Just the Iro is just a mess free ink. It won't be fussy with your pens nor fussy when you are washing it off your pens. It will be fussy on your hands though. Sexy bottle too, but that DAT PRICE!

 

Another choice is DeAtramentis scent inks. They tend to be similiar to Pilot Iro inks and they are cheaper. But the downside is that the ink lacks shading. 30ml is 12 USD (?)

[LamyOne]

Standard starter inks that I know of are:

• Parker Quink
• Sheaffer Skrip
• Waterman
• Pelikan

 

Hello Dbotts,

 

I would echo these myself; here is a little more detail, (in GENERAL terms):

 

Quink: Wet, (meaning the ink flows free and easy out of most pens); good lubrication under the nib.

Skrip: Moderately wet, (meaning a little drier than Quink or WM, but still has good flow); average lubrication, can be a little grainy under some nibs

Waterman: Excellent flow and lubrication - the Cadillac of the "safe brands," IMHO.

Pelikan: A safe, reliable ink, but on the drier side with both flow and lubrication. (Can be good in a pen that's a gusher).

 

Adding to this:

 

J. Herbin: Good flow; but generally a little dry on lubrication

Iroshizuku, (Pilot's premium line): Usually good flow and excellent lubrication, but quite expensive.

 

Hope this helps you a little.

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

Edited September 19, 2014 by LamyOne

[Lou Erickson]

I would say go for Pilot Iro inks only because they are well balanced ink. They are decently light proof and decently waterproof. And they tend to not feather but is very lubricated. Has awesome shading But..... the price is 29 USD per 50ml bottle.

Just the Iro is just a mess free ink. It won't be fussy with your pens nor fussy when you are washing it off your pens. It will be fussy on your hands though. Sexy bottle too, but that DAT PRICE!

 

Pilot also sells blue and black ink under their Namiki brand, and it is well-behaved, nice ink without the very high price. There's a blue-black and a red too, but they're hard to find in the USA. I'd happily recommend the regular Pilot/Namiki ink to anyone.

[Icywolfe]

 

Pilot also sells blue and black ink under their Namiki brand, and it is well-behaved, nice ink without the very high price. There's a blue-black and a red too, but they're hard to find in the USA. I'd happily recommend the regular Pilot/Namiki ink to anyone.

Or recommend them this:

 

http://www.engeika.com/product/935

 

And you thought the Noodler's 130ml was big. Pilot Beats it.

 

http://www.engeika.com/data/engeika/product/20140819_88c799.jpg

 

These looks like pop drink bottles.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Icywolfe

[Lou Erickson]

Or recommend them this:

 

http://www.engeika.com/product/935

 

And you thought the Noodler's 130ml was big. Pilot Beats it.

 

http://www.engeika.com/data/engeika/product/20140819_88c799.jpg

 

These looks like pop drink bottles.

Hee.

 

The same place has the ordinary Pilot ink for $9, and in the nice round bottles with the filler insert.

 

I haven't ordered from them, but may in future.

[Icywolfe]

Hee.

 

The same place has the ordinary Pilot ink for $9, and in the nice round bottles with the filler insert.

 

I haven't ordered from them, but may in future.

I have the urge to get the blue version of the 350ml bottles. But I'm wonder how do I use all that? It's cheap enough I can get a few bottles, but who needs more than 1 bottle of those? Unless you wake up in the morning with a cup of ink.

[KBeezie]

Noodler's is a good brand to start with. Plenty of choices and reasonable prices.

 

I wouldn't say a "good start" without doing some extensive research first, they got some great models of inks that are rather affordable, but without understanding how some of them behave with a wide variety of properties they could run into problems. Such as using any Bulletproof inks in a Japanese extra-fine. I started with Noodler's Black eel, mainly because I researched it a little, wanted waterproofness but wanted it lubricated since I was going to use it in a Jinhao X750 with a Goulet Extra-Fine nib. It worked out rather well, but there are some pens of mine now that don't work that well with noodler's bulletproof inks.

 

Good starter inks that are well behaved with most pens I noticed are :

Pelikan inks either 4001 or Edelstein - the 4001 runs a little on the dry side (good if you don't like it too wet), but well behaved and somewhat easy to clean

Waterman Black (aka Intense Black), very well behaved, very dark, not completely waterproof but legible if wet

J.Herbin 1670 line, reasonably priced for the 30ml ($10 ish) such as like 1670 Ocean Bleu, well behaved and very easy to clean

Iroshizuku inks (ie: Tsuki-yo, Ama-iro, etc) most Iroshizuku inks I've tried are well behaved, but they're on the pricey side ($30ish for 50ml, but can sometimes get it for $20 at Amazon and such)

Parker Quink, rather good flow, but I find Parker Quink Blue to be a bit on the boring side, almost like an old school blue

 

Brands I like but may require some research into the specific color to pair with your nib/pen combo:

- Noodler's Probably my favorite of the affordable brands currently have Black Eel, Texas Blue Steel, Texas Live Oak, Texas Pecan, Apache Sunset, and Liberty's Elysium

- Diamine Mainly Syrah (though I'd like to give Majestic Blue a go), through Syrah seemed to be harder to clean, it's rather saturated. Eclipse ain't bad though.

- R&K Mainly for Salix, but as an Iron Gall, some discretion is advised, it's a lovely blue that runs on the dryer side.

 

But with *any* inks, if you change them in the pen make sure you clean out the pen *completely* since any mixture of two different inks can have unpredictable results (Noodler's Baystate Blue for example is likely reactive to other inks causing it to eat feeds and rubber, but I doubt the ink all by itself did that but rather poor pen hygiene.)

 

Or recommend them this:

 

http://www.engeika.com/product/935

 

And you thought the Noodler's 130ml was big. Pilot Beats it.

 

http://www.engeika.com/data/engeika/product/20140819_88c799.jpg

 

These looks like pop drink bottles.

You know, if it costs something like $9 for the Pilot Blue-Black 130ml I would have no problems purchasing that, other than just straight Pilot Black it's probably my favorite of the "non-premium" inks. Inexpensive, doesn't run too dry or wet, has a decent amount of character in the shading, dries quick enough on paper and works for most purposes.

Edited September 19, 2014 by KBeezie

[Icywolfe]

Many would disagree but I feel like Platinum Pigment inks is a good beginner ink if you can clean you pens well. Because it behaves normally. There is nothing crazy about it like how some Noodler's inks will feather like crazy on some papers and not on others.

[Ted A]

I would suggest that you look at Goulet Pens, isellpens, and Anderson Pens who each have ink samples and some good swatches of the colors. Pick some you like and then check here, particularly Inky Thoughts and Ink Reviews. Then buy a bunch of samples. You can test quite a few with yor preppies without a major commitment to full bottles and can then commit to bottles when you find some you like.