Ink Recommendation?

[Law Student]

To start, my current ink collection is:

-Noodlers Bulletproof Black, Baystate Blue, Brown #41, Antietam red

-Visconti Blue

 

 

I'm looking for the perfect note-taking ink. So far, the Bulletproof Black is the best ink for this purpose (cheap, good lubricity, and ZERO feathering).

 

However, I notice that when I am taking notes, if I do not cap the pen every time I stop writing, the ink dries on the nib.

 

Are there any inks like the BP Black that will write well on cheap paper (i.e., no feathering, kind of "wet") AND will not dry if the cap is left off for a few minutes?

 

[Vlad72]

If you want to keep your pen uncapped during pauses while taking notes, perhaps you want a hooded nib rather than a specific ink.

Otherwise, you might check for reviews that indicate longer drying times, such as 30 seconds or more.

[annettefhorn]

+1 on hooded nibs. Parker makes some, there's the new Pilot E95s, there's the Waterman Carene, and my favorite pen is a Lamy 2000.

 

Another good feature of hooded nibs is that it's easier to get ink out of nearly-empty bottles.

[vossad01]

As a frugal solution, you might consider diluting the Noodler's Black. You can go pretty far without it turning grey. There are definite trade offs here and how well you like the results may depend on the pen.

 

The idea here is that more water means lower dye concentration. As your pen dries out, more water will need to evaporate before the concentration reaches the problematic level.

[Sandy1]

As a frugal solution, you might consider diluting the Noodler's Black. You can go pretty far without it turning grey. There are definite trade offs here and how well you like the results may depend on the pen.

 

The idea here is that more water means lower dye concentration. As your pen dries out, more water will need to evaporate before the concentration reaches the problematic level.

 

+1 for dilution - one of my favoured no/low-cost ways to fine tune an ink.

The approach I take is here: Dilution - A Rough Guide @ Post № 23 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/218161-need-help-selecting-my-first-japanese-pens/?p=2315439

 

Also, when time comes to fill the pen with the same ink, before plunging it into the filler bottle, give the nib+feed a quick plain water rinse to remove any accumulated dry/concentrated ink. Any water carried forward will be inconsequential for general work.

 

Otherwise, I suggest keeping the pen capped when not in active use. I typically hold the cap in my Left hand whilst writing, and if I pause, cap the pen. For stop-start note taking, I often doodle when not actively taking notes, so the ink at the nib-tip is ready to go.

 

Bye,

S1

[amberleadavis]

First things first....

 

For law school.... pick up a few Miquel Ruis notebooks. They are available at the campus book store.

 

Next - buy some gel pens with super fine points - totally necessary for the lousy paper used in casebooks.

 

For highlighters, buy the dry pencils from Levengers or Kohl Noor.

 

Finally, a few of the Sheaffer hooded nib pens with a fine point. A few different colors will really help.

[Paddler]

Try a bottle of Parker blue/black Quink. It dries quickly enough on the page and yet gives you a rather long "think time" before it dries on the nib. One drawback: it is not water resistant.

[Elyptic]

Diluting the ink does help with it drying up on the nib, but also keeps it from drying up quickly on paper as well, making smearing a much bigger problem.

 

My solution was to shell out for a Pilot Vanishing Point pen with a fine nib. Very fine, very smooth writer, but easy to click it closed. Makes start / stop note taking very easy. I use it with Noodler's Black all the time. But to be fair, the Pilot Blue/Black ink (in cartridges so easy to carry spares) is quite nice and very well behaved too.

[Morphling27]

isellpens (no affiliation) just started selling those cool, very cheap jinhao that have hooded nib versions. It's like 5 bucks a pop, which is about as cheap as you're going to find. They sorta look like a Lamy, if that's your cup of tea.

[amberleadavis]

I should also have mentioned the ink that really works for me....I too pause while writing and had difficulty with pens drying out. ...This is my EDC ink. http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inklings/slides/2013-Ink_747.jpg

 

Dromgooles Blue Steel. Dang mobile phone site...I can't get the image to link.

[SeeksAdvice]

I usually typed my notes.

However, there were the dreaded "Blue Books."

Sailor Kiwa-Guro is a fairly quick dry, 100% waterproof black ink. It can smudge however due to it being carbon black. I have never tested leaving it sit in an uncapped pen for a long time though. Performs well on bad paper.

[ac12]

A dry fountain pen (FP) nib/feed is primarily due to the exposure of the nib/feed to air.

The more exposed the nib/feed, in both exposed surface area and time, the more the ink is able to evaporate and dry out the nib/feed.

So, you have 2 things to deal with.

#1 - The surface area of the exposed nib/feed.

#2 - The length of time the nib/feed is exposed to the air.

 

#1 - The surface area of the nib/feed that is exposed, can be reduced by switching to a hooded nib pen (Parker 51) or semi-hooded nib pen (Parker 45, Lamy 2000). So there is less exposed surface area for ink to evaporate compared to an open nib like on a Pelikan M200 or Pilot Metro. Or switch to a pen like the Pilot Vanishing Point (VP), where you retract the nib when you are not writing.

 

#2 - To reduce the length of time the nib/feed is exposed, you cover the pen. This can be done in 2 ways; #a - soft cap the pen, #b - retract the nib.

#2a - When not writing, soft cap the pen to reduce evaporation. Soft capping is to place the cap on the pen, just not seating/screwing on the cap. This is just something that you have to learn to do when you use a fountain pen. And this is what you have to do if you have an open nib pen.

#2b - Is the Pilot VP. Retract the nib and the nib/feed is not exposed to outside air.

 

But for a pen like the Pilot VP, I do not know how much noise the pen makes when you retract and extend the nib, and if that noise will be bothersome in class. I would hate to be next to someone with a pen constantly going click-click-click during the class. And were I the professor, I would tell the student to stop clicking the pen or change pens. That is why you soft cap a FP, it does not make any noise.

 

I used two Parker 45s with old US Parker F nibs and Parker Quink cartridge ink through undergrad and grad school. I and I do not remember ever having problems with the pens drying out on me during a class.

 

You do NOT want a WET pen on cheap/junk paper. Some cheap/junk paper will tend to bleed and feather, so you want a DRY pen to counter the feathering and bleeding of the paper. Also a F or XF nib would help reduce the feathering. BUT, a XF nib is more sensitive to the surface texture of the paper. Meaning a less than smooth paper can be rather unpleasant to write on.

 

However, if you have the ability to control the paper that you write on, like the paper you take notes on, you should buy paper that IS FP friendly. And yes FP friendly paper does cost a little bit more, but that is one of the costs of using a FP. You NEED to use paper that will work with a FP. If not just use a ball pen or pencil and don't worry about the paper. When in college I specifically bought filler paper that was FP friendly. I did experience paper that would feather BADLY with a FP, so I knew to and did buy paper that did not feather with my FPs.

[amberleadavis]

BTW, you should add this post to the Inky TODs about Wet / Dry and choices.... I'll find the links.

[Oldane]

You say you are a law school student. Sooner or later you will spill water, coffee or whatever on the notes you will need when preparing for your exams, and with many inks you will not be able to read what you wrote after that. Good water resistance is IMHO needed. The paper used for note taking is often of mediocre quality and many inks feather and bleed through on such paper. The answer to both those problems could be a modern, iron-gall ink in the benign end of the spectrum like Rohrer & Klingner Salix. The grey iron-gall component of it is very water and light resistant (the blue dye component is not, typical of iron-gall inks). It behaves well in most pens provided they are not very dry and shows neither feathering nor bleedthrough on even poor paper. It doesn't set sediment (of course provided it's not left to dry out in the pen) and is easy to flush out. Pen cleaning every 2 or 3 weeks is fine - and empty and flush the pen if storing it for a while. And no, it doesn't eat my pens. I have used iron-gall ink for many years (the old Montblanc Blueblack was my preferred ink intil it was dicontinued), and all my pens are perfectly intact. You can find several reviews of Salix on this forum. In addition to its good properties, it's cheap. As said, it's permanent so don't get it on your white shirt.

There are modern permanent inks without iron-gall but often they have a low surface tension and feather and bleed through. De Atramentis Document ink is an example - wonderful on good paper, good colors (I like the blue and dark blue a lot), very permanent but I find it useless on the poor paper I have to use in my work. I read that Noodlers bulletproof black doesn't feather, but I must admit I have not tried it because I don't like black inks. I have tried Noodler Legal Lapis (also bulletproof) which does feather on poor paper (and I didn't like the color, but that's just me).

The question is of course if one should choose paper to fit the ink or vice versa. In our work, many of us have to fill in forms, use paper with printed heads etc. (more often than not that means cheap copier paper) so we don't have the choice. Finding inks that work with the given paper is then the practical solution. And such inks are out there.

Edited October 2, 2014 by Oldane