I've just received my first really nice FP - a Marine Green Sheaffer Balance. Writing with Aurora Black it's faultless. With Herbin Ivy, it's a different pen - it drags, scratches, and feels out of control. Is this sort of sensitivity typical of FPs? Is it my pens? Is it these two inks?

hi,

it has been my experience that vintage pens like the old formulated inks i.e sheaffer,parker quink, and waterman. i have used mont blanc and pelikan inks with sucess. the newer inks made most of vintage pens burp--i now use waterman florida blue or sheaffer black. i would trust waterman inks in all their glorious colors. richard binder mixes two waterman inks to make a color like tanzinite

:bunny1: :bunny1:

IT'S YOU! Sell that pen to me!

Actually, I agreed completely with A-R.
Waterman inks seem to work when other inks won't.

PS Love that Marine Green color and the Balance FP shape and size! Congratulations!!!!

I doubt that this is a fault, but is a feature of the vintage pens. Having said that, most of the Herbin inks I have tried, work in a Vintage Parker "51", but they do dry out in a Sonnet.

Thanks for the remonder to A-R, I MUST try out that Waterman ink blend that Mr Binder uses.

Jim

I just posted this under another topic.

I had two identical Pelikan 150s with fine nibs.

I inked one with Noodler's Bulletproof Black and the other with a mix of Eternal Fox and Bulletproof Black (a nice dark raspberry color).

The Black one wrote with a ti-nincy spidery line and the Raspberry one wrote with more of a Japanese medium nib line.

Changed out the inks and they switched.

Weird, weird, weird.

A classic reason you shouldn't get hung up on one brand of ink.

I find that Aurora Black is a extreme lubricating ink that seems to coat the tipping material that enables it to have a nice gliding feel to it. I find that J. Herbin ink is less saturated than Aurora Black and the ink seems to be a bit watery in comparison. With that said, I think you get the true feel of the nib with a less saturated and less lubricating ink. I normally use thicker inks for nibs that have a tad bit more tooth while I use less saturated inks for ultra smooth nibs.

Also remember that each pen has its own personality too. You can have one ink work well in one pen and the same ink in another pen can be really unsatisfactory.

Tara, you should post that as an ink recipe! What ratio did you use?

Stephen

It's even nicer in reality than in the pictures - and with Aurora Black, it's ***perfect.***