Perhaps it's luck but I've had good success using Parker Penman Sapphire in a Waterman Phileas and Penman Ruby in a Pelikan M200 despite the ink's reputation for being problematic. Both are beautiful colors and I'm enjoying them immensely.

Recently I've begun to wonder whether some pens handle Penman inks better than others. So what have you experienced? Which pens work well with Penman inks?

I think Penman inks evoke a love/hate response but I have been using Penman Sapphire and other colours for many years now and only one pen has misbehaved (slow start and skipping, but this pen does the same with almost every one of my couple of dozen inks except Waterman Blue-Black - it is an old Sheaffer Valiant).

Penman (Sapphire, ruby and Ebony) has been in several Cross pens (Townsend, Century and Century II), Waterman, Esterbrooke, Montblanc etc. without any problem. But, and I think this is true of almost all highly saturated inks, you do need to flush the pen thoroughly now and then (I do it once every month or two, which is not excessive).

Don't worry, it does not eat pens, though some imply it is the Devil's brew


Chris

The biggest problem with Penman ink is the high saturation... I have found it does not write well in a Parker 51 unless the particular pen is an extremely wet writer to begin with and then you get a much less wet writing pen that needs to be flushed more often.
I have had no problems with it in my Vacumatic or any of my other open nib pens that generally write wet...
Penman is beautiful ink, but fortunately you can find virtually identical colors today in less problematic inks.

The Penman has always performed well in my M205. The only problem I've ever had with it is that the inside of the ink reservoir gets a greenish coating every four days or so, so i have to flush the entire pen with sudsy water and twist the blind cap up and down over and over again until I can see that the greenish coating is completely gone. So it's a good thing I use a demonstrator with the Penman. For this reason, I'd never use it with a non-demo pen.

Before I knew better (!), I used Penman Sapphire in a Waterman LeMan 100 for several years...never had a problem with it and loved the color. Still do, for that matter, but PR American Blue and Supershow Blue are very worthy successors in my mind.

I was quite naive back in my Penman days---I bought into the "throw the ink out after a year" myth and dutifully pitched several bottles of each color. Ah youth.

Greg

Well I only have modern pens (& a few Waterman from the 70's, are those modern?), and I've never had any problems with Penman ruby in any of them, so I never understood what all the fuss was, about Penman ink.

But I've never found a virtually identical substitute for Ruby (the only color of Penman that I use) -- if I ever do, I'll be buying it up left & right!

Petra

I have Sapphire in a Delta Dolce Vita OS right now. The only 'problem' is that the converter is too small, requiring frequent refills.

Although I like the DC Supershow Blue, it is different than the Sapphire, and not an exact substitute.

But then variety is the spice of life.
gary

I have used it with no problems so far in a Pelikan M805, with an extra fine nib no less, a Parker Duofold International, fine nib, and a Parker Centennial, extra fine nib.

Although with the Pelikan I see the level in the bottle go down every time I fill it!