Thought I'd try out a goodguy topic. What inks do you yearn to fill your pens with and write away, your perfect everything, with no clogging and no corrosion, which, however, can never be produced. At least to your knowledge. At least at this current time in the world. For fountain pens. I think you know what I mean.

I just want GOLD. A metallic, lustrous gold, like gold leaf or some paint. I want to get my gold ink and I'll get a big 149 with a giant flexi-stub and I'll sign my 69 cent check for milk at Ralph's and it will be ridiculous.

I can't really think of any other just out of reach inks, but I'm sure you'll all get there.

I would sure love a perfect white, as in correction fluid, that would be usable in a fountain pen.

There actually is/was ink with nano gold particles which can be used in fountain pens; it writes clear but dries to a nice golden line even visable on black paper.

I think a bottle was ~ 500 US $ :-)




I'd like an inks which keeps shifting color like switching cartridges each minute!


Cheers

Michael

Something that's truly India ink black with that wonderful smell I associate with India ink.

Are you aware of Noodler's Whiteness of the Whale (a white ink that can be used in a fountain pen)?

Information here: http://www.pendemonium.com/ink_facts.htm#whale

There have been various discussions of the ink here on FPN, which you could track down ('harpoon' would be more appropriate, perhaps) by using the 'Search' function.

Neil

Since I adore colorful flashy things, I would love ink that had little sparkles in it!

As long as it was teal (PR Blue Suede works pretty well for me) with purple glitter, I'm right there with you.

I bought Whiteness of the Whale and was completely disappointed! It does not write WHITE on dark paper. The inks I lightened with it to make very pretty pastels all ended up clogging my pen.

I'd like a line of inks that really shines. IOW, they look wet when dry.

Ink that changes colors. Couple of ways to do this:

1. Changes colors as it flows out of the pen while writing.
2. Changes colors every 24 or 48 hours, but is stable once on the page.
3. Changes colors on the page, after it dries.

I have one that comes out a light brownish-yellow initially, but darkens to blue upon light exposure. It later reverts to brown if left in a dark place.

I know Nathan was working on one that changed based on EM frequencies. Not sure if he ever got that totally sorted out for wide use...perhaps he could comment.

One of the folks on ebay has Sheaffer Kings Gold in the bottle for sale. You might check it out.

Simple. Diamine registrars ink, for best effect use in a fine nib (I've got it in a Sheaffer fine slim balance). It shanges from light blue to dark blue black in front of your eyes.

Iridescent ink...

An ink to make my writing resemble Caliken's.

Thank you!!! I've been wanting to find some more of that ink for ages!!!

I believe it was one of the stores, not an auction...he had like three or five jars of the stuff....

He had five... but now has only three... Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...N:IT&ih=008

Dipping your pen into yellow is a fun way to get a varigated color out of you pen. It works especially well with dip pens that don't suck up as much ink at once. Of course eventually it turns your yellow ink to muddy brown so you'd want to put only a little in an inkwell... not dip into the entire bottle.

I'll take a lifetime supply of that, please. I don't even care what the color is.

OOOHhhh! Yes! Like gasoline on wet pavement! OR a pearlescent. Yummy!

Cedar

Yeah, I've heard reports of that nature too... I would like a calligraphy ink white, though. Perhaps Nathan at Noodler's can tinker a bit and finally bring one to market!

Yes, or Antonio's!

Seriously, I'll aim lower. I'd like an ink that's the colour of Waterman's Florida Blue, bulletproof, and behaves impeccably on all papers in all pens.
Much as I like the idea of an iridescent ink (pearl with violet tones, say...) or teal with purple glitter, I'd be totally distracted trying to read it.

What you said. I've even tried a gold gel for fun but it looked vastly sub-par to what you desire. A decent-working white to mix with other colors would also be heavenly.

I'd like a fountain pen ink that is permanent and writes on anything, like a Sharpie.
And also maybe an ink that is striped.

Petra

Noodler's had a striped one that worked with ebonite feeds about a year ago. It had problems in some other types of feeds and it didn't make a commercial debut. There is still hope though, that one could arrive any day now.

I can't think of an ideal ink that I would want. I grew up confined to black, blue and blue-black ink. For the past few years there has been an explosion of a rainbow of colors in the ink market, and I am having the time of my life experimenting with them. I guess I will know my ideal ink when I see it.

While we're on a cloud, can we talk bioluminescent inks?

You have just reminded me of the little star-like sparkles I've seen at night in tropical seas.

Just imagine a dark blue ink with little pin-points of light that blink on and then go off again straight away.

But what sort of document would you write with such an ink?

Love letters to my squid overlords?

Beware: If it's not a Golden MB ink, MB will void their mediocre warrantee.

Well, you'd probably have to crinkle the paper or something to disturb the beasties. That'd take a toll on your documents eventually.

What would they eat? The ink? It'd need to be something with a low respiration rate for oxygen if you were going to keep it sealed up in a nice inkwell or bottle most of the time. Or gawd forbid in a dark converter inside a pen!

I, for one, welcome our new squid overlords.

One could put food in the feed.

touché

I'd like to see Mood Ink that could change colour in response to changes in temperature, like the old mood rings. Or perhaps a special ink for love letters that is black but begins to shade gradually into red as the emotional temperature of the letter rises -- all magically, of course, in response to the text as it leaves one's pen. Perhaps Flourish & Blott's in Diagon Alley might carry something like this.

-CG

Thermal ink would be interesting. My ink responds to UV and Nathan's responds to hv at the radar band. Now something which would be variable at room temperature variations, that'd take some research. Hardly impossible, but not there yet.

Eventually, we'd be getting to mind control love letter ink. The voices in your head would tell you so.

Would you control the ink? Or would the letter control the recipient?

It seems no one can reproduce the color of red wine - cab sav or Syrah or Zinfandel - to my taste.

Also what girlieg33k said, "Waterman's Florida Blue, bulletproof, and behaves impeccably on all papers in all pens."

Exactly! That's the ink I want, too... a fadeproof, waterproof ink that is the color of Florida Blue. I'd also like it to dry quickly, be smudge-proof, and not feather.

Me too! Every ink I've seen so far that claims to be wine-colored is, in fact, either too purple, too red, or brown. Some of them look like wine in the ink bottle, but cease to resemble wine once on the paper.

Perhaps what we need is a wine that can function as ink, too, or a potable alcoholic ink.

OOOOHhhhh I'd buy that one... And I don't much like red inks...

I never had mood ink, but I had an "invisible" ink that became visible if you held it in front of a warm light bulb.

I would second the request for "mood" ink and add glow-in-the-dark ink (doesn't have to be bioluminescent.) I don't mean glow-in-black-light, I mean glow-in-the-dark. I've always loved glow-in-the-dark stuff. I have a set of Crayola crayons, body paint, stickers, etc. If they can make it work in crayons, why not in ink?

Hi All,

Thermochromic inks that change color (or change from clear to colored) in response to "normal" temperature fluctuations are well established; they're used in color-changing consumer-goods packaging, novelty clothing, etc. I assume the problem with bringing that technology to fountain pens might have to do with the fact that the photochromics must be microencapsulated so they'll dissolve in water-based ink. The resulting microcapsules are significantly larger than pigment particles, which sounds like a recipe for clogged feeds, etc. (There's also the fact that these inks have a limited lifespan: they work only for a certain amount of time.)

Maybe one of the other emerging color-change technologies, like piezochromics (color change in response to pressure) will be more promising.

(Disclaimer: the foregoing is based strictly on a layman's understanding of the principles involved.)

Meanwhile, how about an ink that's packaged in a bottle that connects to a scanner/computer? Scan on a color (or click on it, as with the Photoshop eyedropper tool), and the ink would change to that color. Reversible and infinitely repeatable, of course.

Cheers,

Jon

I'd love to have an ink that left a line of Mother of Pearl... or Opal...

I might add that you can immeasurable improve the writing experience by writing
on pure white paper (e.g. Clairefontaine Triomphe) while sitting in bright sunlight.
Yellow ink really DOES look like a tiny river of gold following behind the nib and
a beautiful blue looks like the Blue Danube...

I got in trouble with my snails for using yellow ink. In the bright sunlight it's clear and
beautiful but on the other end, they opened the letter under ordinary light or
incandescent light, it was darned near invisible!

skyp

I'd absolutely love an ink that is as black as the night sky, with silver glitter in it, to resemble the stars. Or an ink that's black and purple at the same time. And, what does "bulletproof" mean?

Visconti traveling hooch pot?

I'd like to have a blue ink that I actually like. Every single blue ink I try out always dries to the same light sky blue, no-matter what it says on the bottle and I'm sick of that happening.

What's Quink blue-black like? I've seen it used and it looks nice and dark and blue...



Oh Lord that was a chuckler! Deidre, you've made my evening!

I would love black/red ink that matches tamenuri urushi, a dark cobalt-blue ink that maintains that brilliance as in wet, and a chameleon ink that you never know what color will come out of the nib.