I thought I read somewhere that Parker Penman was a no no for fountain pens. Is this correct?

Thanks

Harv.

oh boy.

This is largely a matter of opinion. Some folks have seen pens with problems due to this ink. Many of us continue to use the ink regularly and have no problems. I've said it before and still believe this: most of the problems with this ink are probably similar to other highly saturated inks - they need to be treated with a bit more attention than the "safe" inks like Waterman, Quink, Scrip. And I've personally had trouble with WM havana so I'm don't believe there is a completely safe ink anyway.

I believe that all inks should be treated as if they could do damage *IF* they are put in a pen and left unused for weeks at a time. I believe that people have "misremembered" (nod to Roger Clemens) such details when they've got a clogged or damaged nib and blame the ink when in fact lack of attention to the pen was likely involved. I could be wrong. It's just my theory because I've had Penman Emerald in a particular pen for several years now and with regular (but not daily) use and the occasional (every 2 months or so) cleaning, the pen still works flawlessly. That being said, it is a Pelikan and they are extremely durable.

With certain vintage pens, it might be a problem. I don't know enough about ebonite feeds or certain feed designs to rule out potential damage to them by highly satured inks like Penman, Noodler's, or PR. So if you've got a valuable vintage pen that you want to use, then maybe best to steer clear of these inks. If for no other reason than your peace of mind.

The inks I've seen problems with have not been Penman but other brands and they've been consistently red or brown inks. The problems have been staining of sacs, clogging, and debris between the feed and section. No actual damage to the pen materials. This has happened with WM, PR, and Noodler's browns/reds. I'm much more leery of any red or brown ink than of Emerald or Sapphire.

You can find many a thread here where this is discussed but I don't mind giving my .02 here.

Meanwhile, my little M200 with its tank full of Penman Emerald just chugs along beautifully. I have found that my bottles of Penman are a bit concentrated and I dilute the ink slightly. About 5:1 ink-to-water. It doesn't impact performance and brings out the beauty of Emerald a little more. As concentrated as most of my bottles have been, it's tended toward almost green-black at times.

There are many detractors of Parker Penman inks and I'm sure the discontinuation of the ink was due to some problems users had with the ink. However, like KCat I have a Pelikan 400 that had a steady diet of Penman Sapphire over 3-4 years and never skipped a beat. Highly saturated inks do take a little more care, and may be a little more difficult to clean out if you let a full tank of ink dry up in a pen! I had a Sheaffer Snorkle desk pen that I forgot and let dry up with a load of Penman Sapphire. I flushed and flushed and flushed and still got blue! So I loaded it up with water and left it over night. I started to try flushing out again but decided to put the pen to paper and found that I had perfectly reconstituted ink. I wrote for a week and then loaded up another tank of water and wrote for another week. The next week I finally finished the flush job. I guess if I had any advice, it would be to put it in a pen you use and can see how much is left. Modern piston fillers seem to have absolutely no problem with the ink.

Some years ago, when I had some Penman Ebony, I had regular problems with it drying up in the nib after a few days of idleness. I think it was in a Parker 75 fine point. However, I have recently bought a bottle of Penman Sapphire, and have no problems in a Hero 100.

I suspect the main problems with Penman inks may have been with the Ebony.

On a side note, the chromatography of the current Sheaffer Skrip Black is remarkably similar to my old Ebony. It is just missing some of the more mobile elements (the top of the Ebony pattern has some dyes that the Skrip doesn't).

I have a bottle of Penman Sapphire I wouldn't use it in a vintage pen, certainly nothing like a Vac, I tend to use it in my modern Duofolds but flush every time they empty and tend not to leave them oaded for too long without using.

Might give it a try in one of my M200s one day as it is a nice colour ink.

Andy