Hello everyone,

New member here, though I've been lurking for a little while. I have a problem with ink smearing. I'm just in too big of a hurry. I'm working on my penmanship and some discipline, but in the mean time, I just need some faster drying ink. In looking through FPN, I've found Sailor Blue Ink has been one that has been commented on as far as quick drying time. In addition, I was looking into Private Reserve Fast Dry Ink, and Quink.

I've only used cartridges so far, and I'm fairly new to fountain pens. Right now I have a stainless steel Parker Latitude. I'll be sending it off soon to have the medium nib replaced with a fine one, so, I'll be pen-less for awhile. I'll be using this time to research ink and paper.

I really like the look of Noodler's Ink, and I really like the bottle style. I was thinking of getting a bottle or two, whether it dries quickly or not. If there any colors that dry any faster than others, however, please let me know.

Thanks!

Of the Noodler inks I've tried, the slowest drying are in the red/orange family (e.g. Habanero and Cayenne, especially if they've been in the pen for at least a couple of days). But this problem is solved by adding water; the ink is so saturated that doing this (up to a certain point, anyway) makes no difference to the colour but all the difference to the drying time.

Otherwise, the standard "big name" brands - Sheaffer, Pelikan, Waterman, etc. - dry fast, as do Platinum, Namiki, Visconti, Stipula and Cartier (I'm sure I'm forgetting some). The Diamine's I've tried all dry fast, as do most Herbin's (Rouge Caroubier, after it's been in a pen for a few days, does not, however). In fact, as far as I can tell for the most part it's Noodler and PR inks that have drying problems (and not all of those do). I would avoid PR's fast dry inks, which have nothing to be said for them except that they dry fast; they do a nasty variant of feathering that looks quite unpleasant (you'll find a discussion of this elsewhere).

Of course, drying time is also affected by how wet the nib is you're using; I have a couple of vintage Swans with very flexible, wet, medium nibs that take a while to dry with even Sheaffer or Waterman ink....

Simon

The Swisher exclusive Swishmix from Noodler's are fast drying.

Thank you for the link, Dierdre. I wish those were available from Pendemonium, I've already got an order started with them. Do you know of any other Noodler's inks that dry fast? I seem to remember hearing somewhere that the Noodler's American Eel inks dried a bit faster than the others. Any truth to this?

Thanks for the info, Simonrob. It's good to know most of those name brand inks will work for me. I've scratched the Private Reserve off the list. I've never checked into Herbin, but I did at your recommendation, and I think I may pick up a bottle. The "Gris Nuage (Cloud Grey)" really struck my eye. The Diamine also looks like it may do the trick. Any experience with their Golden Brown or Raw Sienna?

Thanks for the info!

I have found Herbin inks to have a much faster drying time than most inks. I have grown attached especially to Bleu nuit (a blue black color). Remember that drying times are also a function of the paper that you use. Different inks work better on different papers. Aurora inks seem to dry rather slowly on clairefontaine or rhodia paper; however, the Herbin inks that I've used have done quite well on these papers. Different people seem to have different opinions about what is an "acceptable" drying time. So, something should be said for trial and error!

I have 16 inks here, mostly Noodlers, and by far the winner in drying time is Swishmix Glacier Blue, which dries almost instantly--so fast that it astonishes me. And I'm using a sopping wet medium nib, so it's even more impressive. That's my experience with it, anyway.

Yes, I plan on getting a 3-4 bottles of different brands/colors inks, as well as a Rhodia tablet, and a Clairefontaine tablet, so, it's funny you mention those two. I am probably going to get a second pen as well to help me try out all of the colors.

And another vote for Swishmix! I may be looking into them after all. I wanted to get some Noodler's ink anyway!

It's kind of funny because I used to not care a whit about drying time. I just have always accepted that FPs involve some drying time. I'm a righty so it's not a problem for letter writing, etc. But there are times where I am rapidly shuffling papers, making notes, and writing on both side of index cards, and the drying time is a pain in the neck. At times when I have been in a big hurry, I've grabbed a ballpoint because I didn't have time to fool around with drying time, and I just accepted it. That is, until I tried this Glacier Blue. Instantly I became a drying time fanatic and my #2 pen no longer carries my custom brown mix but straight Glacier Blue. I even like the color, a nice subdued blue. And it's bulletproof. It sheds a tiny bit of dye when first wetted but the blue actually becomes a bit more vivid and what remains is bulletproof. So I'm a very happy camper.

Since you're ordering from Pendemonium anyway, and want to try a Noodler's ink that is among the faster drying, Pendemonium's exclusive Noodler's Eternal Brown is a faster drying, well-behaved, waterproof ink.

As others have said, Herbin inks are right up there among the fastest drying. Omas, Waterman, Pelikan, Sheaffer's Skrip, Rohrer & Klingner, as well as most of Diamine's (except a few of their highly saturated pinks/magentas) are all faster drying inks. I'm a lefty overwriter and just can't use inks that don't dry quickly.

Best, Ann

Thanks Ann, I was wondering about which Noodler's Inks dried faster. I'm also looking for a good brown, so, I'll add that one to my list.

I'm right handed, just have bad hand position, and my hand tends to smear lines I've written. It's a big pain. I am working on my penmanship, though, so, fear not!

So far, for sure I'm getting the Noodler's Eternal Brown and the J. Herbin Cloud Grey. I'm looking for a blue and a black, possibilities are Diamine, Sailor, and Quink. For the black I'm looking for a very deep, black black. And I'd like a solid navy/royal blue color.I'm still searching for paper. I really wish there was a place in the US to get Whitelines, as I just can't justify paying to have them shipped here.

For a fast drying (bright) blue ink, you may want to try Herbin Eclat de Saphir (my favorite) or Diamine Sapphire--another good one. For black ink I'm using Noodler's regular black (waterproof) which dries pretty fast, and I always have a bottle of Pelikan 4001 black on hand; I've used that one for years.

I, too, wish Whitelines was available here. Sam at Pendemonium told me (in November) she has it on order, but it would be sometime this year before she had it.

Best, Ann

Noodler's polar black dries very fast, and usually smudge free. Smudges I think this is an issue with being able to absorb into the paper, if the paper isn't very absorbent(like engineering paper), it will smudge regardless how long it was set to dry, in that case I'd use an ink like parker's quink because it didn't smudge after drying.

The Diamine Sapphire looks almost a little more purple-ish than what I'm looking for. On the other hand, the Eclat de Saphir looks very nice. I'm looking for a good solid blue to stand out, and that looks about right. One thing I like already about the Herbin inks is the price!

That'd be great if Pendemonium gets the Whitelines. I'll just wait and order some to try out then. If they carried Apica notebooks I'd be getting everything for my initial paper/ink experiment there. Aside from odds and ends though, Pendemonium does seem like the best source for pens, inks and accessories that I've come across so far.

I've been playing with Noodlers Red Black. Despite the name Red Black, it comes out on any paper I'm using a rich dark chocolate brown. I imagine it's the red in the mix. It has some quick drying times but of course that depends on the nib. Saturate the paper thru a wet bold nib and you'll still wait a while to dry.

I have noticed it dries in the nib overnight and this is worse in XF's. You may have to wet it to jump start. Not so much in a F or M.

I go to Pendemonium, Swishers, and ISellPens on a regular basis. My black of choice now is Heart of Darkness. It dries quickly - at least for me. I have good luck with Luxury Blue and Polar Blue, too. I'm waiting on my bottle of Legal Lapis at the moment, to see how it is and how I like it. The Swishmix is fast drying.

I've found Apica notebooks at The Paper Source on occasion.

I was all set to try some of these until I read reports on fpn about their tendency to feather, an effect I can't stand. I prefer wet nibs, so I was wondering if you've had any feathering problems with Glacier Blue.

Simon

Here are the inks I'm looking at currently. I want one black (very deep, dark black), a blue (clear and bold), a grey, and a misc. color. 4 bottles total. Here's my current list based on what I've heard here, as well as other reviews,

BLACK
Noodler's - Polar Black
Noodler's - SwishMix Nike Ebony
Parker Quink - Black

BLUE
Sailor - Blue
J. Herbin - Eclat de Saphir
Noodler's - SwishMix Glacier Blue
Parker Quink - Blue Black

GREY
J. Herbin - Cloud Grey

OTHER
Diamine - Raw Sienna

Any input on some other good greys? For the other color I'm leaning towards a brown/sepia color, but I'm open for suggestions. I am still looking for the faster drying inks. Thanks to everyone for the advice so far. I'm on a budget, so this bundle of ink is a big purchase for me, and I appreciate the help. You've all given me quite a few good inks to choose from.

Funny you should mention this. Glacier Blue is an unusual ink in my collection. My answer to your question is not a simple yes or no.

In my collection, some inks don't feather and some do. Hunter Green and Fox Red are my worst for feathering. By feathering, I mean classic feathering where lines have "feathers" to either side that are quite unsightly.

Glacier Blue does not feather per se on any of the papers I use, but it exhibits a unique characteristic that makes me think it might feather on some papers. If I press the nib of my Blue Glacier pen down on one spot of my standard writing paper and just hold it there, a wet spot will gradually grow larger and larger. This is one of my standard feathering tests. With Noodlers Black I can do this test all day long and no spot develops. Hunter Green and Fox Red both create wet spots but the wet spot grows quite slowly. With Glacier Blue the wet spot grows quite rapidly, but despite this, Glacier Blue feathers very little or not at all when I'm writing with it.

So this is a very strange observation. With every other ink, the "growing wet spot" test correlates directly with feathering. With Glacier Blue it does not. Even though my wet spot test indicates that Glacier Blue should feather worse than all my other inks, it doesn't.

I hope the above makes sense. Unfortunately I can't give a yes or no. On the one hand, the answer is no it does not feather on any of my papers but my "wet spot" test implies that it ought to feather.

I do have a theory for the above effect, and that is that even though Glacier Blue is highly "feather prone", the ink dries so quickly that it ends up actually not feathering. Feathering takes time for the ink to spread out sideways along the fibers of the paper. If the ink dries almost instantly right where the nib puts it, it has no time to feather.

Thanks for the interesting and detailed response. I'm now more inclined to try it!

Simon

You're welcome but I'm inclined to apologize for the complicated answer. Glacier Blue is a very strange ink compared to my others. Since I now use it 90 percent of the time, I supposed it has also become my favorite general purpose ink.

Hm, I've never been interested much in greys, though some have said that Lexington Grey (from Pendemonium) is good. It's also bulletproof.

As for browns, I love my Galileo Manuscript Brown. It's not dark and leans just a smidge on the red side. I like it. Red-Black isn't really a brown but more dark rustish with the black undertone. I like it well enough, though. The other brown I'm using is Walnut, and it's a nice dark brown. (If you can't tell by now, I'm a Noodler's user.)

There is a nice scan of several browns together on a page in the review section unders scans stickied at the top. Might go through a few of the lists there in scans and see what all has been reviewed and have some visual aids.

It's been said that Manhattan Black is the darkest of all the blacks. It's sold by the Fountain Pen Hospital.

Curse these exclusive inks!! I'd love to get Galileo Manuscript Brown, Lexington Grey, AND Manhattan Black, however, they're all available from different websites. I really don't want to pay shipping three times. I may splurge for the Galileo Brown, to support FPN, but the rest I'll have to get from one place. Pendemonium has the Heart of Darkness, but I know that one will dry too slowly for me. Especially as a daily use ink.

Well, there are two ways of looking at the exclusive inks. I understand your point and have had the same thoughts, but on the other hand, it gives you an excuse to scour their web site and purchase a few other pen related doo-dads that you didn't realize you "needed".




The worst scenario is receiving an order from supplier A and then immediately falling in love with another ink carried by supplier A. Been there, done that, have the t-shirt.

I've only tried one of the Swisher fast drying inks, i.e., North Sea Blue. I found it to be extremely fast drying.

Keep in mind that the ink is only one part of the equation for purposes of drying time. The finer the nib, the quicker the drying time will be. Also, higher quality papers (such as Clairefontaine) tend to have slower drying times.

I'm currently in the process of sending my pen to Parker to have the nib swapped with a fine one. That should help. And when I make my big ink purchase I'll be getting a few different papers to try out as well.

I really like that Manhattan Black. It looks like the bold black I'm looking for, but I can't really find any of the other inks I'm looking for at Fountain Pen Hospital . It looks like I'll have to make some compromises to save on shipping from a bunch of different sites.

I really wish FPH had the Banknote Green still.

What happened to it? I have a full bottle marked batch #1 that is nice.

Dunno, it's just not on their dropdown menu the two times I've checked.

With regard to the black inks you're considering, I like Nile Ebony, though it can be slow drying on some papers. Quink black is good, but it is a bit lighter than Nile Ebony. My favorite black is Aurora Black. Very dark (though not quite as dark as Nile Ebony) and fast drying.