I apologise if there is already a topic here on this, I couldn't find it though.

Inks vs Moleskine. This seems to be an eternal conflict. While a lot of commenters say they have no trouble with inks on the paper, I unfortunately can't say the same, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I acknowledge that Moleskine isn't the best paper for a fountain pen, however I'm a Moleskine user first and foremost, so if I can't find a suitable fountain pen ink then I'm afraid it's the fountain pen that's going to loose out. Having said that, there are so many inks and pens available there has to be magic combination, and it's just a matter of finding that perfect match. I'm also not totally sure the fault isn't in part from my own user error (not blotting the pen after refilling, or not having air in the tank, I don't know).

PROBLEMS:
There are a few problems that I'm experiencing:
1. Lots of ink comes onto the page, making the ink look darker than it's smear test. Is this the type of ink I'm using, the way I'm refilling, or my writing style, or the nib design?
2. Bleeding. I'm not sure if this is bleeding or feathering or what, put the ink spreads as it hits the paper making for messy writing.
3. The BlueBlacks seem the most stable, but they are ugly colours. I want something with a peacock blue shade.

PENS:
I have three fountains: Pelikan Epoch extra fine, Pelikan Pura extra fine, Lamy 2000 (unsure what nib).
The Pelikans work best for me, the Lamy just makes an awful mess and writes with almost an italic tip. Very unhappy with it, even more unhappy that I spent more than the price of the two Pelikans combined on something I quite frankly loathe.

INK:
Probably best to see the examples:

The overall ink test:
The blue black in the Pelikan, Lamy and Mont Blanc seem to be the most stable. Blues feather and split. The Swisher BlueBlack was a huge mess.


Pelikan Blue, and Swisher Blue Black.
The blue is too purple, and it feathers/bleeds. The Blue Black was...a huge mess. (I have a full bottle of this if anyone is interested).


Lamy Blue Black.
Probably the most stable but it's such a dull colour.


Mont Blanc Blue Black
Not the most stable but is the prettiest of the blueblacks. Puts a lot of ink on the page, so it comes out almost black, so I've also done a test with mixing Mont Blanc Blue with it (to try and lighten the colour). Adding the blue made it bleed/feather more.


SUMMARY:
Pelikan Royal Blue: bleeds and is too purple for me
Pelikan BlueBlack: most stable but is a dull colour
Swisher BlueBlack: awful. Soaked through the page, bleed everywhere, made a huge mess.
Lamy BlueBlack: most stable but is a dull colour
MontBlanc BlueBlack: acceptable, but puts a lot of ink on the page. Also too purple
MontBlanc Royal Blue: almost identical to the Pelikan Royal Blue. Also bleeds and is too purple.

I've ordered some Parker Blue and Waterman Blue inks to experiment with, but I really don't want to end up with a cupboard stocked with full bottles of ink that I don't like or don't work nicely on the Moleskine.

Does anyway have any suggestions from past experiences they can offer? I like the look of the Diamine Imperial Blue, to me this would be the ideal colour - what experiences have people had with this on the Moleskine paper?


Thanks guys! Hopefully if nothing else, the ink tests have been helpful for those interested in the colours.

I'm still working on my first Moleskine so I don't have a lot of data yet to share. But so far the best blue ink I've found to use with it is Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue. Sailor's blue/black feathers like crazy. Anecdotal evidence (a single line) indicates that Mont Blanc blue is good as may be Waterman blue/black. The best overall seems to be PR Sherwood Green used in a Waterman Charleston. Every ink / pen combination I've tried so far has at least some show-through to the opposite side of the page. The bleeding does differ from one combination to the next. In spite of all this I find myself still liking the Moleskine. Go figure...

Hi Felyne, you might have accidentally wandered into the wrong network-we are fountain pen users first, paper comes way down the line!
Just kidding, now the problem you are having is that molskine paper is just too thin, this is an issue with molskine, it is known by its creaters and is (supposedly) going to be fixed one day, apparently, soon, waiting...

The long and the short of it is that you are going to have to either not use a FP for your journaling, get a custom nib that puts down very little ink, or get a different journal.

I agree that the moleskine looks very nice, has a handy rubber band thingy, and of course is very trendy with the in crowd - but the paper is (Potty Mouth).

So if you want to preserve your thoughts you may need to swap to something different until moleskine gets its act together, let me suggest field notes (fieldnotesbrand.com), I have so far tried 13 different fountain pen inks and have not had feathering or bleed through on any of them, and that includes using a Lamy 2000!

Good luck!

Thanks guys.

BruceK - I'm glad to hear you've had some success with Private Reserve - I've today ordered some of their Midnight Blue - their colours look so pretty, I'm ever hopeful! The MontBlanc blue for me feathers very similiar to the Pelikan Royal Blue .... so I think a lot of it has to do with writing style. Some say they've had no problems whatsoever, others have had nothing but trouble. I know I write quite firmly so it's more than likely my writing style I guess. I'm interested to know how you get on.

Shelley - ! Haha it's all good. I knew someone was going to say that Moleskines are (Potty Mouth). Their paper is definitely inconsistent - the 2008 Red Weekly Planner takes all these inks with very little feathering, while some pages in my ruled notebook are worse than others for bleeding/feathering. Even though you don't seem to think there is a suitable outcome for the moleskine/fp combo, I'm still going to persevere (I'm a glutton for punishment like that). I can only try.


I've today ordered a little selection of various inks (Platinum, Waterman, Namiki, Aurora and Private Reserve) so I will keep on trying until I either run out of money or get too disillusioned by the whole thing.

I'm not sure if I'm welcome to post my future experiments in here or not, I've started an online gallery which I *intend* to develop into a bit of a library. Ink Tests One of the more frustrating things is ordering a colour online and then finding it is quite different when you open the bottle.

There has to be a solution. I am determined.

When Noodler's first came out with X-Feather, I bought it specifically to use with my Moleskines. The more I use this ink, the happier I am with it. Of course, it's black. Very black.

X-Feather also behaves very nicely on the notoriously bad Levenger Circa Paper.

As much as I like the Field Notes notebook it's a tad bit too small to use for anything other than brief notes. Journaling seems to be out of the question with them IMHO.

In my experience, satisfactory results have less to do with the ink than they do with the nib. There are exceptions, of course, but a wet nib is going to result in feathering and bleed-through regardless of the ink. I've had excellent results with Waterman inks, Diamine inks, and Aurora Blue. The key for me lies in using a dry, F nib. For that reason, my Aurora Optima is my dedicated Moleskine pen. I've started using Aurora Blue with it and it's a perfect combination: no feathering, no bleed-through.
Best,
David

There's quite a few moleskine threads, but the more you read the more confusing it will be, and the more you are likely to throw your hands in the air and accept that YMMV. The interaction between pen, ink, paper, and not just moleskine paper, the sheer variability of moleskine paper, results in a multitude of different experiences.

Here's a scan I recently put up using the same pens and ink on two different moleskines. The behaviour is pretty variable!

Very generally, I have had the best results on the worst paper with fine nibs that are slightly dry writers. The most reliable inks so far have been Noodler's Aircorp Blue-black and Noodler's Bulletproof black. But as you say, it's nice to have livelier colors. Lamy Blue has been surprisingly good. That's still a tad boring. I have yet to find a really colorful ink that works well in my more unruly moleskines. That said, I will still put up with some bleed/feathering in order to use Noodler's Navajo Turquoise (Lamy and Pelikan turquoise feather horribly, unfortunately) or Herbin Violette Pensee.

On another note, I'm surprised at the difference between your Lamy Blue-black and Montblanc Blue-black, only because I keep reading here on the forum that they are actually the same ink. But they look very different in your scans.

ETA: I'm definitely interested in seeing more ink scans on moleskine paper!

I didn't know that about the MontBlanc and Lamy - they are two very different inks, the Mont Blanc flows a lot faster (if that is the right terminology) than the Lamy - the only thing I can think is that the Lamy BlueBlack was the cartridge type and the Mont Blanc is bottled.

On that point - the inks I've indicated are more stable have been from cartridges, rather than bottles. Is there a difference in the inks here? Should I be shaking the bottled ink more/less perhaps?


Now it's time for me to look like the newb that I am.... what is a 'dry' nib?


Also interestingly - I've done a Test 3 Blue BlueBlack on the Mont Blanc now that I've written with it for half a day, the ink is a much nicer colour and more what I'm looking for - perhaps I'm not mixing the inks well enough, does it take time for the two colours to 'bind', is the blueblack deteriorating the blue pigment or vice versa?


Sorry for the silly questions - you can slap me.

Hi, Felyne. The differences between Lamy and Montblanc blue-black are normal, as only bottled Lamy and Montblanc blue-black are the same. The Lamy cartridges contain a different ink than the bottles do. As for your other question, a dry nib is a nib that delivers less ink than a "wet" nib. Some pens are drier than other pens and deliver less ink, which is ideal for Moleskine's bad paper. Best,
David

you might want to try a Hero 329 or 616, too -- they are very fine nibs, and while not dry, don't write really wet, either.

For inks, I would suggest Noodlers and avoid Swishmix "fast dry" inks, as they are designed to sink into the paper faster so that there is less liquid ink on the surface, exactly the opposite of what you want here.

Noodler's black, X-Feather, or Legal Lapis may suit you just fine. I don't use Moleskine, but the don't feather on any other papers I use, even the cheap copy paper at work. FPN Tulipe Noire has been good, as well.

Certainly worth a couple ink samples from Pear Tree to try.

Peter

I am currently using Aurora black with my moleskine, it doesn't bleed through the pages or feather with my lanbo pen or my Lamy Vista with an EF nib. the only problem is that it is not waterproof. I am considering mixing this with a noodler's or another waterproof ink because i love the nice dark colour of the aurora black, but I really need a waterproof/permenant ink.



you may also be interested in this:

http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Molesk...y_Fountain_Pens


it is a page on the 43folders wiki (a wiki for GTD and moleskine users) about fountain pens and inks compatible with the moleskine.


btw did the forums just go down for a few minutes? that was weird...

David, thanks for the answer on the Lamy/Montblanc blue-black. I have the Lamy version in the bottle, so I was wondering!

I've found Noodler's to be very variable in moleskine-friendliness. The ones mentioned seem good, but Polar Blue was disastrous, as was Doestoevsky and Mata Hari's cordial. I still use them, but not on moleskine paper. I agree on the very excellent Pear Tree sample program!

I think it's worth persisting. The right pen/ink combo on moleskine paper is a very, very pleasant tactile experience, and one of the things that makes my daily journalling habit so pleasurable.

I'm sure that you could probably find someone who'd be willing to buy your Lamy if you post in the Marketplace (Classifieds) section.

Its quite a popular pen.

In my (admittedly limited) experience both the ink and nib make a difference. Right now I'm running PR Orange Crush in a Lamy Safari M nib and MB Violet in a Lamy AL-Star LH nib (basically a M-nib but obliqued in the opposite direction, might be just marketing but I find it does actually give some nice line variation that just isn't comfortable on a OM nib for me). I've found that the M-nib with Orange Crush really feathers/bleeds in my Moleskine quite a bit, seems that the nib is quite wet. I tried the same ink in the LH, the nib is a bit drier but still have some issues. The MB Violet doesn't have any feathering/bleedthrough issues in the Moleskine.

For now I'm going to live with the problems with the M-nib.... it does give me some nice shading. But I'm considering switching inks for that pen to either a Herbin ink (as mentioned in another wet/dry ink thread) or MB Racing Green or Bordeaux. From the writing samples I've seen these look better in wet writers to get a good balance between colour saturation and shading. Any thoughts on that?

Leaps and Bounds! I'm so excited, I'm fizzing! Waterman Florida Blue, in a cartridge, has been the breakthrough.

I've tried the following inks:
Waterman Florida Blue (cartridge)
Parker Washable Blue (cartridge)

Waterman FB: Virtually no bleeding or feathering, and it's a nice enough colour - almost a touch too purple, but still the best so far by a country mile. This is the most stable of all the inks I've tried so far.

Parker WB: Limited bleeding and feathering - somewhere between the Lamy BlueBlack and the Pelikan Royal Blue. Not as good as the Lamy, not as bad as the Pelikan. The colour is the most insipid blue I've ever seen. It's not even trying to be blue.

The Florida blue is a touch brighter than it's showing on my monitor, but the Parker blue is pretty much spot on to what I see there.



Close up:


Initially I mixed the Parker blue with the Mont Blanc BlueBlack, and bleeding and feathering occurred, so I added the Waterman until I got the desired colour:




Super stoked. Thanks everyone for the recommendations and suggestions - I ordered on Friday 6 variations of the Hero pens (come on, at that price they're almost cheaper than a cup of coffee) so I should receive those on Tuesday hopefully (big thanks to isellpens for getting the order out so quickly last thing Friday for me), so those and the selections of inks I've got coming (excited about the Platinum colour in particular) I think I maybe a lot closer than I thought I would be to getting this thing sorted out! Yay!

Now, question for the ink knowledgeable people: are the inks in the cartridges a different ink to the bottles? The Waterman works beautifully from a cartridge, but I will be disappointed if I buy a bottle and it bleeds everywhere. Are they different?

Also another key part is the writing style - I started to doodle in a scrap moleskine that I have, and the inks that bleed horribly while I was writing seemed to maintain their composure. When doodling I hold the pen lightly and just let the mind wander, when writing I hold the pen firm and write rather aggressively.

Again, thanks for the help and support guys!