From the perspective of the pen, not paper. Not necessarily in order. I'm just curious to learn what people think.

At one end of the spectrum we might have MB and Lamy iron-gall inks, at the other perhaps J. Herbin inks?

What's your take?

I really don't know how to tell they're actually benign, but I guess if the ink was really easy to rinse out, that would qualify?

I find Lamy Blue, Skrip blue, and Diamine sapphire blue and prussian blue very easy to rinse out, if that's one of the criteria.

Waterman flow well in just about any pen.

I get the impression from reading here and there that the Diamine inks are pretty good in this regard.

This is one reason I am selling off most of my other inks and building up a range of Diamine colours.

Their bottles are very attractive too, with what look like Bakelite tops.

- Stuart

I'd say Waterman and Diamine are both good in this respect.

As everyone probably already knows, Richard Binder recommends Waterman. I actually had Waterman Havana Brown cure a Visconti van Gogh the other day - it was my first pen and I had used it with a lot of Noodler's permanent inks without really knowing how to clean it. I loaded it with Waterman brown and within a few hours I could see it bringing up old black ink residue that must have been in the feed. Now it's writing fine. Actually making the pen better seems to go beyond benign.

I have had zero problems with any Waterman color I've used, Florida Blue, Green, South Seas Blue, Blue Black and Purple. All great inks and extremely well behaved.

I've used some old Skrip that was very easy going, Quink washable blue, etc....

I don't hesitate to use Waterman, Diamine, and Sheaffer Skrip (Slovenian) in any of my pens (modern and vintage). That said, it also depends on the colour. The safest colours are black, blue, and blue-black. I'm more cautious about using reds, browns, and violets/purples from all brands.

I have never heard anything bad about Quink washable blue or blue-black. I do seem to recall hearing some negative talk about the black, though.

I think there might be different manufacturers of Quink for each side of the Atlantic? Well, I'm in England and had some Quink blue-black stain the translucent white inner cap on a Visconti Ripple I used to own. Very annoying because the cap was slightly transparent. It was awful ink, changing to a pale teal colour after a day or so on certain paper.
I'm now using the emptied ink bottle to store diamine prussian blue cartridges, which is much nicer ink, imho.

Black is created by mixing colours. Many blacks have red in them.

Pilot inks are generally OK. So are MB's, with the exception of the blue-black. If you're worried about a pen, i'd say stick to the unsaturated blues like Pelikan, MB, Quink, Skrip, etc. There isn't much difference between them.

I have three newly made bottles of Parker Quink Black. One, a Washable Black, was made in France for Parker UK. The second, a Permanent Black, was made in Shanghai, China and the third, a Permanent Black with Solv-X was made in India.

The Parker Blue-Black does change colour to a version of Teal if it is used on non-acid-free paper, like the cheaper Chinese papers or Pukka Pad paper. However, when used on acid-free paper its colour is stable. The Quink Washable (Royal) Blue doesn't change colour, but it does fade noticeably on the non-acid-free paper. The Quink Permanent Blue doesn't seem to be affected by the paper type.

I have never had any problems with any of the Quink inks in a pen (including Black) that weren't caused by neglect (i.e. leaving the ink to dry out in the pen).

True. Most of the major inks are benign unless they are iron-gall (MB Blue-Black) or carbon (Sailor Kiwagura, Platinum Carbon, and Pilot Carbon). Reds, purples, browns are of course more prone to staining transparent sections.

Stay away from more saturated purples, reds, etc. in vintage pens or pens with clear sections. Noodler's La Couleur Royale has done horrible things to my BCHR Waterman 52, and that ink is usually easily washable. I would hate to think what some of the PR or Noodler's reds would do to Vacs or Pelikan ink windows.

I've had no trouble with the basic colors (black, blue, blue-black) of Skrip, Quink, Waterman, Diamine, or Pelikan. Noodler's Black/ Eel Black seems to work great in these pens as well, if you want a bulletproof color.

Waterman and Sheaffer are the only two brands where I have never heard of any problem with any color in the entire lineup.

I understand that Parker Quink inks other than Black are good, as are some, but not all, Diamine and Herbin inks. Montblanc and Lamy are good, too, provided you avoid the Blue Black of both brands, as that is an iron gall ink.

I have never had problems of any kind with Aurora or Dupont inks. Both brands are expensive, and they only come in two colors, Blue and Black. The Aurora dries slowly.

I haven't heard any complaints about Sailor inks, but they're expensive, and they are alkaline-based and cannot be mixed with other inks, or bad things will happen in the pen.

Quink blueblack can be improved considerably by mixing it 1:1 with Quink blue. This avoids the fading to pale teal blue. Have the French Quink.

Unfortunately is does not have the same effect on Waterman blueblack. Even the 1:1 mixture of blueblack and Florida blue fades to tealblue.

You may want to read this:

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref_info/inks.htm

Simon

Thanks, Simon!

The staining was only to the inner cap, not at all to the translucent plastic of the inside of the outer cap. It could have been the material, maybe it was porous or had some kind of reaction to the ink. I regularly washed it out, but, inevitably, the nib would touch it as the pen was capped and the ink would sit there for the rest of the day.
Besides, shouldn't "the most benign inks" wash away, even if they were to dry on the surface of a pen?

I've run supershow blue from PR (along with Noodlers Manhattan Blue/Ellis Island, PR Naples Blue) through my Pelikan M200 and not any sign of staining

I'm no expert, but I'd have to agree that Waterman ink has never given me a problem in any pen. It's usually the first ink I put in a new pen.

Lisa