OK, so I have got 80 pens, 80 inks, and have been using modern & vintage fountain pens for 20 years. What have I learned about ink?
Well, certain inks become your benchmark for certain properties. These are the inks against which other contenders are measured. I'm not saying that these 5 inks have the best mix of all-round properties, but merely that if you get a new pen, and fill it with Aurora Black, then a try 'new' black which writes better in that pen, you know for sure it is a truly great combination. I take it for granted there are sweet pen/ink combinations that mean certain inks outperform all others in certain pens, this is just trial and error. But overall, for a large cohort of pens, for everyday use on normal paper, these are my thoughts:

1. AURORA BLACK: Because it is the benchmark in Lubricity and Blackness. If you had to choose one ink for the rest of your life - this would be it.
2.WATERMAN BLUE-BLACK: Because it is the benchmark Well-behaved ink. Richard Binder's go-to ink. Flows well, cleans well, looks good, doesn't clog. Freely available on every street corner.
3. NOODLERS LEGAL LAPIS: Because it is the benchmark Vintage-shade Blue-black ink, and because it is the benchmark Waterproof-proof ink, well-behaved with magnificent flow properties. I suspect Sam sells gallons of the stuff.
4. DIAMINE SAPPHIRE BLUE: Because it is the benchmark pure School-Blue. Does what Florida Blue does, only better.
5. PR TANZANITE: Because it is the benchmark for Best-flowing ink. Turns scratchy pens smooth in an instant. Because it snaps off the page, turns heads with its briiliance, yet is suitable for business use. And if you ask your friends to choose their favourite ink colour, this will always be it.

Love to hear your accumulated wisdom, particularly on vintage inks (no longer in production). Don't cheat by choosing more than 5!!

JB

Darn good list w/ well reasoned thoughts for each. Got 'em all except Legal Lapis (note to self: Order some!).

Some of these aren't traditional benchmark inks, but they're the inks I use as benchmarks. Most of the inks you've listed are popular as baselines, but I don't own them. For any new pen I get, I first do a water flush to test ink capacity, record it, and then try these five inks. With all due respect, I think my list performs better as a benchmarking tool, as it includes inks which don't perform well in many pens. Many qualities of a pen can be discerned when running a pen through this list. I generally run this list in order.

1. PR DC Supershow Blue: I don't have Tanzanite, but in my experience, PR inks are all very similar. Works great in just about anything.
2. Swisher Midnight Black: This is my default black in the pens that play well with it. It makes a good test of wetness of nib/feed, as it's very prone to feathering, even on Rhodia. I don't generally care about a small amount of feathering, but the feathering becomes extreme in really wet pens, or those with sloppy nibs.
3. Noodler's Legal Lapis: JustinB said it well enough. LL is good for testing a pen as the color varies so much between a dry pen and a wet one.
4. Pelikan Brilliant Black: A well behaved ink that flow well and have enough lubrication for most pens. A lot of people seem to write off Pelikan inks as dry, but their Black works very well for me in all manner of pens. The Pelikan bottle cap, with the nice nipple for dipping a nib, is great. One can get an idea of how the flow might be and if the tines are well spaced by how greedily a nib sucks ink up from that hole, with the surrounding ink retreating to the sides.
5. Diamine Registrar's Ink: I know what you're thinking: a display case of baby pens, nibs aflame, barrels melting, their lonely cries echoing into the hereafter! Pure humbuggery. This is my grail ink. I'm constantly looking for a pen that will *feel* great with this ink. This ink makes for a true test of a pen's character. Any pen can be smooth as silk with an ink that's mostly lubricants, but it takes a great nib to play well with this one.

There are a lot of great vintage inks out there too, but since I only can put in 5 inks, that's all we get. I usually test with vintage Skrip BB, but pretend I didn't say that.

For the record, there's no Waterman Blue-Black on any street corner 'round here. Not even in any stores. All we have for fountain pen-safe ink is Skrip cartridges, but who can complain: you can buy them in black, black, a 5-color variety pack or black! I guess if I was *really* hard up, I could buy the only fountain pen in town, a Phileas at OfficeMax, plunking down $50 just for a bottle of Waterman Black.

Regards,
Aaron

No wisdom, just a subjective response....

1. - I don't like black ink, except for mixing so, no, if I had to choose one ink for the rest of my life Aurora Black would not be it.... (PR Supershow Blue, perhaps; superb "performer", great colour. Oddly, my vintage Aurora 88 performs better with Supershow Blue than it does with Aurora Blue....)

2. Waterman's Blue Black may be well behaved in that it doesn't clog pens (but then few low-saturation inks do) and flows well (how many inks don't?), but it's not blue black and fades badly. So, no thanks.

3. Too pale to qualify as blue-black as far as I'm concerned; besides, I don't want any permanent ink: I just know that the first time I put some in a pen I'll manage to get some on a new shirt....

4. Benchmark blues for me are Private Reserve's.

5. OK....


If I were choosing 5 inks, I would want one of PR's Blues (Supershow or American) and the four Noodler's colours required to do the mixes via Limner's marvelous charts; I've never had any "performance" problems with any of these. I might also ask you to let me keep an old bottle of Waterman's Blue-Black (from back when it was blue-black), if only because I like to test a new pen with a low-saturation ink that's quick to flush out before filling with something else.

Simon

Every pen I get receives a fill of

Sheaffer Skrip Blue or
Parker Quink Washable Blue.

They are standards against which I judge other inks. They're not the fanciest inks, but they're the best at what they are.

I also vote for:

Lamy Blue Black - iron gall, g*dammit!
Pelikan Black
Noodlers Legal Lapis
PR Tanzanite

The inks I use for benchmarking purposes are:

Skrip Black and Waterman Black

If this one horse town had a wider variety of colors available in stores, it would probably be Skrip Black and Waterman Florida Blue.

To choose an ink for a pen:

For flow - Sailor's Jentle 'blue'. [Jentle colours, like Visconti below, are very simply named. No posh titles.] So, if a pen won't flow well with Jentle, there's something wrong with the pen. On the other hand, if a pen flows too fast, Diamine will slow it down.

To choose an ink for itself:

For colour saturation - Visconti blue. If another ink can't produce colour as evenly as Visconti, other factors considered, it's a poor ink.
For flow - as above.

A general standard:

If ink won't perform generally as well as Quink or Waterman in my best pen, then it's not good enough. (I regard both as baseline inks.)

So, Jentle, Diamine, Visconti, Quink and Waterman.

And the 'best' is ... Visconti.

I'm sorry, but it's not even close to a real vintage blue-black. Real vintage blue-black inks are iron gall inks, and they dry BLACK, BLACK, BLACK.

But don't they eventually fade to BROWN, BROWN, BROWN unless carefully preserved? In worst-case scenarios, all that's left is a rust stain, I think.

I've read that the brown iron gall inks were the result of improper formulation that resulted in more corrosive and destructive inks. The modern iron galls have better quality control to keep pH at a less drastic level.

ditto

My understanding is that the first BB aniline dye inks were designed to be imitations of the color of dried IG ink. But, that ancient ink's color has so drifted from the common environment and memory that current BBs tend toward dark navy or cold grey.

As I see it, "Blue Black" means nothing, it is just a label. My dump ink bottle usually comes up with some interesting colors that I might as well call blue blacks. Last week it was an interesting cold BB with subtle hints of tan. This week it is a colder BB with a subtle tint toward teal hued grey.

BTW, we do understand that manufactures of inks do not match to Pantone chips. The have to use dyes that are available to the market and these shift from time to time. I would be supprised if any of the big chemical firms are making dye specific to fountain pen ink anymore.

I'm not sure dye makers ever catered to the fountain pen market. Even at its height, I imagine the textile applications of dye dwarfed the writing applications.

This is pretty much my list, too.

1. THE blue ink is Visconti blue.
2. THE blueblack is Pelikan blueblack - coming out of a wet nib. Also the benchmark for a wet nib.
   If it looks faded grey the nib is on the dry side.
3. For general performance: Waterman inks. Or Diamine. Or Quink.
4. For ink flow (if even Waterman fails): Diamine blueblack.
   A pen that does not work with Diamine blueblack does have a serious ink flow issue.

Sailor Jentle is also one of my favourites so I am pretty close to your ink except for Pelikan blueblack.

My 5 benchmarks:

Blue = Herbin's Eclat de Saphir.
B-B = Skrip's or MB's. Yes, MB's does contain iron gall, but it can't be all that etching because otherwise MB wouldn't rcommend it, at least for their own pens!
Brown = CdA's Grand Canyon. Hardly ever use it, but I do like it.
Red = Skrip's. My one and only red, I use it only for corrections and editing etc.

Prost!!

Mike

Waterman Blue-Black: not the most colorful or powerful ink, but one that is well-behaved. I use it to test pens.

Aurora Black: nothing lubricates better. It's a good, strong black. Good for measuring darkness of other blacks.

Waterman Florida Blue: a medium blue, good for measuring other blues against

Sheaffer Blue-Black: a dry ink that has less lubricity, but is a grey color. Good for measuring how grey an ink is or how "colorful" an ink is because this one is pretty grey. I don't write with it much, but I do like mixing it with regular blue colors to get "lead blue".

PR DC Supershow Blue: a high intensity blue- good for measuring how intense a blue ink is, also good for measuring flow because this is a high flow ink



My picks are specifically geared towards working with inks that a blue, blue-black, black, or grey-blue. Non color properties like flow and lubricity fall on a scale between the dry Sheaffer ink and the free-flowing and high lubricity Aurora black or DC Super Show Blue.

It's about as acidic as typical lemon juice. While this is not all that caustic as acids go, it is strong enough to etch some metals over long periods of time--some nibs have no problems at all, while others may eventually develop pitting or lose their plating. A few other "safe" inks, even Waterman Florida Blue, are surprisingly about as acidic as vinegar, which should be alright, but I'll make no guarantees on that matter.

almost as you said but no tanzanite for me. Penman Sapphire instead

Curious that Legal Lapis would be in the mix of standard inks. Not that I'm complaining - I think it's about time that bulletproofs should appear regularly on such lists, because they occupy a niche that no other type of ink has occupied in the past. For me, though, it would be Violet Vote, simply because I prefer the color and shading of VV over LL.

I keep runnning across things that would lead me to believe that in the 1920's through the 1940's that some dye houses MIGHT ( really emphasize the word "might") have been processing custom dyes for the major fountain pen ink mixers..

It is my current understanding that most of the dye for inks now comes from lines developed for the cloth dyers.

AIR, the printing industry uses pigment for the most part.

As I have commented before I doubt that many, or possibly any, of the fountain pen inks use the same dye they were using 10 to 20 years ago. Further, I believe that what they are now using is changeable at a moments notice. So current inks as standards, etc. etc. etc.......

As always YMMV.........

JustinB, this is an outstanding thread! Lots of information, ideas, and thoughts should come out of this one. Like you, many years of fountain pen use dictate my list. These are the inks I find most useful:

MontBlanc Blue-Black, closest to the original permanent iron gall ink available today. And relatively safe for modern pens.
Noodler's Black, dense, velvety, a black black that flows well and most pens seem to like.
Private Reserve Dakota Red, flows well and doesn't dry up in the pen over a two week period.
MontBlanc Royale Blue, general all-around well-behaved blue.
Noodler's Legal Lapis for a green ink that flows well and stands out in small or thin writing.

On the subject of blue-black and iron gall ink, there is a paper on iron gall ink. A chemistry class researched iron gall inks, made up a batch, and tested it. Click here for a look at the article.

Great thread! Let me add my two cents. These 2 cents are limited to my experience with trying out different inks and then selecting what I thought the best. That means that I have vast areas of no knowledge, because I have not tried by any means all the ink manufacturers, much less all the ink varieties. I can just tell you about the ones I like and know. That said, I like strong colors (for editing, grading, writing lecture notes) and stay away from boring colors.

1. Pelikan Brilliant Black. The only black ink I know that is interesting. It just jumps off the page with its twinkle - pretty amazing achievement for a black ink!
2. Mont Blanc Red - the truest red I have found - simple but very pleasant color.
3. Waterman Green - another simple color, true to its promise.
4. PR Blue Suede - It's not really a blue, but more of a green. Once you're okay with that, it kind of sticks with you. A modern classic.
5. Noodler's Legal Lapis. For the reasons other people have said, but what I like most about this ink is its nice shading.

Erick

Edit: And, as you can see, I am not using a single one of these inks right now!

Lamy/MB BB isn't the closest thing around to an original iron gall ink- Diamine Registrar's Ink is. Not as safe as Lamy BB for modern pens, but even in a steel nibbed pen, vintage or modern, a little maintenance is all you need. Unlike Lamy BB, Registrar' Ink actually dries to a black, at least in a wet pen. Nothing against Lamy/MB BB, but just FYI.

Regarding chemical companies making dyes specifically for fountain pen ink: why not? They still do today. A company like Dow doesn't just make a small number of dyes- they make thousands of them. They don't generally put in for the R&D these days, but they have in the past. I know Dow has in the past, and I imagine other companies have either. Do a patent search if you don't believe me. Those companies still make those dyes today, if the inkmakers want them: you give a chemical company a CAS number and a ton of money and *poof*! Dye for ink.

Fountain pens aren't that specialized of a beast: far more important a matter of R&D is lubricants and humicant, and still, they aren't some special voodoo chemicals made especially for fountain pens, but rather hundreds of options from which an ink company might pick.

For instance, the cellulose binding dyes in Noodlers are dyes originally developed, and still used, for clothing. Pelikan makes ink jet cartridges using some of the same dyes that they use for their fountain pen ink. Formulation, concentration, additives used account for the differences, not so much the dyes used.

Aaron

This is a great thread. I'm learning a lot. I have a question, tho! Yesterday I went to Pendemonium to buy some ink and almost every ink, especially Noodlers, said "Sorry, temporarily out of stock." It seemed a lot of Pendemonium's exclusive Nooders, like Violet Vote, are not available. Does anyone know why Sam is not stocking much ink? Seems rude for me to just ask him. But I ordered Baystate Blue from Swisher since Pendemonium said it was temporarily out of stock.....

It's a bit frustrating when people here recommend a particular ink that is a Pendemonium exclusive and it's temporarily out of stock all the time.....

Is Pendemonium going out of business you think? I don't know if Sam is on the list. Sam, if you are on the list, I'm trying not being rude. I'm a customer who just doesn't understand your marketing plan. Maybe you can help us understand what your future plans are concerning ink.

Besides Violet Vote, Pendemonium doesn't have:
Rachmaninov
Dostoevsky
Pushkin
Tolstoy'
Esenin
Pasternak
Chekhov'
El Lawrence
Britannia's Blue Waves
Mata Hari's Cordial
Victoria's Royal Mint
Socrates
The Sun Never Sets
Highland's Heather
Noodler's Permanent Ink, Hunter Green
Noodler's Permanent Ink, Fox Red,
Noodler's Permanent Ink, Black,
Noodler's Permanent Ink, Lexington Gray,
Upper Ganges Blue
Aircorp Blue Black
Blue Black
Navy Blue
Kiowa Pecan
Golden Brown
Walnut
Marine Green
Standard Brown
Red Black
Zhivago
Baystate Blue
Baystate Concord Grape

Arrggggg... I'm tiring of this.. there are plenty more.

That MAY or MAY NOT have something to do with the fact that Noodler's ink consists of ONE employee.....

It's not just Noodler's inks for which they have little stock. Many Diamine inks and other brands are also "temporarily out of stock." This is happening so much with them lately that I have simply turned to other suppliers for ink. I have always liked Pendemonium and have ordered from them many times over the years, but I just don't seem to be able to reliably find ink in stock.

I emailed Sam about El Lawrence and she said they'll have a new shipment in 30 days.

If it's just Noodler's and Diamine, it's probably not them at all. In fact, it may just be that they're so popular for ink they have a harder time keeping it in stock.

Something is really screwy with Diamine. We've been waiting for around 6 months on inks that were supposed to take a month to arrive here. It's not just Pendemonium, either. I know of no reason James P. would be having any troubles, and he hasn't had any better success.

Pendemonium is a very popular site, and because many of the inks you mention are exclusives in the US to them alone it is not surprising that they are having trouble keeping it in stock. I don't think Pendemonium has any plans of closing, this absence of stock is in fact showing the opposite of that, they are having such big runs on their ink that they are having trouble keeping up. Just going through the forums here you can see the popularity of legal lapis or violet vote and these are some of their most popular inks, they run out often. Unfortunately, there are times when a business cannot satisfy our society's "want it now" mind set, and I think at least Pendemonium does the service of telling you they are out of stock, unlike others that only tell you after the fact of making the order.

As far as ink benchmarks go though, I am not very focused on finding them. I like to experience each ink's individual qualities and if a certain black writes drier or such in one pen over the other I will take it for what it is. I find the vast variety of ink in this world is like paint for a painter you use certain inks for certain tasks, effects, and impressions (as in impressionism) to have the written word be the most fantastic art. Each ink has its own place in this world to express an individual's words to the best of their satisfaction. This maybe why I have never and will never stick to one brand of ink in experiencing certain colors, or the look they have on the page!

I think the low supply of ink is a result of the DC Super Show. Pendemonium was the major ink supplier.

That must be it. I just went to Pendemonium.com and the popular Private Reserve inks are out of stock too.

Nice idea - the five benchmarkers. Here's my selection:

1. Pelikan Brilliant Black - because you have to have a black that is truly black
2. Penman Sapphire - because you have to have a blue and this is the blue of all blues
3. Waterman Red - because there must be a red red that is red
4. Diamine Imperial Purple (or Pelikan Purple) - both are great colours, good flow, quick-drying and you need something other than red when you don't want black or blue
5. Diamine Registrars Ink - a permanent ink that does not smudge when dry; also, it is great to watch it change colour over the minutes and days after writing with it from pale blue to blue-black to black

But how can man live by five inks alone?
Noodlers Walnut for great imitation "old-fashioned" scripts from a medium/broad italic-style nib
Noodlers bullet-proof Black when bullet-proofing is required
Noodlers Air Corps Blue-Black for signatures in an ink that is just a little different to boring blue ball-points!
Diamine Prussian Blue for a great blue-black sort of colour
Visconti Blue - beautiful blue
Noodlers Firefly for highlighting
Diamine Monaco Red - lovely subdued red
etc....

Chris

Legal Lapis in about 30 days is what Sam recently told me. Let's hope that Pendemonium is able to restock their supplies and weather this storm. I always enjoy their table at the DC pen show. I am afraid that when they get exclusive inks such as Legal Lapis back in stock, we'll have to worry about another Christmas shopping rush... maybe they'll sell out within days.

I just got a package from Sam & Frank today! Happy camper, c'est moi! I snared the last of the Tsetvayeva--I really hope that they will be able to restock the Russian authors and the Great Britain inks soon.

I placed my order on Sunday and here it is: chez moi on Wednesday!

So, here we go.... I haven't read everything here, but....

AURORA BLACK is not at all the "blackest" (see all other threads about this).

WATERMAN BLUE-BLACK by no means because it is too much a green-blue-black (ditto).

It is a pity that you have not included Florida blue and Eclat de saphir und MB's Blue-Black!

Jack

I could be wrong, but I don't think the close adherence to a 'perfect blue-black' was the main praise from the OP, but rather the behaviour and flow properties of the ink? And I agree with the OP: a well-behaved, smooth ink. I like the colour too, but that's by-the-by. ^_^

Ohh, and I agree with you, lapis, that Florida Blue must be a staple benchmark. It's such a sensible, well-behaved, beautiful (obviously, many people would disagree here) ink.

Edit: As far as bulletproof inks go, surely Noodler's Black should be the benchmark? I'm sure Nathan uses it as a staple to compare other inks to with regards flow properties and lubrication. It doesn't necessarily need to be the blackest black, but it is a useful ink to compare others against... plus it is the (?) 'most bulletproof' of all Noodler's inks. (AFAIK...)