It's easy to keep track of inks that way.
Let's hear about or better yet see your matches.
Mine is a Pelikan 400 brown tortoise with Waterman Havana brown.
A more subtle match would be a Mont Blanc hematite solitaire with MB blue black iron gall ink.
How about invisible ink in a demonstrator?

Hi Jeen,

I do it all the time . PenTrace LE with PR Spearmint, Stipula Etruria d'Inverno with Noodler´s Ottoman Azure, Stipula Etruria Amber with Noodler´s Ottoman Rose, Stipula Etruria 991 with J. Herbin Café des Îsles, Stipula Novecento Saturno Orangerie with Noodler´s Cayenne, Waterman Edson Saphire with Waterman Blue Black, Parker Duofold Centennial Black with Noodler´s Black, Waterman Gentleman in blue with Waterman South Seas Blue, etc., etc. . Some of my pens didn´t find their match yet, though .

I can´t show you an example right now, unfortunately.

BTW, don´t your pens talk to you about the ink they want to be fed? It may not be a colour that would strike you as the right one straight away, though . Like my Pilot Music with Omas Amerigo Vespucci red . Works great, though .

Warm regards, Wim

Like Wim, my pens tell me what color ink they want. Sometimes I'm quite surprised at their request. The Lamy Safari's tend to want their ink to match their body. I thought the Columbus Academia (green) should have Skrip Emerald Green, but it said no. I put the Emerald Green in anyway and was sorry I did. It now has watered down PR plum. What a strange combination, but it works. My new Parker Falcon 50 insisted on Aurora black. I didn't argue with it.

sometimes - sometimes the pen screams for an ink that one wouldnt' expect. My white tort refuses to imbibe anything other than Diamine Prussian Blue. She tries to leap out of my hand if I get her near anything else.

BUT - a beautiful dose of Penman Emerald in my M200 green swirl is required. My M200 Telekom prefers Saguaro Wine. And my Estie Copper is all Havana.

so - i match but i also try to use complimentary (sp?) colors as well. A lovely green in a brown pen (earth tones), A warm gold brown in a dark red pen. Tanzanite in a brown pen with blue/purple undertones.

obsessive? me?

I do it sometimes... I do, however, have a white Frontier, so I'm out of luck (is there a white ink?) trying to color match...

Nathan is working on one - whether it will ever come to fruition is another matter.

Whenever possible I match pen and ink color. This is because I usually have a minimum of 18 pens inked at any one time and it helps greatly in keeping track of which ink color is in which pen.

White pens, silver & silver-toned pens, grey pens and black n' pearl or multi-colored marbled pens can have any color & brand of ink I want to use that doesn't work well in pens that match the color.

For me, the ink/ink color I want to use can be a deciding factor in whether or not I keep the pen. If I absolutely love the pen I'll keep trying to find an ink match that I like, but this can get expensive and can get to the point that it isn't worth it.

Best, Ann

My pens generally don't "talk" to me (unfortunately) but I do try to keep some correlation between the color of the pen and the ink. However this wonderful black Aurora 88 that I purchased from a fellow FPNer discovered that I had just found a local source for Aurora inks and demanded I purchase a bottle of the blackest black for it, nothing else will do.

I'm wondering what ink you could use to match a Pelikan Piccadilly Circus ....

I only have one pen where I match ink. My CS 58 Tiger Eye with WM Havanna Brown.

Gary

I match ink to pens regularly. With 15 inked pens on my work desk how else could I remember who drank what?

Andy

Yes I do!

Just got a Pilot Custom74 with a Music nib and it sports Pelikan Brilliant Black,
my Sailor Lapis Lazuli is inked with Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue, and
my Nakaya Tortoise Celluloid has a mix of PR Copperburst and Havana Brown.

At my age , I need every little help I can.
Plus being a guy means I can not possibly take a hint.

Sometimes, but more often I do not. The following pens have somewhat matching ink:

Rotring Core Lysium -- Herbin Diablo Menthe
Rotring Core Eternium -- Herbin Orange Indien
Green SheafferTriumph -- Herbin Vert Resada
Rotring Core Coridium -- Noodlers Aircorps Blue Black
Blue Sheaffer Triumph -- Noodlers Navajo Turquoise
Colibri Scrooge -- Waterman Green
Rotring Core Tecnor -- Waterman Purple
Red Lamy Safari -- Waterman Red

On a recent trip to Boston (and the obligatory visit to the Bromfield Pen Shop) I acquired a blue Waterman Phileas. I haven't inked it yet but will use Diamine Royal Blue with it.

My wife gave me an Acme Salvadore Dali Pen -- that one will be inked with Apache Sunset.

I still haven't figured out what to put in my Pearl-White Trio Classic. It needs something rich and a little substantive.

Maybe that ink I heard about made with real Bourdeaux wine (including the smell)?

I'm open to suggestions.

Andy

Sometimes. Some that are somewhat matched at the moment:

Omas Blue-Black 360 with Noodlers/Swishers Tahitian Pearl (permanent Blue-Black)
Stipula Duetto LE with Noodlers Antietam
Stipula Etruria Grande Amber with Visconti Brown
Blue Signum Orione with Diamine Prussian Blue
Blue Marbled Aurora Optima with Waterman South Seas Blue
Blue Carbonesque Namiki/Pilot VP with Noodlers/Swisher Aquamarine Blue
Bexley Submariner Grande Richard Binder Cobalt Pearl SE with Noodlers Blue-Black

Yes I try to.
Black Pearl Hero with Tahitian Pearl.
Duke Mini-Torpedo with Red sparkles likes Antietam Red.
My newcomer a Copper SJ 1551 has Swishmix Seminole Sepia in it.
Black SJ 9048, Black Genius, 2 Black Osmiroids Sketch Nib & Estie 9460, Black Wality 52 all have Noodler's Black.
2 Black Rapidograph 3060's with Higgins Black.

I almost always match inks and pens.

Only exception so far is my Tortoise 400 NN, and that's only because I haven't found the "right" brown yet . Actually, that's not entirely true....Noodlers Walnut is the brown to end all browns, but it also voids Rick Propas's warranty - and I trust his opinion (and value his warranty). Waterman Havana doesn't do it for me, nor did Sailor Brown. Thinking about Diamine...maybe there's hope in Diamine.

For now, my Tortoise lives on my true standby - Waterman Blue-black.

The green Hero 329 carries Noodler's Green.

The blue Lamy Safari carries Sheaffer Skrip Violet/Purple (Slovenian).

The blue faux-carbon-fiber-finish Pilot Vanishing Point has carried Noodler's Blue-Black and Pilot/Namiki Blue-Black, both successfully, and maybe it will carry Noodler's Luxury Blue in the future.

The black barrel and stainless cap Parker 45 usually carries Skrip Blue (Slovenian), but now it's carrying Noodler's Aircorp (good in that pen, too) until the exchange vial runs out.

My two cheaters are transparent and colorless! They get the other two colors I'm using. The Lamy Vista carries Noodler's Red, while the Pelikan M200 clear demonstrator (the stay-at-the-desk pen) carries Noodler's Brown.

The only glaring mismatch is the ecru enamel and red top "jewel" Duke Complete Esteem carrying Slovenian Skrip Blue , for the point size, for my ancient-language-teaching project.

For a white pen, I would choose an ink that is known to wash off easily. Sometimes ink does end up on the pen

Ryan, have you thought of mixing inks to "re-create" Noodler's Walnut? i.e., putting some black in Havana to get it closer or some such thing...

I have a Levenger TrueWriter in Mink that I love, but can't find the right ink to match it - the color is halfway between purple-ish and brown, so the best I have done so far is mix some brown ink into Poussiere de Lune and it matches perfectly!

It is hard for me to put inks in pens that don't match. Literally I can't do it! I can sometimes tolerate blue inks coming out of other-colored pens (Florida Blue in a Green Phileas) but usually the Phileas has Sherwood, and my Rotring Core Balium ALWAYS has Habanero because it is a perfect match (to my eyes).

As much as I am drawn to blue and green and red pens, I have been going for neutral colors (mostly black) so I can use any ink in them without the OCD feelings erupting... <_<


Marina.

Match? NEVER!!

satrap
why be normal?

:bunny1: :bunny1:

Marina, I've found Noodler's Black the universal doner for making some less loved inks tolerable.

I didn't like Montblanc Blue at all but a squirt or two of N.Black and Shazam! A color I could live with.

I love the color of Private Reserve Tanzanite, but it didn't fare well in my Ink fade tests. A couple droppers of N.Black and now it has a bit of permanence, and it creates a shade I like as well as the brighter un-mettled Tanzanite.

Lately I've been staring at my bottle of J.Herbin Cyclamen Rose, one of the brightest most unique inks in my cabinet, but it fades fast too. Maybe I'll get a nice Nightshade if I spike it with N.Black.

In any case I've never mutated an ink with Noodler's Black in a fashion that I didn't like.

I do this too. I've made some nice blue/black ink by mixing no name cartridge blue ink with Noodler's Black. I've even made some no name black ink tolerable by adding about 20% (by volume!!) of Noodler's Black to it. I like my inks to remain on the paper.

Hmmm, and I wonder what would happen if I added Noodler's Black to Noodler's Nightshade? I like Nightshade but it doesn't have a permanent component. But I might just make the Nightshade too dark then. Oh well, maybe I'll try it anyway some time.

I'm embarking on a new ink & pen color "matching" experiment. In the past I felt compelled to always match the ink color with the pen color. Now I'm going to try complementaries (or at least in that kind of range), starting with turquoise/copper, gold/tanzanite, and green/bordeaux.

I still don't know what to do about my red pens, can't seem to get past either red or black ink... BUT I'M TRYING TO GET OVER IT!

Have any of you have tried complementary combos that you like a lot?

Petra

I've got Legal Lapis Blue in my Green-Stripe Sheaffer Tucky, but I was thinking about changing to a nice Burgundy.

I just put some burgundy ink in my green stripe Pelikan -- funny how just changing to a new ink color can make it seem like a whole new pen!

Petra

Not so much - mostly because I have a limited pallette of ink colors at my disposal and a limited number of pens (and also colors).

Since my daily users include two flighters ("51" and a little Vector) they don't really call out for anything in particular. I use a burgundy "51" a lot but burgundy ink isn't that great for normal work activities (although I did put some leftover MB burgundy cartridges into a Rotring Rivette just for a change of pace).

So only two really:

Waterman Expert 2000 (slate blue) is loaded with Florida Blue.

Parker green/gold striped Duofold is loaded with Waterman green.

The rest make no sense really - PR midnight blues in both "51"s, Florida Blue in a Parker 21 with a broad nib that gets some use, Parker black cartridges in the vector (converter is on order).