Low Maintenance Inks

[rhymingisfun]

I've bought a lot of Noodler's inks since I've gotten into fountain pens, and since then I've found they are not to my liking with how much cleaning I have to do each time I change colors. Even thought I absolutely love Bad Blue Heron and Walnut, they tend to stain my converters and a simple flush is never enough to clean out my pens. I have Rohrer and Klingner Salix and Scabiosa, but haven't become enamored with those, even though they flush out so well. I thought Diamine might be nice but then Sargasso Sea took some effort to clean out of my pen. Hematite Rouge did the same, but I'll use it because of how beautiful it is. But I want inks that are easier to clean up. I like vibrant inks, but i don't want the hassle! Can I have my cake and eat it too? What are some good saturated inks that aren't difficult?

[jmccarty3]

Can I have my cake and eat it too?

 

In general, no. If you want to use saturated inks, you usually have to either (1) dedicate a pen to the ink in question, or (2) resign yourself to a lot of cleaning when changing inks. This means bulb syringes, pen "flushes," soaking, and ultrasonic cleaning. For all the disrespect they get, cartridge/converter pens are the easiest to clean. Personally, I find all the trouble to be worth it, because I like to change ink colors frequently. "Excellence" and "ease" rarely coincide in life.

[Frank C]

For the most part, I dedicate a pen to a given ink color. Some reds and purples are notorious for staining. If I want to try out a color, I use a Platinum Preppy with a converter.

 

(Edited to add a Capital Letter.)

Edited May 16, 2015 by Frank C

[dneal]

De Atramentis is a good compromise between saturation and ease of cleaning.

[Buzz_130]

Highly saturated inks require more cleaning or a dedicated pen for the particular color. Diamine makes a large number of colors and generally has a good reputation for their inks. Instead of buying more bottles of inks, you can get some samples to determine if the inks meet your expectations for colors and cleaning. The ink reviews here are also excellent as people describe the inks in great detail, and I've found these reviews helped me narrow my search.

 

Buzz

[delano]

+1 on the ink reviews. I've found them invaluable.

 

I have a few Jinhao x750s I keep for my dedicated pen/ink combos. A couple are uninked at the moment, in preparation for the next color to dedicate to it. I tend to be a bit protective of my better pens.

[amberleadavis]

Ditto on reviews. You have named some of my favorites, but they are each miserable to clean.

 

I love Dromgoole's Blue Steel (Noodler's) for ease of cleaning.

 

Noodler's eel red for removing stains.

 

Noodler's Purple and Blue Eel and Blue for super saturated but easy to clean.

[amberleadavis]

Dromgoole's Blue Steel

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inklings/2013-Ink_748b.jpg

[amberleadavis]

I have a lot of pens that would be stained were it not for the wonders of Noodler's eel inks. Here is the wonder of Rattler Red.

 

What is ink is amazing for ... getting out stains. With just one use, the pen went from this:

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inked_Today/slides/20140706_195944.jpg

 

 

To this:

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inked_Today/slides/20140713_211154.jpg

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inked_Today/slides/20140712_165723.jpg

[ink-syringe]

There several different ways to understand that sentence. Are you saying that Noodler's eel inks don't stain, or that they clear stains from stained demonstrators.

 

The pictures only confuse the matter further.

 

I have had a stained demonstrator that I then filled and used a different ink in and the stain seemed to disappear. It seems like that is what you are saying.

 

 

I have a lot of pens that would be stained were it not for the wonders of Noodler's eel inks.

[RitchieMac]

Pilot Iroshizuku

[amberleadavis]

There several different ways to understand that sentence. Are you saying that Noodler's eel inks don't stain, or that they clear stains from stained demonstrators.

 

The pictures only confuse the matter further.

 

I have had a stained demonstrator that I then filled and used a different ink in and the stain seemed to disappear. It seems like that is what you are saying.

 

 

 

I've edited my prior post so hopefully it is clear.

 

1. Noodler's EEL Inks Do Not Stain (now that's not to say that other inks might not stain) AND

2. Noodler's eel inks but especially RED is good at removing stains.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Off the cuff, I suggest Aurora Blue. It has a vibrancy that comes from its colour, perhaps straddling the imaginary border between Blue and Purple, and cleans-up quickly and easily with plain water.

 

To get a 'saturated' appearance, [at least] the surface of the paper must be fully dyed. When using inks with a lower dye-load, the pen+paper combo must support that result: wet pens + either absorbent paper or coated writing paper which will keep the dye at the surface. The tricky bit is to find such inks that resist line-width gain (spread) and bleed- show-through, and give crisp line quality.

 

Also, if you have a nice array of saturated inks, kindly consider lowering the dye-load by the no/low-cost means of dilution.

 

In addition, I suggest giving your pens a thorough cleansing to remove any residue before continuing your inky adventure with another sort of ink.

 

Bye,

S1

 

__ __

Dilution - A Rough Guide @ Post № 23 : https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/218161-need-help-selecting-my-first-japanese-pens/?p=2315439

[mhosea]

I like vibrant inks, but i don't want the hassle! Can I have my cake and eat it too? What are some good saturated inks that aren't difficult?

 

Sure, but I'm not sure whether you want vibrant or saturated. It just goes ink by ink, IMHO. But first, an alternative is to invest in an inexpensive ultrasonic cleaner. The residue left behind by Noodler's "bulletproof" inks is no match. Mine sits with a mixture of ammonia, water, and a few drops of Kodak Photo-Flo at the ready. If you really like the inks you are already using in every other respect, then this may be your ticket to living with them. Even when you can't remove the grip section to immerse it (or shouldn't for some reason), you can fill the pen with water or flushing solution and run the ultrasonic with just the nib and feed in the water by pushing the pen through a judiciously sized hole in a piece of cardboard to hold it in place.

 

Anyway, some of the easier to clean inks with only flushing that I use are

 

Noodler's La Couleur Royale

Aurora Blue

Montblanc Lavender Purple

Montblanc Cornpoppy Red

Montblanc Toffee Brown

Diamine Mediterranean Blue seems OK.

Private Reserve Electric DC Blue isn't too bad.

Most Iroshizuku inks are not too bad.

[cellmatrix]

I have a lot of pens that would be stained were it not for the wonders of Noodler's eel inks. Here is the wonder of Rattler Red.

 

What is ink is amazing for ... getting out stains. With just one use, the pen went from this:

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inked_Today/slides/20140706_195944.jpg

 

 

To this:

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inked_Today/slides/20140713_211154.jpg

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inked_Today/slides/20140712_165723.jpg

What was the blue ink that caused the stain in the first place? I will have to remember to avoid that one in my demonstrators.

[rhymingisfun]

All good suggestions. I almost only sample these days because my collection grew too fast with inks I don't much care for. And I read a lot of the reviews on here, but my tastes have changed quite a bit from what I used to want in an ink. I didn't mind the hassle of Bay State Blue or Le Reine Mauve, but now I just don't want to have to put the time in. That's why I have a Preppy for LRM, BSB, and Dostoevsky (this ink I have a grudge against for staining my Arab, and the formula was changed so what I got was totally different than the reviews and images online. Goulet was kind enough to give me a refund and keep it)

 

Amberlea that blue steel looks a lot like Ku Jaku, another color I love

[tinta]

My easiest to clean inks include OMAS sepia, Pelikan Blue/Black (NA in NA), MB Royal Blue, Waterman Florida & Mysterious Blue. As said before, less saturated inks do well in this department, but not always.

[rhymingisfun]

Mhosea my method is sacrilegious to some enthusiasts, but I use rubbing alcohol to get the stains out. On my pilots it works great and doesn't hurt the pen. And with Bay State Blue it's the only way I've found to truly get rid of all the staining. Of course, I know not to use it on Preppies or Ahabs. And my better pens I am very choosy about which inks I load. So my pens are all quite clean, and I'm fastidious in my process, taking apart the pen with each ink change. It's just that I don't want to have to do this so much anymore. But thanks for your suggestion, and I've been considering Montblac inks for a while so I'll take a look at the ones you listed.

[mhosea]

Mhosea my method is sacrilegious to some enthusiasts, but I use rubbing alcohol to get the stains out. On my pilots it works great and doesn't hurt the pen. And with Bay State Blue it's the only way I've found to truly get rid of all the staining. Of course, I know not to use it on Preppies or Ahabs.

 

Solvent choice is very important. As you note, rubbing alcohol works wonders on BSB, where the common pen-safe solvents often fail. I don't think there's any advantage afforded by alcohol when cleaning cellulose reactive inks (i.e. "bulletproof"). I don't recall it working all that well on the residue in the bottle. The problem there is not really a "stain" as such, rather a "residue". You can just wipe it off with a q-tip, but it doesn't want to rinse out. This is why the ultrasonic works wonders on this kind of "stain", whereas I don't think using the ultrasonic will have much additional effect on BSB. For that you need the solvent.

 

I seem to recall that the pen bodies of Preppies are PMMA. I just checked, and the barrel of the preppy in front of me is alcohol-safe. The collector and feed might not be, but I hadn't heard that they were not before.

 

At any rate, it's just an option. With an ultrasonic cleaner in tandem to flushing, I don't see a huge difference in the amount of effort to clean, and I don't disassemble pens to clean them (I had a typo there before I submitted that read "I don't dissemble pens to clean them," which rather amused me). I might spend 10 minutes instead of 5 minutes getting it done. Having said that, I totally get where you're coming from. Sometimes it's a joy to see an ink flush out quickly and easily. I will note that, while you might find the color dull, Noodler's La Couleur Royale is amazingly easy to clean out, right up there with Waterman Blue and Montblanc Royal Blue (neither of which I listed before because they are neither vibrant nor saturated). La Couleur Royale is highly saturated but not vibrant at all.

 

Speaking of Montblanc inks, while I find most of them easy to clean, I haven't really found that Irish Green is quite in the same league as the others in terms of cleaning. It's average in this respect, I'd say. Toffee Brown and Cornpoppy Red are exceptional, the easiest to clean of their respective colors that I have encountered. If, say, you like Diamine Chocolate Brown but find it takes too long to clean out, Montblanc Toffee Brown is the one you want.

[StrawberryJam]

I would say waterman and montblanc have the easiest inks to flush out, at least from what I have experienced. More saturated inks, like Sailor, usually require me to use dish soap to clean out any residue "staining" that can occur on plastic -- without the soap in the flushing process, inks like Sailor Jentle Blue-Black will stain the plastic on the syringes I use to transfer ink.