Do You Feel Guilty Sending A Letter In Black Ink?

July 29, 2016

One other thing to consider about black inks is that some have a lot of character. For example, I have some Bookbinders Red-belly Black Snake. It is a black with a nice red sheen. Noodler's has several blacks that are interesting, though my favorite is Dark Matter.

Speaking for myself, I own more bottles of black than makes any kind of sense.

July 29, 2016

I've a few 1.1 italics that I run Noodler's Black in. It is such a deep, rich black mark that paired with the right color paper looks rather sharp, if I do say so myself.

My only guilt in writing to others is if I wait too long to do so, never with the pen or ink choice for the words and the act are far more important than the tools used to do it.

July 29, 2016

I do usually wait too long, I'm with ya there.

The difference is, avoiding procrastination is a lot harder than using interesting colors of ink. And, of course, fretting the details is always a good way to delay actually doing something.

July 29, 2016

Use whatever ink you like to use.

For DECADES my standard ink was Parker Quink BLACK.

I have branched out to other colors, but black is my standard formal ink.

FPN Pen Paling is about writing with a pen.

IMHO, if you want to write in different colors, that is besides the point.

Edited July 29, 2016 by ac12

July 29, 2016

Most of my 40+ pens have interesting colors in them but a Parker Sonnet with a factory italic and a Hua Hong HH-8 have black in them. The Sonnet is really dark with Quink black at about double saturation (evaporated, filled again with ink without cleaning it out) and the HH-8 has a 20+ year old generic black cartridge I had to add water to. I'd kinda like to use them, but feel guilty sending a penpal a letter in boring ink. Kinda feel the same about unsaturated blues like 4001 or Waterman.

I used to have a Vac 700 smoke with 80% Noodler's Black in it. Since that's waterproof, I used it for addressing envelopes. Not sure how, but it left a film in the barrel I had trouble removing, so that pen's empty and waiting for me to figure which of 50+ (100+ ?) untried colors to put in it.

If the only interesting part of your letter is the ink color, . . . . . . . .

July 29, 2016

I guess the variable is how much your recipient values presentation vs content, or in the case of ink and pens, where are their relative levels of Pen-y-ness vs Mail/Letter-y-ness. And then on the Letter side, how much interest in stationery vs erudition.

Off that chart would be "mail art" people where presentation is everything and the sentence or two that might be there is more typographical art. Or the Postcrossing people where I think the overwhelming point of interest is collecting sent-from locations, then maybe interesting cards, with what you write fairly irrelevant.

On the World Of Snail Mail forum I try to get a sense of how much, if at all, someone is into pens. If they don't care, I try not to do the sometimes annoying hobby thing (I see this with cameras and ham radio) of naming in detail the equipment used. Initially I'd assume minimal pen geekery. Someone from here, at least a modest level. My longest penpal from FPN started off "just into writing letters" but now updates me on latest pen news and I see more ink colors. Another convert <evil laugh>.

I don't think I've ever tried to use fancy stationery or interesting ink to make up for a boring letter, but I have put extra effort into it when a reply is really overdue. Plus maybe a photo tuck-in.

If it's a letter to a high level pen & paper geek and it's a fine nib, careless handwriting, with Quink Black on copy paper in a drugstore envelope then, yeah, wow, better write something fascinating, eh? Starting with, why _this_ particular black ink.

July 29, 2016

I guess the variable is how much your recipient values presentation vs content, or in the case of ink and pens, where are their relative levels of Pen-y-ness vs Mail/Letter-y-ness.

A letter in black ink and on copier paper, but written with a clear, even hand, and with thought given to the layout and white space, will present something far more attractive than an average letter that happens to have been written in thirty different colours.

In typography, colour is how dense the page looks: it's part of what makes a page elegant, balanced and harmonious. To me, and to many typesetters and calligraphers, this sense of colour is more important than considering which Diamine bottle to crack open.