The Pen Chooses The Ink Harry ...

[swishandflick]

After 4 Pilot Metros, I decided on a Pilot Vanishing Point with the 18k medium nib as my first nice fountain pen. It's fitting as I used Pilot 0.5mm Vanishing Point pencils all through my college years.

 

I wanted the pen for a nice, bright medium blue ink. I have tried most of the Goulet royal blue sampler inks in the pen. I also have large bottles of Liberty's Elysium, BSB (not tried, but I love this ink in the Metro on yellow legal pads) and Heart of Darkness.

 

After 8 or 9 blues I was starting to wonder if the nib has some issue - it may still, but the issues varied and none made me very happy. Some slow starters, some dry, others looking wider with too much shading.

 

Then I tried Heart of Darkness in this one. So far it is working out perfectly. Smooth, solid lines and so far, no slow starts or skipping.

 

I think this pen chose its own ink. I guess it suits it. It is the black version with rhodium trim. Perhaps I'll buy a blue version in a fine nib to use with one of the blue inks.

Edited August 11, 2017 by swishandflick

[Sailor Kenshin]

Exactly. Once I find the Perfect Pen/Ink Match, I like to leave them together forever. Which is why I need so. Many. Pens.

[akrohn2010]

File that away under the "excuses for more pens" thread, haha. I've found this too -- some pens just *want* certain inks.

[Bluey]

I'm going to be a killjoy and say that the pen chooses any ink they wish, or the pen is out the door. I don't like pens which only behave with certain inks.

 

Usually the wider the nib the more likely the performance issues, but the OP may find that the pen just requires a flush.

Edited August 11, 2017 by Bluey

[Sailor Kenshin]

Killjoy away!

 

But I found more than once, that by pairing a pen and an ink that were both going to PIF-land, there was a Marriage Made In Heaven.

[KellyMcJ]

I've had the same experience. The pen that has seen the most varied inks is my Edison Collier- it behaves well with all of them, but some far better than others. It's NEVER failed me but there are some inks it just doesn't like.

 

Then I have the inks that I don't like except in that one pen that makes them sing.

[swishandflick]

It is interesting how the various inks interact in various pens. I did multiple flushes until the water ran clear.

 

Most of the blues ran on the drier side.

 

HOD is the exact opposite - it lays down a heavy line, with almost too much bleed through on cheaper legal pads. 20 lb paper seems to at least not impact the page behind.

[ac12]

I normally use 2 inks to test a pen; Waterman (wet) and Pelikan (dry)

- I usually start with the wet Waterman ink.

- If the ink flow is too wet, I switch to the dryer Pelikan ink.

 

I do this if I do not want to fiddle with the pen.

 

If I want to use ink X ink Pen Y, then I have to adjust the nib to flow the ink as I want it to.

• It is relatively easy to make a pen write wetter, to a point.
• It is more difficult to make a pen write dryer.

However. as Kelly said, there are inks that a pen just may NOT like.

 

Example1, Diamine Sherwood Green clogs several of my pens with narrow ink channels. Nearest that I can determine, the dye load of that ink is so high that, the ink channel has to be wide enough to pass the ink without the dye coagulating and blocking the ink channel. So I cannot use this ink in several of my pens.

Example2, Noodler's Emerald City Green, is sooooo WET, that in ALL but one of my pens, it looks like I am writing with a felt marker. The ink goes on the paper then BLOTS, so the ink line is many times wider than the nib, so my F nib looks like a BBBB nib. And the ink bleeds through to the other side. So I can use this ink in only one of my pens, a VERY DRY Pilot 78G. I cannot use it in any of my other pens.

[Highbinder]

Exactly. Once I find the Perfect Pen/Ink Match, I like to leave them together forever. Which is why I need so. Many. Pens.

 

LMAO. Maybe that's where I'm going wrong - more inks than pens.

[senzen]

It took me a long time to realize this, so when a combination works, I also leave it alone. The most extreme case is a Waterman Laureat, one of my first pens, which writes like a dream but leaks from the cap... After finding a donor pen and almost giving up, and trying all permutations (nib, feed, section, converter) including the ink, it's finally behaving. The ink that helped tame the beast: Fuyu Gaki. As a bonus such a wild ink coming out of such a boring (black with gold trim) pen looks interesting.

[Driften]

Strange I have two 18k M Vanishing Points and they have worked with every ink I have tried, but I mostly use Pilot inks.

 

I have noticed some inks come out lighter or darker in different nibs. I have gone a shade up or down in blue to get about the same shade of blue on the paper.

[ENewton]

 

 

Example1, Diamine Sherwood Green clogs several of my pens with narrow ink channels. Nearest that I can determine, the dye load of that ink is so high that, the ink channel has to be wide enough to pass the ink without the dye coagulating and blocking the ink channel. So I cannot use this ink in several of my pens.

Example2, Noodler's Emerald City Green, is sooooo WET, that in ALL but one of my pens, it looks like I am writing with a felt marker. The ink goes on the paper then BLOTS, so the ink line is many times wider than the nib, so my F nib looks like a BBBB nib. And the ink bleeds through to the other side. So I can use this ink in only one of my pens, a VERY DRY Pilot 78G. I cannot use it in any of my other pens.

 

I do not have any pens that are picky about inks. However, as ac12 notes, certain inks can be troublesome.

 

In my case, it is Diamine Grape that will not flow in most of my pens. The same pens write beautifully with any other ink in my small collection. I have also assumed that dye load is a contributing factor, but the same pens that won't write with Grape perform flawlessly with Sailor Shigure, which is also quite a saturated ink.

[senzen]

There's also inks that work well but don't look quite right: Myosotis used to come out a lot darker before it found "its" Lamy Vista with an M nib, Lie de Thé looked more like milk chocolate on a Waterman Laureat F, looks fine on a Muji F...

[inkstainedruth]

I got a sample of Noodler's Walnut several years ago -- it was my first brown. I hated it. Yeah, it was pretty permanent, but it was also dry, dry, dry. Then I got my first Pelikan -- an M400 Brown Tortoise from the 1990s. I was going to use it for drawing, so I put Iroshizuku Yama-guri in it. Bad combination: wet pen and and wet ink. But when I tried the Walnut it was a PERFECT combination -- dry ink and wet pen. No, I don't use just that ink in that pen, but it does work really well in it.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[pajaro]

The pen and ink combination either do what you want or not. Wet ink and wet pen might be what you want or you might prefer a drier ink or a dry pen and dry ink, or something else.

[Erik Dalton]

I've had the very same experience of pens choosing their own inks. Which is why the more pens I buy, the more ink I seem to have...

I made my kids eat the vegetables they didn't like, and they grew older and strong. I wonder if I'm not needlessly spoiling my pens?🤔

[truthpil]

Exactly. Once I find the Perfect Pen/Ink Match, I like to leave them together forever. Which is why I need so. Many. Pens.

 

Did you happen to make a list of those perfect pen/ink matches you've discovered?

 

That could save many people much time and money hehe.

[Bo Bo Olson]

too much shading. ??????????????????????????????? Which ink?

 

Paper is more important than the ink, when it comes down to it. Do look at Sandy1's reviews, the width of the nib and the difference of paper can make an ink look completely different.

[minddance]

I dislike too much shading too. It is too much distraction and looks broken. Diamine Monaco Red, Sepia, Meadow, Umber, Autumn Oak, Beau Blue, (China Blue), Misty Blue.

 

Herbin style of shading, and some Sailor Jentle (I call them tonal variations) I am happy to accept. But Diamine style, and some Iroshizuku, especially lighter inks, I dislike. There is something in the ink that prevents itself from forming an affinity with paper. Very prohibitive, unless, of course, I write on absorbent papers. To be fair, this very component has its merits: it prevents feathering on poor or absorbent paper as long as the nib is within reasonable limits of wetness. And it lubricates.

 

If I had to be positive, I would say this compelled me to experiment with different papers and pens just to subdue the excessive 'shading'.

Edited November 18, 2017 by minddance

[OMASsimo]

A pen that works well only with one single ink would be on my work bench in no time. Sure, there are wetter and dryer writers and it's wise to choose the ink accordingly. But if I can't choose from a number of inks from each category, something is really wrong with the pen.

 

On the other hand, I enjoy matching the ink colour to the colour of the pen. So, there are some ink/pen combinations which I prefer to keep, indeed.