The Driest Inks

[sidthecat]

Im a leftie, so I prefer inks with the shortest drying times. Back in the Eighties I bought several bottles of Mont Blanc Mystery Black and theyre still sitting here because whatever I wrote with it may still be wet. I find Diamine satisfactory but I wondered what other brands had this characteristic.

What says the collective wisdom of the forum?

[lapis]

This won't help all that much but IMO the dryest inks aren't always those which dry the fastest. E.g. Diamine's Registrar's sometimes dries out in the nib before it even gets on paper, but still takes time to dry when it's on the paper.

[effandpee]

Pelikan, especially their 4001 line rather than Edelstein, is known for being dry in order to complement free-flowing Pelikan nibs. J Herbin is also quite dry in my experience.

[aurore]

GvFC Cobalt Blue is dry and GvFC Midnight Blue is very dry. Both are very good inks.

[minddance]

Just for fun, from a DIY perspective, Dip a toothpick in alcohol, then smear abit into the converter with ink. Ink properties will certainly change (bleedthrough, feathering). But dry time will certainly shorten.

 

Be careful not to allow alcohol to touch any of the pen parts, barrel, cap etc as it may destroy some of the materials.

Edited November 4, 2018 by minddance

[penzel_washinkton]

Second the Pelikan Inks, even the Edelstein line is drier than I thought

[sidthecat]

Ive had good luck with Edelstein...the Smoky Quartz is a wonderful color. Ive used a lot of Diamine inks as well.

 

Since just about all my pens are vintage, I may forgo the alcohol trick.

Edited November 5, 2018 by sidthecat

[Runnin_Ute]

Ive had good luck with Edelstein...the Smoky Quartz is a wonderful color. Ive used a lot of Diamine inks as well.

 

Since just about all my pens are vintage, I may forgo the alcohol trick.

Good call. I wouldn't try that in a modern pen. Why risk it?

[A Smug Dill]

Rubinato Verde Inchiostro green ink is unbearably dry.

 

Not so the Nero Inchiostro and Blu Inchiostro in the same product line.

[TheDutchGuy]

Pelikan 4001 blue black is the driest ink I currently know. It even dries on the nib sometimes. It's a gift for taming overly wet pens. I've got it some vintage pens that are real gushers and it's a pleasure.

 

Since the OP is left-handed: a combination that I requently give away to lefties is a 0.5mm Platinum Preppy with a Platinum Blue or Blue-black cartridge. Invariably these love it: it writes nice and smooth and is dry by the time the wrist arrives.

[sansenri]

"the dryest inks aren't always those which dry the fastest"

 

I fully agree. But it depends also which effect you are after.

 

If it's low smearing, in my experience older formulations like Pelikan 4001, J.H, Aurora, Visconti, Quink, Waterman, generally tend to smear less than modern inks.

It's not a rule by all means and certainly there will be exceptions, but in my opinion older formulations contain more water, less pigment and less additives, hence when water evaporates the ink does not smear.

Some modern inks, especially when more saturated and with high content of additives to improve flow and smooth writing effect, will tend to smear more, because there is more pigment, which will have more difficulty to be fully absorbed by the paper and because some of the additives are also probably not fully absorbed by the paper and remain on the surface.

A few of these inks will smear even after days they are on the paper (imagine writing with soapy water instead of pure water, once the water evaporates some soapy substance remains on the paper, leaving a slippery surface. Now imagine that slippery substance being overloaded with pigment...).

 

That is a personal impression and not overly scientific (despite being a chemist...) and so many factors are involved in any case besides the ink (the nib used, the paper used, temperature, humidity...).

[chromantic]

The two Stipula inks I have are both on the dry side, certainly drier than Sailor.

[torstar]

Trial and error, Diamine has some dry and some wet flow inks.

 

The paper is important as well, the higher the poundage the longer the time it takes to dry.

[ayrinoodles]

I haven't tried a lot but I think J. Herbins are quite dry? Then again maybe the easiest way maybe is too use absorbent paper for note taking? (although they are usually not the high quality).

 

I haven't tried Noodler's Bernanke Black/Red/Blue but I once saw a Goulet pens review which said that this Noodler's series was specifically designed for lefties. Although some properties would have to suffer.

[TheDutchGuy]

The word "dry" might be interpreted in several ways. Often, it is used to indicate how much ink a pen will put on paper (i.e. flow, wetness). Changing from a dry to a wet ink or v.v. will make a *big* difference with most pens. A second interpretation is how fast the ink dries on paper or even on the nib. These two interpretations are not necessarily two sides of the same coin: a wet ink makes a pen put more ink on the page than it would have done with a dry ink, and obviously more ink takes longer to dry than less ink. So it won't do to say that a dry ink dries faster, because dry ink means less ink. Comparing drying times would require putting an identical amount of ink on identical paper under identical circumstances and then measuring the drying time.

 

Pelikan 4001 is dry in the pen (4001 Blue Black will tame almost any pen; I use it all the time in overly wet vintage pens) and quickly dries on the page - or even on the nib.

 

In my experience, J. Herbin inks are wet in the sense that they have excellent flow (more ink on the page) but still have relatively a short drying time. I've noticed this with Bleu Nuit, Lierre Sauvage and Rouge Caroubier.

 

An ink like Sailor Shikiori Yonaga is both wet in the pen (a lot of ink on the page) and takes quite a while to dry.

[torstar]

get pretty dry sitting there for a year or so in the pen.