Using Pen With It's Manufacturer's Ink?

[ente5]

Do the penmakers that also make ink tailor that ink to their nibs' characteristics?

I saw here that Sailor ink is high fluid, to match Sailor characertistics

[zaddick]

To some degree, bit you can mix ink and pen makers as you like. Manu9tend to make inks that are safe for their pens, so not super saturated or full of glitter and the like.

[peroride]

Do the penmakers that also make ink tailor that ink to their nibs' characteristics?

I saw here that Sailor ink is high fluid, to match Sailor characertistics

I tend to want to pair ink and pen under the same brand.

 

However, one small subjective data point, my Lamy Black is better than my Sailor Jentle in my Sailor Zoom.

 

Puzzling.

[Aysedasi]

I've never worried at all about matching pens with the same manufacturer's ink.....

[sandy101]

Yes, however that doesn't mean they are always successful at it.

 

For example, I've found Lamy's ink to be the worst ink to use in the Lamy 2K. It's just too wet and makes the lines much thicker than other inks do.

 

Caran D'ache's pens seem to work better with their (wetter) inks. I've found other brands too dry.

[Honeybadgers]

I'd only be careful about using a manufacturer that makes iron gall (to my knowledge it's only platinum right now with an IG line?) and leaving that IG ink in a steel nib pen for a long time. I keep IG in my 3776 but wouldn't leave a plaisir or balance inked with citrus black for more than a couple weeks.

 

Other than that, I wouldn't have a problem - pelikan seems to dedicate their pens to writing psychotically wet, so they make the driest ink in town.

[inkstainedruth]

I have a friend who used to *insist* that you had to match ink and pen brand, no matter how much I tried to convince her that wasn't necessarily the case -- especially when she complained about the poor range of colors that Waterman made in cartridges. Now she has a bunch of Levengers which she uses for work (she's a tech writer) and a couple of years ago she was waxing poetic about the colors of the old Chesterfield ink because she didn't like the colors of the Levenger inks as well. (I wish I hadn't lost the sample writing I made, because I know that Chesterfield was just rebranded Diamine).

Some inks do better in wetter or drier pens, but that's not necessarily brand dependent: companies which have larger selections often have inks that are wetter or drier within their complete lineup; and you can't make assumptions based on a specific ink how others from the same brand will behave.

I'll admit that unlike Honeybadgers, I put IG inks in my steel nibbed Parker Vectors all the time.... Do I leave them in a pen as long as I have Waterman Mysterious Blue in my Red Shadow Wave Vac? No. But I will run them for a while. The only ink that gets somewhat special (i.e., limited use) treatment is Noodler's Bay State Blue, because it doesn't play well with other inks, and so I put that in a dedicated pen. OTOH, I've put other Noodler's inks in some of my Parker 51s.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[minddance]

Well, my Pilot Blue never works with fine-nibbed Pilot Custom pens. Why? It turns out way too pale and washed out for decent legibility in faster writing and the Pilot Custom nibs are shipped too dry most of the times.

 

Does Pilot even test this combintion?

[Runnin_Ute]

I only have a few inks made by pen manufacturers. Pelikan (blue black), Waterman (Serenity Blue), Levenger (Pomegranate, Amethyst), I don't really count Noodler's but technically I could (4 colors). As I could with the Iroshizuku (Pilot) Kon Peki and the three Pelikan Edelstein colors as well as Lamy-Pacific and Petrol.

 

I also have at least one pen from each manufacturer: (7 Pelikans including 3 M200's), a Waterman Phileas, Levenger True Writer Silver Anniversary, Noodler's Konrad, and Pilot Metropolitan, Lamy Al Star

 

Only one pen is regularly inked with the ink from its manufacturer- my Pelikan 140. Most of the time with 4001 Blue Black. (right now I have six Pelikan's inked, The M400 White Tortoise with Olivine and the 140 with Blue Black) The others are inked with a combination of Lamy, Blackstone, Akkerman and Diamine.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Pelikan made a wetter nib and feed, to match their dry ink.

Waterman made a thinner nib to match their wet ink.

MB runs medium-towards the dry side.

 

I rate Lamy inks on the dry side. It's BB is darker than Pelikan's BB. Having dryer inks, could well be why Lamy is considered a wide nib.

 

Japanese like Waterman make thin nibs, so have to have wet inks.

 

It only makes sense for a company to match it's nib and feed to it's ink.

Be rather foolish for Pelikan to make a narrow nib for it's dry ink, it wouldn't be a smooth writer then. No one would buy a draggy pen.

 

If Japanese nibs were as 'fat' as western, then wet ink would make them write even fatter.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[icevic]

Parker developed a lineup of inks under their Quink brand specifically to suit their 51 models. Really, I don't think there has ever been a pen as extensively engineered as the 51.

 

I like to use Noodler's ink in Noodlers pens, but that is more because I am a bit leery of Noodlers inks in general, but I figure they are well tested in their own brand of pens.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I've used Lamy inks in my Pelikans....Pelikan inks in my few MBs.

 

Often it is just foolishness of going to Inky Thoughts or Ink Reviews.....and the sudden urge to ink with the ink being talked about.............normally it don't matter much, in I have fewer wet inks than dry or middle ones.

First pen grabbed....unless it's a wetter ink, then the wet semi-flex won't be used but a dryer regular flex.

 

I'd not realized C'dA inks were wet, but I only have the old discontinued ones.

 

I have a dry writing semi-flex, that I at first bought Waterman ink for it....but later got rid of Waterman blue for DA Royal Blue, which is a bit more lubricated & saturated, could be a bit more wet. It did the Geha 725 well.

 

 

I find from my reading Edelstein inks are more varied in wetness than the 4001 inks. (Some I don't care for, others I like a lot. That would not make much if any difference then in a Pelikan pen....a tad wider line....a bit smoother?

At wettest it may be as wet as MB.

 

I'll put MB or Herbin inks in any pen needing ink.

 

DA makes both wetter and dry inks. I tend to look for shading. So don't use the wetter inks much, in they lack shading. I wouldn't hesitate to use a wetter one....if I had too.

 

R&K inks are on the dry side and shade...........so I use them in any pen.

 

I don't have any Japanese inks...out side a couple cartridges (if and when, some day I'll empty them by needle), in they use to cost E70 a bottle and I still find the now Amazon E22 expensive. I'll not be buying MB any more at E19. And I'm not up to leaning a foreign language to find out what color one is.

 

I only have two Noodler inks....in they are supersaturated, even if there is no problem with Apache Sunset or Golden Brown....I just clean after each use.

 

For best results, the pen manufacture's ink, has been made to match nib and feed. But there is close enough for a non-working government. Which most inks are....all one needs to know if the ink is wet, middling or dry to find a nib that works.

Putting a wet ink in a wet nib....say Japanese in a Pelikan would make a gusher. Putting a dry ink 4001 ink in a skinny Japanese nib might not be the way to fly either. Skinny nib and dry. A B Japanese nib...(M western) would do well with a dry shading ink, I'm sure.

 

One needs match one's nib-feed and paper to the ink. Using just say the 7-8 4001 inks would be rather foolish, when there are so, so many nice hues and shades....also with inks that are not wet.

[japinder_888]

I always used Montblanc Royal Blue ink with Montblanc Meisterstuck 149

[mitto]

I use any good ink with any good pen regardless of the brand of either the pen or the ink.

[senzen]

I am using about 26 pens and inks, none of the brands match, they all work great, Hisoku might be a bit dry for a Metropolitan.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

After my first years with the modern fountain pens and inks I came to the conclusion that the admonitions from fountain pen manufacturers to use only their brand of ink in their brand of fountain pen was just advertising. To some degree it's a holdover from the old days when that kind of admonition was used in many fields. And of course if the company makes money by such propaganda then they're doing what's profitable for them.

 

I like to mix inks, so I have fountain pens with the inks of two or three different manufacturers in them. Sometimes none of the inks are from the same company that made the fountain pen.

 

So I scoff at the manufacturers that still try to coerce pen buyers into becoming narrow minded ink buyers. And of course some pen manufacturers don't make inks at all. And some ink manufacturers don't make pens.

 

[Helen350]

Like several other commentors, I have found no problem using any of my ink brands with my pens. Surprisingly, I was not even aware that pen manufacturers were still trying that sell tactic for their inks.

[JotterAddict62]

I would try other ink in my vintage Parkers, however I have 8 - 4oz full bottles and 78 - 2oz full bottles [ all colors ] of vintage Quink at this time.

 

I am working on finishing two bottles 1 PBB & 1 PRB

 

I guess I will wait until I use up all that I have before I buy any other ink brands.

 

Ken

 

P.S. If I see a bargain for more vintage Quink, I will not pass it up.

[inkstainedruth]

And I will keep my eye out for more advertising window Jotter BPs to trade for when you do find more vintage Quink....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

I'm not OCD about nib width.....with normal tolerance/slop within a brand, and that each company has it's very own standards....all nibs are 1/2 sizes to some manufacture and era. Horseshoe close is good enough. Very wide, wide, middling, narrow and skinny and XXF real skinny.

 

Many folks who chase narrow nibs are very OCD about how narrow their nib is. Get Irate Western nibs are all a size wider than marked.

 

Basically, I make a mistake and go over to the ink section......... over an ink I have that I've not tired in a while and grab a pen.............not even looking for best match.