Unloved Fountain Pen Inks, And Giving Them Another Try

[Intensity]

--"Oh! I'm going to love this ink!"

*putting ink into cart, checking out, waiting for delivery, ...it arrives! Filling up a pen, doing some writing, hmm...

--"Well it's a nice ink... But kind of meh... Just not sure about it... Doesn't grab me. Maybe next time..."

*putting the ink away in a drawer, and pretty much leaving it alone until the bottle is buried like a forgotten treasure in sand dunes of dust*

 

How many times have you bought an ink thinking you would just love using it? Maybe it looked amazing on a review splash, or the combination of whatever a reviewer was using was just right to make the ink enticing but it simply doesn't look as good at home? Or you have even tried a sample of this ink before and thought you liked it at the time, so you got a full bottle, but now it turns out you don't quite like it enough? Or It looks good in small amount, but you just never seem to reach for that ink bottle--it's somehow never under your hand when you're reaching for a bottle to fill your pen?

 

Happens to me regularly!

 

I've gotten so many bottles that have since been gifted or traded or sold. Nothing wrong with those inks, but for some reason I did not want to use them beyond an initial fill or test. So I keep revising my collection with inks I actually DO want to use, while also critically analyzing what makes me not like using certain inks, to avoid the mistake of getting something like them again.

 

Today I was putting my pretty-much-full bottle of Stipula Verde Muschiato in the "to be traded because it's never used" stash, and thought : Hm, I should give it another try in a very different pen. So I inked it up in an FPR Himalaya with a wet ebonite feed, and holy cow, it's such a different ink out of this pen. It looks like a near-black with just a hint of dark brown-olive green that can gently shade to a pop of lighter olive green at the top of the cursive script words. This look is beautiful to me. The original look I had experienced with other pens was washed out, too translucent, and too murky brown, which is why the bottle sat unused. I think I'm going to really like using Verde Muschiato after all--just in a very specific pen or other pens that write like it.

 

Have you given your less liked inks another try in very different conditions lately and "rediscovered" their good qualities as a result? Do you also have a problem of being frequently disappointed with ink for personal use because of its appearance on your pages? Or do you end up regularly rotating through most of the inks you have purchased?

[Karmachanic]

Samples!

[senzen]

Oh yeah, been there.

 

Old inks that just look very bland (to me): Sheaffer Skrip blue, brown, Pelikan Königsblau, Lamy Turquoise, red.

 

Ink bought new I immediately disliked, still don't know what I was thinking, eventually gave it away: Violette Pensée.

 

Tried and tried, way too bland: Myosotis.

 

Looks really ugly in most pens, kinda good in a Japanese extra fine: Ina Ho.

 

Shows three different hues depending on the bottle or pouch: Équinoxe 6. Luckily some Skrip blue takes it back to what I like.

 

Shows three different hues depending on the pen, and I like all three: Kon Peki.

 

Verde Muschiato and Orange Indien look interesting in their lighter forms, but to me look even nicer when they go darker.

 

Tsuyu Kusa looked really bland in most pens, revived in a Sailor professional Gear H-M after I pressed slightly on the tines.

 

I happen to like Asa Gao in a much lighter shade than usual, finally found a pen for it: F Parker 75.

[Intensity]

Samples!

 

Sadly it's happened to me with samples too, though less often. The category of "tried once or twice and then not again". Thus tried the sample, liked it for whatever reason, bought a bottle, never used since.

[Intensity]

Oh yeah, been there.

 

Old inks that just look very bland (to me): Sheaffer Skrip blue, brown, Pelikan Königsblau, Lamy Turquoise, red.

 

Ink bought new I immediately disliked, still don't know what I was thinking, eventually gave it away: Violette Pensée.

 

Tried and tried, way too bland: Myosotis.

 

Looks really ugly in most pens, kinda good in a Japanese extra fine: Ina Ho.

 

Shows three different hues depending on the bottle or pouch: Équinoxe 6. Luckily some Skrip blue takes it back to what I like.

 

Shows three different hues depending on the pen, and I like all three: Kon Peki.

 

Verde Muschiato and Orange Indien look interesting in their lighter forms, but to me look even nicer when they go darker.

 

Tsuyu Kusa looked really bland in most pens, revived in a Sailor professional Gear H-M after I pressed slightly on the tines.

 

I happen to like Asa Gao in a much lighter shade than usual, finally found a pen for it: F Parker 75.

 

Ina Ho - I've had very mixed feelings about this ink. To me it looks best when it's very saturated after sitting in a pen for a long time. If it were like that from the start, I would have kept my bottle. Traded away long ago. Saw it in Japanese stores recently with tester pens and confirmed that I like it a lot, but only when saturated.

 

Verde Muschiato - same conclusion

[inkstainedruth]

All the time.

Some samples or bottles I gave away (some I'm still trying to ). Others, it just was that they needed to be in a pen with different characteristics: for instance, Noodler's Walnut seemed super dry, but it turned out the pen I first tried it in was a dry writer. In a very juicy Pelikan M400, OTOH, it tamed the wetness of the pen, while the pen coaxed better flow out of the ink.

At least one bottle has now changed hands twice: that was a bottle of Platinum Mix-Free Flame Red (which I got free with a Noodler's Konrad because the vendor had an overstock of the Mix-Free inks). I picked the Flame Red because I didn't have any red inks back then. Only to discover when it came that I STILL didn't actually have a red ink.... What I had was ink that looked like Mecurachrome (for those old enough to remember what that was!). I ended up giving it away to the guy who runs the mailing list for my local pen club to use for grading (he's a math professor). HE ended up giving it to my friend Karl, and for all I know Karl has since given it away....

Yeah, what Karmachamic said -- samples are your friends. You can usually get a couple of fills out of a sample vial, depending on the pen(s) you're using, to get a good feel for whether or not you like the color/behavior of the ink, and you're only out a couple of bucks. The other advantage of samples is that if you DO like an ink well enough to buy a full bottle, the leftover sample vial becomes an instant travel vial for refilling from. Even when flying -- I've had 4 or 5 sample vials of ink in a ziplock bag in my purse, and TSA don't look twice (which is actually a little disappointing, in a way, because I don't get to say "oh, that's ink for my fountain pens in case I have to refill them while I'm traveling..." ).

The inks I don't like? The reasons vary. It could be that the ink is too pale to be legible on the page, or dries too slowly (if it takes 30 seconds to dry on the poor quality and really absorbent Piccadilly paper in the sketchbooks I use for testing inks, then I'm definitely NOT getting a full bottle of it). Or the color isn't what I expected: J Herbin Rose Tendresse looked pretty in the reviews -- in person it had this sort of lavender undertone to the pink that just set my teeth on edge for some reason; while with Iroshizuku Kosumosu I never got the pink to orange shading I saw in the reviews -- and PR Rose Rage was practically the same color, for a 1/3 of the price...). Inks that I just go "Meh" about? Means I've saved money on a full bottle.

OTOH, a couple of inks I tried, just to see what the fuss was all about (original formula J Herbin Rouge Hematite, with the gold flakes, comes to mind: I thought I'd hate the underlying color and then it turned out I didn't.... And Noodler's El Lawrence? I saw a review and said "That is one weird-ass color!" But it was like how you can't look away at a car wreck.... I kept staring at the photos muttering "That is one weird-ass color" for about 10 solid minutes! So I tried it and LOVED it -- I love the waterproofness, and also the fact that I can use it for times when I'm told I need to be using black ink (like my old bank insisted checks had to be written with blue or black -- but didn't blink an eye at El Lawrence) which means that I ALSO love it for it's, well, subversiveness....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Intensity]

I suspect Noodler's EL Lawrence is right up my alley, and the bulletproof characteristics are a great bonus. Will try it eventually!

 

Noodler's Walnut: loved everything about that ink, even its scent! I actually forced myself to add it to my trade pile simply to use more of my beloved Herbin Lie de The. 100ml of Lie de The to use up, so I don't want any similar brown distractions

Edited June 25, 2019 by Intensity

[inkstainedruth]

Funny, my batch of Noodler's Walnut is a very dark brown -- nothing at all like Lie de Thé.... Are you perhaps thinking of Kiowan Pecan (which is a lot lighter and yellower brown than Walnut)?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[MHBru]

yup... should have done a sample first but i was so convinced it was a cool color..

 

Caran d' Ache Ultra Violet ... it just doesn't have the pop i like in my inks. I use it on and off just to use it but it doesn't really have the impact I was hoping for.

[Intensity]

Funny, my batch of Noodler's Walnut is a very dark brown -- nothing at all like Lie de Thé.... Are you perhaps thinking of Kiowan Pecan (which is a lot lighter and yellower brown than Walnut)?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

No, definitely Walnut Brown. I'm sure it's highly pen-dependent. It was quite light-to-medium brown out of a Lamy Safari, which is generally a dry writer compared to something like a wet vintage pen. Likewise, Lie de The can be quite light or it can be near-black depending on concentration.

[DilettanteG]

I ended up with inks I rarely use because I used to buy the entire line of an ink. Now I have lots of barely touched oranges and yellows. Plus, samples werent an option when I first started collecting. Now, a sample is usually my first choice.

 

Im glad Ive held on to some inks that I was initially meh about as they simply needed another pen. Maybe I use a larger variety of nibs these days or worse paper, but suddenly the variation from pen to pen is really noticable.

[miwishi63]

Funny thing. I have/had some inks that fell into this category for me, but I first tried them in pens with F/EF nibs. When I switched to a broader nib I found myself enjoying some of the inks more than I had at first.

[SchaumburgSwan]

Hi,

 

yes, there are some candidates sitting around:

 

- Pelikan 4001 Dark Green, too blue, not dark enorgh, more a cyan than a green...maybe I should mix it with Pelikan Smoky Quartz?

 

-Diamine Prussian Blue, nice color, but too pale. But in a very wet pen it looks good.

 

- Pelikan Edelstein Aventurine, looked good on the web, on my paper somehow strange, I don't like the color/saturation/brightness.

 

-Several non iron gall dark blues, here I like IG inks better.

 

Best

Jens

Edited June 26, 2019 by SchaumburgSwan

[samasry]

Pilot Blue Black Ink

 

Used it on my first Sailor F nib and hated it

 

Later, I got a fairly wet MF Sailor nib and the Pilot Blue black ink is way way better. It is almost night and day difference.

 

 

Now for a real ink that I should never have bought

 

- Lamy blue

- Lamy black

[DrDebG]

Yes! I have had the same experience.

 

I just put the ink in the back of one of my ink drawers and forget about it for awhile.

 

Recently, I pulled out Montblanc Burgundy Red. I initially loved it but most of the time, it was so dry, dull and uninspiring regardless of the pen that I put it in. Well, recently, I pulled it out and inked one of my Leonardos with a stub nib. What a difference! The ink is velvety and very nice in this pen.

 

There is only one ink that I just do not like in any pen that I own - that is Lamy Petrol. My daughter gave it to me but it is just not the ink for me. I have tried many times, and just don't care for it. I wanted to give it back to my daughter, but she doesn't like it either. So, it sits in the very back of my bottom ink drawer. Maybe someday . . .

[Chaos-incarnate]

Yes, quite a few Robert Osters for some reason. I think it's because I prefer finer nibs, but I got a lot of samples of colours which looked great online but in real life I just can't like them. Motor Oil was one, more recently Plumb Nut which is way too pale. It's such a nice colour though that I will ink it up in a really wet pen next and try that- I'm not ready to give up yet.

I've forced myself to use all the samples of some but never changed my mind.

 

Another was R.O. Black 'n' Blue- hardly any shimmer and the under colour just doesn't show in writing unfortunately. It was hard and expensive to source too. I reinked it and used it for a week later but still no love.

 

Diamine Shimmering Sea was too dark with no shading, and Diamine Firestorm Red taught me I don't really like reds, nor particularly silver shimmer. I've just put those two in the Australian pass around box because I think they're great inks, just not for me.

 

Some colours are great for drawing but I don't like them for writing at all. I find the shimmers really good for cheap paper- the higher absorbency seems to pull more ink out and therefore more shimmer. Conversely it won't show shading though.

 

I sign a lot of permits at work, but so far no one has said anything about the colours I use. I do try to keep darker inks in my main work pen though because I don't want it to get brought up ;-) And because I'm a girl no one says anything about all my other colours on other paperwork- might as well enjoy the perks of a predominantly male workplace ;-)

Edited June 26, 2019 by Chaos-incarnate

[dumaresq]

I believe it's because we're buying inks on the basis of ink swabs, which are invariably laid on very thick. That's why in almost all the cases above, the ink came to life once it was put in a wet pen.

[chromantic]

Color-wise, not really. If the color doesn't 'wow' me, I won't try it again. That's different than colors I find quite acceptable but don't have much interest in using after initial testing; this happens a lot with reds and oranges, I've found.

 

I did just order a 10 ml. Cacao du Bresil to give it another try but the issue there wasn't the color.

[Intensity]

Im glad Ive held on to some inks that I was initially meh about as they simply needed another pen. Maybe I use a larger variety of nibs these days or worse paper, but suddenly the variation from pen to pen is really noticable.

 

 

Funny thing. I have/had some inks that fell into this category for me, but I first tried them in pens with F/EF nibs. When I switched to a broader nib I found myself enjoying some of the inks more than I had at first.

 

 

Pilot Blue Black Ink

 

Used it on my first Sailor F nib and hated it

 

Later, I got a fairly wet MF Sailor nib and the Pilot Blue black ink is way way better. It is almost night and day difference.

 

 

I believe it's because we're buying inks on the basis of ink swabs, which are invariably laid on very thick. That's why in almost all the cases above, the ink came to life once it was put in a wet pen.

 

Yes, a different pen and paper can make a huge difference indeed. For some of us with lots of pens, it can be a matter of finding the right pen, which takes some guesswork. Sometimes it's luck when I find the right pen for each ink, and sometimes I try a few pens and still don't find the right pen. Then sometime later I try again and find the right combination to finally appreciate that ink. I should add a scan or photograph comparing Stipula Verde Muschiato written with a very wide cursive italic nib vs with a super wet flexy fine nib. It's like completely different ink, even the hue is different. Also more binary shading look in the wide nib vs. gentle shading in the wet writer, interestingly enough.

[Intensity]

There is only one ink that I just do not like in any pen that I own - that is Lamy Petrol. My daughter gave it to me but it is just not the ink for me. I have tried many times, and just don't care for it. I wanted to give it back to my daughter, but she doesn't like it either. So, it sits in the very back of my bottom ink drawer. Maybe someday . . .

 

I started out being underwhelmed by that ink, but then it actually became one of my favorites. I got a back-up bottle of it, and periodically look for more. It performs great with every pen, is well-lubricating, and also seems to do well cleaning stained reservoir pens for me so far. I like how it can look off-black from my Sailor EF nib or do great shading with some sheen from a wet cursive italic.