‘Mainstream’ Inks That Seem To Be ‘Missing’ From Fpn

[Mercian]

Hi,

I have noticed that very few of us on FPN seem to have anything to say about LAMY Green, or Pelikan 4001 Red, or Waterman ‘Harmonious Green’ or ‘Audacious Red’.

 

Theses are all inks that are made by mainstream pen manufacturers, and all are still on sale.
So some people must be buying them - but it seems that nobody on FPN is.

I mean, lots of us use - and really like - some of the other inks sold by these manufacturers in the same ‘everyday’ ranges, so it isn’t any kind of ‘general aversion’ to the brands themselves.

 

Do any of you out there have any good things to say about any of these inks? Or even bad things to say about them?

Are they perhaps ‘merely’ ‘reliable workhorses’ for e.g. marking school children’s homework, but so boring in appearance that they ‘don’t deserve’ discussion on FPN?

 

If any of you actually like these inks, please would you upload some scans of your writing with them?

 

My thanks to you in advance,

M.

[LizEF]

Waterman Audacious Red is a fabulous ink. I use it for markup. I also own Harmonious Green, but wouldn't had I tried a sample first - not my color. I'm finally starting my EF nib ink review videos, and decided to start with known entities, so I'm doing my Waterman bottled inks first - Audacious Red, Inspired Blue, Harmonious Green. (First two are done, but I'm trying to build a buffer before I publish, so they're not out yet.)

 

I haven't tried the other inks you mention. I only have Lamy Blue-Black, and have never owned / tried a Pelikan ink.

[DrDebG]

Waterman inks are the "gold standard" for many of us. Because so many of us have them, we easily forget what great inks they are. Yes, the colors are a bit boring compared to the glitz and glamor of Sailor or Colorverse or Robert Oster. But you always can count on them. I have all of them and can attest to their reliability. The first fill on any new pen that comes into my collection is Waterman Serenity Blue.

 

Didn't somebody start a new thread about Waterman Serenity Blue recently????

 

I am not a big fan of Lamy standard inks. The only two that I like are Lamy Green and Lamy Turquoise. I find the rest to be dry and boring.

 

Pelikan 4001 inks are solid and reliable but for EF , F and medium nibs. Many of them seem to be a bit too dry for wider nibs, IMHO.

[corniche]

Hi Mercian,

 

I have all the colors you mention; they are all ultra-reliable inks. I just don't care for the colors. I prefer Pelikan 4001 Dark Green and Sheaffer Red; which are also ultra-reliable - and much prettier to look at, IMHO.

 

Sean

[Noihvo]

 

[DilettanteG]

Modern Sheaffer inks seem to be neglected as well. I only have bottles of the older ones with the built in well, but the samples and cartridges I've used of the modern inks have all been decent. Ditto the Pilot Mixable colors that come with the Pilot Parallel Pens. Those are cartridge only, but solid performers for everyday writing.

 

I'm already at over two hundred bottles though, so sadly I don't have room to acquire either line.

[Runnin_Ute]

The only inks I have in those lines are 4001 Blue Black-my favorite blue Black; Lamy it's Pacific/Turquoise and Serenity Blue from Waterman.

 

My true red is Diamine Classic Red, and my greens are from several manufacturers.

[almoore]

Hi

 

I have Waterman black, red & brown and they are my benchmark inks. I've been using them for years and they are ultra reliable and that's what matters to me for everyday use.

 

Al

[wallylynn]

Maybe you're just not looking far back enough. I may or may not have done a review of lamy blue black 10 years ago. Serenity blue was Florida blue before the rebranding. There were definitely threads wondering if it was merely a name change or formula change too and people comparing them. It's not so much they're ignored, but rather been there done that.

[Arkanabar]

Noivho, you're thinking of Sandy1's infamous review of Lamy Green. Some positive comments regarding the ink do show up on the second or third page of the thread.

Like almoore, I think of Waterman Brown as a reference color, at least until it fades to a sort of avocado green. If it weren't for that habit, it, and not Diamine Chocolate, would be The Essential Brown for me.

[ddntp]

Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Red is the most nib-creeping ink I ever had. I tried it in 10 different pens, after a week or so - beautiful nib creep (aka cauliflower...). Second thing - color. For me true red is MB Corn Poppy Red or Sheaffer Skrip Red.

[Mercian]

Bump!

 

After having my interest piqued in one of these by its mention in another thread, I would like to nominate two other ‘mainstream’ inks that are yet to be reviewed on FPN:

 

Platinum Green

 

Platinum Red

Does anyone have either of these and love (or hate) them enough to create a review?

[Flaxmoore]

Pelikan Red.

 

In the words of Aaron Burr in Hamilton, "So, we're doing this."

 

I always have a bottle of red ink on my desk at work, for one pen and one task- a Pilot Parallel 6mm, purely for marking consultations/imaging as not indicated when I'm approached asking if something is reasonable. I want it dead clear to everyone that the answer is NO. (most recent was someone who wanted spinal injections for pain, but was an uncontrolled diabetic- absolutely not)

 

I ran out of my favorite Skrip red, so got a bottle of Pelikan. Big mistake.

 

It's not red. It's orangish-pink. Chromatography via paper towel shows pink and yellow. It's the most fade-happy ink I've ever used, fading markedly in a matter of weeks just sitting on my office desk, despite not getting direct sun. It's dry enough to choke all but the wettest pens.

 

The only saving grace is the 30ml bottle didn't cost much.

[Mercian]

I always have a bottle of red ink on my desk at work, for one pen and one task- a Pilot Parallel 6mm, purely for marking consultations/imaging as not indicated when I'm approached asking if something is reasonable. I want it dead clear to everyone that the answer is NO. (most recent was someone who wanted spinal injections for pain, but was an uncontrolled diabetic- absolutely not)

 

For your particular use-case, should you ever run out of Skrip Red again I suppose that you could consider Diamine ‘Red Dragon’.

 

Or perhaps even their ‘Oxblood’? See e.g. this review, and this review.

[RJS]

I use Waterman Harmonious Green practically every day, in a Kaweco Sport AL, for marking up work printed on standard office paper. I've liked other greens too, but this one works flawlessly for the purpose because it doesn't mind the cheap paper.

[carola]

I do have a bottle of Pelikan Brilliant Red and I like it very much. Usually I use it with my red striped Pelikan M400 and I´ve never had any issues with the ink being too dry. It´s probably true it fades quickly when exposed to sunlight, but other than that I´ve had no problems.

It´s not my only red ink, I´ve also gut Kaweco Red, Diamine Red Dragon and - newly bought - Diamine Communication Breakdown but I don´t prefer one over the other, I just choose to match pen, ink and purpose.

[inkstainedruth]

Modern Sheaffer inks seem to be neglected as well. I only have bottles of the older ones with the built in well, but the samples and cartridges I've used of the modern inks have all been decent. Ditto the Pilot Mixable colors that come with the Pilot Parallel Pens. Those are cartridge only, but solid performers for everyday writing.

I have a couple of the modern Skrip inks. Skrip Purple was the first ink I found that worked well in a Snorkel with an EF nib (whereas vintage Skrip Peacock did NOT). I also have Skrip Blue and Skrip Blue-Black, but almost never use them.

As for the Pilot Mixables, I have no experience with them. I keep looking at the Pilot Parallels (a local art store carries them) and then go, "Naaah...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: I tried Skrip Red early on, and disliked the color (too "blood-red" for my taste). I don't remember if I have modern Skrip Black or not -- I don't use black inks a great deal to begin with. And the Skrip Green? Well, I'm very fussy about greens to begin with....

Edited September 28, 2020 by inkstainedruth

[A Smug Dill]

I would like to nominate two other ‘mainstream’ inks that are yet to be reviewed on FPN:

 

Platinum Green

 

Platinum Red

 

Which Platinum Green, and for that matter, which Platinum Red? There is no green in Platinum's standard line of bottled dye-based inks (with product codes INK-1200#‹number›), and there is no green in its pigment inks (with product codes INKG-1500#‹number›) either. You can't even buy green Platinum ink in ten-packs of ink cartridges (with product codes SPSQ-400#‹number›). So I don't know which Platinum Green ink you could consider 'mainstream'. Twin-packs of dye-based ink cartridges (SPN-100A#41)? Leaf Green bottled ink in the Mixable Ink line (INKM-1000#41 and INKM-1200#41)? Forest Black in the Classic Ink line (INKK-2000#44)?

[Mercian]

 

Which Platinum Green, and for that matter, which Platinum Red?

Wrt the green, I first heard tell of it in this post.

 

I then looked for reviews of it, found none, and so asked to see it.

FPN member ‘EDC’ obliged by replying with a photograph of it - which helpfully included the ink’s box - in this post.

 

I have no idea which of Platinum’s product lines that ink is from.

It appears to only be branded as ‘Platinum’ and as ‘Green’. Perhaps they don’t make it any more? That would explain the lack of reviews on here.

Or perhaps it’s the same ink that one can buy in 2-packs (a point-of-sale product that contains only two cartridges? )?

 

I also asked for a review of ‘Platinum Red’ because when I used FPN’s index of ink reviews to look for reviews of ‘Platinum Green’ I found that ‘Platinum Red’, like ‘Platinum Green’, was listed as an ink, but had (& has) no reviews yet.

 

[Edited for FFEs.]

Edited September 29, 2020 by Mercian

[Flaxmoore]

 

For your particular use-case, should you ever run out of Skrip Red again I suppose that you could consider Diamine ‘Red Dragon’.

 

Or perhaps even their ‘Oxblood’? See e.g. this review, and this review.

 

Oxblood is my current one after the Pelikan Red fiasco.

 

Essentially, I'm looking for something that anyone with eyes can see, screaming "This is a problem".