Pilot Varsity Inks - water test

[Stephen-I-am]

I bought a couple of three packs of the Pilot varsity disposable fountain pens from my local Staples office supply for $5.98 per 3 pack. The three colors were black, blue, and violet.

 

All of the colors flowed nicely from the pilot nib. Of the three inks, the violet was the smoothest and, maybe not coincidentally, had the widest line. I don't know if this is how they usually run, or if I'm seeing the normal variation in Pilot's manufacturing process. All of the nibs felt a bit soft to me, and I'm not sure if that's a function of the nib material or how it's mounted on the feed.

 

To my eye, the black is not terrifically dark and the blue is a little boring conservative. The violet though is nice and vibrant and tends towards plum

 

In the attached photo, I wrote on a piece of paper and soaked it for about 30 minutes and let it dry for a couple of hours, after which I rewrote the names of the ink. The blue pen must have hit a wet spot in this photo.

 

I've been looking at the Pilot varsity tweaking thread and am looking forward to trying some drawing ink in these pens. Well, maybe just in the blue and black.

 

Stephen

[Catsmelt]

Thanks Stephen.

 

What paper did you use? I'm curious because the Varsity inks have a great tendency to feather on most of the papers I use. I find this disconcerting because they behave only on the best paper, which seems counterintuitive for disposable fountain pens.

 

On a somewhat related matter, the Pilot Varsity blue is not the same ink as Namiki/Pilot blue in bottles. Even so, I also find the Namiki blue also has a tendency to feather.

 

 

[dsatco]

These Varsity pens are better than pens costing 100 times their price.

[savingbirds]

Varsity/Vpens are using a water-based ink that was not designed to be waterproof. If you look inside the back, you will realize that Pilot was cheap to only fill the pen 2/3 with ink...

[shivp]

These pens are excellent .... they are quick to start which is a great quality for any FP. I own several more expensive pens which are relunctant to start. I've no idea how Pilot gets these to start instantly irrespective of how long they've been idle .... ink viscosity? Anything else? Answers anyone?

[ticoun]

These pens are excellent .... they are quick to start which is a great quality for any FP. I own several more expensive pens which are relunctant to start. I've no idea how Pilot gets these to start instantly irrespective of how long they've been idle .... ink viscosity? Anything else? Answers anyone?

 

maybe the wick that's in the feed is more reliable than plain old capillary channels.

[Geoff V]

These pens are excellent .... they are quick to start which is a great quality for any FP. I own several more expensive pens which are relunctant to start. I've no idea how Pilot gets these to start instantly irrespective of how long they've been idle .... ink viscosity? Anything else? Answers anyone?

It's an interesting question. I think that the wick may be the answer. After reloading several with Noodlers, Visconti and CdA inks, I've found that they can be hard to start. The ink has to saturate the wick before it will start to flow properly, and that can sometimes take several hours. In a few instances, the ink will not flow sufficiently well to provide proper saturation. It depends on the ink. Still, a great little pen!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Good comparison. I love these little pens.

 

I'm kicking myself for throwing out a couple of Varsities that I wrote out.

 

Of course, this was years before I discovered via FPN that they are refillable.

 

What method did you use to refill, GV?

 

Did you remove the nib/feed or did you use that YouTube forced-air method?

 

And would a lighter more watery ink work best?