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Hello. I'm Esteban, from Costa Rica. This is my first post. This is a great forum, thanks in advance for your responses, and apologies for my english. I've been looking for this info in previous threads, but I didn't find any, I'm sorry if this has been asked before. The main use for my fountain pens is for signing documents. I'm a doctor: I see a patient, I print a report and sign it. I work at different places, some with laser printers and some with inkjet printers. And here's my question: Which are your favorite inks for signing documents? They must be on the black or blue side. They must look professional. They shouldn't have much feathering. They should last. And the tricky part: not boring, at least not much. Thanks a lot. As suggested: Akkerman IJzer-Galnoten bl/zw (blue-black iron gall) (#10) De Atramentis Archive Black De Atramentis Document Blue (heat and steam resistant) Diamine Registrars' Ink Ecclesiastical Stationery Supplies Registrars Ink Montblanc Midnight Blue Montblanc Permanent Black (DIN ISO 14145-2) Montblanc Permanent Blue (DIN ISO 14145-2) Noodler's 54th Massachusetts (B,E,F,W) Noodler's Black (B,E,F,W) Noodler's Blue Steel (not listed) Noodler's Liberty Elisium (F,W) Noodler's Luxury Blue (B,E,F,W, Fluorescent) Noodler's Van Gogh Starry Night (not listed) Noodler's X-Feather (B,E,F,W) Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black Rohrer & Klingner Salix Sailor Jentle Blue-Black Sailor Kiwaguro Nano Carbon (black) Sailor Sei boku Nano Carbon (blue-black) *From Noodler's website: B/Bullletproof, E/Eternal, F/Forgery-resistant, W/Water-resistant.

Hi everyone. I just took posession of my new book on fountain pens, and would love to share with you. Alain VANDERAUWERA, is a swiss architect , and a talented artist. He lives and works at Yverdon-les-Bain, in Switzerland. He has a passion, though. Could you guess? Yes, you're right: fountain pens. He has started, long ago, a wonderful, and much complete, fountain pen collection which he exposes at the LIttle Fountain Pen Museaum he has opened. http://vanderauwera.org/category/stylo-plume-fountain-pen-musee/ He likes to write his journal, and make illustrations of all the pens he buys, or comes across. All his illustrations are fountain pen and ink made, as well as their colouring, using watercolour technic. This first volume, of several others to come (we, passionate ones, hope so), was released several days ago. It is a Limited Edition of 500 copies, all of which numbered and posessing an Authenticity Certificate signed by the author / artist The pages are loose cards (24), each with a fountain pen model drawn on it. You can keep the cards as a book, or you can frame them. The back of each page is blank - you can write about the pen drawn on it. The possibilities are endless, the book, a beauty. Its dimensions are 20cm x 12 cm - quite handy to carry around. Fountain pen lovers, if you are interested, you can contact Alain through his mail, and order your copy: vanderauwera@hispeed.ch http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/538/TWr5wf.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/661/CWz96n.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/538/IhY00D.jpg You can see his presentation on his site, too http://vanderauwera.org/2015/04/19/fountains-pen-volume-01-alain-vanderauwera/

I received the e-mail today; 100ml bottles that are on sale. They have a few other things in addition on sale (nibs, 100 ml bottled ink and XYZ (don't remember), I love their Chesterfield Mahogany for my brown pens.

Im a fan of the Parker 51, and have several. One, however, no mater which ink I use, always is a very 'wet' writer; it has a medium nib. I don't have this with the others, nothing about this one looks or feels different, and I have tried different inks, and papers, but don't know what the problem is....though a wet writer isn't a problem as such, this is just a little bit too much on the wet side for me. Grateful for any thoughts or suggestions Alex

Next Toronto Pens & Pints is on.... Friday MAY 15, 2015 Location: The Frog and Firkin http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/drink/smiley-face-making-cocktail.gif Time: 5:30PM on... The Frog: A Firkin Pub is located @ 4854 Yonge Street (& Sheppard)

I have decided to review some inks. These aren't necessarily in any particular order. This one is from the latest Diamine 150th Anniversary inks 1864 Blue-Black. It's quite a saturated blue-black shade compared with Waterman Mysterious Blue. To my eyes it seems to contain more black than some other blue-blacks I have seen. Water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink.Bearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and the nib was a medium, this ink took 15-16 secs to dryIt flows reasonably wet, and lubricates the nib OK I have used inks that have had better lubrication than this one.It is currently available in 40ml cake slice shaped glass bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.

So I bought a couple of Eames Notebooks, which are made by the UK printers Whitbread and Wilkinson. They're well-made and pretty, but ink reacts in this odd way with the paper: First of all, the pages are blue and lined in white. I think the pages may be completely covered with ink because when I write with certain pens, the line breaks up. But with certain OTHER pens - same ink, mind, the line is smooth. The width of the nib doesn't seem to be a factor. It's this mysterious, individual interaction of nib, ink and paper. Anyone wish to theorize?

Hello everybody, hope you are doing well, I'm quite new to this forum and to fountain pens in general. I'm a highschool student who recently got into fountain pens after my mother dug up a bunch of her old Pelikan pens (she lived in Germany) and I absolutely loved it, problem is that it bleeds on almost EVERY paper i try. I recently decided to get a higher quality one, since my mother told me that it was pen meant for young grade school, it was not extremely high quality. So I decided to pick up a Platinum Plaisir with a converter and was wondering if any of you experienced folks happen to know of a good ink which is an alternate color, as I have seen noodlers xfeather and bulletproof, but I don't really want to write in black all the time. For me black/blue inks get quite boring and i would prefer a nice green, teal color, or something like Noodler's Apache Sunset(the color on that one I really enjoy, just don't know how it bleeds and don't know if my teachers will enjoy reading my essays and homework in an orange hue ), overall the most important thing is that it doesn't bleed on cheap paper, and of slightly less value is that it doesn't feather too much. So in short, I'm looking for a way to circumvent my problem of inks that bleed on cheap paper, but also trying to fulfill the goal of having a nice, exciting ink. Also as a side note, if anyone knows of a better starter FP that is on the cheaper end that has a fine nib I'd be extremely glad to hear any recommendations Thanks in advance!

Dear Fellow Indian Members How many of you would be interested in group buy for inks?

Massdrop Platinum "Mix Free" Ink Missing Kit being offered: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/platinum-ink-mixing-kit?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Massdrop%20-%20Master%20-%20Writing&utm_campaign=Writing%20Layer%203%20Product%20Announcement%202015-03-17&utm_content=A&mode=guest_open

Finally, through no pre planning, I have wonderfully just finished cleaning 5 of my 8 writing beauties. Getting them ready for the next fill. Next step is to decide which ink will fill each pen. JOY! Two others were already waiting for the rest and have already been cleaned. There is only my Lamy still inked. Literally, standing at my kitchen sink, transfer pipette between finger tips, sink stopper in place so nothing crucial from any pen drops down to the abyss. While blissfully I cleaned out remnant of residual ink from each pen, thought, "wonder what others consider their most wonderful aspect of enjoying pens, paper, ink, etc.?" Having several, this one is one for me right now. The pleasure of the first alphabet letter written, once I have filled a favorite fountain pen with new ink; flow of the ink onto perfect paper; sound, feel when I open a new off white, unlined, quasi glossy, fountain pen friendly journal; sheer giddiness, when I open a brand new ink bottle. Well, as you can read, these are ones off the edges of my hat brim. What is your moment? What a way to begin, continue a new week, huh? Enjoy it and sharing your perfect blissful moment.

Hey guys! I'm not sure whether anyone has ever brought this topic up before (if so, I'm sorry). I ordered J. Herbin inks in two batches, both from different retailers, and my local retailer sent me bottles with plastic caps on them whereas the one in the Netherlands sent ones with metal caps (and they had stickers on the back with serial numbers, the ones from my local retailer didn't). So I was wondering whether J. Herbin made this change (a few years back maybe? because I suspect the ones I got locally are old stock). Thank you in advance

Recently, I kind of went a little overboard inks. Coming to me soon, several inks, including several from Pilot Iroshizuku line. Well, I am a true red bottled ink lover to my heart. Other than mixing hues of red ink and filling up my favorite fountain pen, I am not really experienced in actually testing inks for use. Do you simply fill up one fountain pen and use ink until no longer in the fountain pen, then change to another color? Do you just put enough to slightly give you some sense of the ink, maybe write with it a couple of lines, then discard? How do you play when you have a new batch of more than one ink and want to simply play by using in one or more sittings different hues of newly acquired inks? All suggestions welcome, I know if I am feeling giddy now, won't know where to begin when inks arrive.

Having recently moved from central California to central Minnesota, we've discovered that we need to pay attention to things here that were never an issue there. Like inks and cold weather. We arrived in mid-August here, and most of our worldly possessions remain in unheated storage. There was just no room to bring much into our current temporary residence ("we're living in our kids' attic, why do you ask?") until my son-in-law and I (and several friends on occasion) finished the addition above the kitchen. Finally enough room to bring in some of my pens, inks and paper. What we hadn't considered was that our belongings had been subjected to somewhat lower temperatures than we were used to before. In this case, low- to mid-20s, a couple nights down around 0º or so. Here's what we discovered: - Most ink survived being frozen and thawed out just fine. Shaking the bottles briskly before using didn't hurt in a couple of cases. - A full bottle of Diamine Burnt Sienna shattered. Several boxes of various sorts got bathed in the ink as it thawed out. It didn't help that that happens to be one of my wife's very favorite inks. Note to self: if this happens in the future for some reason, inspect all ink bottles while still frozen hard, before any broken bottles can thaw out. Fortunately, all my inks were packed in a plastic storage bin, so the notebooks and other fp paper were not bathed in the flood. - Most ink in cartridges came through just fine. The only exceptions being a couple of Platinum cartridges that were very full; the ink expanded on freezing, popping the ball bearing out of the top of the cartridge. As the ink hadn't escaped the cartridges, mostly, I was able to press the ball bearing back into the top of the cartridges affected, and the two I've started using work just fine. Fortunately, none of my vintage or expensive pens were packed in the box with the ink and paper. I'm not very optimistic that old celluloid or styrene pen bodies would fare well in the cold.

Hello everyone! I'm new to the FP network (about 5 minutes ago) and am still learning the ropes of both the network and the fountain pen itself. I am a student in high school and just started using fountain pens this semester and am loving it. I own two Noodler's Ahabs and am looking to get something that will work better with cheap paper, as I cannot shell out money for Rodia, Clairefontaine and the like due to the fact that I take about 2-3 pages of notes a school day.I have been drawn to the TWSBI mini because of the modern design and because it seems to work well with cheap paper. Is this a good choice? If not what else? At the same time, I am looking for cheap paper that will bring out the best in my inks without feathering and such. Is Staplers Bagasse any good? And finally, if I do get the TWSBI mini, would Noodler's "Bad Blue Heron" be safe to use in it?

Anniversary Collection – on release from 17th November 2014. To celebrate 150 years of the Diamine brand they have created the “Anniversary Collection”. The new triangular design ink bottles contain 40ml and will be available in eight stunning colours: these bottles when collected can be arranged into a beautiful round desk display. I haven't been given any notification of price point yet but unlike the previous two Diamine collections, all these new inks will be available separately from the start. AND there are possible rumours of additional colours in the future! As usual, my scans are of dip-tested writing, using Lamy Safari pens with M nibs. I use a small sable paintbrush for the 'swatches' but don't re-dip the brush between each one. The paper is my normal Rhodia 80gsm dot grid A5. Diamine 1864 Blue Black As you might expect, this is my favourite of all the Anniversary inks. A wonderful, rich dark blue-black with plenty of character. Obviously suitable for business and personal use and when compared alongside a black ink, 1864 definitely isn't! Fabulous! Diamine Silver Fox This is a mid grey in my opinion and although not one of my favourite 'colours' this one from Diamine will almost certainly be a winner. Along with Graphite, it will certainly find its way into my collection. Diamine Regency Blue A wonderful, deep blue which is nice and rich. Plenty of character and this again could be used for business and personal writing. Diamine have been careful not to make these inks similar to any others of their range and I can't compare it to any at all. Obviously, others out there might well liken them to others by different manufacturers but that's all part of the fun, isn't it?! Diamine Safari What can one say? The 'missing link' between Salamander and Evergreen! A fantastic colour and one which will definitely get into the Limoges collection. My joint second-favourite, it reminds me of that wonderful 'bush' grass colour and if I had to compare this one, I'd say it was like Epinard. But I could be wrong...! Diamine Carnival Gorgeous red – if that's your bag! I don't use them as a rule but have to say that this ink and colour impressed me a lot. I can imagine it being popular and, along with Ciamine/Cult Pens Deep Dark Red, could well complete my collection at this part of the spectrum. Diamine Blue Velvet This wonderful ink is my second-favourite of the set; but only just and by the proverbial gnat's whisker! Bright and cheerful are the best words I can use to describe it and I just love it. It seems to be between Aster and Cornflower from the Flower set and it fits in that gap nicely. A lovely blue and my second favourite of the set. Diamine Terracotta This one has grown on me since I did the test and have typed this out. Not too pale at all and even dipped and on Rhodia it seems to shade quite well. Not that that bothers me in the slightest. A good colour but not one of my usual ranges. Diamine Tropical Green A good mid green with just a hint towards the blue side, according to my eyes. I bet it would look great on ivory or yellow/legal paper. It could be the only green to get if that's a colour that you hadn't considered before. As I mentioned, these eight inks are being sold separately and that is going to be a real bonus for Diamine. A newly-designed and hand-illustrated box with ink colour label completes the packaging. Each bottle is labelled uniquely, with the colour on the label and side panels which are printed on the sides of the boxes although that isn't quite clear from the photograph, supplied by Diamine.) This example is for the 1864 Blue Black. Finally, as if we didn't know, the inks have been developed to celebrate the 150th Anniversary. May we all wish Diamine well - a wonderful British achievement!

Hi, I read many reviews about Noodler's black saying that it is one of the darkness/blackest ink in the market. I don't know if my bottles have a problem, but I'm obtaining a very light black. I'm attaching a test comparing two bottles of Noodler's, Parker Quink and Montblanc. As you can see Parker is 10 times stronger that Noodler's. The text is written with a Pelikan M200 using the noodler's black bottle 1. Any idea what could be happening here? Kind regards, AM

Here are a couple scans of some pink and purple ink comparisons. All these were written with a glass dip pen on a Rhodia dot pad. I did my best to represent the colors of the inks but as always please remember that what I see on my screen is probably a little different than what you see. I hope that this will at least give an idea of where each of these inks stand next to similar ones I have listed here. I will list the inks in the text also so it will be searchable. Enjoy and I hope these are helpful! http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/f0/d9/29/f0d92944248bba04d46040abc53d79fa.jpg Pink Inks De Atramentis Heather Violet Monteverde Pink J Herbin Rose Tendresse J Herbin Bouquet D'Antan Sailor Jentle Peche Pilot Iroshizuku Kosumosu Pilot Iroshizuku Tsutsuji J Herbin Rose Cyclamen Organics Studio Emily Dickinson Private Reserve Plum Diamine Deep Magenta Noodler's Cactus Fruit Eel Pilot Iroshizuku Yama Budo Organics Studio Lithium Organics Studio Lewis Carroll Levenger Shiraz Noodler's Ottoman Rose Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses (Old) Montegrappa Bordeaux http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/dd/f4/6e/ddf46ef824d6c1de85f67e946d81c5d2.jpg Purple Inks J Herbin Larmes de Cassis Private Reserve Arabian Rose Organics Studio Jane Austen Pelikan Violet De Atramentis Pearl Violet Rohrer and Klingner Scabiosa J Herbin Poussiere de Lune Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses (New) De Atramentis Aubergine De Atramentis Alexander Hamilton De Atramentis Lilac De Atramentis Magenta Violet Diamine Majestic Purple Diamine Lavender J Herbin Violet Pensee Pilot Iroshizuku Muraski Shikibu Organics Studio Vanadium Nostalgic Impressions Purple Monteverde Purple

I had a bottle of Noodler, Rome Burning, sitting on my self which I had not touched for a while. Finally decided to put it in one of my pens but once i had the ink appeared to be very light. I then shook the bottle of ink and refilled the pen and found the ink returned to its original colour. Is this normal? Thanks.

Vanness has a nice selection of NOS Sheaffer made in the USA and Bexley pens. Bexley Holiday Windows 2001 Edition retailed for $1995.00 normally priced at $1595.00 SPECIAL price of $1295.00 leading up to the DC Fountain pen Supershow. Have questions? call us at 502-353-2362 or email us at vanness1938@sbcglobal.net https://vanness1938.com/?q=writing-instrument-detail/FMB/BEHoliday2001WG

Bought the new Sailor Jentle inks in a fit of spending last week. Not too into very dark colors so will probably not get the last 2 colors, Doyou and Miruai. Otherwise these are the new colors that replace the previous set. This is the first time I am doing this type of comparison. So excuse me if some of the observations are a little newbie-ish. _Tokiwa Matsu is probably my favorite. I love green inks, particularly ones that are yellow hued. _Some of the colors appear, look and behave differently on different pens. Eg Nioi Sumire looks distinctly purple on the broad pen, but is more blue on finer pens. _Oku-yama is my most sheening ink right now. Love the metallic green sheen over the burgundy brown color. _Sailor inks have a very interesting smell that is distinctive, even when you write.

Hi all! When I first tried out Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki, I thought it was perfect in almost every single way except for one small thing - it would have been amazing if it was just slightly lighter. Then, I discovered Pilot Iroshizuku Ama-iro, which is a lot lighter and exhibits fantastic shading as well. However, on my journey to find the perfect turquoise ink I've noticed that there are many lookalikes, making my quest harder and harder. I've finally decided that I will order a bunch of samples and compare some of the most popular turquoise inks out there in one massive ink review, which will ultimately go up on my blog. However, I am not sure how many people will be interested in something like this. I've read a number of reviews that compare four or five different inks, but what I am planning now is significantly larger. Here are the inks I am thinking of reviewing. Feel free to let me know if A. you would be interested in something like this, and B. if you are, what ink(s) you would like me to review or remove from the list. I am thinking of keeping the list limited to inks that are in an affordable price range (I'm looking at you, Caran d'Ache) and regularly available (i.e. not limited edition). Also, (please let me know if you disagree/agree with this or not but) I am thinking of focusing on inks that exhibit notable shading. Inks: Caran d’Ache Hypnotic Turquoise Diamine Aqua Lagoon Diamine Aqua Blue Diamine Havasu Turquoise Diamine Mediterranean Blue Diamine Turquoise J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche Lamy Turquoise Montblanc Turquoise Noodler’s American Eel Turquoise Noodler’s Navajo Turquoise Organics Studio Copper Omas Turquoise Pelikan Turquoise Pilot Iroshizuku Ama-iro Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-jaku Sheaffer Turquoise Waterman Inspired Blue (previously South Sea Blue)

Like most of us here, I do an awful lot of my purchasing on-line. Now that I think of it, few of my actual pen purchases have been made in person. Despite my being as big an advocate as anyone about the merits of trying out a pen in person! I've used quite a number of merchants, but a few really stand out in terms of their outstanding service and quality. I'm long overdue in giving them the recognition they deserve -- at least in my sometimes not so humble opinion! My top 5, listed alphabetically (I'd hate to admit relatively dollar volumes. I don't even want to think about that!): Richard Binder {www.richardspens.com}: I've not actually had any serious nib tuning done by Richard. I've bought a few pens as well as some nib units. I think Richard's prices on the pens/nib units are totally competitive, perhaps more so given that he actually confirms the nibs are in great shape before shipping. I've also been totally unhesitant to ask him questions and his opinion. Service has been quick, shipping fool-proof, and quality superb. Even when I email in questions I usually get a response the next day. Sometimes the same night if he's having a bout of insomnia similar to mine! Fahrney's {www.fahrneyspens.com}: Well, I live in Northern Virginia. So Fahrney's in DC is sort of the hometown B&M store. I have occasionally gone there in person -- especially when I really wanted to try a pen in person. This is particularly nice also because there is usually a technician on duty there who can add another dimension or viewpoint to the expected performance of a pen from a manufacturer. On line purchases are a breeze, and the phone based customer service folks have always been very accommodating. Deliveries are always fast -- hardly a surprise given my location, and everything is well packed. Fountain Pen Hospital {www.fountainpenhospital.com}: I've been a long-time lurker on their website, particularly the 'Back Room' page for previously owned non-vintage pens and the 'Vintage' pen page for -- well, you can guess. I can truthfully say I've never received a pen that failed to write out of the box. I have decided a couple of times that I didn't like what I received, and returns were no problem. Shipments from New York are fast, and packaging is great. I did have a chance this past summer to visit in person when I was in NY and met pretty much all of the people with whom I've spoken which was great. I won't suggest that you can't get many of these pens cheaper say on eBay. BUT every pen I get is in full working order, which I find valuable in itself. Goulet Pens {www.gouletpens.com}: Without question, the website is a fantastic resource in itself, with the steady release of videos by Brian discussing various pens. I've bought primarily inks, cases, and some nibs. Even during this past winter, with the horrid low temperatures, everything arrives safe and sound and prompt. But then anyone who browses FPN is well aware of the Goulet reputation for really sound packaging practice -- they must get a huge bulkrate on packaging materials. Special kudos for customer service: on a couple of occasions, I've either changed my order or ended up placing two orders right after each other; Goulet Customer Service have been outstanding at dealing with these changes and combining orders. I get everything from them within just a few days -- hardly a surprise, given they are also Virginia based! And the fact that Brian is a Hokie (Virginia Tech y'all) as is my son is I have to admit a bonus point... Peyton Street Pens {www.peytonstreetpens.com}: Teri Morris is well known here at FPN. I recently placed my first order with her when she sent out a post about NOS of Parker Falcolns. Wonderful service -- even when at the last minute I asked her if possible to change from a brown pen to a black one. Not only was she able to, but I received everything within just a few days. Huge surprise when I opened the box: she'd included a bonus of an Indian pen as a Thank You for the order. Both pens write beautifully straight out of the box. She and I were in close communication by email throughout. Here's an even bigger surprise: Peyton Street Pens have their own gift boxes for the pens which are in my opinion magnificent: company name in a beautiful silver font, box is finished in a sort of linen finish; instead of opening as your usual box does, it pulls open from the side like a drawer. I've only seen this before on expensive LE pens. Which highlights that pens purchased for gifts will come well packaged! Thanks Teri!There are of course some other merchants I've used and I really have no complaints against any of them. I've been fortunate that way. But these 5 are my tops and I wanted to share with all y'all!

While browsing eBay, I saw there are 50+ lots of various vintage inks for sale. - Grayling

I would like to buy bottled ink and I have checked in almost all online shops in Europe (and probably in USA too). The problem is, that the bottle costs around 12 EUR (16$) and the shipping, in most shops, between 12-14 EUR (16 to 19$) which I find too expensive. Even from a German shop that is almost around the corner they want to add those costs to the final price (it seems my current location is on a special "weird" list. I feel as if I lived somewhere far away, in Nepal, right next to Mount Everest). Would you pay such a high shipping fee in order to get bottled ink? I could get 2 bottles for this price if they were sold here (but they aren't). So I'm basically buying cartridges only. Another question is: is there any European shop similar to Goulet Pens? Any store that sells ink samples without charging 14 $ for shipping? I haven't found one, but I'm sure it exists (hopefully). Thanks in advance for the help.