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Hello my fellow fountain pen lovers. I love rich, vivid, deeply saturated fountain pen inks, particularly those that shade. My favorite inks are Colorverse Supernova, that shades gorgeously from a rich blue to a lighter blue, and Diamine November Rain, which in my green-and-black Pelikan M600, shades (you guessed it) from green to black beautifully. For my Lamy 2000, which I just bought to be my daily-use pocket pen, I’m searching for a waterproof ink for a specific reason: so when I sign restaurant checks with it, there is no danger of the waiter losing his tip because his check slip got wet and the ink disappeared. But my dillemma is that I love saturated, vivid inks. With one exception, all the waterproof inks I’ve tried are cloudy and unsaturated and unsatisfying. I just bought a bottle of Sailor Seiboku. To me, this is a pale, cloudy ink, the opposite of the rich, saturated colors I love. And iron gall inks are generally dry writers, so that’s a nonstarter. Got to have a wet ink. The exception is Noodler’s Baltimore Canyon Blue, which is saturated and beautiful, and in my own tests is fully waterproof, but… when I write on restaurant checks with this ink, the pen simply stops writing and has to be primed. The ink seems to react to the thermal paper restaurants use and it clogs right up. Thanks in advance for your advice! GNL

Hello Fellow FPNers, I have been away from fountain pens for about 10 years after many years using them almost exclusively. Now that I’m back in the fold, I’m wondering if there are any well behaved, beautiful waterproof inks out there I might not know about. I remember that most of the waterproof or bulletproof inks I used (Noodler’s Luxury Blue comes to mind) tended toward nib creep and were very hard to wash out of pens. I’ve recently received a sample of Noodle’rs Zhivago and have been very impressed by its good behavior, lack of nib creep and good flow. But it basically looks black (barely a hint of green) and I’d prefer something in the blue-teal-green spectrum. MUST be a well behaved ink. Thanks for your insights! GNL

Given the assertion often made by others that Sailor kiwaguro pigment ink is (totally, utterly, 100%, or some other adjective meaning absolutely) waterproof, which I know is not factually true, and the assertion I've often made about Sailor souboku and seiboku being completely waterproof (which I now know is also not factually true), I decided to put the nine pigment inks I have to the test. They are: Pelikan Fount India black inkPlatinum Black Carbon InkPlatinum Brun Sepia Pigment InkSailor kiwaguro black inkSailor souboku blue-black inkSailor seiboku blue-black inkSailor STORiA Night Blue inkSailor STORiA Magic Purple inkSailor STORiA Lion Light Brown ink These inks shed colour observably while the page was being soaked in a bath of clean water: and this photo of the page after drying attests that the three blue-black and blue inks are in fact not completely waterproof, even though they fared much better Pelikan Fount India and Sailor kiwaguro: Out of the black inks, only Platinum Black Carbon Ink is completely waterproof. I cannot see any colour come off either Sailor STORiA Lion Light Brown or Platinum Brun Sepia Pigment Ink with my naked eye during or after soaking, and it may take a new test with a full page of writing with one of those inks individually for me to know for sure, but for now I'll also assume that they're completely waterproof. Of course, writing in all of the pigment inks tested remained very legible. Here's the full page after drying. (Click to bring up a larger image.)

a few days ago I was lounging over at the Ink forum and some of our fellow memebers express their concern that they can no longer get their needed permanent black , the fabled Platinum Carbon Black. And I though to myself, hey others made permanent ink also and having some time on hand I dedicate some time to investigate how one of the old formula work out, namely the Hero 234 CArbon Black. The test is not anything scientific and only trying to mimic how the ink deal with real life accidents; and here's the result : * Test no.1 is to mimic artist use of ink , Canson 180g Watercolor paper was used, text was put onto the paper, and let sit for 10 min, then smeared with waterbrush, excessive water blotted with facial tissue * Tesat 02 is to mimic having water spilled when doing normal daily writing, Kokuyo Gambal notebook paper, procedure same as test 01 * Test 03 is to mimic accidental water damage when dealing with document well finished, text was put onto paper, and let dry overnight, then is immersed and left in water for 30 minutes, paper used is engineer's stenograph paper ( very fine smooth surface, very light grade ) * Tesat 04 is to mimic water damage in storage, same paper and procedure as test 03, again let dry overnight, then smear with water brush then let it go under running water for 30 min. I say the result speak for itself. It Also show the one character that this old formula had, its slow drying property, as depicted in Test 01 and 02. As side note, Hero had actually 4 different kind of carbon ink, the 84, 214, 234, and 440; and also a non carbon permanent black, the 254. The 234 as picked simply because its the only vintage ink between the lot and having some interesting property. Its more formulated like a calligrapher's ink than fountain pen ink in that it had very high carbon content and that it do use ( plant based ) resin. In fact on its packaging its proclaiming suitable for calligraphy ( by that the made mean small text Chinese brush and pen calligraphy ). ITs known to clog pens if one do not use the pen inked up frequent enough. I've used this ink since way back as a school kid and what more can one ask for a bottle of 55ml which only cost say 3.00 to 4.00 US

This 50ml bottle of Rohrer and Klingner's archival ink was not inexpensive, but performed well beyond my expectations. It writes wet, yet dries quickly. Is absolutely unfazed by water, and works on the cheapest papers. The only downside I have noticed is that while doing the crossword (yes, it works on newsprint!), it did hard start a little if I was too slow on a clue. It can hardly be faulted for that, though... Front: Back:

(tldr: scroll down to see image of the soggy test results) For reasons both pragmatic and neurotic, I almost exclusively use inks with some reliable degree of water resistance. Recently I noticed that a sizable range of Faber-Castell inks, while not mentioned in any of the online water resistant ink guides/forum threads I’d consulted when first getting into the FP hobby, are categorized as “waterproof” on the Vanness website and described as “document proof” in the Amazon product descriptions. So I got my hands on some cartridges of Moss Green, which struck me as the most attractive of these purportedly permanent FC inks, and popped one into my Kaweco Sport. Right off the bat, I found it to be a pleasure to write with and uncommonly lovely on the page: well-saturated with some fairly dynamic shading. For the test, I put some of it down on a page in a (surprisingly fountain pen friendly) Italian-made B&N notebook that I’ve been using for misc scribbling/inky ephemera (e.g. the phone number jotted down in the upper right hand corner which I had to blur out before posting 😅 ). For comparison, I then filled in the rest of the page with writing samples of the inks currently inhabiting my other daily use pens, all of which are also marketed as being "waterproof". After giving the writing samples roughly a minute to dry, I tore out the page, held it under the faucet of my kitchen sink, and turned on the water (full blast). For the duration of the test I steadily moved the paper back-and-forth to ensure each of the ink samples spent roughly equivalent time directly under the stream. Results: After a good 30 seconds under cold running water, the FC Moss Green writing sample remained more-or-less legible—enough so to indicate that any important writing would be recoverable in the event of an unexpected downpour or spilt drink. (Although, given how alcohol is (generally? always?) a more aggressive solvent than water, it would probably behoove me to test how this ink holds up under a horizontal glass of whiskey soda…) That said, post-dousing, the Moss Green (quite literally) paled in comparison to every one of the other inks I tested alongside it. FCMG probably meets the average fountain pen user's minimum standard for being considered “water resistant”. But it is not anywhere near “waterproof” and I have to wonder whether it would still pass for “water resistant” if the same test were performed with less absorbent paper. Verdict: Given the strong appeal of this ink’s wonderfully subtle coloration and suitability for general writing, the mere survival of the text after a punishing water test like this is good enough for me. I’m happy to add it to my short list of standard dye-based inks which, for reasons of chemistry beyond my ken, are robust enough to trust with preserving day-to-day handwritten work as I make my way around a turbulent city in an often unexpectedly wet world. (As of now, there are two other inks with a firm place on this list: Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Guri and Sailor Doyou. I really wanted to include Sailor Miruai as well—I love the color and JetPens rates it as somewhat water resistant—but alas, it hasn’t performed well for me when put to the test).

Hi, I am a fan of Camlin inks and have been using it since childhood. Recently I started using Noodler's Heart of darkness and have been loving its permanence. I would like to gift a similar ink to my mom for recording her journals. I am looking for a Permanent ink for that reason. Based on Youtube reviews it looks like Noodlers inks are too expensive on amazon.in and Pilot Black, Camlin "Permanent" Black and Parker Quink are all not permanent or even water proof at all. Are there any ink recommendations that 0. are waterproof? 1. are not too expensive 2. are available in India (preferably online orders) Thanks in advance.

Blackstone Barrister Black is a new ink from Australian Vendor Justwrite It is a nano-carbon pigmented black that, like others of its class, is permanent, solvent-resistant/proof, and very well behaved. When I first got the ink for testing, it was labelled under it's pre-release name of Black 11.40, but having been released it is now called Barrister Black. On even poorer quality paper (old stock Reflex) there was no bleeding or feathering, so this is a very well behaved ink. As you can see, it is a deep, solid black, less matt and more glossy than the normal nano-carbon ink like Sailor Kiwaguro. On paper it looks more like Noodler's Heart of Darkness. I was able to test it by soaking samples in various household solvents, as below. So, for those of us in Australia who find that Sailor Kiwaguro or Noodler's Black/HOD are too expensive, or for those who want a carbon black ink that has an almost glossy look, this is a good alternative.

This is my first review here. It was also unplanned, I just wanted to make a scan for another thread I was replying to, and it exploded into this handwritten review. Which is admittedly not the best, but I hope it is helpful to somebody at least because damn, it took a long time to scan in and resize all my pigeon scratch. There are scans, there are potato camera photos. I didn't bother with photographing all the pages I wrote because I think you guys can get the idea of what my terrible camera can bring across, and the scans are more readable. No colour adjustments anywhere for anything whatsoever. I bought this ink to do watercolour drawings and fill out my tax forms, and it's serving its purpose well so far. It does smell rather strongly of "chemicals" when you open the bottle, not in the rotting way, just in the "don't sniff the glue, kids, it's bad for your brain" way. Obviously I have no idea what I am doing here. Enjoy! Oxford Optik Paper. Left: scan, Right: photo "Conceptum" notebook paper, AKA the cheap stuff that doesn't like fountain pens. Front and back. Front edited because of a very lazy token desire for privacy. Everything else is Leuchtturm paper. Water test with actual beads of water on the paper: Left scan, right photo. This is POST water-test. Left: back of page above, right, start of mandatory review topics: Poor quality nib creep picture, but the creep is bad enough that you can still see it anyhow: bottle pic from Seitz Kreuznach: That's all she wrote! EDIT: Very important caveat: I have never left this ink in my pen long enough to see what the long-term effects might be (long enough, like, "overnight".) There are warnings all over the label to not let this ink dry out in your pen, so I usually ink it up for a targetted use, write a little afterwards (like this review), then de-ink the pen because I'm done with it.

I collected several inks which are declared/believed to be water resistant so I decided to make a small experiment. I wrote some samples, let the ink dry for about one day and then submerged the right half of the paper into the water for about 30 seconds. Here is the result (click to enlarge): Several inks remained intact - these are the clear winners of this comparison: Monteverde Documental, Koh-I-Noor Document, Noodler's Bad Blue Heron, and Noodler's 54th Massachusetts. Koh-I-Noor surprised me. I tried it several weeks ago by a wet finger and it seemed to be fairly easy to smear. Noodler's inks proved to be bulletproof. Unfortunately, their behaviour is disgusting. They soak into the paper like crazy and have strong tendency to feather and bleed through. When writing with them, I feel like using a felt-tip pen. Pelikan Fount India and iron gall Rohrer & Klingner Salix and Scabiosa were influenced just a little bit. We can see some washing and light colour changes, but it is just a minor deterioration. Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black was influenced more. Blue component dismissed, the text is visibly lighter but still perfectly legible. The biggest disappointment for me was the result of iron gall KWZ inks. KWZ IG Turquoise and IG Mandarin lost all the original rich colours and dismissed almost completely. Washed Turquoise is very light and Mandarin is barely legible. This is so sad because the behaviour of these inks is very good and their original colours are stunning.

Noodler's #41 Brown does what it was created to do, and it does it very well. Will it win an award for the best behaving, best shading, and best sheening brown ink ever created? No. It should, however, win an award for being a ridiculously awesome bulletproof brown ink. I love it for that reason and highly recommend it. Quick stats if you don’t want to read all the details: Flow/Lubrication: 2 of 5 Saturation: 4 of 5 Shading: 3 of 5 on Tomoe River; not much on standard papers Feathering: none Bleedthrough: none Showthrough: none Water-Resistance: 5 of 5 Dry Time (FP friendly): <30 sec Dry Time (non-FP friendly): <5 sec! Smearing (dry): none Sheen: None Cleaning & Maintenance: above-average (needed more frequently) Staining: possible on converters and demonstrators - easily remedied with diluted bleach Buy again: absolutely - will always have in my collection *A quick side note...This is my first ink review. Also, my photo editing skills aren't the best. Hilarious combination.* I love brown inks and #41 Brown was one of the first bottles of ink I bought years ago. It is a dark and deep sepia color, according to the founder of Noodler’s Ink. My first thoughts when seeing it on paper, ‘Yep, that’s brown.’ Anytime I want a bombproof brown ink, this is the first bottle I reach for in my collection. Lamy 2000 fine - Tomoe River (yep, I mistakenly went from 'h' to'j' hahha) TWSBI Vac 700 broad - Tomoe River Lamy 2000 fine & TWSBI Vac700 broad - Leuchtturm1917 Noodler’s 3oz glass bottles are simple and functional, filled to the brim. Here’s a closer look at the label on the bottle (read Mr. Tardiff’s description of the ink for more backstory): If you want the best behaving brown ink you’ve ever experienced in your fountain pen’s life, this isn’t for you. #41 Brown doesn’t behave badly, but it does require careful pen maintenance (as does every other highly water-resistant ink regardless of brand and color). I would not leave this ink unused in a pen for very long. It wants to work, not to sit idly waiting around for days or weeks at a time. As long as you use your pens often and clean them regularly, you’ll be fine. Even better if it’s a pen you can easily disassemble. Compared to regular fountain pen inks, water-resistant and bulletproof inks tend to dry out on the nib a bit more quickly when left uncapped - #41 is no different. As long as you’re conscious of this and keep your pen capped when not writing, it should pose no issue. During extended sessions, I had no problems with the nib drying out as long as I kept writing. When I did leave the cap off too long, a quick wipe on a paper towel (or my finger) had the ink flowing again. Dry times were weird on Rhodia and Tomoe River (anywhere from 8-30 seconds pending on how much ink pooled) and exceptional on lesser quality paper (under 5 seconds!). If you’re a lefty or anyone who needs a fast drying ink and you use standard paper more often than Rhodia or Tomoe River, #41 Brown is a great option. Tomoe River (smears you see are my fault - my cat kept jumping on the desk...) There was little to no feathering on every paper I tried, including a junk-mail envelop and a Walmart spiral notebook. Impressive! No bleedthrough and little to no show-through. It’s a drier ink which is awesome if you’ll be writing on lower quality papers. On FP friendly papers, a juicy nib will work best (that is, of course, just MY preference). There is some shading with wetter lines on Tomoe River and Rhodia. How about the bulletproof & waterproofness qualities? Post-soak. On Rhodia and Tomoe River, a tiny bit of ink slightly smeared with a wet finger (and I do mean tiny). On all other paper where every bit of ink could bond with the fibers, nothing moved. Here are a few quick comparisons to some of the other brown inks I have: I must admit, I'm biased. I love Noodler’s Ink & Nathan Tardiff and have a keen appreciation for his water-resistant & bulletproof inks (as well as his mission). When I was first getting into fountain pens, I only wanted waterproof inks and Noodler’s was the first brand recommended to me. It wasn’t until I had a dozen or more bottles of Noodler’s bulletproof inks that I started exploring other non-bulletproof inks and other brands. Though I have a wide variety of inks now, from most brands and companies, I always have at least a couple of pens in my rotation filled with Noodler’s bulletproof inks.

I'm in the process of working out how I want to conduct ink reviews, and I think I've just identified a reasonably economical source of one type of paper I want to use. Officeworks, which is a national chain of stationery stores in Australia that (as far as I'm aware) is not franchised, sells a variety of ‘Tradie Notebooks’ in different sizes and formats, that use stone paper and is marketed as being waterproof – and therefore must be non-absorbent. These notebooks are not otherwise branded; Officeworks' name, nor J.Burrows and Keji (both of Officeworks' house brands, I believe), is anywhere to be seen on the product. In Officeworks' online catalogue, it seems have the brand ‘nu:’, but that does not appear on the SKUs I saw. I picked up one of the reporter-style notebooks (i.e. in portrait format, with metal wire binding on the top narrower edge) in the range for A$4.49. This notebook has extremely think and stiff covers, and it contains eighty 8mm-ruled sheets that measure 124x188mm when detached at the perforations. ‘Tradie’ is slang for tradesmen, referring to the likes of plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers, etc. and generally have connotations of blue-collar working-class folk with decidedly unrefined tastes and lack culture and sophistication; the presentation of the product reflects that ‘aesthetic’. The sheets are floppy and easily creased, and the ruled lines are anything but light or subtle. Writing on it without a hard backing sheet immediately beneath the page, or without detaching the page first to lay it on a desk or table, with even a minimal amount of pressure puts sharp indentations in the page that are visible on the reverse side. Inks take a hell of a long time to dry on this paper, and are quite apt to smear even after (supposedly) dry. Natural variation in how much ink the nib has deposited on the page for a particular glyph, or even a particular point alone a pen stroke, makes a hell of a difference. It also make all my EF and F nibs produce lines that are noticeably broader than what I consider Medium. It is absolutely horrible to write on, in my opinion. It's also such a treat as an extreme example of impractical papers to use in order to best elicit and show off sheens from inks, in terms of reviewing the inks' potential and characteristics, as opposed to telling a reader how an ink will behave the particular use case he/she has in mind (which may include the use of a specific pen or nib). Even the writing from a stock-standard Lamy ballpoint refill sheens on it: It is my answer to anyone who ‘requests’ or demands to see how any ink would sheen on non-absorbent paper such as Tomoe River.

Hi All, Since Noodler's Waterproof Burgundy is no longer around, is there any waterproof (or incredibly water-resistant) burgundy ink on the market?? I've got waterproof inks in every major color except burgundy and it's driving me crazy! I'm also dreading the thought of having to mix my own with De Atramentis Document inks. Thanks!

Hello folks.. I haven't been posting here for a while and after I tried the Hero 234 ink, I HAVE to share my thought on this one. I went back to China few months ago and picked up a bottle of Shanghai Hero 234 Black Fountain pen ink for ~¥4 (0.79 CAD or 0.64 USD) in a stationary store. Due to busy schedule I haven't looked back on it when I returned in Canada. My Parker bottle is running dry and I do not like my Montblanc Permanent Black ink, so I decided to check it out. This ink is truly outstanding for its price tag, I used it with an Fine/XFine Pilot Elite for a couple days and I have a writing sample below with a water spilling test. Awesome flow, wet inkWATERPROOF!!!!Color becomes grayish after drying, a little bit of shading.That.awesome.price However from I can see from eBay it costs more than what I paid for since we're overseas... but remember the next time you make a trip to China/HongKong, do yourself a favor and bring a couple bottle of this marvel, you won't regret it! http://i.imgur.com/GArW9W7.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/HftkkRF.jpg http://i.imgur.com/xKAnTKv.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/NnY5LcC.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/3vm188t.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/dPOouVJ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/bwj3h6N.jpg http://i.imgur.com/G8VTlpR.jpg

As requested, a scan of my Montblanc Permanent "Blue Black" I find my idea of waterproof differs from those frequently expressed. Many are happy if the page can be read after an encounter with water. I set the bar much higher, looking for something which is completely unchanged by its watery encounter. I don't like black. Blue could be acceptable, but blue black is the ideal. Full strength IG ink seemed promising, but a bad experience with Diamine Registrars put me off (varnish-like coating inside the ink window of an M200 after 4 days - took ages to clean). January '16 I tried Montblanc Permanent Blue and it did all I wanted. Ran happily in two Pelikans and an L2K, but was just a little too bright. By April I had acquired a bottle of Permanent Black for mixing. A little experimenting and it seemed the addition of just 5% black made all the difference needed. In July '16 this mixture took up residence on a Lamy Studio and has remained ever since. The ink is completely waterproof in all tests I have done, is (to me) an acceptable blue black and performs well with minimal maintenance. It has slightly stained the converter, there is some nib creep and it seems to need refilling before it's empty. To me these are minor irritations. Here is a sample page. Despite some fiddling, the image looks a bit too purple on my screen. With many BlBks being rather grey, it is warmer than most. But the water has had no effect at all.

I want a waterproof ink in my Lamy Safari and AL-Star. I've been using a Noodler's Bulletproof ink. What other waterproof inks would be good in these pens?

This morning's mail brought the first thing that I have ever bought through Massdrop. The package I got includes three colors: Atlantic (blue), Dublin (green) and Australia (red). So far I've just been trying out the Atlantic in my TWSBI Vac 700. It's a dull color; I can hardly decide if it's gray-blue or more of blue-gray. I knew when I ordered these that they were dull colors, and I'm fine with that. My taste has gravitated toward subdued colors recently. Label reads: Made in Germany by Rohrer & Klingner Leipzig-Co. Shake well before use! To prevent dry residues drain the writing instrument after use and rinse several times with water. Hmm, not sure I've ever got a bottle of fountain pen ink before with such explicit warnings. It does make me wonder why more ink makers haven't gotten into cellulose-reactive dyes, since Noodler's Ink has demonstrated how well they can work. When it comes to waterproof ink, Noodler's is the king and all the rest are the peasants. Anyhow, this Super5 ink is indeed waterproof (as indicated by a quick dunk), and it feels smooth on the page. Maybe I should give credit to the TWSBI or the Rhodia pad, but the ink is behaving Just Fine so far.

Hello, I am new to the fountain pen world, but have just learned shorthand am tired of problems with ball point pens. I bought me a Noodlers Ahab Pearl and now must get ink. I want something waterproof, a friendly black, something to dry fast, something that wont feather and penetrate too deep, but very readable. What are some recommendations for me? I know nothing about ink. Thanks in advance! -Heber

Hi guys- I have decided to do a water proof test using the inks I have. Not that I own many inks, but here are the images of before and after. The inks were submerged under water for 30 seconds. The inks used were: - Noodler's Navajo Turquoise - Diamine Sepia - Iroshizuku Murasaki-Shikibu - Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrun - Iroshizuku Tsukushi - Private Reserve Daphne Blue - Montblanc Burgundy Red - Diamine Claret - Montblanc Jazz Blue - Waterman Inspired Blue After the test, Tsukushi was the most legible ink. Navajo Turquoise, Sepia and Murasaki-Shikibu were equally somewhat legible. Burgundy Red, Claret and Jazz Blue were barely legible. All other inks were not legible at all. Hopefully this test is somewhat helpful to you