Wet Ink For Dry Pens?

[Ruvane]

Inadvertently, a few of my pens have a dry flow, and I only have dry inks (Pelikan Black and Blue-black, as well as Noodler's Bulletproof Black). I'm looking for a wet ink that I can use with my Waterman Phileas and Esterbrook J without the dull, dry color and feel. I used up a Waterman Blue cartridge in my Phileas, and the flow and smoothness was wonderful, so I know the Phileas's potential. I'm looking for black or blue-black ink. Thanks!

[ANDY101]

Waterman inks have very good flow characteristics in my experience.....

Andy

[farmersmums]

Aurora Black is very free-flowing and a beautiful silky black color.

[lapis]

This may sound excentric, but wet inks are almost "any ink except Pelikan and R&K". Diamine's Registrar's also comes to mind.

Really wet inks are IMO almost all of Herbins, CdAs, many Diamines, most Watermans.

IMO "wetness" depends almost fully on both the pen and the ink, so you've got a lot to compare here.

 

Mike

[AlanE]

Watermans......... No question.

 

Alan

[BobR]

As suggested, Waterman and Aurora are excellent, and I've had good luck with some of the Private Reserve inks. Midnight Blues is a dark blue with great flow and rich color. Warning--my bottle of PR Midnight has a fairly strong odor to it!

[JeanManuel]

Inadvertently, a few of my pens have a dry flow, and I only have dry inks (Pelikan Black and Blue-black, as well as Noodler's Bulletproof Black). I'm looking for a wet ink that I can use with my Waterman Phileas and Esterbrook J without the dull, dry color and feel. I used up a Waterman Blue cartridge in my Phileas, and the flow and smoothness was wonderful, so I know the Phileas's potential. I'm looking for black or blue-black ink. Thanks!

 

 

 

Hi

Sheaffer skrip black is the best.

 

The day you find something more wet than that, please tell me.

[JeanManuel]

Watermans......... No question.

 

Alan

 

that's average, not wet

[JeanManuel]

Really wet inks are IMO almost all of Herbins, CdAs, most Watermans.

 

I disagree.

[ailleurs]

Iroshizuku inks (if you can stomach the price) are the wettest inks I've tried. Asa-gao is almost gushy, but in a good way, IMO.

[lapis]

Blacks: Aurora or Perle Noire.

Blue-black: Sailor's Jentle Ink.

 

Mike

[indigirl]

I have a kind of dryish pen that likes Noodler's Eel Blue. It's not so much wet as slick, if you know what I mean, although I suppose eels are both

[welch]

I have a kind of dryish pen that likes Noodler's Eel Blue. It's not so much wet as slick, if you know what I mean, although I suppose eels are both

 

I found Eel Blue was slow-drying. It also found a way to leak around the clutch-ring of an Onoto K pen (their hooded piston pen from the '50s). Not sure how Eel managed that, but the leak went away when I switched back to Diamine Sapphire. There is probably a subtle leak that the Eel seeped into, but as long as the leak behaves, I'll leave it alone.

[ttakacs]

Recently I won a Lamy Artus piston filler on eBay. After flushing it with water several times, I filled it with Aurora Black, which I use occasionally to complete the flushing process. Forty-eight hours later, I emptied the pen, flushed it with water until it ran clean, dried it, and filled it with Pilot Iro Tsuki-yo. A few minutes later, I discovered ink seeping from a crack along the barrel. That's how wet Tsuki-yo is. (PS: I repaired the crack and the pen writes fantastic with Tsuki-yo!)

[ttakacs]

Let me add to my post above. "Wetness" of the writing experience depends upon at least three variables: the pen, the ink, and the paper. Of these three, the most important is the paper. Next most important would be the pen/nib. All pens leak ink from their nibs in different volumes. Inks and paper will affect the rate of flow.

 

I use Clairefontaine paper, which has a smooth coating and is what I would call a "dry" writing paper. (By contrast, a kitchen paper towel would be "very wet.") I've tested several inks on this paper in pens that after using them for a long time I have some idea of the rate of flow. Among the inks currently in use and after using them in at least three different pens, here is how I would rank them, from the wettest to the driest:

 

Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo

Aurora Black

Aurora Blue (almost a tie there, but the black seems to be just a bit wetter)

Waterman Florida Blue and Sailor Jentle Blue (just about a tie, it seems to me)

R & K Blau Permanent

Diamine Prussian Blue

 

The Prussian Blue is very dry, which seems to be characteristic of many of the Diamine inks I've sampled. I use it in my wettest pen, which is a Lamy 27.

 

Included in my little stable of inks are Caran d'Ache Blue Sky and J. Herbin Bleu Myosotis. Although I have used these inks occasionally, I do not have experience to rank them definitively. Preliminary testing seems to place the CdA a little wetter than the Waterman Florida Blue (which I regard as of "average" wetness). I am still trying to get a handle on the J. Herbin -- not yet sure if I even like it.

 

Hope this helps someone.

[mori45]

For a blue-black, I've mixed Waterman Black with South Sea Blue for years with no ill effects. You can toy with the color so it's more blue or black, it shades beautifully, and it's nice and wet.

[penicillin]

Would suggest trial of Aurora Black as said above).

M

[Rekord]

Well I have a Waterman Phileas and I think it writes as good as, if not better than, pens much more expensive.

For about five years I have been using in it S.T. Dupont for black and PR Naples Blue (dark blue) and Visconti blue (a bit darker than PR). What I love in it is Waterman South Sea Blue but that is light blue. It is such a good pen it will do well with almost any ink.

And I concur with Iroshizuku (at least for Momiji=red and Kon-peki=blue). I have a Sheaffer XG440 XF with Iroshizuku Momiji (red) that writes smoothly. Considering it is XF and the nib is not adjusted (it is out-of-the box) I must claim that Iroshizuku is at "fault" for the smoothness . Paper is Staples inkjet, 98 brilliance, 24lbs weight and crappy paper used in my study books - still Iroshizuku writes very well.

Edited September 20, 2010 by Rekord

[ntrfd]

Do any of the wet inks dry fast enough for lefties? I have a Pilot Prera that is too dry with Noodler's Black and I was looking for a wetter black ink to use with it.

Edited September 25, 2010 by ntrfd

[Ada]

Do any of the wet inks dry fast enough for lefties? I have a Pilot Prera that is too dry with Noodler's Black and I was looking for a wetter black ink to use with it.

 

Namiki/Pilot Black is pretty wet and works well in Preras; you might try it.