Inks For Specific Pens

[milkb0at]

Reading around the forums, I occasionally see people ask "Which ink for my XXX pen?" There may be specific reasons why those questions are asked (e.g. want to match the ink and pen barrel colours, the pen will be used for marking homework etc) but I was wondering what reasons there might be for pens and inks needing to be matched. Or is it just personal preference 99% of the time?

 

Reasons I can think of so far: very dry or very wet inks to counteract wet- or dry-running nibs, pens to cope with potentially troublesome inks (e.g. BSB, iron gall) and... er, I think that's it.

 

Does anyone here match different inks to particular pens?

[Rhincodon]

I'm not a pen color/ink color matcher, but since I discovered that some of my inks feather badly in certain nibs I at least do feathery ink/dry writer and nonfeathery ink/wet writer. That's pretty much all there is to my philosophy!

[Ada]

Reading around the forums, I occasionally see people ask "Which ink for my XXX pen?" There may be specific reasons why those questions are asked (e.g. want to match the ink and pen barrel colours, the pen will be used for marking homework etc) but I was wondering what reasons there might be for pens and inks needing to be matched. Or is it just personal preference 99% of the time?

 

Reasons I can think of so far: very dry or very wet inks to counteract wet- or dry-running nibs, pens to cope with potentially troublesome inks (e.g. BSB, iron gall) and... er, I think that's it.

 

Does anyone here match different inks to particular pens?

 

Another reason: concerns about staining (for light-colored pens or demonstrators).

[fiberdrunk]

Reading around the forums, I occasionally see people ask "Which ink for my XXX pen?" There may be specific reasons why those questions are asked (e.g. want to match the ink and pen barrel colours, the pen will be used for marking homework etc) but I was wondering what reasons there might be for pens and inks needing to be matched. Or is it just personal preference 99% of the time?

 

Reasons I can think of so far: very dry or very wet inks to counteract wet- or dry-running nibs, pens to cope with potentially troublesome inks (e.g. BSB, iron gall) and... er, I think that's it.

 

Does anyone here match different inks to particular pens?

 

I use iron gall inks in the Parker Vector. It's a perfect marriage and the flow is reliable. I think of my Vectors as my designated iron gall ink pens.

 

I use Platinum Preppies (converted eyedroppers) for Noodler's inks. I've never had a problem.

 

I use acrylic ink in the Rotring ArtPen. Rotring used to make an acrylic ink called ArtistColor that worked well in these pens. It's no longer made, but now I use a very similar acrylic ink called Magic Color (from England) in these pens. It may be the same formula as the ArtistColor (many of the colors are appear the same). The pen comes apart for easy cleaning.

 

So yes, I guess I have specific pens for specific inks because each ink demands a pen that can handle it. The combinations have worked well for me. I don't match ink color to pen color, though that's not a bad idea. (eta for typos)

Edited February 21, 2011 by fiberdrunk

[milkb0at]

The postman delivered a shiny P51 to me this morning. I caught myself thinking: "Hmmm, which ink for this pen?" and had to laugh. In the end I just grabbed which of my inks I fancied at the time. It'll do!