Where Does Caran D'ache Fit On The Maintenance Scale?

[ru32day]

I know some people may not agree with the ink brand/pen maintenance thing and that there are differences within brands, but there does seem to be a generally accepted scale of inks from low maintenance like Waterman and Lamy, through high maintenance like some saturated Noodler and PR inks, up to the "maintain pen hygiene or expect trouble" inks like the iron gall and carbon particle inks.

 

On this scale, in my world, most Diamine and Herbin (with 1670 a possible notable exception) inks fit somewhere just above the Waterman and Lamy inks and below Noodler and PR.

 

Any advice on where Caran D'Ache would fit in such a scale? I don't really have any experience with them.

[PaulT00]

In my experience of using Storm extensively, Amazon and Sunset occasionally, I'd say they're somewhere between Wateman and Diamine. Storm has been very well behaved in a favourite Conway Stewart for absolutely ages, and I tend to be somewhat cavalier about things like regular flushing. Sunset did dry out in the nib of a very fine point Estie, but that pen always wrote dry anyway. In general I think they're pretty good. I've had less trouble with CdA than with certain Diamine colours - for some reason I find Diamine Midnight has a dreadful tendency to dry out in almost any pen, and WES Imperial Blue is a complete pain to flush out of pens as it has an incredibly tenacious magenta component.

[ballboy]

- for some reason I find Diamine Midnight has a dreadful tendency to dry out in almost any pen, .. .

So that's why my YOL Astoria is not quite skip free :hmm1:

Thanks, I'll try another ink

[lapis]

I have all 9 of their regulars (sorry) and would definitely give them a good 8 out of 10. IMO Waterman gets a 10, Skrip's (Sloveniens) a 9.

For me -- for the sake of relevance/comparison -- Diamine also an 8 or 9.

PR a 6 or 7, and Noodler's at most a 5. Of course, YMMV and the greater the number of specimens they sell, the wider the variance in their own house.

 

Mike

[Margana]

Cd'A Storm has been in my MB 220 OB for months with several refills and no cleanings. It starts perfectly every time. That's high praise indeed.

 

Another brand of ink that I've been testing for a number of months is Rohrer & Klingner. It rinses cleanly with little effort and has performed well in all sorts of pens. I would rank it with J. Herbin and above Diamine for ease of maintenance.

[Silvermink]

I've never had any issues with CdA Storm, Amazon, or Caribbean Sea and would also put them toward the "easy" end of the maintenance scale.

 

I've got Storm in my Wality 71J at the moment.

Edited March 30, 2011 by Silvermink

[ru32day]

Thanks for all the great advice - looks like I'll have to invest in some CdA

[MrsGouletPens]

I'd say CdA is pretty comparable to J. Herbin.

[Inka]

I've only ever used CARAN d' ACHE Colours of the Earth series [do they make anything else?] in Storm and Caribbean Sea inks, can only speak to those in that they have never caused me any maintenance issues whatsoever.

I still have some of each of those two colors remaining, just yesterday took out my Storm and filled my Pelikan M1000 with it to write a letter to a friend when oddly enough a major lightning/ thunderstorm hit and tornado warnings blared away on my TV and PC [no kidding!].

I have not had any nib clogging, no nib creep, no problems with a quick cleaning & flushing, nothing I can think of other than the high cost to maintain a good supply of them [high cost is why I only have the two colors].

Whenever I've gone to use either, I always tip my ink bottles over to see if any particulates have settled and need a shaking, whereas I've never seen either the Storm or the Caribbean Sea inks separate in the least.

The CotE bottles are really nice, hand-crafted Italian glass, although they're more glass than ink and a large nib such as on an M1000 may have trouble bottle-filling since the reservoir is barely as deep as the nib is long.

Those two inks also take a bit of time to dry on paper, no matter what kind of paper I've used them on, it's typical to take around 10 seconds for the ink/s to dry, no feathering though, but then those are not pen maintenance issues.

[ru32day]

Thanks again everyone ... so when I get some CdA my pens will be fine but the skies will open up - got it :lol

[lapis]

... so when I get some CdA my pens will be fine but....

One problem which remains is that -- however at least I myself find the CdA bottles very good looking -- my M1000 with its huge nib doesn't find them all that convenient..

 

Mike http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu264/peli46/-xSick.png

[ru32day]

 

One problem which remains is that -- however at least I myself find the CdA bottles very good looking -- my M1000 with its huge nib doesn't find them all that convenient..

 

Mike http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu264/peli46/-xSick.png

 

To avoid cross-contamination, I always decant a small amount of ink into a sample tube for filling so even if I should be fortunate to acquire a gorgeous big nib as on the M1000 before any ink runs out, that won't be an issue for me ...but ohhh that is one beautiful nib!