Jump to content

Ink Recommendations On Student Budget


TheAkwardNinja

Recommended Posts

I'm new to fountain pens. I will be getting a Pilot Metropolitan soon, so I will be using the converter more than cartridges. I need relatively inexpensive ink, something black or blue, and something that won't feather. Any thoughts?

-Ave María, grátia pléna, Dóminus técum. Benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus frúctus véntris túi, Iésus. Sáncta María, Máter Déi, óra pro nóbis peccatóribus, nunc et in hóra mórtis nóstrae. Amen.-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 36
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • TheAkwardNinja

    5

  • ac12

    4

  • usk15

    2

  • Rndmness

    1

Sheaffer Skrip black or blue black: cheap, won't feather and a degree of water resistance.

Also, Pelikan 4001 black.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Noodler's Black is a great everyday ink and was the only ink I owned for a long time. It's also pretty affordable at just under $0.14/ml in the 90 ml bottles. I would just recommend cleaning the pen regularly, as Noodler's inks are a little more high maintenance than some others.

"While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart."

- St. Francis of Assisi

"Don't play what's there. Play what's not there."

-Miles Davis

I will gladly take your unwanted Noodler's pens. Don't throw them away.

 

Assume no affiliation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sheaffer Skip, Parker Quink, Cross (made my Pelikan), Pelikan

These range from about $9 for the Sheaffer to $11 for the Pelikan.

 

The 4 variables; pen, ink, paper and the writer, each play a factor in feathering.

As for feathering and blotting, in my experience, it depends more on the paper than the ink.

 

But to play it safe, you want a dryer ink, so you would leave out a wetter ink like Waterman. Although Waterman may still work, I have Waterman loaded in my Pilot Metro, and I do not have a feathering/blotting problem. But I also pick the paper I write on, and do not write on news paper with a fountain pen.

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My favorite go to ink that is both cheap and works well under lots of conditions is Parker Quink Blue Black.

PAKMAN

minibanner.gif                                    Vanness-world-final.png.c1b120b90855ce70a8fd70dd342ebc00.png

                         My Favorite Pen Restorer                                             My Favorite Pen Store

                                                                                                                                Vanness Pens - Selling Online!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm actually using Parker Quink black in my Pilot MR (UK version of metropolitan) for note taking usually on cheap or scrap paper and I can recommend it, no feather, and wet writer, dry in ~ 3 sec.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I second the Parker Quink recommendation. It's just about the only ink that can easily be found in B&M stores (hence saving on postage). It's a decent black that is suitable for school work. No bleed through, dries quickly, no feathering and super cheap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The problem with B&M shops today, is that it is HARD to find them.

And when you do, you are stuck with the limited selection they have.

I told one store "NO I do NOT want Mont Blanc ink" as that was all they carried.

I was looking for something more reasonable in price, around $10 a bottle, not $20.

 

But order online and you have a $10 bottle of Quink + $5 shipping for $15. :(

 

So now I have to plan my ink purchases (that my local shop does not carry) around other purchases to keep the shipping cost down or free. My last frustration was the store could get all the Sheaffer inks EXCEPT turquoise, which of course is the one that I wanted. So I had to get my turquoise from Goulet, as part of an order of other stuff.

 

BTW, I gave up on Parker black after MANY years (decades) of using it in cartridge form. The black would many time look grayish, but I wanted BLACK. So when I started using bottle ink, I switched to Waterman and Cross/Pelikan for my black ink, and I got my BLACK.

Edited by ac12

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd go with Parker Qink black... probably the ink I used the longest. I find it cheap, well behaved, even if it sometimes looks a bit grayish...

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. - Winston Churchill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I bought 4 bottles of Parker Quink NOS sealed from DeGruchy department store with 0.79GBP/$1.25 each. Sometimes if you are lucky enough you can do a good stock very cheap! Just look for sale and discount.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Find the ink that works well for you. A two-ounce bottle will fill your pilot converter

70 times. So, $10 per bottle or $15 per bottle shouldn't make a big difference,

especially if the ink comes from Santa.

 

A brick and morter store might let you try some of their inks. What's your location ?

Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke dürft ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schön !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't forget, if you get something very saturated like Noodler's, you can also dilute it to get more ink. (but dilute a few ml at a time, not the whole bottle)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

+1 on Noodler's Black. Added bonus is that it is supersaturated, so you can cut it with a SIGNIFICANT amount of water without seeing any ill effects, meaning you can stretch the heck out of a bottle by adding water to dilute it some.

Also would point you toward ESS Registrar's Ink. A pricier bottle on face value but a few things to consider:

1) It's a sizable bottle, so ounce for ounce it's not bad.

2) It seems to last forever. I still have 30% of a bottle left that I bought a year ago and this is the only ink I use anymore.

3) It writes nicely on EVERYTHING. I have seen good performance on the cheapest papers known to mankind. A bit of feathering on pure (bleep)-o-la, but even on "normal" cheap copy paper it writes great. As a student you'll have a lot of opportunities to write on cheap paper, so ESSRI is king in this regard.

Ink is pretty affordable when you really think about it, even the moderately pricier bottles. Getting fancy notebooks will chew up your budget a lot faster, so an ink that writes well on junk is a good buy for a student.

Steve. Just plain ol' Steve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is all great advice. The nice thing about a fountain pen is that you do not really have to worry about the price of ink if you are buying bottles. The per filling cost is so minimal that the most important thing is to get the ink you want and like.

 

The only thing you might have to think about on a student budget is how much the bottle costs in the first place, not how many converters you can fill with it.

 

For this reason, I am in agreement with Sasha Royale.

 

Erick

Using right now:

Visconti Voyager 30 "M" nib running Birmingham Streetcar

Jinhao 9019 "EF" nib running Birmingham Railroad Spike

Stipula Adagio "F" nib running Birmingham Violet Sea Snail

Sailor Profit "B" nib running Van Dieman's Night - Shooting Star

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I live in Southern Idaho

-Ave María, grátia pléna, Dóminus técum. Benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus frúctus véntris túi, Iésus. Sáncta María, Máter Déi, óra pro nóbis peccatóribus, nunc et in hóra mórtis nóstrae. Amen.-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can you convince half of your state to move back from ND, just kidding. We do seem to have lots and lots of Idahoans here.

Anyway, not sure that I'd recommend registrar's ink at this point. You haven't listed how familiar you are or aren't with heavy-duty maintenance, and I-G inks such as Registrar's Ink can be maintenance intensive.

 

Quink Black is cheap, but it can fade under fluorescent lighting.

Imagination and memory are but one thing which for diverse reasons hath diverse names. -- T. Hobbes - Leviathan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...