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Testing Water Resistance Of My Inks


cjr

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I've been searching for inks that have very solid water resistance and that can take having water dripped or spilled on them. Unfortunately, many of the colorful inks I like aren't very resistant, so I've been trying different one. I've concluded that only a few companies have truly water resistant inks. Among those are Noodlers, Pilot, and Rohrer and Klingner.

 

I decided to collect all of my water resistant inks and test them to decide which ones I can rely on to deliver what I want. My goal is to find a set of black, blue, red, and green inks I can incorporate in my daily rotation while throwing in some of my more ephemeral colorful inks for fun.

 

So, I selected 16 inks from my collection and conducted a water test. Using a Rhodia pad and a Rohrer & Klingner glass pen, I wrote one line for each ink. Using the glass pen ensured consistency in how each ink was represented on the paper. I let the paper dry for 24 hours.

 

I then cut the paper in half vertically.

 

I first did a water droplet test by dripping some water onto the grid pattern for each ink, letting it stand for about 5 seconds, and then wiping it off with a paper towel to simulate a spill at the office and quick rub off of the spill.

 

Next, I filled a small tray with tap water at room temperature and placed the right half of the paper into the tray, making sure it was entirely submerged. I took a photo of the paper in the tray within a couple minutes to get an idea of how the ink behaved initially in water. After fifteen minutes, I removed the paper from the water and placed it on a paper towel to dry overnight. I then taped the right half back to the left half and scanned the page with a color scale included to help with color adjustments for monitors.

 

The scans and photo are attached.

 

BEFORE:

post-109354-0-63741200-1400341929_thumb.jpg

 

DURING:

post-109354-0-52928500-1400341932_thumb.jpg

 

AFTER:

post-109354-0-20029500-1400341931_thumb.jpg

 

Results:

 

Noodler's Black - unmoved by rubbing or soaking

Noodler's Heart of Darkness - unmoved by rubbing or soaking

Noodler's 54th Massachusetts - unmoved by rubbing or soaking

Noodler's Kung Te-cheng - very light smear from rubbing, but unmoved by soaking

Pilot-Namiki Blue - a bit more color moved when it was rubbed and slight fade from the soaking

Noodler's Upper Ganges Blue - a bit more color moved when it was rubbed and unmoved from the soaking

Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher - smearing from the drop rubbing test and also significant color fade from the soak

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium - smearing from the drop rubbing test and also significant color fade from the soak

Noodler's Baystate Blue - no smearing from rubbing and just a slight color lifting from the soak. In fact, BSB got darker and brighter blue after the soaking!

Noodler's Bad Green Gator - very slight smear from the rubbing, but completely unaffected by soaking.

Noodler's Hunter Green - same performance as BGG. Only difference is that Hunter Green does not bleed through the paper whereas BBG goes right through almost any type of paper.

Noodler's Empire Red - very slight smear from the rubbing, but completely unaffected by soaking

Noodler's Fox Red - no smearing from the rubbing, but loses some of its red hue from soaking. Result is a rather orange remnant.

Noodler's Nikita Red - good deal of smearing when rubbed, and a lot of red color lifted off after soaking leaving behind a pinkish red line.

Custom Mix "Black Russian" - same performance as Nikita, but left behind a nice, dark black/red line. This is my red/black mix of 1 part Nikita and 9 parts Noodler's Black. I get nice shading from this mix, too. It's a well-behaved blend.

R&K Scabiosa - What can I say? It's an iron-gall ink. Absolutely un-phased by anything. Once dry on the paper, it doesn't go anywhere.

 

Favorite pen/ink pairings: Edison Brockton w/EF 14K gold nib and Noodler's 54th Massachusetts; Visconti Pinanfarina w/EF chromium conical nib and Noodler's El Lawrence; Sheaffer Legacy w/18k extra fine inlaid nib and Noodler's Black; Sheaffer PFM III fine w/14k inlaid nib and Noodler's Black; Lamy 2000 EF with Noodler's 54th Massachusetts; Franklin Christoph 65 Stablis w/steel Masuyama fine cursive italic and DeAtramentis Document Blue; Pilot Decimo w/18k fine nib and Pilot Blue Black; Franklin Christoph 45 w/steel Masuyama fine cursive italic and Noodler's Zhivago; Edison Brockton EF and Noodler's El Lawrence; TWSBI ECO EF with Noodler's Bad Green Gator.

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The smearing seems to be segregated by color, somewhat. I wonder if there's anything to that wrt the chemical composition of the inks.

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The water resistance of Pilot/Namiki blue is truly amazing, considering it is a dye based ink and not cellulose reactive or IG.

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Custom Mix "Black Russian" - same performance as Nikita, but left behind a nice, dark black/red line. This is my red/black mix of 1 part Nikita and 9 parts Noodler's Black. I get nice shading from this mix, too. It's a well-behaved blend.

 

Error!!!

 

Should be: 9 parts Nikita and 1 part Noodler's Black

Favorite pen/ink pairings: Edison Brockton w/EF 14K gold nib and Noodler's 54th Massachusetts; Visconti Pinanfarina w/EF chromium conical nib and Noodler's El Lawrence; Sheaffer Legacy w/18k extra fine inlaid nib and Noodler's Black; Sheaffer PFM III fine w/14k inlaid nib and Noodler's Black; Lamy 2000 EF with Noodler's 54th Massachusetts; Franklin Christoph 65 Stablis w/steel Masuyama fine cursive italic and DeAtramentis Document Blue; Pilot Decimo w/18k fine nib and Pilot Blue Black; Franklin Christoph 45 w/steel Masuyama fine cursive italic and Noodler's Zhivago; Edison Brockton EF and Noodler's El Lawrence; TWSBI ECO EF with Noodler's Bad Green Gator.

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