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Help Me Choose An Ink For Personal Correspondence....please.


Behike54

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Okay, so I just bought a Jinhao 159 that came with a Goulet # 6 two-tone "M" nib and my plans are to use it for personal correspondence.

 

 

Choices:

 

Edelstein AVENTURINE

 

Diamine POPPY RED

 

Montblanc TOFFEE BROWN

 

Waterman INTENSE BLACK

 

I was thinking about Aventurine but a LONG letter in green sounds a bit much. OTOH, green is my favorite color and I like this one......but I STILL come back to it being overkill.

 

Poppy Red is interesting because it is not that clownish or teacher's red, but it's STILL red. Hmmmmmmm

 

MB toffee puts down a nice wet line and I like the color. The first pen I loaded it with had some issues, so I wonder if this may not be the way to go?

 

W. Intense Black is another option, but black is black, right?

 

I do have some Kon-Peki left, but a little of that goes a long way and I just emptied a pen with it.

 

FINALLY, DA "Sherlock Holmes," but it seems pretty innocuous to me.

 

Is the Green and/or RED too much of one thing or too little of another? :rolleyes:

 

Help a budding FP-lover out, will ya? :thumbup:

 

“My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best.” - Winston Churchill

 

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Friends and relatives I correspond with like The colors I use:

 

Diamine Grey

Diamine Syrah

Diamine Sherwood Green

Herbin Poussiere De Lune

Diamine Chocolate Brown

 

These colors I find pleasing to the eye.

They came as a boon, and a blessing to men,
The Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen

Sincerely yours,

Pickwick

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Personally, for correspondence, I'm a big fan of Diamine Syrah (on white paper), or J. Herbin Lie de The on cream paper.

 

I tend to avoid black inks for personal use as they look very sterile. Good in the business world, but looses some of the personal touch that I'd like to give.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers ~ Voltaire

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I like green and it's my personal ink. But I use a variety of greens (Waterman green, Diamine Ultra Green), and have more ready to ink pens (Diamine Sherwood Green, Lamy Green).

 

Brown in a nice color, especially on a cream color paper, which compliments the brown ink.

I use Waterman brown.

 

For red, how about Diamine Red Dragon. The darker red does not hit you in the face like a bright red would.

 

Or blue, Private Reserve DC SuperShow Blue. I like it, and it inks one of my Parker 51s.

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

www.SFPenShow.com

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CHOICES ARE AS FOLLOWS

 

Edelstein AVENTURINE

 

Diamine POPPY RED

 

Montblanc TOFFEE BROWN

 

Waterman INTENSE BLACK

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for everybody's time and attention, but, er, uh, I was hoping for some feedback on the above colors given that is what I have TODAY. :D

 

“My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best.” - Winston Churchill

 

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Green, red or brown.

- Preference to the green, because it is your favorite color. As for how it looks, each person is different. Get a sample, then write a whole page of it, and look at that page. That will tell you if your eye can stand looking at a lot of that ink or not. Just looking at online samples won't tell you that. Also write on both white and cream colored paper. You might like how it looks on cream better than white.

- Don't short change the brown because one pen did not like it. Might work just fine in another pen.

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

www.SFPenShow.com

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Ruling out black because I do not think you have to use it and you indicated your own preference against it.

 

If you want no hassle and the most flexible option, the brown is the safe choice. You won't find pen compatibility issues until you try it. (Aside: I have learned to always start a new pen with an ink I understand. Too many times of starting a new pen with a new ink taught me that I was sometimes wrong about which was the issue).

 

Were it me (I'm assuming you own bottles, not samples): I would mix.

 

Insert disclaimer on being careful, recognizing you are mixing brands, yada yada (If you do not know much about mixing you probably should read a little there is good advice out there and some risks does exist. Many individuals will not mix between brands as a rule. I have had good experiences and am not going to be the one to give strong caution.)

 

You indicate a preference towards the green so take a small amount and add a very small amount of the black to darken it (black can shift things fast). Continuing adding black until you get a color dark enough that you are not concerned about length.

 

If you get sick of that darker green, adding either the Red or Brown would make an impure color making it come accross it will be darker and shift the hue. Here again small mounts of the additive is important, too much and you will no longer have a green ink and you may not like the murky result. The Sherlock Holmes with it would darken it as well but I suspect would turn the mix teal quickly.

 

 

Not knowing the particular nature of your personal correspondence, I do not know if this is applicable: none of the inks you mention are too obnoxious so if you are taking the time so write someone you probably can use the one you want to use even if it is not ideal for long letters. I defer to your judgement

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Often use Montblanc Toffee Brown for a quick letter. Usually use it on a cream or parchment-color paper, seems to perk up the ink just a bit. Agree with vossad01 that it is the best choice of the bunch if you aren't going to go to the black.

 

Enjoy,

Yours,
Randal

From a person's actions, we may infer attitudes, beliefs, --- and values. We do not know these characteristics outright. The human dichotomies of trust and distrust, honor and duplicity, love and hate --- all depend on internal states we cannot directly experience. Isn't this what adds zest to our life?

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Of the ones you list I would only use toffee brown or black for correspondence. But, that's just me.

"how do I know what I think until I write it down?"

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Poppy red actually kind of yells out from the page. I personally cannot see a whole letter written using it. I only used it when I needed contrast on the page. It also lacks in the fade resistance department.

Have no experience with the other three inks.

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

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+1 for MB Toffee Brown. I do not use brown inks very often and I have yet to try MB TB but after seeing the note Da Vinci wrote with it this week, it looks stunning and I would be very happy to receive a letter written in Toffee Brown!

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/169272-whats-your-most-recent-mb-purchase/page-108

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Thanks everybody!

 

I went with the "Aventurine." and am glad I did so!

 

Liking this color very much and it dries a tad darker, which works beautifully!

 

I know the writing is atrocious. In my defense, the pen was NEW and the flow was practically a "gusher." I'll get it worked out.

 

 

post-115790-0-51168900-1411622558_thumb.jpg

 

“My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best.” - Winston Churchill

 

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