What Ink Do You Use To Write Your Diary?

[Morwen]

Well, my diaries are private - the only person who will be reading them 20-30 years from now is me. I'm pretty sure that even the most volatile ink will last until I die, given that the books are stored closed in a dry and dark place, so I don't worry too much about fading.

[FountainPenCowgirl]

Going (reasonably) crazy in my journals is the major reason I got into fountain pens and ink. Yeah, definitely "rainbow" here.

 

That said, with my aging eyes, I'm leaning more toward a narrower set of dark regulars. Popular at the moment:

 

Yama-Dori (probably my favorite)

PR DC Electric Blue

Diamine Sherwood Green

Diamine Bilberry

PR Ebony Purple

Waterman Absolute Brown

Noodler's BSIAR

Asa-Gao

Yama-Budo (a true love, but fearful it will be harder to read as I get older)

[Buzz_130]

I use blue and blue-black as all of my colors. And this created the need for a separate fountain pen ink cabinet in the office. You'll have many great choices!

 

For the archeologists and archivists, the nano pigment inks from Sailor and Platinum are excellent (I have both the blues and the blacks but only use the blues). I'm also falling for IG inks as I particularly enjoy their writing characteristics. I'm using Diamine Registrar and KWZI IG Blue #2 and Blue #3 as my IG inks. I pay special attention to these inks and make sure that I'm using them at least every other day, only work from pens that are easy to disassemble and clean, and only stay in these specific pens (for now).

 

For the standard fountain pen inks, every manufacturer makes good blue and blue-black inks. You'll find some that are waterproof, permanent, dry, wet, and washable. One of the best ways to find out what inks match with your pens and your preferred paper is to buy some samples. You'll get about 2 loads of ink with each sample, and you'll get a good feel for which ones you like and want to purchase an entire bottle.

 

Diamine Denim, Midnight, Blue Black, Blue Velvet, and Majestic Blue are all excellent colors and run wet. Pelikan 4001 Blue Black and Royal Blue are much drier and good colors. Mont Blanc Royal Blue and Midnight Blue are on the expensive side but work in every pen I've tried included demonstrators w/o staining. My wife loves Iroshizuku Shin Kai as a deep blue-black (I always have Asa Gao in at least one pen for my writing). The list goes on.

 

Good luck.

 

Buzz

[Calabria]

OMAS Blue, Pilot Shin Kai, Aurora Blue ... And Sailor Cigar when my Lamy 2000 is lying around ... I like meaty blues. Oh, and Sailor Souten in the mornings

[VivienR]

My journal overall cover my spectrum of inks, but lately I use mostly Diamine Imperial Purple. Its a nice color. But if you like black ink, quietly could suggest Caran d'Ache blak, its one of the best black I have.

[scribbler77]

I use multiple colors for different types of entries. But I prefer water-resistant inks, and I do not use Pelikan 4001 blue-black because it disappears quickly if wet.

 

Some may find that attitude a bit finicky, but one of my journal volumes was on the desk when coffee spilled, all over the top edge of the volume. I cleaned it up immediately and everything remained legible, but the ink smeared near the top of a hundred pages or so. Quite unsightly. Also, some of my earlier notes were stored in a room where a pipe burst last winter and several boxes were drenched. By the time we got the material dry, most of the fountain pen writing had disappeared. No great loss to future archeologists, but annoying to me because I still use these notes when writing about that period.