Inks That Have Stood The Test Of Time

[writewright]

Please comment on inks that have worked well for you for at least 2 years.

 

1. What colors; what brands?
2. Which pens do they work well with; in which pens do they not work well?
3. Why do you like them?

The goal: It is one thing to read reviews; it is another thing to know which inks have stood the test of time. For me, those that have stood the test of time are the inks that interest me. My bet is: that will be your interest too.

 

[Randal6393]

Noodler's: Navajo Turquoise, Black, Walnut, Heart of Darkness, Bernanke Black. In a wide variety of pens, ranging from Jinhao's to Lamy 2000 and Pelikan M200's.

Chesterfield: Antique Crimson, Archival Vault, Rose. Again, all pens I have tried them in.

Aurora: Black, Blue.

Montblanc: Blue-Black, Royal Blue, Burgundy, Toffee Brown.

 

Architekt: Jeans Blue, Black. Not bad but not as smooth, not as colorful as I would like. Would grade a C.

 

Inks I have not liked at all: Noodler's Rome Is Burning, Manjiro Sepia. Both were "off" for my color values and had less sharpness than I want.

 

Currently using and like: Waterman Black, R & K Salix and Scabiosa. Really good performance.

 

Enjoy,

[Abner C. Kemp]

If I was going to suggest an ink to someone it would be Montblanc Royal Blue. It isn't nearly as washed out looking as many Royal Blues and it offers excellent ink flow, easy cleaning, and is work appropriate.

[DrDebG]

Waterman South Seas (a.k.a. Inspired Blue) - This is the only ink I have used consistently for more than two years.

 

Other inks that I really like and I believe will stand the test of time:

DeAtramentis Pearl Violet - I love the shading and subtlety of this ink

Sailor Jentle Nioi-Sumire - a lovely medium blue with shades of lavender

Rohrer & Klingner Smaradgrun - this medium green with blue highlights shades wonderfully

Frankin Christoph Midnight Emerald - this ink reminds me of pine trees and has great shading and sheen

[Brianm_14]

Sorry, but "test of time" -with all due respect- to me means some real time. You have defined the category clearly, as you have every right to. But two years, geez, that is classically ephemeral to me. Here today, then gone!

 

My immediate thought was my 1984 - 1985 bottle of Sheaffer blue-black. Looks good from the bottle or on the page from the 1980s. That is "a test of time."

[haruka337]

The only bottle I've had for 4 years (the rest of my inks are all from the past year) is Iroshizuku Syo-ro.

 

Iroshizuku screams quality and consistency--the 16 colors I've tried thus far have solidified this opinion. Works in all pens and all the colors in this expression are winners.

 

What's not to like?

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Only two years? Some inks take a little longer than that to simply fade away.

 

Some of my favorites, and the amount of time I've used them for:

 

Noodler's Black - 11+ years

Noodler's Blue.Black - 11+ years

Noodler's (Swishmix Glacier Blue) - about 7 years

Pelikan 4001 Brilliant black - about 7 years

Noodler's Eternal Brown - about 9 years

Noodler's Verdun - about 9 years

Noodler's Green - about 9 years

Noodler's Purple - about 9 years

Thistle Blue/Black - about 7 years

 

Vintage ink:

 

Sheaffer Skrip Jet Black (from Iowa, not the eastern European version) - 50+ years

 

 

[dcwaites]

Parker Quink Permanent Blue-Black with Solv-X - used consistently since 1966

Parker Quink Permanent Black with Solv-X - used consistently since 1971

.

.

.

big gap

Parker Penman Ebony - used since 1989

.

.

smaller gap, Starting 2005

Visconti Blue

Noodler's Ottoman Azure

Parker Penman Black (a re-issue of Penman Ebony)

Parker Penman Sapphire

Sheaffer Skrip Blue

Sheaffer Skrip Black

Waterman Florida Blue

Faux Penman Sapphire blend #2~#9

Noodler's Black

Noodler's Blue

 

I have many other inks, but it is one of these inks I reach for when I want to fill a pen and write, or when I have less than optimal paper to work with.

[visvamitra]

Interesting topic. I try a lot of new inks. Only few stay with me for longer. I mostly use brown, red and green inks. Sometimes I'll fill one of my pens with blue and / or orange. I never use black.

 

The inks I'm always returning to are:

 

Browns

 

J. Herbin - Lie de The: unique color, great flow, nice wet feel to it. I've never had any problems with this ink and I've been using it for at least two years in different (cheap and expensive pens: mostly medium, broad and stub nibs).

 

Graf von Faber-Castell - Hazelnut Brown: nice, warm brown. Well behaved in all pens. The color however isn't as exciting as I thought it would be. I still enjoy it, but my taste's changed a little. Now I prefer earthier browns.

 

Some of the browns i have since just few months or tried a sample are: Sailor Kobe no. 3, Brown from 2010 but although they're amzing, they're with me too short to be included in the answer to your question.

 

Reds (in very wide understanding of this name)

 

Sailor - Oku-Yama: great, saturated ink with interesting sheen and color I enjoy a lot. I'm never bored by this one.

 

Sheaffer - Red: cheap, easily available, saturated and simply great.

 

Diamine - Crimson: I've started second bottle. Great, well behaved ink.

 

Greens

J. Herbin - Lierre Sauvage - my first green ink. Great flow, medium saturation. I still enjoy it and use it with pleasure.

 

Graf von Faber-Castell - Moss Green: stunning and elegant color, well-behaved ink I can use in every situation.

 

Purples

J. Herbin - Poussiere de Lune: great ink, even after the change of color. Never experienced any issues with it.

 

Blue

I rarely use blue inks. There's no blue I've been using for two years. The one I'm coming back to is Diamine - Blue Velvet that is very deep and lubricates the nib well. I was fascinated by Sailor Kingdom Note Lidth's Jay but I don't have a bottle and can't say if my feelings toward it would change with time.

 

Orange

Pilot Iroshizuku Yu-Yake - great ink, well behaved with nice shading and nice flow. It's never caused any harm to one of my pens and I like it's burned out look a lot.

[Nellie]

I've been using my two Noodler's Greens (Army and Green Marine) for the last six years in most of my pens and they have worked well for me. I like them because they are saturated and do not fade. Unlike Noodler's Green they dry in a time that's acceptable for me for everyday use. I must have had the Gruene Cactus I used before for about the same amount of time and I was happy with that as well. And I used Noodler's Black for far longer than two years as well, so that too has stood the test of time as you define it. This ink really impressed me, because it would work on the worst paper ever without feathering or showing through.

What didn't work for me was using saturated inks such as Noodler's or PR for applications where I just write a word every now and again without capping the pen in between (annotations while reading something or the like). The ink became too concentrated and would not dry on the paper. I now use more traditional inks for this.

 

Edited to add the Bulletproof Black.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Nellie

[lapis]

Sorry, but "test of time" -with all due respect- to me means some real time. You have defined the category clearly, as you have every right to. But two years, geez, that is classically ephemeral to me. Here today, then gone!

 

My immediate thought was my 1984 - 1985 bottle of Sheaffer blue-black. Looks good from the bottle or on the page from the 1980s. That is "a test of time."

And now for the bad part. That ink, from the 80s and decades previously, was as you say a good ink and still is. But in the meantime, the company has changed and also its formulation of "Sheaffer Skrip Blue-Black" has also changed, so that there is no resemblance. Any test of time -- of that new/current ink -- has since then kicked the bucket.

 

Mike

[writewright]

Great responses; keep them coming. I certainly like and use the ink reviews; but, when I am looking to try a new ink, I really want to know how the ink will work for day-to-day use; and I think your responses help address that issue. Thanks.

[ac12]

So what you are after is LONG-TERM usage inks.

 

Here are mine in alpha order, used in various pens unless specified.:

- Cross/Pelikan: black, blue (my standard dry ink)

- Diamine: Sherwood Green (Lamy joy-F, Reform 1745-F)

- Parker Quink: black (cartridge used through college in Parker 45,75 and 180. So this is my longest term use ink.) Though it is not a BLACK black, and looks a bit gray out of an old US Parker F nib pen, partially because of the narrow nib.

- Private Reserve: DC Super Show blue (Parker 51-M)

- Sheaffer Skrip: blue, black, turquoise, red (just started blue-black and seems to be similarly good)

- Waterman: green, black, Florida/Serenity blue (my standard wet ink)

 

New inks that are joining the pool and will likely stay around:

- Diamine: Ultra Green

- Noodler's: Gruene Cactus

 

Note that the ink has to be matched to the pen. In some cases certain inks just do not work with certain pens for various reasons.

My few pen/ink combos that did not work:

- Baoer 388-M with Diamine Sherwood Green. The ink appears to be too saturated for the feed, and the feel constantly dries up/clogs. I have to constantly dip the pen in water, to get the ink to start to flow. Not practical/usable in a carry pen, but OK for use at home or office with an ink well of water is on the desk.

- Baoer 388-M, with Organic Studio, Nitrogen. The ink appears to be too saturated for the feed. The pen constantly dries/clogs. Not usable.

- Chinese pens with XF nib, with various medium blue inks. The XF nib was just too fine for the medium blue inks. The ink line was so narrow that it looked washed out and faded. The XF nib needs a DARK ink to make the ink line have enough contrast to be easily read.

- Noodler's Nib Creaper and Konrad. No combination of ink and nib/feed adjustment that I tried will not DROOL ink.

- Noodler's Emerald City Green. This ink is soooooo WET that it feathers and bleeds in all of my pens except one (a VERY dry Pilot 78g). IOW too fussy to deal with. Noodler's Gruene Cactus is a very similar color and behaves much better.

- Parker 180 with Parker Quink black. This particular 180 was WET, and would drool ink. The drooling was cured by switching from Parker Quink to Cross/Pelikan ink.

- Sheaffer 440-F with PR DCSS blue. The nib was just too fine for this ink.

Edited November 24, 2015 by ac12

[Ink Stained Wretch]

My few pen/ink combos that did not work:

- Noodler's Nib Creaper and Konrad. No combination of ink and nib/feed adjustment that I tried will not DROOL ink.

 

I must say that I've just started playing with the Nib Creaper and I have not had it drool ink at all. I've had an experimental ink mixture in it (5:1 = Noodler's North Sea Blue : Noodler's Black) and it's been very well behaved.

 

Of course pen, ink and paper are all variables.

 

I have not done any adjusting to my Nib Creaper, It's just as it came from Nathan's supplier.

[Margana]

For over ten years, Noodler's Black, J. Herbin Lie de The and Poussiere de Lune, Waterman Blue Black and Florida Blue, and Montblanc Racing Green have been in my rotation. Too many Diamine inks to list, but Violet and Emerald are in the 7-10 year category and still used regularly. Noodler's Kiowa Pecan is another old favorite.

[writewright]

I must say I am pleasantly surprised by the good responses to this topic. Please keep them coming. I am seeing some interesting patterns that I will summarize for readers of this topic.

[perfaddict]

The oldest i have are bottles of Waterman Green and Montblanc Royal Blue and Burgundy i bought in 1998 (17 years)

 

All still consistent.

[bone215]

My two oldest are MB black 12 years and Waterman green about 9 years old.

Still perfect.

[Runnin_Ute]

I have had my current bottle of Pelikan Blue Black since December 2012, almost always have a pen inked with it. (this is the second bottle I have had) The only ink I have had at least two bottles of.

 

All my Diamine's I have had for at least two years: Blue Black, Sherwood Green, Steel Blue, Classic Red.

 

Noodler's Apache Sunset have been using since summer of 2013. Have had 54th Massachusetts a little longer than that, but don't use it as much.

 

I had a bottle of Levenger Raven Black from the 1990's until 2013 when I used up the last of it.

[Arkanabar]

I've been using Noodler's Red-Black in my Pelikan M200 for close to a decade by now, I suppose. Because it is a mixture of Noodler's Red and Noodler's Black, that black component will never fade. Back in the 90s, I was very fond of Pelikan Brilliant Black as well.

My dad appears to have filled his "51" (which I now have) with Parker Permanent Black Quink with Solv-X for the entire 30 or so years that he used it. Sadly, Quink no longer contains Solv-X.