Ink Suggestions For Vintage Lever Filler

[Moonshae]

Hi all,

 

My first vintage (1945) pen is on the way, and I'm looking for safe ink suggestions. I'm new to vintage and to the huge variety of inks available; previously, I only used Levenger inks as they were familiar to me. I read the 3-part ink series and have seen the oft-repeated advice to avoid saturated inks. This suggests I need a Level 1 ink in my pen. However, since the article can't go into a lot of brands, I'm wondering what inks you all have in your vintage sac pens? Right now I'm more interested in safe brands than colors, but interesting color options are good. Not really looking for blue/black.

[carlos.q]

Waterman, Sheaffer, Parker and Pelikan inks will serve you well.

[ENewton]

I use Montblanc Lavender Purple (which is a dark purple, not lavender at all) in one of my vintage lever fillers and Robert Oster Purple Rock (which is a purplish grey) in the other one.

 

When I got my first lever filler, I bought J Herbin Poussiere de Lune expressly to use in it, but then I read about problems with mold due to the fact that J Herbin ink does not contain fungicide. I am sure such problems are not common, but given that a vintage lever filler is not as easy to flush as a cartridge converter, I decided not to take the risk.

[Pentode]

I just had a conversation with Ron Zorn last weekend at the Long Island pen show about this very thing. He suggested that for celluloid pens, sac fillers and vintage pens in general, the safest bet is to stick with inks made by pen companies rather than independent ink companies. I was already doing that, but I was glad to have it confirmed by an expert.

 

With that in mind, carlos q.'s list is right on the money, as is ENewton's suggestion of Montblanc. Ron, in our conversation, recommended Aurora black as a good, saturated black that is safe in most pens. I have used Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black and Montblanc black in my sac pens for years with no issues, and the Pelikan is also pretty saturated. I have also used Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Green in sac pens and have not had any trouble.

 

I still use really saturated inks like Noodler's, but I limit their use to cartridge/converter pens or piston fillers that don't have clear parts that will stain.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I just had a conversation with Ron Zorn last weekend at the Long Island pen show about this very thing. He suggested that for celluloid pens, sac fillers and vintage pens in general, the safest bet is to stick with inks made by pen companies rather than independent ink companies. I was already doing that, but I was glad to have it confirmed by an expert.

 

With that in mind, carlos q.'s list is right on the money, as is ENewton's suggestion of Montblanc. Ron, in our conversation, recommended Aurora black as a good, saturated black that is safe in most pens. I have used Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black and Montblanc black in my sac pens for years with no issues, and the Pelikan is also pretty saturated. I have also used Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Green in sac pens and have not had any trouble.

 

I still use really saturated inks like Noodler's, but I limit their use to cartridge/converter pens or piston fillers that don't have clear parts that will stain.

 

I recently went head-over-heels for vintage pens, to the point of repairing/restoring them. At the same show, Richard Binder also mentioned Diamine, and I just got bottles of Indigo and Midnight. They're doing very well in an Osmiroid 65 and a lever-filling 'Whatever.' But then, I'm after a vintage-y look in ink, and these two fit the bill.

[ac12]

The other is color.

 

In my experience of cleaning dried ink, I would be hesitant of RED or PURPLE ink. If you let it dry out, they can be a PiA to clean. I do not know what it is about RED and PURPLE, but they have taken me the longest to clean out.

 

If you do not let the pen dry out, you are probably OK. But I only have experience with Sheaffer Red and one fill of Diamine Red Dragon, so cannot say much about cleaning them.

[amberleadavis]

I use Montblanc Lavender Purple (which is a dark purple, not lavender at all) in one of my vintage lever fillers and Robert Oster Purple Rock (which is a purplish grey) in the other one.

 

When I got my first lever filler, I bought J Herbin Poussiere de Lune expressly to use in it, but then I read about problems with mold due to the fact that J Herbin ink does not contain fungicide. I am sure such problems are not common, but given that a vintage lever filler is not as easy to flush as a cartridge converter, I decided not to take the risk.

 

 

That Herbin problem was fixed. Other than the Anniversary Inks, I'd add Herbin inks as great choices.

[ErrantSmudge]

Another thing about vintage lever fillers: it's also good to stay within the same color family. It's much harder to fully clean out a lever-filler pen than a C/C or piston pen. Invariably your next fill is going to mix somewhat with the remnants of the previous fill.

 

I have a vintage Sheaffer Balance that I moved from black to brown inks over the course of three filling cycles. The same brown ink was significantly lighter on its second fill. I have an Esterbrook that may be stuck on blue ink forever.

[HalloweenHJB]

Another thing about vintage lever fillers: it's also good to stay within the same color family. It's much harder to fully clean out a lever-filler pen than a C/C or piston pen. Invariably your next fill is going to mix somewhat with the remnants of the previous fill.

 

I have a vintage Sheaffer Balance that I moved from black to brown inks over the course of three filling cycles. The same brown ink was significantly lighter on its second fill. I have an Esterbrook that may be stuck on blue ink forever.

 

 

TRUE. Lever-filler pens are not as easy as modern pens to clean thoroughly, so ErrantSmudge is quite right about thinking carefully about what color range fits the pen (and you!) best, and it will be easier to switch to variations on a color theme, as you develop your color interests and choices.

 

As others have said so often, "good pen hygiene" is critical for all pens, but even more so for vintage ones. I have a Sunday evening ritual of flushing out my vintage pens, and re-inking them for the coming week. It might be a good habit to get into...

[ENewton]

 

 

That Herbin problem was fixed. Other than the Anniversary Inks, I'd add Herbin inks as great choices.

 

Thank you! How did they fix it without adding fungicide?

[Mech-for-i]

I am not sure if the Pen Mfr's ink advice really hold true. After all these ink are meant to be used in their pens ( current models ) not for a vintage lever filler. I would suggest going for J.Herbin's norminal fountain pen ink range. They had known to be PH neutral, and safe for almost all kind of pens. I live in sub tropic and I've not having any problem with fungus growing in the ink though ..

[ENewton]

I am not sure if the Pen Mfr's ink advice really hold true. After all these ink are meant to be used in their pens ( current models ) not for a vintage lever filler. I would suggest going for J.Herbin's norminal fountain pen ink range. They had known to be PH neutral, and safe for almost all kind of pens. I live in sub tropic and I've not having any problem with fungus growing in the ink though ..

 

Some of the J Herbin inks are pH neutral or close, but a few are quite far off, according to this list on Richard Binder's website:

 

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/care/ink_ph.htm

 

Then again, when our vintage pens were new, people used inks that weren't pH neutral.

[Moonshae]

Wow, this is a lot of information indicating more research. I think I will leave it uninked until I have settled on a color family.

 

Thanks for all the great advice!

[Joe in Seattle]

Herbin or Waterman are very mild and rinse out readily. Nice colors, too.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Baystate is the only ink I don't run in my vintage pens. I do run Noodler's, Pelikan, Pilot, Private Reserve and J. Herbin in any pen I own, new or vintage.

 

My 2 cents.

[inkstainedruth]

I've had discussions with Ron Zorn about the use of red/purple/brown inks in any pen that used a sac. He told me that that family of inks in general tend to have a dye component that will cause sacs to fail somewhat prematurely. OTOH, I've used various pink and purple inks in a 1941 Laidtone Duofold button filler (most recently vintage Quink Permanent Violet).

Like Fuzzy_Bear, I don't use BSB in any vintage pens, because I'm not sure I can get them cleaned out sufficiently well to not have bad interactions with the other ink(s). But I've used Noodler's Purple Heart in one of my Parker 51s. I don't have too many lever fillers that are currently working, but I've used vintage Skrip Peacock in an Eversharp Symphony without first checking to see if the sac was even still good, and both Diamine and Robert Oster inks in a Morrison ringtop (the main problem I have with that pen, is that it's so small that I need to be filling from a bottle or vial that's really full, and/or has a very wide opening.

OTOH, the Red Shadow Wave Vac has had a steady diet of nothing but Waterman Mysterious Blue since I bought it. And that pen has not been flushed out since I bought it, over a year and a half ago; just refilled as needed (okay, it's not a lever filler, but it is a celluloid barrel -- and the Shadow Waves were apparently considered lower-grade pens by Parker, according to the Vacumatic article on Tony Fischier's website).

So, the answer -- from my point of view anyway -- is YMMV.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ac12]

I would avoid heavily saturated inks, for the reason that the extra dye load may start to stick to the side of the sac, like cholesterol. And that coating of ink dye becomes harder to flush out, making regular cleaning more important, to control that build up of ink dye inside the pen.

 

Unfortunately this drives you to more watery inks, which are generally lighter in color, but there are exceptions.

 

This is one reason that I used Parker black ink in college, as the Parker blue ink looked too washed out, on the paper that I used in college. Even then the Parker Quink black was more of a dark grey than a BLACK. But it was still miles darker than the Parker blue, which looked faded and washed out, on the paper that I used.

 

This can be countered to some degree by the pen and paper.

• My normal writing paper will absorb the ink, so as the ink dries, the ink (and the dye) is sucked down into the paper, leaving less dye on top of the paper for my eyes to see. The ink line looks nice when it is wet, but as it dries (and is absorbed into the paper), the ink line get lighter and lighter. Using a harder paper, like Rhodia, will not absorb the ink as much, so more of the dye stays on top of the paper, where your eye can see it.

• A pen that writes wet, will put down more ink, and thus more dye, onto the paper.

There is an optical illusion that happens with EF nibs. Because the ink line is so narrow, your eye sees more white paper than ink, so the ink "looks" lighter than it really is. My solution has been to use a DARKER ink in the EF nib pens, to increase the contrast with the paper. This was part of my problem in college, I used a US Parker F nib, which is similar to a Lamy Safari EF nib. The light blue ink looked even lighter out of the narrow F nib. So, you would want to use a wider nib to prevent this optical illusion from happening with lighter inks.

 

How an ink will look out of YOUR pen on YOUR paper, only YOU can determine by testing.

Example1, Sheaffer turquoise looks very different out of my pens, a nice mono-tone turquoise out of most of my pens, but a deep teal with shading out of my Esterbrook.

Example2, Waterman green is a decent mid-tone blueish green, but out of my Sheaffer desk pen it is a nice DARK green. And I could not get that same DARK green color out of any other pen.

 

Anything you see online is an example of pen A on paper B, which may or may not match your pen and and your paper. All it will do is give you an approximation of the color to expect.

 

So back to your question, what do I use in my vintage (older than me) pens? In alpha order:

• Parker: black
• Pelikan: green, dark green, turquoise, black, blue-black
• Sheaffer: black, blue-black, turquoise
• Waterman: green, black

The ink that I use to test pens that I repair, is Sheaffer blue. A nice color but not dark enough for me to use on MY paper.

 

 

gud luk

Edited April 11, 2017 by ac12