Super5 Waterproof Ink From Massdrop

[tonybelding]

This morning's mail brought the first thing that I have ever bought through Massdrop. The package I got includes three colors: Atlantic (blue), Dublin (green) and Australia (red). So far I've just been trying out the Atlantic in my TWSBI Vac 700. It's a dull color; I can hardly decide if it's gray-blue or more of blue-gray. I knew when I ordered these that they were dull colors, and I'm fine with that. My taste has gravitated toward subdued colors recently.

 

Label reads: Made in Germany by Rohrer & Klingner Leipzig-Co. Shake well before use! To prevent dry residues drain the writing instrument after use and rinse several times with water.

 

Hmm, not sure I've ever got a bottle of fountain pen ink before with such explicit warnings. It does make me wonder why more ink makers haven't gotten into cellulose-reactive dyes, since Noodler's Ink has demonstrated how well they can work. When it comes to waterproof ink, Noodler's is the king and all the rest are the peasants.

 

Anyhow, this Super5 ink is indeed waterproof (as indicated by a quick dunk), and it feels smooth on the page. Maybe I should give credit to the TWSBI or the Rhodia pad, but the ink is behaving Just Fine so far.

[lapis]

Well, I have all 6 of these and they all work fine. You hit the nail on the head and I too wondered what the heck... is it going to wreck my pen? So I started off in my el cheapos and voilà. I do wash them (the pens) as usual and until today, no problem. But they certainly are -- as stated on the label -- "water resistant" and/or "indelible".

[lgsoltek]

I believe the Super5 inks are pigmented inks, hence the warnings. They even smell the same as R&Ks pigmented drawing and calligraphy inks.

[TheRealScubaSteve]

I can only speak to Atlantic Blue, but with my experience they will not ruin your pens even with neglect. I've kept a TWSBI inked with blue for many, many months without cleaning. The worst that has happend is a super concentrated sheen on the feed and a bit of hard-starting until the feed buildup is dissolved again.

 

It's certainly not slick and lubriated, but it is a great middle of the road ink.

[tonybelding]

After sitting idle in my TWSBI Vac 700 for a day, I could see where a residue was beginning to settle on one side of the reservoir, but I just shook it a bit, and it didn't seem to be a problem.

 

I suspect the traditional "safe" inks were designed back in the heyday of fountain pens, when everybody used them, nobody obsessed over them, and many people would use the same ink for months or years at a time without ever thinking of flushing or cleaning the pen. That's a stark contrast with how most of us on FPN treat our fountain pens, and we can happily use high-maintenance inks that would never have been viable in that environment, back in the Good Old Days.

[lapis]

Food for thought, Tony. Absolutely! I too remember the good ol' days when we all wrote with fountain pens in school. Nobody ever washed/rinsed/cleaned their pens. My granddad didn't either. And I'd say that all (or at least a lot) of today's inks are "safer" than they were in those days.