Buying First Bottled Ink(S): What's Good On Cheap Paper?

[tvradio]

I'm new to fountain pens and I

 

• am about to order a converter for my Preppy, which is running low on ink
• am receiving a Pilot Metropolitan in the mail this week.
• use a lot of Post-It notes and cheap paper

 

I bought a box of Pilot Blue-Black cartridges for the Metro but I'm interested in starting out in the world of bottled inks, especially when the Preppy runs dry. My pens are (Japanese) F & M and don't lay down too much ink on the page.

 

The Preppy and my disposable Varsity are surprisingly well-behaved on Post-It notes and cheap Mead notebooks; I suppose they were specifically formulated for that for the mass market. (Not that I'm crazy about the colors - the bland medium-blue in the Preppy is not something I'd pay for on its own.)

 

So, if I want to branch out and buy my first bottled inks - black, blue, red, green-black - are there specific brands or formulations that are known to work well on garbage paper without massive wooliness/feathering/spread? And since I'm a lefty, faster-drying inks are a plus (though I suppose with Japanese F/M even slow-drying inks wouldn't be a huge problem).

 

I don't have any set brand* or color preferences at this time, however in reds I do like the looks of Diamine Red Dragon and Parker Quink.

 

Suggestions?

 

(* Not interested in spending money on Noodler's, please. A discussion for another time, perhaps.)

Edited December 26, 2017 by tvradio

[lectraplayer]

I've used Noodler's Baystate Blue, and it works decently given what it is known for, but I think Lamy Blue would be a go-to blue. Noodler's Heart of Darkness is a good black IME. I also use Rocher and Lounger Salix as a blue/black, but it's an iron gall so use at your own risk. (Iron galls require more maintenance)

 

Beyond that, I suggest hitting Goulet Pens and loading up on samples. At about 2mL a hit, you can get a good taste of the ink before you commit to the bottle, and they have a button right on the site you can hit to get to an actual human who is there to help you out.

 

I would also suggest getting a sirynge and using the Surprise Me ink sample while you're there.

Edited December 26, 2017 by lectraplayer

[Sailor Kenshin]

As noted, samples are your friend. Pilot inks are a good bet; also the Sailor Jentle line: Blue, Souten, OkuYama (a burgundy hue). Sailor Rikyu Cha is a green-brown so dark it's almost black.

 

Some Diamine inks will do well on cheap paper. Samples again, plus read some reviews. Good luck!

[chromantic]

Sheaffer Skrip inks do very well on cheap paper. Their red is a go-to for many people and the turquoise is one of my favorite inks.

[tvradio]

Sheaffer Skrip inks do very well on cheap paper. Their red is a go-to for many people and the turquoise is one of my favorite inks.

Nice. I've been binging on some of the (hundreds of?) Youtube ink reviews by VittaR, and her Skrip ink reviews are in my queue.

For now I'm focused on easy-peasy inks that aren't a pain to clean or be so thick as to be a pain to use, and I'll eventually move on from those as a base.

[tvradio]

As noted, samples are your friend. Pilot inks are a good bet; also the Sailor Jentle line: Blue, Souten, OkuYama (a burgundy hue). Sailor Rikyu Cha is a green-brown so dark it's almost black.

 

Some Diamine inks will do well on cheap paper. Samples again, plus read some reviews. Good luck!

Thanks. Just looking to stat with some easy to clean inks that work on inexpensive paper. After I get my sea legs I'll look into a better pen (or two) that I can put more adventurous inks into and use with my own paper.

[ENewton]

Rohrer & Klingner Verdigris is a beautiful dark green that can appear black on some papers.

 

Right now I am happily using Sailor Shigure in a Pilot fine point on cheap paper. However, you might not care for the color, which is in the very dark indigo range.

[Runnin_Ute]

I use anything from cheap composition books (I prefer Made in Brazil ones if I can find them) to Red N Black, Leuchtturm 1917, Rhodia and Tomoe River papers.

 

Most of the inks, I use don't feather to badly even on the worst papers I use. From Diamine: Blue Black, Classic Red, Sherwood Green, Merlot, Saddle Brown, Ancient Copper among others.

I would imagine neither of your pens are particularly wet, so many inks will work well.

[Ghost Plane]

Montblanc, Waterman, and the R&K mentioned above.

[dcwaites]

You've already tried the Pilot Blue-Black. They also make Blue, Black and Red.

There is also the Pelikan 4001 inks, which are similar in behaviour to the above mentioned Sheaffer Skrip.

[TinyHound]

Sailor inks are really well behaved in general. Try Kiwa-guro, a black permanent ink. It is a wet writing ink and lubricates even the finest of nibs. This ink is so well behaved no matter what paper/pen combo you use.

Sei-boku is a nice permanent blue which is also good on cheap paper.

 

Pilot iroshizuku also has good quality inks with a wide variety of colors.

These 2 brands are on the expensiv

[tvradio]

You've already tried the Pilot Blue-Black. They also make Blue, Black and Red.

There is also the Pelikan 4001 inks, which are similar in behaviour to the above mentioned Sheaffer Skrip.

Cool. Actually, I bought a box of the Pilot Blue-Black, but the Metropolitan got delayed a week and is now supposed to arrive tomorrow. But I'm looking forward to trying it!

 

As for the Skrips, I'm interested. I got to watch VittaR's reviews of Skrip inks (separate reviews, on multiple papers, with included chromatography and comparisons to other, similar brand inks), with individual reviews for Red, Black, Green, Purple, Blue-Black. Her favorite was the red, which she called her go-to "red red" ink. Qt $12 for 50ml it's certainly worth a go. But I am still narrowing down choices for blue, black and green-black.

 

I think I like the look of Visconti Blue, but it's such an intense, saturated color I assume it would be hard to clean out.

 

As for black, I really don't have a handle yet on the best options (for me).

[tvradio]

Sailor inks are really well behaved in general. Try Kiwa-guro, a black permanent ink. It is a wet writing ink and lubricates even the finest of nibs. This ink is so well behaved no matter what paper/pen combo you use.

Sei-boku is a nice permanent blue which is also good on cheap paper.

 

Pilot iroshizuku also has good quality inks with a wide variety of colors.

These 2 brands are on the expensiv

For the time being I'm not too focused on expense, but my thought is that I might want to start out with inks that aren't so permanent, aren't particularly water-resistant - if only to make it easier to learn to clean my pens.

 

And also in the beginning to protect me from myself in case of leaks/spills.

[tvradio]

Montblanc, Waterman, and the R&K mentioned above.

Am writing it all down.

[tvradio]

I use anything from cheap composition books (I prefer Made in Brazil ones if I can find them) to Red N Black, Leuchtturm 1917, Rhodia and Tomoe River papers.

 

Most of the inks, I use don't feather to badly even on the worst papers I use. From Diamine: Blue Black, Classic Red, Sherwood Green, Merlot, Saddle Brown, Ancient Copper among others.

I would imagine neither of your pens are particularly wet, so many inks will work well.

Super! I'm writing it down, and doing more research tonight. Right now one of my favorite gel inks is a Uni Ball Signo brown-black that only comes in 0.5 and smaller, and I keep thinking it would be nice to get that color in a thicker ink!

[tvradio]

Right now I am happily using Sailor Shigure in a Pilot fine point on cheap paper. However, you might not care for the color, which is in the very dark indigo range.

I'm still trying to figure out what I like - and what would behave well for me (fast-drying because I'm a lefty, easy to clean, etc).

 

Also, there are lots of colors I see where I think, "That's gorgeous!" but then I see a page of text in that ink and I realize that it would probably drive me absolutely nuts.

[welch]

I'm new to fountain pens and I

 

• am about to order a converter for my Preppy, which is running low on ink
• am receiving a Pilot Metropolitan in the mail this week.
• use a lot of Post-It notes and cheap paper

 

I bought a box of Pilot Blue-Black cartridges for the Metro but I'm interested in starting out in the world of bottled inks, especially when the Preppy runs dry. My pens are (Japanese) F & M and don't lay down too much ink on the page.

 

The Preppy and my disposable Varsity are surprisingly well-behaved on Post-It notes and cheap Mead notebooks; I suppose they were specifically formulated for that for the mass market. (Not that I'm crazy about the colors - the bland medium-blue in the Preppy is not something I'd pay for on its own.)

 

So, if I want to branch out and buy my first bottled inks - black, blue, red, green-black - are there specific brands or formulations that are known to work well on garbage paper without massive wooliness/feathering/spread? And since I'm a lefty, faster-drying inks are a plus (though I suppose with Japanese F/M even slow-drying inks wouldn't be a huge problem).

 

I don't have any set brand* or color preferences at this time, however in reds I do like the looks of Diamine Red Dragon and Parker Quink.

 

Suggestions?

 

(* Not interested in spending money on Noodler's, please. A discussion for another time, perhaps.)

 

If you like Pilot cartridges, try their bottled ink. It's the same blue, black, and blue-black. Their Iroshizuku is a different ink, the first luxury ink, as best I remember. The Iroshizuku inks I've used are wet, which might not work on cheap paper.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Super! I'm writing it down, and doing more research tonight. Right now one of my favorite gel inks is a Uni Ball Signo brown-black that only comes in 0.5 and smaller, and I keep thinking it would be nice to get that color in a thicker ink!

I'm thinking either Sailor Jentle Doyou, or De Atramentis Brown-Black (or is it Black-Brown?), which I have in a pen right now.

[aeba]

For the time being I'm not too focused on expense, but my thought is that I might want to start out with inks that aren't so permanent, aren't particularly water-resistant - if only to make it easier to learn to clean my pens.

 

And also in the beginning to protect me from myself in case of leaks/spills.

Despite that, I would second the Sailor Kiwa-guro. Yes, it is harder to flush than (many) other inks. Yeees, if you get it on your clothes, that... could be a problem.

 

But unless you are writing with literal firehose, and / or toilet paper, it is unlikely to feather or bleed through. I just tried it on ACME™ (Okay, "Centrum") generic Post-it's with a dipped glass pen -> no problems.

[Arkanabar]

Start with samples. Any sample ought to be able to refill a Pilot or Platinum cartridge at least a couple of times, using a disposable pipette (Goulet sells them in lots of ten; Anderson at $0.25 each). It helps to completely remove the sealing disk from the Pilot cartridge before trying to refill it. I have used the same cartridge in my 3.8mm Pilot Parallel for several years now, including a period where I was filling it more than once a week to put medical record numbers on new files, for a year or so.

Black: Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black. I'm not going to recommend original Noodler's Black, cos it tends to be smudgy if you don't dilute it. If you want a bulletproof black, Heart of Darkness is your best bet. IMX, HoD is easy-peasy. Alas, none of my five blacks are either of these.

Blue: Pilot Blue-Black. It's actually a middlin-to-dark blue, and quite possibly the greatest workhorse ink ever made. See Sandy1's exhaustive review. Recent test have demonstrated good water and fade resistance.

Second choice: Waterman Serenity Blue. It's at least just above average in just about every respect, but especially in safety, reliability, and behavior.

Red: Sheaffer Skrip Red in the squat, Slovenian cone-shaped bottles. It's a really neutral red, with good fade resistance. Again, a middle-of-the-road, well-behaved ink.

Green: Diamine Sherwood. Everyone who tries it loves it. J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage is probably a decent alternative.

To round out the Six Essentials:

Brown: Diamine Chocolate. I would be delighted to buy only this brown, going forward.

Purple: Haven't gotten a sample (yet; I should soon) but I really like the sort of bright, dense purple you get in Noodler's Purple, and it's probably one of the more fade-resistant members of the purple family. This is my only recommendation that I wouldn't consider easy-peasy.

Blue-Black: You're on your own. If I ever decide it's time I had blue-black ink, I'll probably adulterate either Iro Ku-Jaku, my bottle of "I Can't Believe It's Waterman Florida Blue!", or Sheaffer Skrip Turquoise, or Noodler's Midway Blue with dilute Noodler's Borealis Black, to see what I can get that I like.