Quickest-Flowing Inks?

[by_a_Lady]

I distinctly remember reading in various threads that eg. Iroshizuku and Waterman flow quicker than others - as in, more ml are put out in a given amount of time in comparison to other inks (similar things have been said about Private Reserve Tanzanite, IIRC). The concept of wet vs. dry inks has always been quite clear, but this seems like an extreme instance of that effect, no? What do you think of that statement?

 

 

Dominique

[Olya]

I'm useless at this, as I don't know what causes it (don't think it's lubricant, as Sailor is very lubricated but not famous for being runny), but Pilot inks are often said to be "runny" and designed like this by Pilot for their pens....

You raise a good topic, would love to read what others who know more about inks have to say on this!

[tonybelding]

The absolute wettest inks I've had were all Noodler's, and most of those were the "bulletproof" varieties. (But not Noodler's Black, which is actually leans a little towards the dry side.)

 

I just recently tried Noodler's Texas Navy from Dromgoole's. It's supposed to be an "anti-feather" ink, but it turned out to be possibly the wettest, most gushing, bleeding ink that I've ever used. It can bleed through heavy Rhodia paper, and not many inks can manage that. Should be great for making a fine nib write like broad.

[kronos77]

Aurora Black and Waterman inks are the wettest, fastest flowing inks I have used.

[aurore]

The fastest flowing ink I know i Diamine Midnight, rather than Iro or Waterman.

[welch]

From my experience, the setup of nib and feed matter more for "free flowing", although a few inks seem drier in the same pen. That does not hold across all types of ink from the same maker. That is, Pelikan Royal Blue seems dry, but their Edelstein inks seem in the middle. Iroshizuku Asa-gao is fairly wet, but no more than Diamine Sapphire.

 

I haven't used Noodlers in more than ten years, but the only unusually wet Noodlers -- that I have used -- was Eel Blue. Eel has a nice color, meaning a blue that leans toward purple, which I like, as opposed to Ottoman Assure, which is too green, or Noodlers (plain) Blue, which is a good, bright, non-purple ink.. I got Noodlers Blue Eel for older piston-fillers, since Eel was advertised as lubricating a piston. I had a few Onoto K pens, which were piston-filling hooded pens from the early '50s. Eel was more like Croil, "the oil that crawls": it crawled around the piston on two K's and a Wality 69P, and it leaked around the section of a third Onoto K, one that had not leaked before. That's not a wet ink...it's something else.

 

Want a wetter pen? Find an ink you like and have a nib-specialist tune it however you want. Prices now seem about $35 or $40 for a simple tuning. That's cheaper than trying to find a wet(ter) ink in a color you like.

[Noihvo]

 

[lukeformosa]

For what it's worth, an un-scientific way I've found to guess whether an ink will flow a lot is whether a "soap bubble" forms in the neck of the bottle when you remove the lid. My theory is that surfactants/detergents are added to the ink to make it more "slippery" (i.e. flow better). When you remove the cap on a bottle of dish soap, the soap forms a bubble across the opening of the bottle. Soap is composed of a large concentration of surfactants and detergents. When you open certain ink bottles or samples, you sometimes get the same thing, which according to my theory would imply a higher concentration of flow-enhancing additives than ink that doesn't readily form bubbles.

 

I've observed this effect with Parker Quink Blue, Waterman Florida Blue, and lately a sample of Private Reserve DC Supershow blue. I generally burst the bubble with the nib while poking it to get to the ink. These three inks I mentioned feel very nice to write with - the nib glides across the paper with minimal friction. I personally really love that effect.

[DilettanteG]

Being too lazy to mix inks at the moment, I rinsed some of my dryer piston filler pens with about 1/2 of a cup of filtered water with maybe 1/8 teaspoon glycerine. I filled and emptied them about three times and immediatley filled them with ink. It seemed to improve the flow and smooth the pistons rotation.

 

Ive had good luck with the Noodlers American Eel and the Pilot Iroshizuku inks, but I like a pretty wet and broad flow. Noodlers #41, Heart of Darkness, and Aircorp Blue Black also seem pretty wet.

[senzen]

I've honestly never seen much difference in flow, a couple of inks feel thicker (Verde Muschiato, Équinoxe 6) but they still flow well; the strangest has been Hisoku, which seems to require a little time to find its place in the feed, even when inking anew, but then flows freely. I just see this as yet another test of patience with fountain pens. Wider nibs consume more ink, but that's it.