Your Most Trusted Brand Of Ink

[tinta]

After trying many brands of ink, I keep returning to Platinum's blue/black. With a little extra pen hygiene, this mildly ferrogallic ink is safe in all my pens.

[tonybelding]

Being a big fan of Sailor, I must admit I quite trust Graf von Faber-Castell inks.

Is there some connection between Sailor and Graf von Faber-Castell?

 

I've got one GvFC ink, Moss Green. I love the color, but it is quite saturated. I've been sort of gravitating towards less intense and (supposedly) lower-maintenance inks.

[aurore]

Is there some connection between Sailor and Graf von Faber-Castell?

 

I've got one GvFC ink, Moss Green. I love the color, but it is quite saturated. I've been sort of gravitating towards less intense and (supposedly) lower-maintenance inks.

 

No connection at all. Most of my Sailor/Nagasawa inks are super saturated thick inks. GvFC while saturated and having some water resistance are not as thick. Flushing GvFC inks is somewhat easier in my experience.

[The Good Captain]

After trying many brands of ink, I keep returning to Platinum's blue/black. With a little extra pen hygiene, this mildly ferrogallic ink is safe in all my pens.

It's a great ink.

[The Good Captain]

In retrospect, overall it's probably Diamine but I do use a lot of Pelikan 4001.

[bob_hayden]

Most trusted? Sheaffer USA, though that is probably a wasted vote because they have been out of production for decades. But I have been using them for 60 years without issues. I know they do not change color sitting on the shelf. We just don't know with a recent brand. The old Sheaffer ink shows up from time to time on eBay. Make sure you get ink and not just a bottle;-) Ask the seller to make sure the lid is on tight before shipping. The gasket under the lid does not hold up as well as the ink and you may need to replace it or move the ink to a modern bottle.

 

I have tons of other brands because I like the colors or they come in cartridges to fit my other pens, but Sheaffer has a long and very successful track record for reliability and freedom from annoyances.

[ljmudit]

Pilot standard inks. They are not only economical but also very water resistant. They are just like Waterman Serenity Blue, bringing alive hibernating/sick fountain pens!

[SaintPat]

Caran D'Ache or Pelikan both have the bright, bold colors that I like to use.

[kazoolaw]

Vintage Watermans with a whiff of phenol.

[indyshaq]

Iroshizuku

Montblanc

Herbin

[Flaxmoore]

Mine would be the big makers- Diamine, Pilot, Sheaffer, Parker.

 

If you said one, I say Pilot or Diamine. Coin flip.

[Colourfingers]

Parker Quink.

[Flaxmoore]

Parker Quink.

Especially the washable blue. It's one of my workhorse inks since it's so easy to wash out spills. Prescriptions get bulletproof inks, but most of my notes get Quink.

[Southerngent]

I'm fairly new here, and just getting back into fountain pens after a long dormancy. I have learned so much here already, especially about inks and the companies that make them. I had no idea that "boutique" inks and colors have sort of taken over since the early days of simply choosing between Parker Quink and Sheaffer blue!

 

I have a question: how does one know the acidity/alkaline levels of various inks? I read recently on one of the major fine pen manufacturer's materials that they recommend a PH level of 4.5 to 6.5 for their pens and said that inks above 6.5 are too alkaline and will eventually damage the metal and other parts of fine pens. Do any of the experts on FPN know which inks should be avoided because of their chemistry? I've started adding to my collection of pens and inks and sure don't want to ruin any of my pens. Thanks!

Edited January 15, 2020 by Southerngent

[ian1964]

Waterman

[tinta]

I'm fairly new here, and just getting back into fountain pens after a long dormancy. I have learned so much here already, especially about inks and the companies that make them. I had no idea that "boutique" inks and colors have sort of taken over since the early days of simply choosing between Parker Quink and Sheaffer blue!

 

I have a question: how does one know the acidity/alkaline levels of various inks? I read recently on one of the major fine pen manufacturer's materials that they recommend a PH level of 4.5 to 6.5 for their pens and said that inks above 6.5 are too alkaline and will eventually damage the metal and other parts of fine pens. Do any of the experts on FPN know which inks should be avoided because of their chemistry? I've started adding to my collection of pens and inks and sure don't want to ruin any of my pens. Thanks!

Probably your best bet is to lurk on the "ink review/ink comparison" sites on FPN. Some of the ink enthusiasts there may be chemists & may have tested various inks for their Ph level. I believe I have seen such evaluations during the decade that I've been on FPN.

 

Iron-gall inks that are formulated for fountain pens are acidic & have to be used with some caution.

That said, some of my favourite & most used inks are ferrogallic-- Akkerman #10, R&K Salix & Scabiosa, Platinum Classic inks: Blue/black, Platinum Cassis/black & Platinum Lavender/black.

If you never let iron-gall dry out in your pen & thoroughly flush it out when it's empty, there should not be any problems with this class of ink. (A gold nib is also helpful.)

[sansenri]

" Waterman: cant live without serenity blue"

 

me neither

[A Smug Dill]

I have a question: how does one know the acidity/alkaline levels of various inks?_...‹snip›... I've started adding to my collection of pens and inks and sure don't want to ruin any of my pens. Thanks!

 

I bought myself a pH meter — shipped from the US and incurring the objectively excessive fees of eBay's Global Shipping Programme — because I, too, thought I wanted to know. It sounded like a good idea at the time, when I wasn't actually able to write with my pens.

 

I never even took the thing out of the box in the ten or so months since it arrived.

 

If your primary concern, of the highest priority, is to protect your pens and you make it one of your policies not to ever put an ink that meets certain criteria (e.g. does not contain insoluble particles, pH is within a particular range), the just-in-time and most reliable approach is to inspect and test the bottle you have on hand. It doesn't matter what the pH of my bottle of Noodler's Air Corp Blue Black (for example) is; it's your bottle from which you would prospectively fill one or more of your pens that count. If you open your bottle of Monteverde ink and you detect a foul odour or some visible SITB, then it's irrelevant what any other user's (or even expert's) experience or knowledge of that particular ink is. You get it replaced, or just throw it away, and never let that ink get anywhere into or near your pens.

 

There's a cost in consumables, as well as testing effort to be expended, if you want to know:

• the pH value — whether you're using a pH meter (which requires reference solutions to calibrate the device from time to time, and cleaning the device after each test, and of course some small volume taken from your bottle of ink for testing) or pH indicator paper strips
• if an ink would stain a particular material that will avoidably come into contact with the ink when you use it in a pen — the only way to know with a high level of confidence is to get a 'spare' piece of that material that you're prepared to sacrifice, and let it sit (submerged or floating) in a vial containing the ink in question, then check it in a number of days and weeks
• if an ink would corrode a nib, ink sac, or any other component — same as above, and I've seen examples (of published results) online where someone has kept different 'spare' nibs in vials of iron-gall inks, replacement sacs in alkaline inks, etc. for a while just to discover that information

and so on.

 

This is still true whether you've done your due diligence by perusing published information, before committing to the selection and purchase of particular inks on the market. That may save you money as a consumer and (testing) effort as a user, but it is neither necessary nor sufficient for protecting your pens from harm as an owner.

 

On the other hand, if not buying what could be damaging — or what is prone to damage — in the first place because not "wasting" money is more important than getting the pens (and ink colours) you want and then try to play it safe with what you got, then it's easier to just avoid piston-fillers and eye-droppered pens (of which the barrel serves as the ink reservoir, and thus its inner wall will be continually in contact with ink over long periods), pens that use sacs (because a sac that is "eaten" through could possibly be replaced, but the damage or staining from ink leaked into the barrel may be irreversible), pens that have steel nibs (which are less resistant to corrosion by acid), pens that have nibs that are plated (including solid gold nibs with ruthenium-plating; the black layer is subject to damage and/or permanent discolouration), pens with wooden barrels not covered with some impervious coating of lacquer or wax (to protect it from accidental staining on the outside), and so on.

[Southerngent]

 

...it's easier to just avoid piston-fillers and eye-droppered pens (of which the barrel serves as the ink reservoir, and thus its inner wall will be continually in contact with ink over long periods), pens that use sacs (because a sac that is "eaten" through could possibly be replaced, but the damage or staining from ink leaked into the barrel may be irreversible), pens that have steel nibs (which are less resistant to corrosion by acid), pens that have nibs that are plated (including solid gold nibs with ruthenium-plating; the black layer is subject to damage and/or permanent discolouration), pens with wooden barrels not covered with some impervious coating of lacquer or wax..

 

Some very thoughtful and helpful advice here! Thanks! I was especially interested in your comments about piston fillers, as I had always thought they were the "sine qua non" of fine pens. But I'm learning that many pen users don't necessarily think so, and that replacing a converter is a LOT easier and less expensive than repairing or replacing a defective filler mechanism. Nonetheless, I wouldn't trade my Montblanc #149 or my Pelikans for anything! But I'm going to stick to the major tried and tested inks like Montblanc, Pelikan, Herbin, Pilot, Diamine, etc. and I figure all will be well. So much to learn!

[tonybelding]

On the other hand, if not buying what could be damaging — or what is prone to damage — in the first place because not "wasting" money is more important than getting the pens (and ink colours) you want and then try to play it safe with what you got, then it's easier to just avoid piston-fillers and eye-droppered pens (of which the barrel serves as the ink reservoir, and thus its inner wall will be continually in contact with ink over long periods), pens that use sacs (because a sac that is "eaten" through could possibly be replaced, but the damage or staining from ink leaked into the barrel may be irreversible), pens that have steel nibs (which are less resistant to corrosion by acid), pens that have nibs that are plated (including solid gold nibs with ruthenium-plating; the black layer is subject to damage and/or permanent discolouration), pens with wooden barrels not covered with some impervious coating of lacquer or wax (to protect it from accidental staining on the outside), and so on.

I'm going to assume this was sarcasm. Well, sure... If you want to be really safe, then avoid using fountain pens! Rollerballs can be pretty nice, and not much can go wrong as long as you keep fresh refills on hand.

 

In a more serious tone, almost all of the things listed are not real problems. It's not a problem for the inner wall of eyedropper or piston-filling pens to be in contact with ink for years at a time. The materials are chosen to withstand exactly that, and I've never heard of any incident that would suggest otherwise. Rubber sacs do fail, but I've never really heard of the other parts of a pen being damaged when that happens. (In my experience, sacs tend to fail while the pen is in storage and either not inked or the ink has already dried out.) Modern stainless steel nibs could in theory corrode, but they're highly resistant, and it's rarely seen in practice.

 

There are some situations where Waterman ink, which is slightly acidic, has caused some damage over time to plating. Even that phenomenon is so uncommon that when asking about "safe" inks here on FPN the first mentioned is often Waterman.

 

So let's talk about real, actual problems...

 

1. Don't let ink dry out in your pens. This is how they get clogged with residue. If they get clogged badly enough, then they might require sonic cleaning. However, a sonic cleaner only costs about $35 and is nice to have around if you fiddle with pens much.

 

2. TWSBIs break. They're made of injection-molded polycarbonate, and they break even if you baby them. I've even seen the feed deteriorate and start coming apart. Using a different ink isn't going to help with this.

 

3. Aluminum pens sometimes corrode. Your choice of ink may contribute to this, but personally I'd just rather not have any more aluminum pens.