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Why doesn't Parker offer more ink colors in it's assortment ?


Patrick L

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Three or four colors , and that's it. The ink assortment colors offered by Parker is quite frustrating , Even Aurora now boasts a 10 colors ink range. I hope that Parker will look into this .

 

Regards

Patrick

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Hi Patrick, 

 

You're quite correct.  Quink used to be available in more colors - turquoise, red and green come to mind immediately, but there was probably even more.

 

Unfortunately, Parker has been sold so many times in the past 25 years or so, their like a bag of chips at a campfire - with each successive transfer resulting in the deletion of inks, models, nibs, etc.

 

It seems the current owner; Newell-Rubbermaid has shifted ink production over to Waterman to cut costs. Be grateful you can still get Quink's best - Permanent Blue and Blue-Black. 

 

- Sean  :)

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Patrick L said:

I hope that Parker will look into this .

 

It did, with the Parker Penman line of inks. Obviously that didn't work out for Parker so well financially to keep producing and selling those, notwithstanding the cult status Parker Penman Sapphire has since attained.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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18 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

It did, with the Parker Penman line of inks. Obviously that didn't work out for Parker so well financially to keep producing and selling those, notwithstanding the cult status Parker Penman Sapphire has since attained.

 

Hi SmugDill,

 

The Penman series was a unique line of inks introduced in 1994, that were situated over and above their standard line; i.e., Quink inks. 

 

Penman inks proved problematic because of their heavy dye saturation, (among other things), and were clogging pens... and were taken off the market in 1999.

 

What is a pity is they also dropped most of their standard line of Quink inks as well; which had a long history of reliable service. 

 

- Sean  :)

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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Just now, jchch1950 said:

Penman had a very nice brown ink.It was my every day ink and never had a problem using it.

 

Hi Jchch,

 

Yes, I remember, it was called Mocha. I never had any clogging problems from the Sapphire, either, but evidently, we must have been in the minority. 

 

- Sean  :)

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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I suspect that a lot of it had to do with marketing (the bane of my existence).  After all, the current owners, Newell-Rubbermaid, is a conglomerate -- and Parker is just a small part of their portfolio.  

Fountain pens are a niche market, like it or not.  And the bean counters at N-R probably go "Why should we pay manufacturing costs for something a very few people are going to buy?"  [Look at how long it took to get the "new"/reissued 51s onto their website, even though there has been buzz around here on FPN for a couple of months, I think....]

I have a number of bottles of vintage Quink (mostly WWII era, because the bottles are very similar to the ones for Quink Microfilm Black).  Didn't really like the Green (not sure if it's Washable or Permanent), but have both Washable and Permanent Violet, Washable and Permanent Royal Blue and Blue-Black, and Washable Brown (plus one unlabeled bottle that may be either Brown or Red which I got early on which has a bunch of grit in it but was an interesting color).  

Modern Quink?  I have Black.  I tried Washable Blue and it was insipid (made Lamy Blue look positively vibrant in comparison, which tells you something :o) and not particularly UV resistant; you can't get Permanent Blue -- even in cartridges -- in the US any more (and for several years before I found my way here, Permanent Blue cartridges were the ONLY ink I used.  I didn't even KNOW you could get other colors besides Blue, Black and Blue-Black for ANY brand) -- because that was the general market (ironically, 5-packs of Quink Permanent Blue cartridges were one of the few things less expensive at Office Max than Staples; and Office Depot -- before merging with Office Max -- didn't seem to mostly carry fountain pens or ink at ALL).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Ruth, you can get Quink Permanent Blue at a great price from Endless Pens.

 

I used to have to import it from a drug store in London and a stationier in Japan.  Fortunately, I no longer have to.

 

- Sean  :)

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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I tried ordering Quink Permanent Blue from a couple of eBay sellers in the UK a few years ago and was told by them that they were not allowed to export it.  Not sure of the reason, but I think it was the same issue as to why you can't get the old formula Pelikan Blue-Black (some ingredient was not allowed to be imported to the US for being a carcinogen or something).

But truthfully, at this point I've found way more interesting blues, so I no longer really miss it.  I do haves several bottles of vintage Royal Blue and at least one of Blue Black.  And even after giving some away, I have enough vintage Permanent Violet to last me a lifetime and then some -- a few years ago I bought a full 8 oz. bottle of of the stuff on the Bay of Evil; the seller said "it's museum quality" and I said "It's purple, and it ends up being roughly $6.50 an ounce!" 

Okay, I didn't think at the time that I would have to ALSO factor in the cost of smaller bottles to decant it into, because it didn't come with the nozzle you needed to pour with once you got the rather small cap off the rubber stopper (which had a cotton wick attached to the stopper down into the ink).... :blush:

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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11 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I tried ordering Quink Permanent Blue from a couple of eBay sellers in the UK a few years ago and was told by them that they were not allowed to export it.  Not sure of the reason, but I think it was the same issue as to why you can't get the old formula Pelikan Blue-Black (some ingredient was not allowed to be imported to the US for being a carcinogen or something).

 

That's odd, Ruth. I never had any trouble getting the stuff; I just selected those two particular places because they had the best prices. :)

 

 

11 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

But truthfully, at this point I've found way more interesting blues, so I no longer really miss it.  I do haves several bottles of vintage Royal Blue and at least one of Blue Black.

 

Well, I have a soft spot for the color, so I'll always make sure I have a few bottles on hand. There probably are "nicer" blues out there, but not for me. :D

 

 

11 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

And even after giving some away, I have enough vintage Permanent Violet to last me a lifetime and then some -- a few years ago I bought a full 8 oz. bottle of of the stuff on the Bay of Evil; the seller said "it's museum quality" and I said "It's purple, and it ends up being roughly $6.50 an ounce!" 

Okay, I didn't think at the time that I would have to ALSO factor in the cost of smaller bottles to decant it into, because it didn't come with the nozzle you needed to pour with once you got the rather small cap off the rubber stopper (which had a cotton wick attached to the stopper down into the ink).... :blush:

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

 

Permanent Violet is one I've never encountered, but it sounds interesting. Is it a red violet or blue violet?

 

- Sean  :)

 

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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I'd say it's lavender -- very slightly blue leaning, compared to more saturated inks like Noodler's North African violet).  But I don't think it's a real blue violet (more middle of the spectrum, just not too dark and vibrant).  

Part of the reason I was willing to go back to the place I saw that click window Parker Jotter was to trade for a bottle of the Washable Violet that JotterAddict62 picked up at an estate auction near him -- I wanted to compare it to what I had to see the differences between "Permanent" and "Washable" Violet (which seems to be a little softer and maybe a tiny bit bluer, but still more "purple" than "blue violet").

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I still have a two thirds full bottle of Parker permanent turquoise ink containing Solv X  from about 1973.

 

When was Solv X discontinued?

 

The turquoise colour matched the printing on our wedding invitations for hand written place cards in the day when these things mattered.

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5 hours ago, vicpen123 said:

I still have a two thirds full bottle of Parker permanent turquoise ink containing Solv X  from about 1973.

 

When was Solv X discontinued?

 

The turquoise colour matched the printing on our wedding invitations for hand written place cards in the day when these things mattered.

Solv- X was discontinued late 1990' years...I think.

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On 2/19/2021 at 6:48 PM, inkstainedruth said:

I'd say it's lavender -- very slightly blue leaning, compared to more saturated inks like Noodler's North African violet).  But I don't think it's a real blue violet (more middle of the spectrum, just not too dark and vibrant).  

Part of the reason I was willing to go back to the place I saw that click window Parker Jotter was to trade for a bottle of the Washable Violet that JotterAddict62 picked up at an estate auction near him -- I wanted to compare it to what I had to see the differences between "Permanent" and "Washable" Violet (which seems to be a little softer and maybe a tiny bit bluer, but still more "purple" than "blue violet").

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Thanks for the info, Ruth.  :)

 

- Sean  :)

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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11 hours ago, vicpen123 said:

I still have a two thirds full bottle of Parker permanent turquoise ink containing Solv X  from about 1973.

 

When was Solv X discontinued?

 

The turquoise colour matched the printing on our wedding invitations for hand written place cards in the day when these things mattered.

 

Hi Vic,

 

Solv-X was introduced in 1942 and heavily advertised as a "life extender" for pens during the wartime materials shortages and rationing making the purchase of new pens near impossible. 

 

Solv-X was phased out in stages, (in response to the ever changing industrial health code regulations in varying regions), beginning in the middle 1990s in Western Europe and finally ending completely in 2002, IIRC. (Quink was made in several countries; Parker had outsourced ink production through the years).

 

- Sean  :)

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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  • 7 months later...

I have to say that Parker's reticence to offer Quink inks in more colours surprises me a little.  The reason that I say that is that, in Australia at least, Parker Quink is the only bottled ink sold in the most dominant stationery chain.  In Australia, Parker Quink is an established brand for the every day fountain pen user (i.e. people who are not fountain pen fans that read this forum for advice on which ink to buy).  In fact, Parker Quink is all I bought for several decades, until I got sick of writing exclusively with black, blue or blue-black ink.  Assuming that the Australian market is reflective of the international market (and I am guessing here), the only reason that I can think of for Parker not expanding on the Quink colour range is that it would not be able to extend the prices for their main lines to other colours, which would be sold at lower volumes.  Consumers might not appreciate the price difference between standard black or blue ink and some lower volume exotic colour.  

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Yes, I have bottles of vintage Quink in Permanent Royal Blue, Washable or Permanent Blue-Black, Microfilm Black, Permanent Brown, possibly Washable Brown, Permanent Violet (and thanks to the trade with jotteraddict 62 a year or two back, Washable Violet), and (possibly Permanent) Green -- although I dislike that one immensely, it's not a shade of green I like).  I also have a bottle of semi(?) vintage Washable Blue, but haven't used it much.

Plus, I've seen vintage Red (don't know if it was Washable or Permanent) in an antiques store in (IIRC) Steubenville, Ohio a couple of years ago, but didn't buy it).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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