Fastest drying water resistant inks

[WRBNYC]

I recently took advantage of a bogo deal Fountain Pen Revolution was offering to pick up a pair of Jaipur v2’s, both with ultraflex nibs. I have a few other FPR flex pens with either a #6 nib and plastic feed or #5 nib with ebonite feed and they all work great as daily writers. But the #6 nib + ebonite feed combo is just overkill for my purposes - even with a light touch these things lay down a gushy rivulet of the driest flowing inks in my collection (so far I’ve tried R&K Lilly and KWZ IG Blue-Black). In short, they’re just too messy to work with.

 

I’m thinking of either swapping out the nibs for standard EFs, switching to plastic feeds, and/or sending them out to be ground down to an ultra extra fine for the baseline width. But in the meantime, I’m wondering what folks would say is the fastest drying ink they’ve used that has at least *some* water resistance. 

 

Thanks!

 

(Fwiw I imagine that from the perspective of folks craving the elusive modern flex pen that never railroads, the ink flow performance I’m dealing with here is actually pretty incredible 💁‍♂️) 

Edited December 31, 2021 by WRBNYC
Pluralization consistency 🤷‍♂️

[A Smug Dill]

Try ESS Registrars Ink.

[WRBNYC]

On 12/31/2021 at 1:05 AM, A Smug Dill said:

Try ESS Registrars Ink.

Shipping cost more than the ink 😂 but I’m giving it a shot, thanks!

[agentdaffy007]

Pelikan 4001 Blue Black. Good flow, very good water resistance and fast drying. It's iron-gall.

[Schaumburg_Swan]

7 hours ago, WRBNYC said:

Shipping cost more than the ink 😂 but I’m giving it a shot, thanks!

 

+1 to ESSRI,

it's worth much more than it costs. Even shipped across the atlantic.

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

ESSRI, Diamine Registrar's, Pelikan BB are all good dry iron gall inks. KWZ is not often described as dry, it's actually a fairly wet ink as per the reviews I've read.

[LizEF]

The following all dry faster than average (by which I mean fewer than 6 seconds), and have at least a little water resistance.  Ink name is followed by dry time, in seconds, from my review pen (Pilot steel EF nib) on Rhodia dot pad.  Note that the two that basically dry instantly also like to bleed, spread, and at least fuzz, if not outright feather (BSB being worse at that than DAD Blue).

 

Akkerman #09 Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indigo    4
De Atramentis Document Blue    0
Diamine Registrar's Ink    5
Noodler's Baystate Blue    0
Noodler's Blue Ghost    3
Pilot Namiki Blue (cartridge)    4
Platinum Blue Black (cartridge; IG)    5
Platinum Classic Forest Black    5
Platinum Classic Lavender Black    5

 

Here's the dry times of the inks others have recommended:

ESS Registrars Ink    7
Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black    9

 

[bunnspecial]

56 minutes ago, IlikeInksandIcannotlie said:

ESSRI, Diamine Registrar's, Pelikan BB are all good dry iron gall inks. KWZ is not often described as dry, it's actually a fairly wet ink as per the reviews I've read.

 

Not having compared them directly and only having Diamine registars, is ESSRI at all similar to Diamine or are they distinctly different inks? I was under the impression that both essentially were essentially made to the same UK permanence/record standard...

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

I mean, I haven't tried them, but reviews suggest they're quite similar in terms of dryness. DRI probably goes a little more grey/black than ESSRI in those reviews.

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, bunnspecial said:

Not having compared them directly and only having Diamine registars, is ESSRI at all similar to Diamine or are they distinctly different inks? I was under the impression that both essentially were essentially made to the same UK permanence/record standard...

They are similar, but not identical.

[WRBNYC]

10 hours ago, IlikeInksandIcannotlie said:

ESSRI, Diamine Registrar's, Pelikan BB are all good dry iron gall inks. KWZ is not often described as dry, it's actually a fairly wet ink as per the reviews I've read.

You’re right, KWZ IG Blue Black probably isn’t a dry ink by general standards. But my collection of maybe 20-25 ink bottles consists almost entirely of what I gather are wetter than average inks (mostly Noodlers and surprisingly wet East Asian pigment inks like the Kala gemstone series and Sailor KiwaGuro). So the KWZ, which I recalled making my <ef> Pilot VP feel unusable scratchy, immediately came to mind as a relatively dry ink I had on hand to try getting on with for this firehose nib on my new Jaipur. 

[WRBNYC]

9 hours ago, LizEF said:

The following all dry faster than average (by which I mean fewer than 6 seconds), and have at least a little water resistance.  Ink name is followed by dry time, in seconds, from my review pen (Pilot steel EF nib) on Rhodia dot pad.  Note that the two that basically dry instantly also like to bleed, spread, and at least fuzz, if not outright feather (BSB being worse at that than DAD Blue).

 

Akkerman #09 Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indigo    4
De Atramentis Document Blue    0
Diamine Registrar's Ink    5
Noodler's Baystate Blue    0
Noodler's Blue Ghost    3
Pilot Namiki Blue (cartridge)    4
Platinum Blue Black (cartridge; IG)    5
Platinum Classic Forest Black    5
Platinum Classic Lavender Black    5

 

Here's the dry times of the inks others have recommended:

ESS Registrars Ink    7
Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black    9

 

This is extremely helpful, thanks!
 

I ordered DAD Sepia since I don’t really have any properly brown inks and it seems this series has generally quick try times. Although I did once get a sample of DAD Turquoise and found the spread meant I had to write in goofily large script to avoid lower case e’s and upper case R’s from filling in, if you know what I mean. 
 

It’s too bad I didn’t think to use BSB before since I already have a bottle of that and have been meaning to find a new dedicated pen for it. Unfortunately, I’ve learned the hard way that this ink’s reputation is well founded and would have to really thoroughly flush out one of these pens before filling it with a Bay State ink.

[A Smug Dill]

There is this:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/350781-penbbs-286-幽山向晩-remote-mountain-by-nightfall/

if that degree of water resistance is sufficient.

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, WRBNYC said:

This is extremely helpful, thanks!

You're very welcome!

 

1 hour ago, WRBNYC said:

I ordered DAD Sepia since I don’t really have any properly brown inks and it seems this series has generally quick try times.

Erm.  Maybe I should have mentioned that the other DAD inks I've reviewed have dry times of approximately eternity.

 

1 hour ago, WRBNYC said:

Although I did once get a sample of DAD Turquoise and found the spread meant I had to write in goofily large script to avoid lower case e’s and upper case R’s from filling in, if you know what I mean. 

Yeah, DAD Blue writes a very fat line, though I've heard Turquoise is worse.

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

I was mucking around just now, and discovered that Platinum Carbon Black dries and sets instantly on this paper:

with (as usual) nigh perfect waterproofness. Everything else (that I presently have in pens strewn across the mess on my desk) will smudge if I draw a zig-zaggy squiggle and then rub the pad of my thumb over the ink mark as soon as I finish; but, surprisingly, not Platinum Carbon Black! It comes at a terrible price, though; I've never seen that much feathering and bleed-through from Platinum Carbon Black on other papers, and in my experience this paper is quite fountain pen friendly.

[WRBNYC]

On 1/2/2022 at 8:56 PM, LizEF said:

You're very welcome!

 

Erm.  Maybe I should have mentioned that the other DAD inks I've reviewed have dry times of approximately eternity.

 

Yeah, DAD Blue writes a very fat line, though I've heard Turquoise is worse.

 

 

Ha! Well, that’s on me - next time I’ll dig a little deeper before hitting that order button. Fwiw while the Document Sepia doesn’t have an ideal dry time the flow is less extreme so it’s doing alright for now in one of these pens. Also the spread is much less pronounced than it is with Document Turquoise.

[jmccarty3]

Try Noodler's Churchill Anti-Fascist Blue, sometimes called by its politically correct name, X-Feather Blue.

[WRBNYC]

On 1/2/2022 at 7:15 PM, A Smug Dill said:

There is this:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/350781-penbbs-286-幽山向晩-remote-mountain-by-nightfall/

if that degree of water resistance is sufficient.

This is a beautiful color - I’ll see if I can it for sale. 

[WRBNYC]

5 minutes ago, jmccarty3 said:

Try Noodler's Churchill Anti-Fascist Blue, sometimes called by its politically correct name, X-Feather Blue.

😂

I was under the impression the x-feather inks trade non-feathering for long dry times (i.e. they don’t absorb as aggressively into the fibers of the paper)?
 

(Also, without wanting to derail the thread or violate forum rules, I invite you to look up Churchill’s effusive praise for fascism and Mussolini circa the late 1920s, which was widely reported at the time. I think life is too short to get offended by ink brands but I wouldn’t blame someone for being irked by that. 🤷‍♂️)

[CoolBreeze]

DeAtramentis Document inks - all fo them.