What are your dedicated ink-pen combos?

[ZiggyTsarDust]

Did not see this question posed after a quick search...

What specific ink do you always keep in one specific pen? 
 

Can be a decision that is simply for the looks, feel, or function.
I keep my charcoal Lamy Safari inked solely with Platinum Carbon Black, though this may be a more functional decision rather than for personal tastes. 

[Sailor Kenshin]

A Platinum 3776, M, with a mix I call 'Century Red.'  An Ariel Kullock Parker 45 that won't write with any ink other than Iroshizuku, currently using up my sample of Syo Ro.  Both these pens are a perfect match with the barrel color/ink.
 

Really though, if I ink a pen and it loves the ink, they tend to be Pals For Life.

[Frank C]

Most of my pens are dedicated pen-ink pairs. For work, I usually use Pilot Blue-Black Ink. I keep it in a variety of Pilot Custom 74s, Custom 823s, and M-90s. I have a Montblanc 149 that I purchased in about 1984, my first nice fountain pen, that has always had Montblanc Black Ink. The list goes on and on. I generally just use a given ink in a given pen. 

[JohnUphill]

I have a Lamy 2000 that I keep inked with De Atramentis  Document Black for writing checks, addressing envelopes, etc. I have one Pelikan M1000 dedicated to Diamine Oxford Blue and another for Diamine 1864 Blue Black. I am currently debating whether to refill my Pilot 823 with KWZ Warsaw Dreaming yet again or finally try another ink in it. My other pens are treated to a variety of flavors.

[lapis]

Bright red safari (honestly, named by Lamy "Strawberry") is always filled with Diamine's Wild Strawberry. That's my "pen for corrections".

[mizgeorge]

Platinum Carbon Desk Pen with, erm, Platinum Carbon Black. The only odd thing about this combination is that the pen is dark red and usually match my inks to pens in both colour and type. Black pens can generally have any colour I feel like at the time. 

 

The only other pen that I always refill with the same ink is my first MB149, with MB Emerald (the old version which is actually turquoise in colour). I do sometimes consider giving it another ink, but after 37 years, I can't quite do it.

[A Smug Dill]

21 Wing Sung 3008 piston-filled demonstrators were dedicated to 21 different Diamine and J. Herbin shimmer inks. (Right now they're all disassembled and sitting as a tray of parts, after the last major cleaning exercise.) I could list the inks for you, but that would be kinda besides the point. If I want other shimmer inks to be always on hand and ready to be written with, then I'll probably just get more of those cheap pens and load them up; and I still have four good spare WS3008 pens anyway.

 

Ten (black) Platinum Preppy pens for the Rohrer & Klingner SketchInks. Three (being yellow, blue, and purple) more Preppy pens dedicated to Sailor STORiA Lion Light Brown, Night Blue, and Magic Purple pigment inks. Another three Preppy pens eyedropper-filled with Rubinato Nero, Blu-Nero, and Blu writing inks.

 

Twelve Monami Penna pens for twelve different iron-gall inks. (The Monami Penna has a wick in the feed, and is thus not suitable for writing with pigment inks.)

 

Eight out of my eleven Platinum Plaisir pens housed eight Pilot Iroshizuku inks continuously for the past four years or so; the red Plaisir is inked with Momiji, the blue Plaisir with Tsuyu-kusa, the green Plaisir with Shin-ryoku, etc.

 

There's a Jinhao 51A with a plain blue barrel always filled with Noodler's Ink Kung Te-Cheng clipped alongside a shopping list pad to the fridge door

 

My Platinum Izumo Aka-Tamenuri is always inked with Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-budo.

 

My Platinum #3776 Century Kanazawa-haku Shōryu (‘Ascending Dragon’), so far, has been inked with Diamine Red Dragon for at least the past three years. Its sibling, the newer Matsu-tora (‘Pine Tree and Tiger’) in the same series of pens, has always been inked with Sailor Shikiori Tokiwamatsu; R&K (2022 Limited Edition) Deep Pine ink, on account of its poor water resistance, is unlikely to become a candidate ink to displace Tokiwamatsu.

 

Sailor Profit Black Luster — Herbin Perle Noire, three years now on the same fill, although it's finally due for a clean-out.

 

Pelikan M200 Smoky Quartz — Platinum Khaki Black. (One of my) Pelikan M200 Gold-Marbled — Platinum Citrus Black. Opus 88 Picnic in (green-leaning) blue — Noodler's Ink Aircorp Blue Black. Opus 88 Picnic in purple — Herbin Rose Cyclamen (although I could consider putting some other similar colour in it next time). PenBBS 355 (Mark 2) Purple Cloud — Diamine Jalur Gemilang. Aurora Ipsilon with satin green body — Pelikan 4001 Dark Green.

 

I don't think my Delike Times with the reddish brown wooden barrel has ever been filled with any other ink than Noodler's Ink Kiowa Pecan.

[XYZZY]

The only "dedicated" combo I have is a Pilot Custom Heritage 91 w/SF nib that has the Yama-Budo colored body.  I went out of my way to get that pen when I fell in love with the Iroshizuku Yama-Budo ink.

 

But I also have some pen/ink combos where I have an idea in my head of the "right" ink for that pen, which is what I usually put in it when I ink it up:

 

Pilot Custom Urushi w/FM nib:  a kingly pen, which deserves a kingly color.  My log shows I have inked it 19 times, 11 of them Iroshizuku Asa-Gao.

 

Sailor King of Pen w/M nib:  Sailor Epinard.  No particular reason those go together, but I do like the combo: I'm not a fan of green, nor M nibs, but Epinard in a juicy fat nib looks great.  From looking at my log I see that this pen has only ever had Sailor inks: that surprises me, it is not a conscious choice.

 

And I'm two months in on copying the Bible so for a couple of years my Namiki No. 50 is dedicated to Sailor Souboku.  Prior to this project that pen mostly used Pilot Blue Black (an excellent workhorse ink).

[VillersCotterets]

This may be the result of my synesthesia but all my pens end up with dedicated ink. Those that don't, I don't feel are worth using regularly. I try different inks until I find the perfect match.

[inkstainedruth]

I mostly don't limit myself that way.  

I do have a couple of dedicated combinations, though: I have a Noodler's Charlie eyedropper dedicated to Noodler's Bay State Blue (partly because the ink stains everything and its cousin, and partly so I can dilute it about 20% with distilled water because it feathers so badly).  And the 1st Generation Red Shadow Wave Vacumatic has never seen anything but Waterman Mysterious Blue since I had the pen checked out to see it if was working.  And that ink works well, and looks good coming out of the pen, too....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ErrantSmudge]

Like @inkstainedruth I tend not to dedicate pens to inks, but I do have a few pens in my collection that currently have "resident inks".

 

I have a TWSBI Eco with M nib constantly loaded with Noodler's Heart of Darkness, for the times I need a permanent black ink - usually for signing checks or addressing envelopes.

 

I have a Lamy 2000 F nib on continuous fill with Robert Oster Thunderstorm.  I went through several blacks, blues and blue-blacks in this pen before hitting on this combination for both color and flow.

 

I have two Sheaffer Snorkel pens, both Admirals.  One pen is peacock blue and loaded with Monteverde Malibu Blue, the other is black and is loaded with Aurora Black.  I use these pens for language study, where I do quite a lot of throwaway writing and I can use up my vast trove of Malibu Blue, a boring blue ink that I got as pen show freebies. 

 

To round out my "study pens" I also have a Lamy Safari with F nib dedicated to Lamy Red, which is the perfect color for writing things in my notebook.  I have a red transparent plastic shitajiki writing board that perfectly hides Lamy Red ink and so I can use it for quick memorization quizzes.   It also works well for marking corrections.

 

Right now I also have a Leonardo Momento Magico with F nib devoted to Monteverde Sapphire, one of my favorite blues.  This pen is relatively new to my collection and I don't know yet if this is a long-term pairing, but I have an almost-empty bottle of Sapphire and I want to finish it off.

 

[Runnin_Ute]

My Pelikan 140 outside of two fills early on, has seen nothing but Pelikan 4001 Blue Black since it's arrival five years ago. (8/2017)

Newton Townsend gets Levenger Amethyst most of the time. (it's a beautiful dark purple ripple ebonite)

Platinum 3776 Century Borgogne almost exclusively gets a diet of Diamine Merlot. Tried Kon Peki in it once. Hated it.

Pelikan M400 White Tortoise isn't dedicated but most of the time gets either KWZI El Dorado or Edelstein Olivine.  (El Dorado right now)

 

All the rest (and I keep 8-12 inked at any given time) can get anything else. I have a couple of recent acquisitions that have seen only one ink SO FAR.  The Sheaffer Craftsman (td) has only seen Edelstein Aventurine so far- about four fills since it's arrival a month ago. The new True Writer is on it's initial fill still (Levenger Forest Green)

[Arkanabar]

Back when I was trying to use up a bottle of Noodler's Red-Black, it went into my first Pen of a Lifetime, a blue swirl M200 that I bought back in the 90s, all the time.  But when I found a sucker who let me give them that ink, that stopped.  Now that the ink I'mma Use Up If It Kills Me is Bad Black Moccasin, I keep my work Jinhao 51A XF filled with that, and also my emerald green FPR Himalaya 1.0M stub.  But when that ink is gone, they will start using other inks -- probably HoD for the 51A, presuming I don't find anyone to give it to.  I use the 51A to write in my narcotics log books, and am expected to use black ink for that.  Odds are that it will be Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black at some point.

 

But I do have one such combination, that I will keep going for as long as possible. 

 

Several years ago, back when I first started choosing the Six Essential Inks, I wanted a bottle of Yama-Guri (before I ever got a sample), and I sent my wife a link to it, so she could buy for my Christmas present.  But it was also a link to a bunch of other Iroshizuku colors, and she wound up getting Ku-Jaku, in which I had no interest at all.  (It was just as well; when I first wrote with a sample of Yama-Guri I'd been gifted, my immediate impression was "dead sticks and frozen mud.")

 

A few years later, she convinced her entire family to go in together for a limited edition Pelikan M205 Aqua with fine nib to give me for Christmas.  I was blown away, and it is a stunning pen, all these years later.  And I pondered for days as to what ink to put in.  Eventually, I thought -- "why not that Ku-Jaku she gave me a few years ago?"  It is a wonderful combination, and it is used for all the billets-doux I write to her.

[chromantic]

On 9/2/2022 at 11:46 AM, VillersCotterets said:

This may be the result of my synesthesia but all my pens end up with dedicated ink. Those that don't, I don't feel are worth using regularly. I try different inks until I find the perfect match.

 

This is pretty much how I roll, too, although I usually have a good idea of what ink I want to use in a particular pen and will order that specifically, so not a lot of testing different inks to find the right one. That does happen, of course - I tried 3 different reds trying to match the red accents on my Hastil Ferrari and am on the 3rd ink in my yellow Optima. Sometimes I decide that inks I may have tried in other pens will be perfect for *this* pen (Kana-cho, now in blue-stripe M400). Other times, an ink I ordered to use in a pen doesn't work well so I have to try something else; Take-sumi was way too wet for my M405 Anthracite (EF, no less) but the Stipula Fading Grey I then bought turned out to be a match made in heaven and Take-sumi now resides in my red Optima (after having been in a similar red/black PaperMate school pen).

 

 

[Bristol24]

I generally keep one of my workhorse (not pristine) Parker "51" Aerometrics inked with Hero 232, a well behaved but now difficult to get iron gall blue black that does very well on cheap papers.  I also tend to use vintage Parker Quink Permanent Blue Black with Solv-X in my pre-WWII vintage pens.  This thread has reminded me of a combo I used for many years in daily carry: the lowly Hero 616 and current production Parker Quink Permanent Black, a combo that also did quite well "in the wild" where it is anyone's guess what sort of paper may be found.

 

Cliff

[The Mustard]

This is a great thread.  i'm with @VillersCotterets and several others who have contributed above that most off my pens have a dedicated ink although some have to share inks. Starting as above with @ZiggyTsarDust Platinum Carbon Black and that works perfectly for me in my MB Pirelli with its black rubber barrel. I'm totally in accordance with @Frank C that my 149 is always inked with MB Mystery Black for some reason but just to prove that I don't only write in black and I have a different relationship than @Arkanabar with Yama-Guri which I think is fantastically complex ink that seems to provide a different experience every time I use it. For me it is the perfect match to the barrel of my MB William Faulkner. 

 

I am most fascinated with your organisation @A Smug Dill - how do you organise / label those multiple pen / ink combinations?  Do you ever get them mixed up?!