Favorite ink to test a new pen?

[corniche]

18 minutes ago, cbrown said:

I looked for Mysterious blue, but the two sources I checked were out.

 

Thank you, I am excited to try a new pen out.  Especially since I typically purchase Japanese pens.

 

Any other tips or recommendations for my new 51?

 

Thank you all for being so helpful!

Hi cbrown,

 

I'm not surprised they were sold out; that speaks to the ink's popularity.

 

Nothing comes to mind at this moment, the great thing about 51 Aerometrics is they kinda take care of themselves... they're the lowest maintenance vintage pen I can think of... right now.

 

The only thing I'll say is you might want to get a salad spinner... if you securely tie the filler/section to the rack, the centrifugal force of the spinning will sling out every dram of ink in the pen. But as long as you're using legacy ink brands, you can go several refills before you have to flush it... UNLESS YOU CHANGE COLOR OR BRAND... then give it a good flush first.

 

Enjoy your 51.

 

- Sean

[corniche]

8 minutes ago, es9 said:

Yea: Enjoy it! It’s one of the greatest pens ever made. 

+1 3/8.

 

- S. 

[venegas.soriano]

Parker Quink blue-black or Kaweco Midnight blue

[newkid12]

Pelikan Brilliant Black is my choice.

[mulrich]

On 4/1/2023 at 12:03 PM, es9 said:

The most gentle ink I know of—Waterman Serenity Blue. Whatever the pen, I can be pretty darn certain that that ink won’t make anything worse. It’s easy to clean, well behaved, and readily available at a decent price. However, unless there’s a particularly good reason to (e.g., a celluloid pen with great transparency or something of high sentimental value), I rarely use it beyond testing/tuning. 

I’m the exact same with serenity blue. 
 

I also used to use the same pelikan pen for testing new inks for the same reason but quit doing so otherwise I’d rarely get to use a different pen. 

[chromantic]

I usually have a good idea of what ink I want to use in a pen I've ordered so I just start with that. No point testing with an ink that works in any pen only to find out that the ink I want to use doesn't work well with it.

[XYZZY]

14 hours ago, chromantic said:

I usually have a good idea of what ink I want to use in a pen I've ordered so I just start with that. No point testing with an ink that works in any pen only to find out that the ink I want to use doesn't work well with it.

 

I'm kind of like that.  I'm too impatient to test a new pen with a tester ink, or even to first clean it (assuming it's a new pen).  I unbox the pen, ink it with what I want, and that usually works out fine.

 

If it doesn't work out then I drain it, clean it well, and use Serenity Blue.  If ok then I go back to the ink that I had there in the first place.  

 

In other words, the advice is here all seems sound, but it's my fallback and not my starting point.

[aurore]

Pelikan Royal Blue