Safe ink for brush pens?

[nimrod]

Can anyone with significant brush pen experience give me a general idea what ink is safe in brush pens? For example, are brush pens more or less tolerant of pigments vs. dye and "stickeyness" compared to regular fountain pens?

 

I'm pretty sure that I don't want to grind an ink stick into one of these, or use pre-mixed "sumi" ink, or acrylic art/calligraphy "ink" but beyond that I don't know what the issues are.

[Limner]

Hi nimrod,

What brand of brushpen will you be using? I have some experience, but I generally use inexpensive waterbrushes filled with ink as a "brushpen"--the feed system on them is very simple, and more forgiving of pigmented inks; I've had good results using Higgins Eternal, Calli Black, and Noodlers full strength and diluted with water for washes in waterbrushes. Any brushpen will stain pretty quickly. If the bristles of the brush you're using is made of a natural hair, you'll need to be a bit careful cleaning it--strong cleaners will damage or dry out the bristles.

 

I'm thinking of getting a Sailor Profit brush pen, and plan to use Noodler's Black in it. My favorite "brushpen" (so to speak) is my Pelikan M205 with a Condor nib from Richard Binder. It's the best sketching pen I've ever used.

[nimrod]

What brand of brushpen will you be using?

 

Currently I have a Pentel ColorBrush and a Sailor Profit. I have a converter for the Sailor and I figure I'll try to refill the cartridge on the Pentel with a syrenge which should be pretty easy.

 

One day I'll have to check out one of those fancy nibs like the Condor but for now I don't want to spend the money on one.

[krz]

The Ackerman's brush pen isn't very finicky. I keep a Noodler's Lexington Gray wash in it now but it didn't mind India ink if I didn't leave it in there for long and soap wash the bristles.

[nimrod]

I just put higgins eternal in my sailor profit. I guess we'll see what happens.

[fenrisfox]

I suppose brush pens can accept inks that would destroy fountain pens?

 

I don't have any brush pens - so I'm curious...

[nimrod]

That's what I'm not sure of. The higgins eternal is supposed to be FP safe so it should be ok in the brush pen. So far I haven't noticed any problems. I suspect acrylic inks or inks containing shellac will probably still cause trouble.

[Bogtrotter]

Not being an expert on brushes or inks, my first thought would be to ask an expert. The first place I would go is John Neal, Bookseller's web site at

http://www.johnnealbooks.com/ . They specialize in calligraphy supplies and carry a wide variety of brushes and inks.

 

They've also been separating me from a noticeable amount of my money, lately.

 

bt

[arc]

Hi, total newb here. I know nothing about the care and handling of fountain pens, but just got a Sailor Profit brush pen and converter. Does the converter (it's a piston type, I gather) work the same way as with a fountain pen: drawing ink up the brush nib? Or should I just dip the converter directly into the ink? And, can/should I 'bleed' out two or three drops of ink the same as with fountain pens? I tried with plain water but couldn't get water up the nib.

 

I've websearched, but all the advice is for regular fountain pens.

 

thanks in advance,

[GladWriter]

I use a Sailor Brush Pen, and Ackerman Brush Pen, and have tried the ones that come with the Pilot Croquis Watercolor pencils.

 

The Sailor has a really good gravity feed system it's quite juicy, but not as much as a real paint brush. It's quite capable of holding liquid Sumi ink (not india inks). Any Noodler's works fine and the bulletproof or Eternal ones become permanent as long as they can get to the celulose to bond. I use Heart of Darkness and Non-Feathering Black most of the time in this pen.

 

In the past I've used Hero Carbon Black Ink, for detail work on paintings. If I flush the pen--it's OK. But if for some reason I forget . . . . time for a new nib. I've soaked, poked, sonic bathed, nothing gets the ink out and the flow is ruined. I even resorted to ammonia which almost worked. That nib became my "trash" nib. Even Platinum Carbon Black makes a mess of it.

 

But . . . I can use a well aged liquid Sumi ink just fine. Any Noodler's will work. My favorite use for this pen is doing final details on a dry watercolor painting. I can use Noodler's "Heart of Darkness" or "Bullet Proof" inks. If you've Jessoed under your paint for texture don't do this though because the ink can't bond with the cellulose and won't become permanent. Private Reserve is fine.

 

Penman Emerald . . . surprisingly OK. I did a whole series of "leaf x-ray" paintings using this ink and various mixes with a yellow highlighter ink.

 

Ackerman Brush Pen is much more tolerant. I use it mostly as a "water" brush, but it's great with pretty much anything except glazes. I've used just about every ink I normally use on watercolors. I've been experimenting with "flat" washes that are almost magic marker-like using liquid watercolors--this is terrific for that. Just remember to clean it out within a reasonable time. It will also do a wonderful job with any India Ink, Hero Carbon, Platinum Carbon, Penman, or even my own mixes.

 

One thing I love to do is grind some chinese aged ink stick, add a little gum arabic and maybe a little honey, then add a little Noodler's Walnut or Private Reserve Chocolat. Mix well and put it in the pen. I get a Black/brown Ink that will have some granulation and texture (settling into the grain of the surface) and when dry, I can coax it to bleed varying shades of Black to brown. Nothing does this. For instance, Detail line a tree trunk with this mix. Let it dry. Use a very diluted golden brown wash on a brush to "fill in" and when you touch the dried lines . . . voila . . . you can pull blackish brown, brown, and enrich the texture. It's gorgeous.

 

The Pilot Water brush is good for sketching. I tried loading it with ink . . . disaster. It's just too juicy. What makes it good creating these wonderful graduated washes on small areas, great for a 5x7 or 7x10 area. But of course . . . for me nothing replaces a big slurpy Kolinsky brush. I like to paint big, then detail with ink. So I save the water brush for my sketch kit.

 

HTH

GladWriter

 

[professionaldilettante]

Well, it seems by what I've been told is that cellulose reactive inks, such as Noodler's bulletproof line will only react with cellulose, and thus won't bond to either the synthetic nylon or even natural brush fibers.

I've been wondering only one thing though is how to fill a brush pen, whether to constantly suck though the nib, or to fill the converter directly from the ink bottle.