Inky T O D - How Did You Get Started On The Long And Inky Road? Merged With Your Inky Journey?

[LittleSkink]

For years have just used my pens and stuck to buying a bottle of Quink Blue-Black every now and again

 

Now thanks to FPN (and my 8yo daughters desire to use a fountain pen with nice ink) I have found myself on a journey of exploration I never expected to begin. So I am curious how your ink choices evolved and where they might be headed?

 

My inky journey began with Quink Blue-Black Solv-X which I have used since school in 1970's. When my young daughter chose a Lamy Safari to spend she Christmas money on we got a converter and fresh bottle of Quink BB too

 

But Quink BB isnt Blue Black any more, it dries to a kind of Teal. It also wasn't "pretty" enough for a little girl to write Christmas thank you letters.

 

So we got some Watermans Tender Purple. A gentle and cheerful colour. Well behaved too. But not good enough for my work uses. And not particularly water resistant

 

So I got some Pelikan 4001 Blue Black. A robust and business like ink with a decent amount of water resistance to boot - perfect. No need for more ink, or so I thought. And then Valentines day was rapidly approaching so my search was then on for a clean and neutral red

 

After much deliberation we got some Slovakian Sheaffer Skrip Red. And it was a nice "proper red". I felt that was enough ink for now, and then I bought a new Sheaffer Intensity which came with a blue Scrip cartridge. I realised how nice a clean blue was to use when Blue Black was a bit sombre

 

So a bottle of Visconti Blue was acquired. And, for now, I think I have enough bottles/inks - but have a suspicion it wont be long before another need arises or another interesting ink catches my eye. And now I notice I don't have a Diamine ink yet, so wonder what other brands might be worth a look . . . it would seem some form of addiction is taking hold . . .

Edited March 13, 2014 by LittleSkink

[Moose22]

I think I have enough bottles/inks

 

 

 

No you don't.

[Tas]

Deja Vu for many I feel.

Embrace and enjoy the journey . . .

 

Moose22, ha!

[MBFan]

I bought some Cult Pens Diamine Deep Dark Red. The name is deceiving as it looks more like a sepia/copper/brown. It has great shading properties while retaining sophistication. It is a very engaging colour. I recommend it

[pmhudepo]

Sounds quite familiar.

 

Used Parker Quink during college, when I had a Parker 95 fountain pen. Much, much later, I bought a Waterman Expert II and a bottle of Waterman Florida Blue. Then a mighty jump to the Montblanc 149 which came with a bottle of Montblanc Black. Didn't feel comfortable addressing envelopes using these inks, so Noodler's Heart of Darkness made its appearance. Decided I needed something a bit more fun, and along came Private Reserve Tropical Blue. Marking printed documents seemed to require a red ink and PR Dakota Red worked just fine. Then FPN's ethernautrix said that Apache Sunset was crazy beautiful, and it is indeed. Never knew I needed a brown ink, but somehow ended up with a big bottle of Akkerman Bekakt Haags -- well, it does look great in my Carlo Collodi pen. And ... well, you know.

Edited March 13, 2014 by pmhudepo

[Medsen Fey]

I started with Waterman Black. I had purchased a bottle many years ago at an office superstore and never used it all. A bit more than a year ago I started using fountain pens again and as my bottle of ink started running low, I went to the superstore and was politely informed they don't carry bottles of ink anymore - something about kids and homemade tattoos. So I went online and ordered a bottle from Amazon and all was well until I spilled water on some papers and had them smear and blur. I decided I needed something that would stay on the paper. I discovered FPN, learned about the Goulet folks and now, 20 bottles and 30 samples later, I have lots of choices.

 

My advice - Beware of Goulet's!!!

Edited March 13, 2014 by Medsen Fey

[Anirban4u]

Started with Cheap Camel inks. They were terrible when you let them sit inside a pen for more than 3 days. (nibs would get clogged). So I upgraded to Quink. Quink would fade after a time, so I headed for Skrip. Skrip blue was too light for my test, so I bought Pelikan Royal blue. Some how, I found out that I needed a drier ink than even Pelikan RB, so it had to be Pelikan Brilliant Black. Then in few of my pens it was just too dry.
So waterman black came in.

 

The world doesn't revolve around blue and black, so Skrip purple and Waterman Havana was bought.

 

That's the story so far. And I have a feeling that I'll give in to those amazing R&k or PR inks soon.
What have you guys done ?

[cjr]

I've used fountain pens off and on for years. My first real FP was a Mont Blanc Classic and I used MB Black and Blue-Black thinking that was all there was. Years later, I got a Pelikan M400 Souveran and a Namiki Vanishing Point and discovered Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue and Fiesta Red at a pen store. I thought that was all I would ever need. Then last year, I got reinterested in FPs and discovered the Fountain Pen Network and the Goulet Pen Company, and it was downhill from there! Got into permanent and water resistant inks, so now I have bottles of Noodler's Liberty's Elysium, Baystate Blue, 54th Massachusetts, Black, and Bad Green Gator. Also needed more reds, so I ended up with Noodler's Nikita and Diamine Syrah. Then, I wanted to try a well-behaved ink and am now hooked on Iroshizuku Asa Gao. It gets worse, I have on my "to buy" list Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng, Diamine Oxblood, more Iroshizuku inks, and the list is growing! I do want to try the R&K Scabiosa IG ink, too.

[LittleSkink]

thanks for sharing your stories folks

 

notice in these, and my own story, a tendency to move from "journeyman" inks (ie cheap) to more exotic (and expensive) ones. My most recent purchase was a £10 bottle of Visconti and now I realise I dont have any Noodlers ink, or Pilot ink. Or a brown ink. And now Apache Sunset has got me intrigued

 

aaargh - the intent with this thread was to voice my addiction, have it witnessed, and let it fade. Now it has been fuelled . . .

[martinbir]

My ink journey also started because Quink Blue Black was not as I remembered it from my school days back in the 60s. The first several bottles were attempts to find that elusive shade and some of those attempts fell well wide of the mark but introduced me to some fascinating colours.

 

I now have 50+ inks, mostly Diamine with a bias towards blues, and just love trying new shades. The search for a non-existent blue black has all but been forgotten and my last batch was Classic Red, Sherwood Green and Pumpkin.

[paulmcmanus]

Ah Little Skink, Apache Sunset is a fabulous ink, especially if you have a good broad nib.

 

I think my first inks were Private Reserve from thewritingdesk. Then I got into Noodlers. Diamine followed - so cheap - then Sailor, Iroshizuku - worth it for the bottles alone but Asa-gao may well be the best ever blue - and I'm currently awaiting delivery of four bottles from Japan: two Kobes and two Sailors, one of which is the much-admired and newly reissued Yama-dori. Oh, and three Edelsteins. I think between my desk at work and my home I've probably got seventy-plus bottles.

 

You'll know you have a problem when you realise how crucially important it is to discover the perfect blue or green or purple. I've been there with reds, blues and oranges. But I might be recovering, I only have three greys and two greens and I don't think I need any more of them. Purples, on the other hand...

[VivienR]

At my childhood I only had blue ink, but I didn't liked because the pen, it always flooded. But now I'm in love, and right at the start brought five different ink, now I have fifteen and still there is a bunch on my wish list. I almost like all the colors...

[injesticate]

Ooh.... I only recently returned to FPs a couple months ago, which led to a bottle of Noodler's Heart of Darkness. Of course, I chose that particular bottle because it came with a free Preppy eyedropper. Then I realized there wasn't much point having two pens with precisely the same ink - I can now almost justify it -so I got samples of Noodler's Habanero (Orange being my fave color) and Midway Blue, since it didn't look like most blue inks, of which I've never really been a fan. Of course, I also got a Konrad Flex at the same time. I found that while I really liked the Habanero and the Midway, neither were really appropriate for work, so with my next order from GPC, I opted for a blue sample pack. This time there were even non-Noodlers colors. It was only about six weeks between the first and last orders. This does not bode well for my bank account...

[French]

I started with Noodler's black, then Aurora Blue, then Noodler's Verdun, Legal Lapis then ....now I have about 2 dozen ink bottles and 3 or 4 different bottles of "black" because they are all slightly differently black from each other (Heart of Darkness, Bulletproof black, Old Manhattan Black and Quink black, which should more accurately be named Quink Dark Grey.

[flyingfox]

Back in 2002, I got my first "real fountain pen" (Lamy Safari- I used a cheap, cartridge-only fountain pen back in HS, circa 1991, for a brief period of time as well) because I fell in love with Poussiere de Lune by J. Herbin. I was on vacation at that time... my very first visit to Montreal, Canada (quite an amazing experience in and of itself, what a gorgeous city!!! I have been back there many more times since then, and the magic is still there, always.) I walked into a sweet little stationery store, saw a color sample/ little swab of PdL, and I was in love. Now I know that it is a unique color, even among fountain pen ink, but- back then, it seemed out of this world, certainly unavailable in any other pens. I bought a bottle, and- a Lamy Safari to go along with it, just so that I can use the ink!

 

I was happily using only PdL for a little over two years, until I emptied the bottle, and- nothing. I could not find a store that sells fountain pen ink for YEARS afterwards. My Safari always sat in my pen cup, reminding me of the beautiful color.

 

Then- I was on another vacation in New Orleans, in November of 2012. I walked into a nice little stationery store there, and- they carried their own line of *gasp!* fountain pen ink! I was looking at the color swatches they had, agonizing over which colors to get, and the kind lady at the store told me that they also have an online store, in case I decided that I want more, or if I were concerned about the fluid restriction (I live in Philly, and I had to fly back home.) Hmmm... Online store.... I should have thought about that possibility sooner, but somehow I didn't...

 

That night, back in my hotel room, I started looking for "fountain pen ink" on Amazon, and- found a whole bunch!!! Then I googled "fountain pen" and- well- you can imagine. After I got home, I started looking for resources seriously, and that's how I ended up on FPN as well as stumbled upon the virtual doorsteps of the Goulet. I spent a good chunk of time watching their video clips, and learned about fountain pens more than I ever thought possible.

 

Now- I have more ink (and pens, for that matter) than I ever thought any one individual can possibly own, and coveting for more. I honestly don't think I can use up all the ink I have in my possession, unless I live to be at least 200 years old. My first love, PdL is still my favorite shade among purple, which is my absolute favorite color, but there is a whole big world out there... after all, I also like pink, burgundy, blue, turquoise, blue, green, and so on.... And recently I am into gray, which I never thought as a real color before, but somehow looks so classy and beautiful (and- after all, PdL has a grayish tint....) Where does this end??!!

[Lou Erickson]

I have just started my inky journey, I'm sure.

 

In Jr. High, I had a Parker Vector. Blue cartridges, the generic Parker blue. It leaked everywhere. Eventually it broke, and I quit messing with them.

 

Years later, I bumped into the Pilot Varsity. Blue pens. I used a couple of boxes of those - must be Pilot/Namiki blue, and it's a fine pen. $3 each is hard to complain about, too. I told myself I'd consider a real pen once I finished the first box.

 

I remembered that, and hit the Internet looking for them. Found Goulet's. Bought a Pilot Metropolitan, considered others. Bought a big bottle of Baystate Blue. Thought I would have a lifetime supply. Story over!

 

Then I came here. Whoops. =)

 

I saw an ad for a sale from a vintage pen reseller, and succumbed to 15% off. I didn't want to put Baystate Blue into a vintage pen - and it's a vacuum filler, so how would you clean it all out to put anything ELSE in? - so rummaged around town and found an art supply store with ink. Private Reserve. Bought a bottle of Spearmint green.

 

Loved the vintage pen. Still really like the Metropolitan.

 

Wound up at Goulet's and ordered a mess of samples. (17? 18? Something like that.) Will work through all of those. Might buy a bottle of something if I really like it. We'll see.

 

Keep coming here and reading things like recipes for the cancelled Parker Penman Sapphire, or Binder Purple. And trying those is tempting... but requires bottles of ink...

 

(I've also gone through three tablets of Rhodia and Clairfontane paper, and bought four reams of loose-leaf paper to try...)

[amberleadavis]

 

 

No you don't.

 

[PaperDarts]

When I began to use fountain pens in school the only inks available to me were black, blue, and blue-black. I don't remember the brand names but they were likely Scrip and Quink. When I returned to fountain pens as a young adult I stuck with the same colours. Turquoise ink was around but it didn't appeal to me. For years I wrote only in black ink and had maybe 2 or 3 fountain pens.

 

One day I decided I wanted red ink to edit documents and was directed to Laywine's in Toronto, and discovered that not only were there many shades of red ink to be had, almost every colour of the rainbow was represented...and then, wondering about an old pen I'd been given I went googling and discovered the FPN. Well. Let's just say that my inky journey has become epic compared to my early standards, and these days I'm favouring dark purples and blues, with occasional flirtations with green, brown, grey, and pink.

[Horseknitter]

Started my ink/fountain pen journey in the early 60s with Sheaffer cartridge pens and my ink of choice was the beautiful peacock. Came back to fountain pens in 1996 with a Mont Blanc Classic and Mont Blanc Black and Blue Black. Expanded in a couple years to Omas Red and Green.

 

Just this week I received an ink color - I NEVER expected to buy or use. Pink, or better a complicated, shrimpy pink:: Iroshizuku kosumosu.

 

The only predictable thing about this journey is that it is totally unpredictable.

[Lunaray]

I'm relatively new to the world of fountain pens, but here goes. I started with Parker Quink cartridges. Then I fell in love with Caran d'Ache's Colors of the Earth ink series and bought myself a bottle of Blue Night and Amazon. I thought that was all I needed for a long time.

 

Of course, I then discovered Pilot Iroshizuku, and had to get myself a bottle of Fuyu-Syogun.

 

I thought that was enough. And then one day, I saw a set of Platinum mix-free inks on discount, and I couldn't resist.

 

Now that Caran d'ache has changed their inks, I had to get myself one of their new bottles. I now have 13 bottles. Hopefully, that should sate my ink lust for a while.