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So, after much discussion, I thought it was time to actually test my working hypothesis. Now, in fairness, some inks seem to disintegrate even when they are kept in dark boxes, and this little test did not account for those inks. Many FPNers insist that ink bottles be kept in the boxes and away from light. I've argued that ink should be kept away from direct light, but indirect light was not harmful. Most FPNers state that ink will break down when exposed to heat. My experience was somewhat different, I had ink in a caboose without air conditioning or heat for more than a decade and didn't find any problems. So, here was the test, I took several liquid ink samples, I put them in my office window for more than 7 months (March-October) in the direct sun during the Las Vegas summer. The hottest day on record was this summer at a whopping 117. I chose some inks known to be fade resistant and others known to be faders. In prior tests, I found that inks that were diluted or washed were prone to fading or fading faster, so I also included some diluted inks. I also used plastic and glass containers. What this experiment will NOT reveal is the effect of cold on ink. As you may know, in the three decades that I've had ink in the caboose or the months these inks have been in my window, we have had no snow in my area of town. (Other parts of town had a few inches a few years ago.)

Hello , Just wondering if could help with some questions I'm having about the Noodler's American Aristocracy ink. I know there are 3 "flavors" possible, but thats not what I'm thinking about. I bought a few bottles to try in my Kuretake Brush pen. Never made it there for the project I was doing. I journal often and always use waterproof, archival, and, or, bulletproof/eternal inks. I like variety and have many shades of blue and black. I also have a couple greens. Anyways... I was thinking about using this ink to journal, but have never used non bulletproof, waterproof, inks before for this purpose. I know that just because inks may not be water proof/resistant, etc, doesn't mean they won't last a long time. All that to ask my question... Does anyone know if the Noodler's American Aristocracy ink would be an ok choice for Journaling or anything else that would require lasting a long time? Would this ink fade quickly, after just a few years? Is this a ink that UV would destroy? Etc. Etc. I've seen many tests done for inks in the other forums, but haven't seen this ink used for any tests. So, I'm reaching out to see what everyone thinks. I would love to fill up a pen and writing with this ink. I just dont want to use it. And then a few years down the road I open up my journal, or view a document, or project, and the ink is gone, faded, or generally illegible. Appreciate your thoughts.

Disclaimer first: This test does not focus on fading under direct sun or UV exposure, it focuses on normal change in color that will be observed on these inks in what I assume is how most keep their work. Also I will try to keep things as consistent as I can but some variations may occur during the span of testing. I will try to update on any key variations other then weather outside. Storing and approach taken (inputs appreciated) The way the pages will be kept will be as follows : the pages will be kept in closed notebooks and will be used from time to time to see or check for color or such changes, the notebooks themselves will be kept outside the wardrobe in a well lit room. The works will mostly be closed for the test period otherwise. The results will be posted every month to see the change on all papers, point being to observe if page type will lead to any significant change. Any new ideas for the keeping of pages and such are welcomed and appreciated as it is long term test. Introduction and Idea The idea comes from general fading of IG inks and the way it becomes worry for obvious reasons. The subjects under analysis are KWZ IG Blue-black (the ink also is subject to more thorough analysis in other test, pls refer to ink review for that one) and other being R&K Salix as said in intro. The R&K Salix is not being analyzed the same way here as KWZ IG mostly due to net result being known, but the inks performance variation on different papers is not known so the test still serves some purpose (for me at least). Now the net result will also be published and matched along with other test result if someone wants to see them, else not much point as inks analysis is being done anyway. inks nature ( a personal take here on how each write) KWZ IG blue-black - A wet ink in all sense, minor bleed on cheap papers and no feathering seen. Very high water resistance. R&K Salix - Dry ink. Flow sees no issues, no hard starts or skipping seen during writing despite being dry ink. Works on all papers and shows no bleed or feathering on any paper. Pretty much water proof and sees no sign of even discoloring. Krishna Paakezah - Balanced flow ink, no skips or hard starts seen, no bleed or feathering on normal papers. Waterman Serenity blue - Balanced flow ink, no skips, hard starts. no bleed or feathering on normal papers. Some have noted bleed on very cheap papers and that is the case. Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai - Balanced flow, tending to wet. No bleed or feathering on papers. No skips or hard starts. The ink shows some feedback of nib and gives pencil like effect in nibs I tested, its very nice feeling when writing. Pens used the pens in order from left to right along with their respective characteristics rough idea Platinum preppy 'fine nib' - Writes dry, no skips and such just dry (some tuning was done to get such result thus statement of tuned in writing). Ink here is KWZ IG blue-black. Wality 69 EB Fine nib- Writes balanced and is and ED pen. Ink here is Krishna Paakezah. Oliver Exam demonstrator, Kanwrite FIne nib - writes wet. Ink used is R&K Salix. Camlin Trinity Fine nib- Feed modded for very wet flow. Ink used is KWZ IG Blue-black Ranga Slim Bamboo, Ranga Fine nib- 3in 1 using convertor in this test. Writes Balanced with tending to wet. Ink used is Pilot Iroshizuku shin-kai. Kanwrite Heritage, Fine Flex nib- Piston filler. Writes wet. Ink used in Waterman Serenity Blue. Intent behind using a dry and wet pen for KWZ ink is to create some level field for testing as direct comparison R&K Salix runs dry even on wettest of pens, the test aims to see what happens if ink on paper is reduced by significant margin and what happens if a wet ink is given a very wet pen, and if same ink is given dry pen. R&K Salix, being a dry ink as it is, I feel will yield poor result on dry pens in terms of ink quantity on dry nibs, I have not tested the ink on dry nibs and I won't either as chances of poor results in long term testing are feared, making idea of aging redundant. Papers used (and their respective nature) From poorest performing paper to best (pages from Nightingale are in no particular order as they all are good in their own way, my ranking thus comes from my requirement of no bleed or ghosting as top priority over other characteristics) I have or will add withing span of a week. Also companies are good at marketing and skipping important details.....that is to say they in many have not given GSM of notebooks 😠 I will approx for those pages, from what I know about them, corrections are welcome. Classmate copy register (50 approx GSM)- not FP friendly paper, highly absorbent nature, no sheen or shading seen here....this was really a disappointment considering all the marketing they do.... Taj White copy register (approx 60 GSM) - OK paper for FP for normal use only. Absorbent in nature, sheen and shade is minimal to absent. Nightingale 70 GSM- FP friendly to some extent, its quite smooth to write on, in a way that half decent inks don't bleed here. Absorbent paper and shows, low shading seen and sheen is seen but not much. 75GSM A4 spectra (office paper in all honesty) - OKish for ink pens...I guess. Bleed and feathering is not seen for normal inks. Absorbent paper by nature. Sheen is seen, not too high but present and Shade is low....(the result will be added in 2 days or so...I need to buy them, my bundle is finished so will add them later). Results added. Navneet youva (approx 60 GSM)- This one surprised me to some extent as I did not expected it to behave properly. Ranks higher for not showing bleed or ghosting on most inks. Still absorbent nature. Sheen is not seen, shade is minimum. It could be near 70 GSM by thickness of paper...they don't mention it so will give benefit of doubt. JK Cedar 100 GSM - FP friendly paper to good extent here. No bleed or feathering on any inks I have tested so far. Not too absorbent in nature. Sheen and shade are visible nicely. Its also my personal standard testing and using paper. Most I have are non standard papers so I apologies for that, thus is the reason for adding this section in particular. If anyone cares among these pages for daily, my recommendation is to go with higher GSM pages of nightingale or Classmate if wanting one of them, the option is there one has to look for it. Test itself All tests in this post are 5 min dry except for JK Cedar which was given 2 hrs to dry. All images are done with pea shooter camera and corrected to as close as possible. Images are quite close to real, not exactly same but close. 50 GSM Classmate copy test, dry time 5 min. pic taken on 7 jan 2021. Taj White 60 GSM approx paper. 5 min dry time. Pic taken on 7 jan 2021 Nightingale 70 GSM paper, dry time 5 min. Pic taken on 7 jan 2021. Navneet youva, 60 GSM approx, could be 70 GSM. dry time 5 min, Pic taken on 8 jan 2021 75 GSM Spectra copy paper. Dry time 5 min. Sheen is visible here, not too much but visible nonetheless for shading its still low. Black lines are Platinum carbon black. JK Cedar 100 GSM. dry time 2 hrs. Pic taken on 7 Jan 2021. Some Niccolo Machiavelli quotes just for fun of it and give some idea of writing (i know my writing is not good but its improving I promise...its now readable from whatever it was before 😅) Whats next and my limitations Apart from office page which I will add this week. I plan to write some more pages with both ink on JK cedar and keep them the same way I am testing if someone is interested I will do them, else not much of personal interest. I have never done a swatch sample before but I want to ask if I should add one for at least R&K Salix and KWZ IG Blue-black.....I probably wont do that for others, too much of personal hassle, but 2 main IG should be fine. Do tell if interested. My limitations are quite obvious, I lack any other nib variation apart from fine nibs and EF nibs so thats one main down. Second is lack of most common FP papers used like tomoe, Rhodia,etc. They are not economical here for me at least and I write a lot so I never bought them personally, I did have some in past but all are used now. Thank you for sticking with this one.

I have been using up my sample of Baystate Blue, and I cannot get over how much I LOVE the colour. Of course I experienced some of the characteristic bleeding and feathering on copier paper with it, but some diluting seemed to solve the problem. I'm not too concerned about staining, as I have a dedicated pen I have sacrificed to it (Jinhao X750), and I can can just bleach it out of existence if needed. But then I've come to the question of fading. I am confused as to what exactly will happen to it after a few months or years. Sure, UV exposure will make it fade, as will many other blue inks, though Baystate Blue happens to be the more fugitive of them. But rarely, if ever, do I go around and stick my writing in direct sunlight for weeks, if not months at a time. I use Baystate Blue mostly for notes and annotating things in my school workbooks because it is just THAT BRIGHT. After hearing a few things about it fading in closed books and fading in general on another thread here, I'm concerned that when it comes to do revision, or if I just decide to look back at them in a couple of years for the (?)fun(?) of it, they'll have faded into oblivion. Can someone please set the record straight? Anecdotal/personal experiences are encouraged.

I have recently ventured into the world of vintage pens and have purchased two English Parker 51s for use as EDC/workhorse pens. I also picked up a few bottles of vintage Quink Permanent Blue with Solv-X that were made in England as I figured the ink should most definitely be safe to use in a Parker 51. I'm a blue ink girl at heart for my everyday inks, and tend to avoid black inks. Blue-blacks are hit or miss for me. I used to use Quink Washable blue back in my college days and discovered from unpleasant personal experience that it fades very badly. Sadly, I documented a significant portion of my flight time in my logbooks during my undergraduate flight training hours in Quink Washable Blue and those entries are now barely legible. Fortunately, enough of my logbook is in other inks, mostly ballpoint, that it's still usable as documentation of my flight time. I no longer fly professionally, so I am not concerned about the longevity of the entries as much anymore, but I would like to prevent similar ink fade in my current logbooks for flight and scuba diving, as well as in journals, record keeping, and correspondence. Just how permanent is the Quink Permanent Blue with Solv-X? Will I need to worry about significant fading, or is it pretty hardy? I have also purchased some Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa and Salix inks, but wasn't sure they would be good choices in the P51 pens due to them being harder to completely dismantle and clean should the collector clog with the IG inks. I intended to use them in other more easily cleaned pens. Are my instincts correct to avoid IG ink in a P51? I've attached photos of the box and bottle here so you can see the ink. There's no date on the box or bottles, so I am uncertain just how old the ink is, but my guess is not terribly old. The bottles are 2 fl. oz., or 57 cc.

I'd like to share my experience with Graf von Faber-Castell Violet Blue (see the attached image). The pen is freshly inked. The first few lines appear with a good saturated colour. Then the colour gradually bleaks, and remains bleak until the pen is empty. Next time the pen is inked the whole story repeats itself. Still the same with different pens on different paper types. The attached image is a collage: the upper part of the image shows what comes out immediately after inking, the lower part is the same text, written a again after a few pages. Needless to say, I am less than happy with such color inconsistency. I get the impression that when the pen is filled, the coloured particles dissolved in water somehow settle down to the nib/filler, so that most of the colour goes out with the first lines of text, the rest that comes out is just dirty water... Has anyone had this experience? With this or any other ink?

I will be taking lots of notes in the upcoming 3 years and I need them to be perfectly readable for at least 2 years from the date they are written. The notes will be frequently opened (exposure to sunlight) and I am worried that the ink may fade. My arsenal of inks includes different colours of Diamine and Lamy inks. Do I need Iron Gall ink(have been looking at ESS) to retain readability of my notes, as Noodler's are hard to come by here?

Like watercolour paints, fountain pen inks fade too. But don’t let this put you off. This is what I do to enhance and preserve my fountain pen ink artworks: Paper: Use heavy paper stocks of good quality (Bockingford, Arches, Waterford Saunders). The thicker the better. The paper will absorb the inks deeper into the fibres. Thin papers fade faster. Varnish: When an artwork is finished I spray with a waterbased varnish. Don’t go mad with it! Very gently apply the varnish with the artwork a good 50cms from the can. Allow a small fine spray to settle and let dry. Repeat this process 5-7 times. Build up the varnish slowly and never saturate the art! Otherwise the ink can go back into solution and start to run. Matt and gloss varnishes are available. The big picture shows a test sample created in 2012. The area on the left has been varnished. The area on the right has been left unvarnished and shows signs of fading. (Pic taken today). A good friend of mine who lives in tropical Queensland, uses a 2 pack epoxy varnish on her watercolours, as the heat and humidity of the tropical environment can destroy a decent artwork in a matter of months! Light: Don’t ever leave artworks in direct sunlight. Hang your artwork sensibly on walls where direct light will never fall on the picture. I have tried all sorts of things over the years but the the 3 tips mentioned work best and serve me well. Hope this helps. Check out the website at: https://quinkandbleach.wordpress.com

I thought it might be useful to have a thread that lists writers experiences of fading inks. I usually try and avoid inks that fade a lot, but some fade only a little and while this doesn't bother me too much it might bother others. For ease of reading, perhaps we can devise a grading of fading as follows: Significant: the ink fades very significantly, either in terms of a big change of colour or in shade or has disappearing or unreadable text. Moderate: The text is still readable, but there is a noticeable shift in colour or shade but it is still, more or less, the colour it proclaims itself to be. Mild: Some fading, but you have to look hard at comparisons to notice. For me, I would like to avoid inks that have significant fading. Sometimes this can be noticeable within weeks of laying the ink on the page and at other times it doesn't become apparent until a year or two later. Thankfully I have yet to discover a 'significant' fading ink. Here's my list: Iroshizuku Fuyu-Gaki (Moderate) Waterman Mysterious Blue (Moderate)+ Montbanc Royal Blue (Moderate) Noodler's Cactus Fruit Eel (Mild) Diamine Majestic Blue (Mild) Akkerman Verhoot (Mild) Noodler's Purple Martin (Mild) Sailor Bungbox Happiness (Mild) J Herbin Blue Pervenche (Mild) Montblanc Leo Tolstoy (Moderate)* Pelikan Edelstein Topaz (Mild) Montblanc Dark Blue (Moderate) +I'm a little concerned about this one. I haven't had it long and it has faded very noticeably. *This discovery hurt. I love this ink. It seems to survive alright in a normal nib, but a stub nib highlights the shift in shade.

Just the other day, I had the idea for an ink that could be written with normally, but then automatically fade away completely within a certain short time frame, like 24 hours or so. Since then, I have searched the internet a bit and determined that it is possible to make, and even found videos on how to make it yourself and novelty items using the concept. Of course, making colored water that can turn clear because of a chemical reaction is just not the same as having an ink that is truly fountain pen viable, which is what I would be using it for. Because of that, it would be so great to find any ink maker/company interested in the concept (Noodler's springs to mind), or at least find someone who's tried making and writing with it. What possible uses could this ink have? I'll try and name a few, but it would be helpful if anyone offers any more ideas. reusing the same paper like a cheapskatewriting in a journal without being self-conscious (the idea that sparked my interest)general security purposesmessing around and having funfooling and tricking people you likefooling and tricking people you don't like Just to help, here are several notable links I found while searching: http://www.howcast.com/videos/281379-How-to-Make-Disappearing-Ink http://chemistry.about.com/od/demonstrationsexperiments/ss/disappearink.htmhttp://www.thinkgeek.com/product/bf21/http://www.amazon.com/Fun-Express-25-90-Disappearing/dp/B009T9JJSM

I picked up a new (to me) Esterbrook recently: a blue J with a 2668 nib in really great condition: no cracks or noticeable scratches, has a clear, strong imprint, good nib, new sac, etc. The grip section is very discolored though-- it goes from black, to off-black, to olive green. Is there any way to re-blacken the section safely? If not, where's a good source for replacement sections? I've done some cursory searches on Ebay but I'm not sure if I'm looking at the right items. Thanks!

I wrote the samples in the image below on a page of Rhodia 80 g/m2 5 mm grid white paper using a Pelikan M400 14K fine point nib. (The original photo is 3.9 Mb so I had to save it as a TIFF file to get it below the 1.95 Mb limit - no noticeable loss of color or detail.) I cut the page vertically and kept the left half in a notebook, and placed the right half in the sun for approximately 50 hours. The inks used in their order of appearance in the sample writing were: J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche; Pelikan Royal Blue; Levenger Cobalt Blue; J. Herbin Bleu Azur; and J. Herbin Café des Îles. Some observations I thought you might find useful: The Pelikan Royal Blue ink faded the most, and the Levenger Cobalt Blue seemed entirely unaffected. The J. Herbin Bleu Azur was second most affected and the J. Herbin Café des Îles was second least affected. I was surprised at how the Pelikan Royal Blue faded almost into invisibility, and was not surprised about the J. Herbin Bleu Azur being strongly affected by light. I was very pleased that my favorite inks, the J. Herbin Café des Îles and the J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche were nearly unaffected and can therefore be expected to last indefinitely under normal document storage conditions. I wonder if the Pelikan Royal Blue is more susceptible to fading from other environmental conditions as badly as it is under bright light? Light Fastness Review Sample.tiff