Most Disappointing Ink Buy

[JimB]

 

 

Actually, I never said it did NOT shade, but that the shading was not the darker, deeper orange-red I saw in reviews and scans. My complaint is that it was too yellowish, too light to read if writing anything longer than a note or a paragraph. Journaling? Fuhgeddaboutit!

 

I'm kind of the opposite. If I use it in a small nib its a really dark orange, no yellow at all. It looks nice in a flexy nib but I was hoping it would be more yellow in a small nib. :roflmho:

If I had bought the entire bottle instead of a sample I would have offered to trade!

[Chris]

Pelikan 4001 Red - because it is not red but orange. Anyone remember Tizer?

 

Diamine WES Imperial Blue - I just don't like the colour as it is too purple for me.

 

Waterman Florida Blue - now you see it, now you don't ! Runs away at the first sign of water or sunlight.

 

Any Quink - brings back memories of schooldays and fighting poor pens to get them to write with Parker Quink.

 

Chris

[wollollo]

I've not had great experiences with Lamy Blue Black, some of my notes from a few years ago are now no longer blue-black, but rather a pale boring grey. (Cartridge version, btw.)

 

Naturally my daily workhorse ink is Quink Blue Black, which has been given a lot of stick in this thread. I also enjoy my MB Burgundy Red, but only in some pens -- it gets along well with my (very wet) Ahab, and also with the Manuscript calligraphy pen.

[youblue9]

Noodler’s Periwinkle for me. I was so excited about this ink when it came out that I purchased one of the first available bottles. I love periwinkle as a color, and I’d had really good experiences with Noodler’s inks. However, the color of my bottle is way off of the standard – there’s no blue in it at all, it’s more of a lilac color. (I’ve since acquired a sample from a different source, and I know that it isn’t just my eyes – my bottle is definitely not the shade the ink is supposed to be.)

 

On top of that, it has terrible flow, and is a hard starter in every pen I’ve tried it in to the point that it is completely unusable for me. Part of the problem may be that I prefer XF nibs; I’m given to understand that this ink works better in B or wider nibs.

 

The bottle’s basically been sitting around collecting dust for several years now. I’ve thought about trying to sell it, but since the color is off, I can’t even do that. Huge disappointment.

[vistafan]

Diamine Woodland Green - Whilst it performs well, I have realised I prefer my greens to have yellow undertones as opposed to blue. I much prefer Diamine Meadow and Kelly Green.

[Chris S]

PR Black Cherry. Like others have said - not really sure what colour it is supposed to be.

Lamy Green. Looked at it and went "Whoa", and not in a good way.

J. Herbin Gris Nuage. Did not matter which pen or which paper, almost impossible to read when it dried.

 

OP: sorry you had issues with Apache Sunset. I'm still amazed at how much it shades in my Ahab. One of my favorites.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

For me, I had PR shell pink. I was hoping for something more, well, pink. Sailor Brown wasn't quite what I wanted in terms of brown.

 

Dillon

[publishing guy]

It's funny, some inks that work well for me are on this thread. Let's see, I've never met an Iroshizuku ink I liked. Private Reserve Invincible Aqua Blue was so bad I can't understand why they brought it to market.

+1 on Invicible Aqua Blue. I shouldn't knock it; I'd love to sell a full (minus one fill) bottle to someone. The color is too bad even for an envelope; noone would open the letter.

[..lol..]

My most disappointing inks are the old formulation of Omas Blue, 95 mL of ink sitting on a desk.. Then all quinks and waterman blue black, which I used to take notes in class and now I have these notes in a nice shade of... Green. Ugly ink.

 

EDIT: I hate the staining properties and its feathering of diamine sapphire blue, but I think that a lamy M is too broadish for such a free flowing ink

Edited July 26, 2012 by ..lol..

[Messmer]

Hero 232: That ink stink! Also, I don't like too much non waterproof ink. I really won't recommand that ink. The only good point is: it is a really inexpensive ink! So you don't loss too much money by sending the bottle in the garbage bin.

[ShawnD]

Winsor & Newton inks. The bottle said it's for fountain and dip pens, but it's much too thick for fountain pens. Searching if anyone else had this problem brought me to this forum. Someone else complained that W&N didn't flow very well.

They started to work better after mixing them about half and half with Quink black. I'm surprised how well black mixes with them. Red and black makes an interesting color. Purple and black just makes a darker shade of purple.

[fiberdrunk]

In the late 90's or so I bought several different colors of J. Herbin fountain pen inks after a glowing review of them in a calligraphy mail order catalog. The review mentioned the inks were "lightfast and permanent." The ink colors were beautiful and jewel-like, but they were in nowise "lightfast and permanent," which is what I needed most in an ink. Indeed, J. Herbin was the first brand out of many I tested to fade away in sunshine tests (Violette Pensee in particular faded dramatically within a week, but all of them eventually disappeared completely). So that was a bitter disappointment. I gave the inks to a friend who doesn't mind non-permanent inks. And now I know to always test an ink to see if it really is permanent enough for my needs or not (I do genealogy, so that's why I need permanence).

[funkypeanut]

Sailor Epinard. A fantastic color. It would be my everyday ink except it has clogged EVERY pen I have used it in including 2 TWSBI's, a Visconti, and Esterbrook, a Lamy 2000 and a Edison Hudson. Every couple months I fill another pen and within a few days the pens start skipping.

 

 

 

That's fascinating. I've used Epinard in my Duofold Centennial with a CI nib since I got the ink back in April, and it's smooth and even a bit wet, gorgeous shading. So sorry you're having skip problems.

 

I love Epinard! I've used it in my TWSBI and Lamy with no problems, and it's such a wonderful color. For me the disappointment was Blue Nose Bear. You say halo; I say bruise.

[Lazarus Long]

Waterman Green - A very weak washed out green. I think I filled my pen once with it, and didn't make it all the way through.

 

Waterman Florida Blue. Also weak and washed out. I recently tried it in a Pelikan instead of my Lamy Safari, my opinion has since improved a little bit.

 

PR Tanzanite. Despite its reputation as the Ex-Lax of inks, it didn't work for me. After being in the pen a few days, it skips and stops. I haven't found any SITB though.

 

Noodler's Midnight Blue & BBK. I just don't like blue-black. It looks like a drab bluish grey to me, not dark blue like I was hoping.

 

Noodler's Bad Green Gator. Almost unusable - gushes like a fire hose. Fortunately I only got a sample.

 

Noodler's #41 & Brown. I just don't like brown much. Nothing really wrong with the ink.

[Scrawler]

<snip>

I tried out Apache Sunset first, and it was way more yellow than orange or red, based on reviews I read, and the shading never approached anything like reds I had been seeing.

 

<snip>

I am really surprised to read this. I was sitting hear doodling with Apache Sunset in a Parker Televisor. It is everything I had been lead to believe. It varies between yellow, red and brown with lots of shading. The depth of colour difference varies with nib pressure. It is lovely ink for a flex nib pen.

[Jeremiah]

My biggest disappointment was probably Noodler's Baystate Blue (in my defense, I had literally been collecting fountain pens for only one day). My desk and stainless steel sink regret it, too. Next comes Waterman Red--it had a nice color, but ended up clogging my nib. It seemed to "curdle," leaving a crusty green residue on/in the nib when not in use for more than about twenty minutes. Thirdly, Blue Sheaffer Skrip ink was disappointing because it struck me more as a washed-out shade of indigo, raththan blue (at least, after my BSB experience :roflmho: ).

Edited July 27, 2012 by Jeremiah

[Vignette]

Waterman Green. The color just rubs me the wrong way and feels artificial, overbearing, weak and wishy-washy all at once.

 

So Waterman Harmonious Green should have been renamed instead, maybe, Waterman Pretentious Green?

 

Exactly!

[Fabienne]

Noodler's Pasternak and Diamine Sepia. For some reason both of these colors set me teeth on edge and I emptied them out of my pen after writing with them for a day. I think they were just too light. Havana Brown was real middle of the road brown and feathered like mad. Waterman Blue was meh. Diamine Meadow shaded like mad but was harsh lighter green.

Edited July 27, 2012 by Fabienne

[nostalgic]

Waterman green is rather unappealing.

 

Quink black - the only ink that stopped flow in my 149. Threw it out.

 

Herbin gris nuage - the grey so pale it was almost illegible.

 

Herbis eclat de saphir - like a number of folks, my bottle had fungus globs. Got a refund.

 

-------------------------

 

+1 on Herbin gris nuage: May be good for artist coloring, but too light for reading ordinary handwriting--even with medium-bold nibs..

[SHK]

Montegrappa - Blue