Pen And Ink Filling Rules - How Do You Choose Ink / Pen Combinations?

[senzen]

External rule: inks choose their pen; not rational but there you go.

 

My preferences: the hue I imagined, consistent colours, no shading.

 

I've come to appreciate lighter hues, usually thanks to EF nibs, as opposed to super saturated: Vert Empire, Kon Peki, Ajisai; or a light ink produced conistently, such as Gulf Blue in an EF Pelikan M205.

 

I'd rather have a wild colour in a subdued pen but it's not always posible, for instance my palladium Studio generates the perfect hue for Ama Iro.

 

Some pens require a bit of care and maintenance to keep them from drying out, mostly Lamy Vistas, silicone grease on section and body threads can help with other pens. The only ink that has worked with a Faber Castell Ambition and a Geha Goldschwinge is Sailor Rikyucha, perhaps other Sailor inks might also work.

 

Exception: Blue Velvet produces a very dark colour with lots of shading in a Waterman 33 possibly M.

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

Not sure how I've missed this thread before now....

Hmmm.   Rules?  What are these "rules" of which you speak?
A few pens get specific inks (either because they work well or because the inks look good coming out of them).  The rest?  If it is a good fit --- OR a really bad combination -- I try to remember to note (I have some cheapie composition books just for that purpose, but they're woefully out of date; I tried to set up 4 pages for every pen, but I haven't gotten the more recent acquisitions entered (I bought WAY too many pens last year... ) and may also have to redo the post it flags marking the beginning of each pen's listings.

Some pens get the same ink all the time for various reasons: the Red Shadow Wave Vac gets Waterman Mysterious Blue because that ink works so well in that pen; the M405 Blue Black gets Edelstein Tanzanite because it just works....  

My first bird, the M400 Brown Tortoise, has had various inks, but somehow always brown (Iroshizuku Yama-guri was too wet, but both Edelstein Smoky Quartz and Noodler's Walnut do well); I keep threatening to put Noodler's Navajo Turquoise in it as a change up, but it doesn't happen.

Sometimes it's not a match so much as a more subtle "I think this would look good coming out of this pen...."  As a result, even though it probably isn't such a good idea from a technical standpoint, De Atramentis (scented) Red Roses just looks SOOOO good coming out of one of the Azure Blue Pearl Vacs; I probably will need to get the sac replaced sooner rather than later as a result, but it's my pen and I think it's worth it.  And sometimes it's a behavioral match, rather than by brand or flow or color: there are, for instance, some pens I will not put an iron gall ink or a shimmer ink into (OTOH, I don't think twice about putting IG inks into the Parker Vectors).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[Chi]

My fast rules now,

1.) Ink characteristics and nib characteristics. 

2.) Ink colors reflects pen colors, if it can match, even better.

3.) Rotating pens and inks when I am in the mood for it and make a note. 

 

My nib preference have changed overtime, it went from XF to M-B now. Sometimes I would end up having to buy new pens to support my inks. Most recently I purchased a BENU Euphoria just to show off Diamine Winter Miracle, since I realized after trying all my wet pens with it, none of them can demonstrate both sheen and shimmer at the same time. They are either too wet for shimmer or not wet enough for the sheen. 

 

WIth the amount of inks and pens I have, I can semi-still keep track of the combos that bring out the beauty in inks I own. But I probably should start a spread sheet to keep a good record of what I have tried since the numbers of both are growing fast.

[Karmachanic]

11 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Hmmm.   Rules?  What are these "rules" of which you speak?

 

Yup.  It's your thing.  Do what you wanna do.

[brokenclay]

Like @inkstainedruth, I have a few pens that always get the same ink, mostly because they're hard to completely empty. Older pens (1930s, say) get "safe" inks (Waterman, Parker). Otherwise anything goes.

[InesF]

Calling it "rules" is maybe a bit too much. But yes, there are combinations that fit well while others do not.

Fountain pens with coloured bodies will be filled with an ink of a matching colour - it can be best possible the same or a contrast colour.

All the other inks are reserved for the neutral pens, the blank metal, the black, the white etc.

 

And finally, no exceptions any longer:

EF, F and all thos dry writing pens are filled with inks of low surface tension

M, B, stubs, etc. receive the high surface tension inks

NO more bad surprises!

[amberleadavis]

On 1/30/2022 at 7:51 AM, InesF said:

Calling it "rules" is maybe a bit too much. But yes, there are combinations that fit well while others do not.

Fountain pens with coloured bodies will be filled with an ink of a matching colour - it can be best possible the same or a contrast colour.

All the other inks are reserved for the neutral pens, the blank metal, the black, the white etc.

 

And finally, no exceptions any longer:

EF, F and all thos dry writing pens are filled with inks of low surface tension

M, B, stubs, etc. receive the high surface tension inks

NO more bad surprises!

 

Is this the result of your wetness experiments?

[InesF]

On 2/8/2022 at 5:19 AM, amberleadavis said:

Is this the result of your wetness experiments?

Yes, it is.

And as already said: no more bad surprises since!

 

It would be so helpful to have surface tension data for all available inks. 😎

[amberleadavis]

15 hours ago, InesF said:

Yes, it is.

And as already said: no more bad surprises since!

 

It would be so helpful to have surface tension data for all available inks. 😎

 

I agree!

 

BTW, your experiments are inspirational!