Ink Suggesstions For Beginner

[Archman66]

I am a new to fountain pen and am waiting on a Pilot Metropolitan to arrive. I went ahead and bought cartrdges, and a converter. If I wanted to delve into bottled inks, what would you recommend? I've read that certain inks require more and more frequent maintenance for your pen. Not that that's bad, but maybe not the first choice for a beginner. I both write and sketch, so that might be a factor. Any suggestions on brands of bottled inks and colors for a beginner to try?

[yamaha_no_46]

There are so many ink experts here in the forum. But as an average user, I highly recommend Parker Quink Blue or Quink Black to be the first general purpose ink to start with. They are fairy priced, the bottles are big that will last a long time and I think they are very good quality inks. I tried Waterman and Sheaffer Blue, they were a bit lighter shade to my liking.

Edited April 4, 2014 by yamaha_no_46

[cellmatrix]

Pilot blue and pilot blue black are both excellent inks. If you want to try something fancy eventually, then Pilot has a line of "special" inks called iroshizuku which are quite nice.

[Archman66]

I've read that Diamine and Waterman inks are "low maintenance" inks, and Noodler inks are notorious cloggers. It was this article that lead me to think maybe there are inks that a beginner may want to avoid at first until he/she gains experience and familiarity with his/her fountain pen and has more confidence in flushing/cleaning.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Archman66

[cellmatrix]

You must have been reading Richard Binders site. I think he gives good advice.

[Uncle Red]

There are certain Noodler's inks that are high maintenance but not all of them are.

 

Noodler's Blue or Antietam

Private Reserve velvet Black

Diamine Washable Blue or Oxblood

De Atramentis Atlantic Blue or Steel Blue or Tobacco.

+1 for Pilot Blue

If you're afraid of getting ink on your hands, clothes, etc then try Pelikan Royal Blue

[ac12]

I use both Waterman and Cross (made by Pelikan).

I use Waterman in my dry pen, to get the ink to flow.

I use Cross in my wet pens, to slow down the ink flow.

 

I think I had Waterman loaded into my Pilot Metro, and it worked just fine.

[themadstork]

There are certain Noodler's inks that are high maintenance but not all of them are.

 

Noodler's Blue or Antietam

Private Reserve velvet Black

Diamine Washable Blue or Oxblood

De Atramentis Atlantic Blue or Steel Blue or Tobacco.

+1 for Pilot Blue

If you're afraid of getting ink on your hands, clothes, etc then try Pelikan Royal Blue

 

I am a complete newbie to fountain pens and inks however I agree that Noodler's Antietam is well behaved in my minimal experience. I have it in my Lamy safari F which I take notes with for college on cheap notebook paper. In my experience Antietam exhibits minimal showthrough and no bleedthrough or feathering even on the paper I write on.

Edited April 5, 2014 by themadstork

[Archman66]

Interesting! That's good news, because I find the Noodlers Antietam to be an elegant color.

[quantumboy]

If you want something a little off the blue and black, try private reserve tanzanite. It's a purple/blue that behaves extremely well in every pen I've tried. In general, I have found both private reserve and diamine inks to be well behaved, low maintenance and with more options for color than I could ever try. The waterman, parker and pelikan inks are all great but not a lot of variety on color.

[Archman66]

Yes, I've even read that if you mix 1 part Waterman blue and 1 part Waterman purple, it is indistinguishable from tanzanite.

[amberleadavis]

I'd suggest samples. This was the tip given to me and I followed that advice. Saved me tons of time and money. I think.

 

Buy a couple of inks samples in each color

 

Blue

Black

Orange

Red

Green

Purple

 

Goulet has swab shop that's terrific, and they sell samples. Even better, you can sort by "most popular" and choose that way if you are unsure. See what others are buying.

 

Once you have tried several inks you'll have a better feel for what you like and what you don't like.

 

Finally, journal about your experience. Taking the time to reflect upon you choices will improve your decisions in the future.

[rafizip]

So I've been a pretty conservative ink person, basic black, basic blue and the ever popular Blue-Black. It's time to try some real color. Without getting to crazy to start, looking for some suggestions (I know this group has a few) on colors to try to ease out of the black and blue mode.

[Shyner]

Just bought my first bottled ink - Noodler's Blue Eel. Was it a bad first ink choice? Haven't used it yet.

I have a piston type Rotring Core, and am awaiting the arrival of a lever fill Esterbrook. Will I do in these

pens with the Blue Eel?

[CrimsonM]

So I've been a pretty conservative ink person, basic black, basic blue and the ever popular Blue-Black. It's time to try some real color. Without getting to crazy to start, looking for some suggestions (I know this group has a few) on colors to try to ease out of the black and blue mode.

 

I like diamine ancient copper, broke out of black with that and its refreshing to see such cool shading.

[Glenn Atkins]

parker quink blue sucks. looks fine going down but dries to a chalky looking pale blue like a bad 1970's tuxedo.

 

Glenn

[NKessler]

Many of the "warnings" regarding Noodler's inks are based on the Baystate inks. Those inks are extremely vibrant in color and they offer amazing permanence, but they require quite a bit of maintenance. As long as you stick with Noodler's normal range of inks, you'll be just fine.

 

Richard Binder's website is full of good information regarding inks (reds and purples are harder to clean than blues and blacks, ect.), but only the most conservative of pen owners or those who are using only high-value vintage pens should worry about using highly saturated inks like Noodler's and Private Reserve.

 

As to the question of Noodler's Blue Eel, I've found that ink to be wonderful and not high-maintenance at all.

[Moose22]

Blue eel is fine. Not my favorite, but still good. A friend loves it and uses it often. Neither of us have had problems with it.

 

As for "notorious cloggers" NKessler has it right. It is possible that Baystate blue doesn't play well with other inks on certain occasions in certain pens... It's also possible Ford didn't have a good car in the Edsel and has made a hundred perfectly good models of car since.

 

Actually, I don't even want to call Bay State Blue an edsel. It's just -- quirky. It is higher maintenance and you just have to know that going in. I have one pen for it and only use it in that pen. The same with Kung te Cheng, as it is almost impossible to clean out and doesn't play well with others. So, one pen is dedicated, but it is a great ink in many ways. Partly due to the fact that NOTHING gets it out of paper, it never fades, and it's a darned attractive color if you don't want to play with IG inks.

 

Everything else Noodler's I own or use has been fine and requires no extra maintenance. I have HoD black, Noodler's Black, Black Swan in Australian Roses, Anteitam -- Antietam is my regular red and has been in many of my pens over the last year. I've also dipped into a dozen other Noodler's colors via the 3ml samples from goulet or isellpens or anderson without any fussiness.

 

You'll find different inks suit different pens, too. My metropolitan is as basic a pen as it gets but not a super wet writer so I used Pilot blue, Visconti Blue (my favorite standard blue), and Graf von Faber Castel Moss Green. I tried Waterman Serenety blue and it works great, but it's boring and the Pilot blue is just as good. If you want a little more pop, J Herbin Eclat de Saphir or Mont Blanc Royal blue have been really well behaved and both look good in my Pilots.

 

Truly, take Amberlea's suggestion and hit up goulet's swab shop or isellpens samples. For the price of a single bottle of ink you can try ten or 15 if you want, and then only buy ones you think you'll use. They send you enough for two fat fills and a dip or three normal fillups, so you can do plenty of writing just on sample vials while you decide.

[fljones3]

Diamine blue black is great.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

As I reckon a so-called 'beginners ink' should be a learning experience, today I'll suggest Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue.

 

Using inks that are very fast to clean-up may result in developing lax practices, so ink with a very high dye-load will give you better feedback as to the effectiveness of your clean-up regimen, and allow you to determine your personal Tedium Tolerance Threshold.

 

PRDCSsBl will give you [harmless] negative feedback if mistreated - left lingering for days without use, or in an uncapped or empty pen. That will give you an idea of how your manner of use & handling FPs can be developed. (I consider many problems blamed on ink to be a result of inappropriate handling.)

 

As that ink can be manipulated by simple dilution to give a range of values (light - dark), it will demonstrate how aspects such as chroma (vibrancy) can be fine-tuned in concert with perception of hue.

 

The ink is not without foibles, so using it on various papers will give you an idea of what to look for in terms of line quality, lubricity, smear/dry times, bleed- show-through, etc.

 

During that time you should also be developing a 'proper' grip, and breaking away from habits carried forward from years of using other writing implements.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited April 5, 2014 by Sandy1