Inky T O D - Which Ink Properties Are Most Important To You?

[amberleadavis]

You can vote for more than one. The poll doesn't have a ranking system so don't check the properties that are just nice, but not essential. The ones you check should be really important.

 

BTW, the order is not necessarily my order of importance. I can only include a limited number of questions so I'm sorry it's not more targeted, but in the future, we can discuss the details.

 

Thanks for participating.

 

Amber

 

Oh, and this will be the Question / Thought for the WEEKEND

[The Blue Knight]

Don't mean to be rude of course but I think you have missed out one important property I can't see above.

 

Lubricating property / high viscosity. This is why I'd rather spend a premium on JHerbin bottles over other brands as it can turn a a relatively cheap pen like a Parker frontier into a pen which is smoother then one that cost 5 times as much.

[odd_soul]

Great poll! I look forward to seeing what wins out once more people participate. Personally, I really look for color and shading, but it's also gotta flow well!

[amberleadavis]

Don't mean to be rude of course but I think you have missed out one important property I can't see above.

 

Lubricating property / high viscosity. This is why I'd rather spend a premium on JHerbin bottles over other brands as it can turn a a relatively cheap pen like a Parker frontier into a pen which is smoother then one that cost 5 times as much.

 

Wait, isn't lubricating different because it protects the pens? Also, viscosity is addressed above as flow.

 

If you can explain what you want a little, better, I'll drop off another point and add that.

[The Blue Knight]

 

Wait, isn't lubricating different because it protects the pens? Also, viscosity is addressed above as flow.

 

I'm not sure but basically what I kind of mean is how a Herbin ink can make a pen feel buttery smooth while a Sheaffer ink can make a pen feel feels like quite scratchy. So I mean lubricating between pen and paper not a piston or what ever all those specific noodler's inks do.

 

 

On a Macroscopic level surely a highly viscous ink fills in the imperfections in the tipping material as it's viscous it will not be drawn to the paper as rapidly and as such the microscopic cavities will be filled. This would in theory I think make the pen feel smoother.

 

I think what we experience as wet or dry is the total effect of a number of property's.I Imagine that some wet inks do not provide a noticeable reduction between the friction of the pen and paper.

Edited April 18, 2014 by top pen

[amberleadavis]

Wet ink v. Dry Ink. You (and I) both prefer wet inks.

[amberleadavis]

BTW, this is a great show and tell about Viscosity. A simulation of substances with different viscosities. The substance above has lower viscosity than the substance below.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Viscosity.gif

 

The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of itsresistance to gradual deformation by shear stress or tensile stress. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal notion of "thickness". For example, honey has a higher viscosity thanwater.^{[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscosity}

[cellmatrix]

I voted for shading but one other thing thats important to me is minimal line spreading which may or may not be the same as feathering.

[inkstainedruth]

I voted for color, reasonable dry times, no smudging, and no bleed- or show through. Think I vote for waterproofness, too.

Stuff like shading and sheen are nice, but not a requirement. I can't quibble about stuff like nib creep or clogging, though, because one of my favorite inks is Noodler's Kung Te Cheng....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Abner C. Kemp]

One thing that drives me crazy: Nib Creep. I can't stand tapping the nib on paper or priming the feed just to get my pen writing… I don't care how bulletproof or waterproof or magical an ink is, if I can't pick up my pen and write without annoyance than I don't want the ink. I've found I can deal with an ink that takes a bit longer to dry and I haven't found many inks that feather or bleed through on Rhodia paper. Waterproofness is a plus but almost an afterthought at this point. Color is important to me though, I tend to like inks that are either very "standard/boring" (MB Royal Blue / Parker Quink Black / Pilot Blue Black) or inks that are "interesting/original" (MB Balzac / Diamine Ancient Copper / Visconti Green). I've probably spent more money on ink than pens and have noticed that I am trending towards slightly more expensive inks with better flow and more interesting color but less permanency. I have 11 bottles after two more purchases today and at least a dozen half used samples. I'm hoping I have satisfied my ink need for awhile.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Abner C. Kemp

[casualmerlinconstant]

One thing that drives me crazy: Nib Creep. I can't stand tapping the nib on paper or priming the feed just to get my pen writing… I don't care how bulletproof or waterproof or magical an ink is, if I can't pick up my pen and write without annoyance than I don't want the ink. I've found I can deal with an ink that takes a bit longer to dry and I haven't found many inks that feather or bleed through on Rhodia paper. Waterproofness is a plus but almost an afterthought at this point. Color is important to me though, I tend to like inks that are either very "standard/boring" (MB Royal Blue / Parker Quink Black / Pilot Blue Black) or inks that are "interesting/original" (MB Balzac / Diamine Ancient Copper / Visconti Green). I've probably spent more money on ink than pens and have noticed that I am trending towards slightly more expensive inks with better flow and more interesting color but less permanency. I have 11 bottles after two more purchases today and at least a dozen half used samples. I'm hoping I have satisfied my ink need for awhile.

Nib creep is annoying as hell. But I live with it haha.

[mirosc]

At the moment dry time is the most important property for me.

[MusterMark]

Nib crust. No thank you.

 

I have completely contradictory tastes. I love the way the less saturated (than every other ink) Waterman inks look on the page. I don't know how to describe what I like about it other than to say that it looks like someone's been writing with water colors. I also love Akkerman Shocking Blue, which is so saturated it smudges at the slightest touch. Go figure.

[amberleadavis]

I understand I am willing to own different inks to appease different whims or tastes, for example, an ink cannot be both red and green (oh wait may be J Herbin 1670), but the nib crud scares me.

[load81]

Color and saturation mostly do it for me. Some shading and being wet / lubricating is a plus. Never understood why being "bulletproof" is something desireable with an ink, at least not in recreational writing.

[WC Lee]

As long as there is no feathering and no nib crud, I am one happy camper. I am even willing to deal with staining and hard to clean inks if the color really appeals to me like Bay State Blue, granted it doesn't get much use but I just love that bright, in your face blue. How wet or dry the ink is doesn't matter much to me cause I have some pens that does better with dry ink and and some pens that does better with wet ink. Saturation isn't a big concern as long as the ink doesn't look like water.

Edited April 21, 2014 by WC Lee

[David_W]

Amber's poll suggests a series of considerations that people could use when reviewing an ink, and might even lead to a database of scores in the categories it suggests.

 

 

To give an example of how this could be useful, I have a bottle of Yard-O-Led Blue Black, which is made by Diamine and looks to be very similar if not identical to the later revision of Diamine Blue Black. The tendency to form "nib crud" is such that it can dry very quickly in the nib slit of my Yard-O-Led Viceroy Grand (F nib), making the pen almost impossible to restart. The resulting mess looks impressive under a loupe! This drying can happen even if the pen is capped, especially if it's not left with the nib pointing up.

 

I love the pen and I'm reasonably happy with the colour, but I can't see this pairing of pen and ink being a long term one. The nib might benefit from the slit being tweaked to be very slightly wider, but once the ink starts to flow, the pen is a fairly wet writer.

 

If I knew the ink was this prone to nib crud, I'd have looked elsewhere, as I know that the large nib on this pen makes nib crud particularly problematic to deal with.

 

 

I'm looking at something completely different for the long term pairing for that pen. Iroshizuku Yama-Budo is top of my shortlist at the moment, but I will have to order some of that ink to try it. I may have to look to less saturated inks, but don't want something too washed out as I want decent contrast with the fairly narrow line the nib lays down on good paper.

 

When I get chance, I'll flush the pen and fill it with Quink Blue Black. I don't like the new Quick Blue Black half as much as the older Solv-X formulation, but it tends to be a low maintenance ink and it will be interesting to see how the Yard-O-Led performs with this ink.

 

 

I realise that scores for "nib crud" would be very subjective, but it would still be useful to know what inks people rate as low for nib crud and medium to high for lubricity, as they are likely to be the best pairing for my pen.

 

If an ink database was developed, there could even be a facility to match the characteristics of the pen (which you could input as parameters to get suggestions - for example, a large nib in an oversize pen suggests "nib crud" is a concern, and a fine nib suggests low saturation inks are not ideal) people could also rate) to the available inks to suggest possible matches.

 

 

Maybe I'm making this far too complex, but there's far more to choosing the right ink for a pen than liking the colour on a swab or review.

[amberleadavis]

Amber's poll suggests a series of considerations that people could use when reviewing an ink, and might even lead to a database of scores in the categories it suggests.

 

 

To give an example of how this could be useful, I have a bottle of Yard-O-Led Blue Black, which is made by Diamine and looks to be very similar if not identical to the later revision of Diamine Blue Black. The tendency to form "nib crud" is such that it can dry very quickly in the nib slit of my Yard-O-Led Viceroy Grand (F nib), making the pen almost impossible to restart. The resulting mess looks impressive under a loupe! This drying can happen even if the pen is capped, especially if it's not left with the nib pointing up.

 

I love the pen and I'm reasonably happy with the colour, but I can't see this pairing of pen and ink being a long term one. The nib might benefit from the slit being tweaked to be very slightly wider, but once the ink starts to flow, the pen is a fairly wet writer.

 

If I knew the ink was this prone to nib crud, I'd have looked elsewhere, as I know that the large nib on this pen makes nib crud particularly problematic to deal with.

 

 

I'm looking at something completely different for the long term pairing for that pen. Iroshizuku Yama-Budo is top of my shortlist at the moment, but I will have to order some of that ink to try it. I may have to look to less saturated inks, but don't want something too washed out as I want decent contrast with the fairly narrow line the nib lays down on good paper.

 

When I get chance, I'll flush the pen and fill it with Quink Blue Black. I don't like the new Quick Blue Black half as much as the older Solv-X formulation, but it tends to be a low maintenance ink and it will be interesting to see how the Yard-O-Led performs with this ink.

 

 

I realise that scores for "nib crud" would be very subjective, but it would still be useful to know what inks people rate as low for nib crud and medium to high for lubricity, as they are likely to be the best pairing for my pen.

 

If an ink database was developed, there could even be a facility to match the characteristics of the pen (which you could input as parameters to get suggestions - for example, a large nib in an oversize pen suggests "nib crud" is a concern, and a fine nib suggests low saturation inks are not ideal) people could also rate) to the available inks to suggest possible matches.

 

 

Maybe I'm making this far too complex, but there's far more to choosing the right ink for a pen than liking the colour on a swab or review.

 

 

Ah, David, you read my mind, in part .

 

In writing reviews, I've thought about what interests me, and then written about it. If I know specific topics which interest others, then I add those to my reviews. Until I started thinking about what characteristics were important to me, I couldn't come up with a way to decide if I would probably like an ink based on the reviews of others. Turns out, for me, color was really important, but not "enough" or as we say in logical terms, necessary but not sufficient.

[amberleadavis]

Backstage someone asked about Nib Crud / Ink Crud.

 

Here's a picture from Dillo.

 

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2893/10158669164_2b04c648f0_b.jpg

 

Here is a picture from JefferyS.

 

[WC Lee]

if an ink does that, it has not business being anywhere near a pen ... I wouldn't even use it on an inexpensive Preppy ...