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

[amberleadavis]

I can't cope with Nib Crud.... makes me queasy. I wonder if putting these pictures here will make any difference to the votes?

[WC Lee]

I stay away from inks that does that, I don't want to deal with cleaning the pen everyday before using it. It's a good thing there are only a few inks that does that. Hopefully, I don't get the urge to try them just for the hell of it ....

 

I don't think the pictures will change too much in the polls, the inks that cause nib crud isn't what I would call everyday inks for a majority of fountain pen users, well, maybe one of them might be.

[inkstainedruth]

This has been a very interesting topic, especially given the conversation I had with someone last night. We had gone for a drive and ended up at the house of someone my husband knows, returning some brass artwork we had displayed for him at our food booth in March. After dinner, the guy was drawing up a map for us to get back to roads we knew for the trip home (he sort of lives out in the boonies and we met him at a mini-mart near an interstate, then we followed him the rest of the way to where he and his wife live). In order to help orient myself, I pulled out a pen to make a few extra notes on the map, and it happened to be the Azure Blue Pearl Vac (currently filled up with De Atramentis Red Roses). So that turned into a discussion about pens and inks, and my husband said "Ask her how many inks she has!" And I had to admit that there were around 120 different samples. Now admittedly, a lot of those are not ones I got full bottles of, (which I told him) but it is still a fair number, especially from the vantage point of a non-FP user.

So then our host asked "Why?" As in "What is it that makes all those inks different?" So I started explaining about "wet" vs. "dry", which then lead to a description of viscosity; and then of course there are the other attributes that we on this forum sort of take for granted, like waterproofness, sheen, shading, etc.

Turned out the reason he was asking was that his brother collects watches, and he was trying to understand, I think, the mindset of people who do any sort of collecting hobby. He said that he has had 3 Timex watches over the years, and they worked fine for him; but then his brother had a $3000 watch and he was trying to understand why his brother thought that was "better". And to some extent I was agreeing with him (except of course for me it would have been a $25 Casio sportswatch). But at the same time, I was thinking of conversations I've had with my husband in trying to explain the color nuances between say, Yama-budo and BSiAR. Or why I prefer Waterman's Mysterious Blue over some other blue-blacks in vintage pens.

So it was a very odd experience. I've been involved with similar discussions on threads here, but this was different in that I was trying to explain the rationale to someone with very different interests (he's a falconer, as it happens, and has been for a really long time, and part of the reason my husband talked me into that far a drive was so he could go see the birds, which I meant to do as well, but got talking to the guy's wife).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[TSherbs]

1) color (pleasing to me)

 

2) lubriciousness (good flow and feel on paper)

 

3) minimal feathering (really don't like it)

[dcwaites]

I'm going to abstain from voting, because to me all the ink properties are important. You just can't get them all in one ink.

You can't get waterproof and washable in the same ink.

You can't get thick, glossy colour (like with Noodler's Blue or HOD) without long dry time, and probably smearing.

You can't get beautiful and bulletproof (and Nathan did try, with Elysium Blue).

 

As I explained in an earlier post in another thread today, each ink has a suite of properties.

You choose an ink for the properties that are most important for you in the task at hand, be it beautiful colour, waterproofness, no feathering/bleeding, etc.

[Medsen Fey]

For me waterproof, non-fading and fast drying are the key factors. There are a lot of beautiful inks that just won't do for my needs.

[David_W]

I'm going to abstain from voting, because to me all the ink properties are important. You just can't get them all in one ink.

This is very true - I have different inks for different purposes, with different priorities for the properties.

 

I voted for the core properties that I look for in any ink, considering my pens and their requirements.

[martinbir]

Did not check "Color - I want a specific color or shade" because I do enjoy a wide range of colours. But I can be very picky, to the point where I really only use about 6 or 8 of my 60 inks - the others all looked hopeful but somehow never quite hit the spot.

[knarflj]

Lots of the qualities on the list (feathering, bleed-through, water resistance, nib crud start time, smudge resistance … ) are fairly important to me and might keep me from adding a bottle to my little collection, but if I don't love the colour, can't clean it up when (not if!) I get it where it doesn't belong, and can't afford it, I won't even think about it.

[amberleadavis]

This has been a very interesting topic, especially given the conversation I had with someone last night. We had gone for a drive and ended up at the house of someone my husband knows, returning some brass artwork we had displayed for him at our food booth in March. After dinner, the guy was drawing up a map for us to get back to roads we knew for the trip home (he sort of lives out in the boonies and we met him at a mini-mart near an interstate, then we followed him the rest of the way to where he and his wife live). In order to help orient myself, I pulled out a pen to make a few extra notes on the map, and it happened to be the Azure Blue Pearl Vac (currently filled up with De Atramentis Red Roses). So that turned into a discussion about pens and inks, and my husband said "Ask her how many inks she has!" And I had to admit that there were around 120 different samples. Now admittedly, a lot of those are not ones I got full bottles of, (which I told him) but it is still a fair number, especially from the vantage point of a non-FP user.

So then our host asked "Why?" As in "What is it that makes all those inks different?" So I started explaining about "wet" vs. "dry", which then lead to a description of viscosity; and then of course there are the other attributes that we on this forum sort of take for granted, like waterproofness, sheen, shading, etc.

Turned out the reason he was asking was that his brother collects watches, and he was trying to understand, I think, the mindset of people who do any sort of collecting hobby. He said that he has had 3 Timex watches over the years, and they worked fine for him; but then his brother had a $3000 watch and he was trying to understand why his brother thought that was "better". And to some extent I was agreeing with him (except of course for me it would have been a $25 Casio sportswatch). But at the same time, I was thinking of conversations I've had with my husband in trying to explain the color nuances between say, Yama-budo and BSiAR. Or why I prefer Waterman's Mysterious Blue over some other blue-blacks in vintage pens.

So it was a very odd experience. I've been involved with similar discussions on threads here, but this was different in that I was trying to explain the rationale to someone with very different interests (he's a falconer, as it happens, and has been for a really long time, and part of the reason my husband talked me into that far a drive was so he could go see the birds, which I meant to do as well, but got talking to the guy's wife).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Way cool.

[jsolares]

Backstage someone asked about Nib Crud / Ink Crud.

 

Here's a picture from Dillo.

 

 

 

Here is a picture from JefferyS.

 

 

 

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa burn it with fire!!, that does look nasty :S

[pen2paper]

Learned to love nib creep of Luxury Blue on my semi-flex Wahl.

 

But, I draw the line at crusty crud. I tossed my favorite, and very pleasant yellow, Buttercup when it began to crust.

 

Tanzanite, yikes, not just floooowww>>>> it literally ran through my pen as though it was under pressure.

Cleaned the pen, added another ink, the pen was fine. That would be some seriously dry pen to need Tanzalax.

 

Finding old documents with clear readable ink is worth the cost of fade resistance. In another thread I mentioned finding an 1848 letter, with original envelope mailed to an early ceramics manufacturer. The ink was clear and readable after 150+ years. That ink was certainly worth it's price in historic value.

[dcwaites]

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better

Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,

He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,

Just ‘on spec’, addressed as follows, ‘Clancy, of The Overflow’.

 

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,

(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)

’Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:

‘Clancy’s gone to Queensland droving, and we don’t know where he are.’

 

That is the opening of one of Australia's iconic poems - Clancy of the Overflow, by A.B. Paterson

I am thinking that there is no way that the words written with tar are going to fade, nor feather or bleed, nor wash off in water, and would be as black, black, blacketty black as would ever suit Ethernautrix, and with a nice glossy shine and sheen to boot. Not too sure about the degree of flex with the writing instrument, though...

 

 

#Reference - http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/paterson/ab/man_from_snowy_river/chapter4.html

 

 

 

[A144]

Color is most important by far for me. The huge range of ink choices is what got me into fountain pens. So I buy ink based on color, not any special properties is has or doesn't.

 

Feathering is probably another concern. Until I can get my professors to print exams on Rhodia, I'll have to watch some of those real feathery inks. However, it won't stop me from buying an ink if I like it (Noodler's Bad Green Gator).

 

Bleed through is like feathering. Generally not a problem when I'm taking notes on Rhodia, but when I have to write on cheap paper, I can't have it bleeding through.