Cheapest Ink

[C-town]

I am on a limited budget and was wondering what ink is the cheapest. I want an ink that I can use for practicing with and not feel guilty about it. Does anyone know of an ink like this?

[D B Holtz]

Look on Ebay for Hero 233 blue ink. It's less than $5 with free delivery, and works just fine. There are reviews in Inky Thoughts.

 

DB

[vossad01]

Hero is also the cheapest I know of that is easily available. In addition to eBay, you might also try Tmart when looking for it.

 

231 - Red

232 - Blue Black

233 - Blue

234 - Carbon Black

 

For sure 232 and probably 234 I would classify as being higher maintenance.

[lmarine0510]

if you wanted to buy cheap, good ink in bulk, search eBay for "pilot namiki 350ml ink". You get virtually a lifetime's supply of ink for about 35 bucks

[lisadan]

I have been using Hero inks (the blue and red ones) for several years and both are good. Not too wet and very cheap. Private reserve inks are relatively inexpensive, with much more color variety than Hero's inks. Cost about $9 - $10 for 50 or 60ml bottle (shipping included) on eBay. They are more wet than Hero inks.

There are some other cheap inks that may pop up occasionally, mainly from China and India. Check eBay and Amazon for those. I had bought some cheap blue ink from India and from US sellers and have no complaints.

[mrcharlie]

I also have good experiences with the Hero 233 Blue. It is a nice color and behaves well, and is an eradicable/washable blue that is easy to flush from the pen. It ships from NY or NJ (I forget which) for about $5 per 60ml bottle including shipping.

 

You can find it at tmart's own website, amazon, or ebay. The seller name on amazon is Olymstore (and right now it seems to be cheaper to buy it via amazon than directly on tmart.com by about 40 cents, but I've seen it be the other way in the past). The seller name on ebay is alienbid, and currently that is the cheapest price at $4.57. It ships from the same place regardless of which website you buy it from.

 

I had to take a damp cellulose washcloth (disposable; could also use a paper towel of reasonable strength) and clean some thin film ink residue off the outside of the bottle when I received it for at least three if not all four bottles. No big deal.

[Algester]

the Pelikan 1 liter ink... also J. Herbin 100ml inks

[Buzz_130]

Another option is to buy some ink samples to find the characteristics of ink you desire. Depending on the pen you are using, you may want to find a wet or dry ink. Some must have waterproof or archival characteristics. Once you find the ink you need, then it's easy to purchase that one kind of ink. Many people here on inky thoughts have large collections of inks from around the world. If you find the one that you like, you will spend far less than the rest of us who explore every shade of blue or the darkest black or the perfect autumn colors or...

 

Buzz

[Sasha Royale]

Overall, ink is cheap. The difference between $5 per bottle and $10 per bottle will vanish, know that the bottle fills

your pen 70 times. I recommend using established brands of ink in your valuable fountain pens. No dispersion intended

toward :newcomer" inks. I prefer to allow a couple of decades of testing .

[SeeksAdvice]

I tend to agree on the use of established brands of ink.

While Noodler's has several inks with interesting properties, those inks are not something that I'd recommend to somebody wanting practice inks, even though they are fairly cheap. I have tried their Midway Blue, and it seems to be fairly trouble free and not terribly expensive (still not as well behaved as say Montblanc Royal Blue, but cheaper). Blue Eel is another one that can be had relatively cheaply, and seems to do "okay" for me. I have a bottle of FPH's Olde Dutch Colony Sepia that I'm not 100% sure is actually that ink, however, as a non-special properties ink, it does pretty well. Perhaps a bottle or two of their "V-mail" or non-Bulletproof/warden/eternal line would meet your needs.

There are the offerings from Montblanc, which are more expensive than Noodler's but cheaper than say the Iroshizuku series. If you want a low maintenance practice ink that will work pretty well in a variety of pens, there's Montblanc Royal Blue (completely tamed my Waterman 412 dropper filler).

Bulk ink from Pelikan or Pilot may also be a good choice, just make sure that you can actually use all of it before it develops any problems.

One thing that I've noticed is that "cheap" ink in pens is a bit like "cheap" ammunition in firearms. It will probably work passably. It will probably leave stuff very "dirty." You won't get as much "enjoyment" or reliability out of it. And, sometimes, it fails spectacularly. At least when the ink fails to flow, or drools uncontrollably, or does any number of things, you usually don't get hurt.

[Morwen]

I agree with most people have told so far - relatively to the time it takes to use up a bottle of ink, most ink is quite cheap. That said,if you are on a tight budget, it probably means that you do not have a lot of freedom for experiments. I love most Noodles and Diamine inks I have, but apart from noodler's black, these are my "fun" colors, used for journalling. If I were on I budget and could not afford to try out many inks, I would: Get a neutral color like black or blue, and a more expressive color like red or green, for marking or notes. And I would get them from the same brand that makes the pen I would usually use - only because I do not have the freedom to experiment, and the pen manufacturers usually test their pens with their own brand of ink (Lamy tests with Lamy blue, for example). I would buy an ink from an established pen manufacturer, not because I distrust the boutique inks, on the contrary, I love them, but they usually go for higher saturation or other unusual properties, and you take a higher risk of not liking them .

Still, depending on the pen you intend to use, I would recommend getting Noodler's black as your goto black for an inexpensive pen (Lamy, TWSBI, i have used it in both with good results), and if you cannot afford good quality paper, get X-Feather instead, but use it with no broader that M nib, because it does not feather on cheap paper, but may still bleed. These two are both very dark, perform well, and are bullet-proof, for 12.50 a bottle which can last you a year.

Of the Blues I find that Lamy blue is good and not particularly expensive. Of the reds, I have heard good opinion on sheaffer red, but I have not used it myself. Parker Quink seems to be quite cheap, but I personally hate it, it is way too pale for me.

 

In short, if you stick to a few colours of well-known brands, you will likely have reasonably good performance without breaking the bank.

 

P.S By the way, a lot of people here, myself included, have inks they really do not like, and there is a giveaway thread that you can take a look at. I have a couple of herbins that I did not like, but you are in the US, so it is not economical for me send them to you, you can buy 2 bottles of noodlers with the shipping cost .

Edited October 14, 2014 by Morwen

[sandy101]

Parker Quink is usually the cheapest bottle in the UK, at least.

[Oldane]

Many good suggestions above.

 

I'd like to add Rohrer & Klingner inks. They are at the cheap end of the spectrum though not quite as cheap as Hero. Generally R&K inks behaves very well.

 

Among the R&K inks, I'd like to recommend Salix because it has a modest content of Iron-Gall and the grey-black Iron-Gall component is water and light resistant. It's maybe the most well behaved ink I have tried. It flows well, better than more "hard core" Iron-Gall inks, though still a bit on the dry side, It shows no feathering or bleedthrough on even cheap paper (a characteristic of most Iron-Gall inks). After drying, it doesn't smear. Its color is a "conservative" dusty blue, well suited to more business like applications. It shades well, if you like that. Despite having Iron-Gall content, I have yet to see it set sediment or clog a nib and it cleans out of the pen easily without leaving any staining or hazy "film". All in all, I find Salix performs considerably better than all the modern permanent inks I have tried (none mentioned, none forgotten). (Some years go I would have said the same about Montblanc Blueblack (not Midnight Blue), but it has been discontinued for about 5 years as can't be found NOS anymore).

Edited October 14, 2014 by Oldane

[Fabienne]

Noodler's gives you a heap of ink for cheap. Hero has wonderful Blue-Black and Blue inks (stay away from their carbon black which is high maintaining stuff). Pilot is good (dull but good). And the liter of Pelikan is a great bargain. You might want to look into the Indian inks as well, like Chelpark.

[Morphling27]

I'd say the Noodler's Polar colors in those 4.5oz bottles are a pretty solid deal on price/oz. They can be had for $18 for some of the colors (they also make a few black inks in the bigger bottles for that price in addition to some colors, but those prices are more). The polar inks work fairly well I think, or the basic noodler's black, x-feather, or the like are great too.

[C-town]

Thanks for all the help guys! I do have more expensive inks but I wanted one I could use with calligraphy nibs and not feel guilty. I decided to go with the hero blue.