Safest All Around Well Performing Inks? Looking For Alternatives To Lamy Blue

[Leftytoo]

Your #5 appears to be self contradictory.

5-Flows well on dry pens, seems to work well on wet pens.

 

To flow well on dry pens, the ink has to be wet.

But on a wet pen, a wet ink will flow a LOT, and you get a VERY WET pen.

 

You really need TWO (2) inks;

- a dry ink (like Pelikan) for wet pens

- a wet ink (like Waterman) for dry pens

This is absolutely true. Especially if you use the older classic pens which can be quite fussy about the ink properties.

Bob

[alarickc]

If you want colors other than black or blue that won't bleed or feather I'd have to be with Amber on the KWZI IG inks. I run them through my gusher of a fine nibbed Pilot and they don't bleed through the crummy copy per my college hands out. That is amazing. If you want a specific recommendation, the IG Green 2 is better behaved than IG Violet, but even the latter is better than most inks.

[civil]

If you want colors other than black or blue that won't bleed or feather I'd have to be with Amber on the KWZI IG inks. I run them through my gusher of a fine nibbed Pilot and they don't bleed through the crummy copy per my college hands out. That is amazing. If you want a specific recommendation, the IG Green 2 is better behaved than IG Violet, but even the latter is better than most inks.

 

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll keep them in mind. However, if by IG you mean iron gall, that would run into my first consideration above: "1-Least likely to clog or stain a pen". Actually, just the clog part, staining is not so much a problem.

Edited March 8, 2015 by civil

[VivienR]

Is it just me, or pretty much all the safe inks are either black or blue? I noticed the same on other similar topics here. That is not too bad since those are my favorite colors, except I have more black and blue ink than I can possibly use for quite some time, and I am not even a serious collector (I am considering getting rid of my Lamy black so I can justify getting Pelikan black, and maybe some Waterman ink, but my daughter doesn't like that color, bummer).

 

I have had some of the mentioned blue and black inks in my amazon wish list for some time, but was hoping for reds, greens, and some other colors, (I think someone mentioned a safe violet somewhere, I will need to double check).

 

On amazon someone reported Waterman brown is safe on bad porous paper. I hope that's true, since it is neither black nor blue..

 

My favorite color is Diamine Imperial Purple, I didn't find any drawbacks of it, and I use it regularly. Behaves absolutely well, and relatively easy to clean, still it isn't the best in the bunch. Planning to buy Sailor Kobe Sannomiya Panse, in the hope it will be close to Imperial Purple, but even better, again Sailor is one of the best when it comes about ink. Still can't say about their pens.

[amberleadavis]

 

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll keep them in mind. However, if by IG you mean iron gall, that would run into my first consideration above: "1-Least likely to clog or stain a pen". Actually, just the clog part, staining is not so much a problem.

 

I can tell you that I do not put up with cloggy inks. Really Truly, I can tell you the the IG inks from KWZI haven't stained or clogged.

[civil]

 

I can tell you that I do not put up with cloggy inks. Really Truly, I can tell you the the IG inks from KWZI haven't stained or clogged.

 

Really? Then I must be misunderstanding something: what is the high maintenance aspect of iron gall inks? Can they stay in the pen for long periods of time? Aren't they supposedly unsafe for pens if not washed rather frequently? Thanks for your insights.

Edited March 9, 2015 by civil

[amberleadavis]

The KWZI IGs are just different. They are really terrific inks.

[ScienceChick]

The KWZI IGs are just different. They are really terrific inks.

 

They were formulated to be safe for FPs; as an added bonus they're not at all dry like many IG inks. KWZI IGs are very different from their vintage ancestors or homemade versions.

[ink-syringe]

Saturated and well behaved but not blue or back? Look at MB's offerings. Toffee Brown, Corn Poppy Red, Irish Green, etc. Some browns and reds tend to stain demonstrators. I generally like MB inks and find them to be easy to clean out, good flow and lube, saturated, many shade well and they are ubiquitous and surprisingly affordable and come in the most practical bottles.

 

Broad strokes but ... yeah.

Edited March 9, 2015 by ink-syringe

[Snamellit]

I have bad experiences with Waterman Brown and Green on Moleskine paper.

 

However MB Midnight blue, Waterman Blue and Black Quink had perfect results on the same paper with the same pen. Sorry it is in the blue-black variety, but I guess there is a reason they are boring : since they're the most used they are the most optimized (or optimized for).

 

Peter

[bone215]

Waterman green has been, for me, very well behaved in all pens, as has Lamy Green. I haven't tried my small sample of Lamy Blue Black but I suspect it will behave well.

Monteverde Blue and Monteverde Green have worked well in every pen I have sampled them in.

Wancher Blue was a pleasant surprise as well.

Pilot Iro Shin ryoku is a green ink with excellent flow and stability.

I also have had luck with Levenger Greystoke and Noodlers blue eel.

I don't write on expensive paper I use copy books and cheap pads from Staples etc.

 

Pilot inks are also without fuss.

 

Good luck.

Regards,

[civil]

The KWZI IGs are just different. They are really terrific inks.

In looking around the site reviews, it seems KWZI IG inks are not all made the same, at least not when it comes to bleed through issues on bad paper.

 

Has anyone listed the KWZI IGD inks best suited for bleed through on poor paper issues? Also, it would probably be best to get a sampler if available somewhere, rather than commit right away to any one ink.

[civil]

Saturated and well behaved but not blue or back? Look at MB's offerings. Toffee Brown, Corn Poppy Red, Irish Green, etc. Some browns and reds tend to stain demonstrators. I generally like MB inks and find them to be easy to clean out, good flow and lube, saturated, many shade well and they are ubiquitous and surprisingly affordable and come in the most practical bottles.

 

Broad strokes but ... yeah.

Thanks for your comments. Sounds like you are mostly addressing good pen behavior, what about good poor paper behavior? Thanks.

[civil]

I have bad experiences with Waterman Brown and Green on Moleskine paper.

 

However MB Midnight blue, Waterman Blue and Black Quink had perfect results on the same paper with the same pen. Sorry it is in the blue-black variety, but I guess there is a reason they are boring : since they're the most used they are the most optimized (or optimized for).

 

Peter

 

Thanks for your comments. Good to know, the Amazon review mentions good Moleskine behavior, I think I will take your review, since I have had similar experience with other similar inks.

I don't think those colors are boring, is just I have a number of black and blue jars of ink, so I need to cool it on buying those colors for a while.

[civil]

Waterman green has been, for me, very well behaved in all pens, as has Lamy Green. I haven't tried my small sample of Lamy Blue Black but I suspect it will behave well.

Monteverde Blue and Monteverde Green have worked well in every pen I have sampled them in.

Wancher Blue was a pleasant surprise as well.

Pilot Iro Shin ryoku is a green ink with excellent flow and stability.

I also have had luck with Levenger Greystoke and Noodlers blue eel.

I don't write on expensive paper I use copy books and cheap pads from Staples etc.

 

Pilot inks are also without fuss.

 

Good luck.

Regards,

 

Thanks for your comments. It is interesting you mention Monteverde inks. Monteverde inks are very well behaved in all my pens as well, but they tend to bleed through in my experience with bad paper, specially the green one. Maybe different nibs/paper, etc.

[civil]

It is beginning to seem to me it might be cheaper and less time consuming to fix the poor paper issue, rather than the ink issue. By the time I buy all those inks, determine if they work for me or not, I would probably end up spending more money in ink than in all the several planners I have combined.

It is true that the dated planners will expire at the end of the year and the ink will not. But I switched to paper in part to stop tinkering with electronic planners and devices like my Palm pilot, I thought I bought my last pen for a while, then bought two more recently, one to deal with the paper issue (Prera), another to deal with an ink issue (BayState blue).

Almost feels like I am tinkering with pens, inks, and paper, about as much as I did with my Palm Pilot.

Edited March 12, 2015 by civil

[amberleadavis]

Samples Samples Samples

 

Trying samples makes a huge difference.

 

OH, and paper is another awesome rabbit hole.

[civil]

Samples Samples Samples

 

Trying samples makes a huge difference.

 

OH, and paper is another awesome rabbit hole.

Sorry if I missed the links, where do I order samples from? I saw the links to the swabs, very helpful, thanks.

[amberleadavis]

Oh, good question.

 

Several online retailers including

 

Goulet

IsellPens

Anderson Pens

 

sell samples for reasonable prices.

[civil]

Thanks, though goulet and the other sites don't recognize the search term KWZI, I guess it is an abbreviation?