Inky T O D - How Important Is Water Resistance?

[Rhincodon]

Truly necessary? Never. I write letters, in my journal, and the planner usually and those rarely get soaked enough to be affected. But I still like knowing the ink will resist any wet hands or tea drips on my journal or smearing if I use them on envelopes. I always have at least one water-resistant ink available in a pen. Right now it is Bad Belted Kingfisher.

[praxim]

I was always more concerned by risk of staining clothing over risk of getting paper wet, so washable ink was my usual and I have found no need for permanent inks since then.

[Scrivener1]

It matters to me! Most of the inks I use regularly are at least water-proof and decently fade-proof, and some are "bulletproof" and "eternal." I write a lot of letters and do other large projects with my fountain pens, so I like to think they won't disappear or become unsightly in a careless moment.

 

Right now I am copying recipes and inspiring poems and essays by hand into a leather-bound 256-page journal with lines spaced 5 mm apart as a wedding gift for a dear friend. That is a lot of writing and since it's intended for use in a kitchen among other things, I'm using bulletproof and eternal inks all the way.

[skeskali]

Hardly ever. Most of my writing is meeting notes or scribblings in my daily planner, nothing that I need to keep forever.

[gryphon1911]

I will add one more note, because my family has been through this and other I know.

 

In 2004, there was a tremendous ice storm that killed the power to a few hundred thousand people in Ohio. We were one of them. The weather was so cold that the water pipes froze and during our absence living in temporary shelter, the elbow on one of the copper pipes that ran to our washer broke. Nothing like having and inch and half pipe running full open in your house in the ceiling for 3-4 days. The only thing in our house that did not get destroyed was the 2 bedrooms.

 

Back then I was not a fountain penner, but thinking about that now - not having water resistant ink could have lost me a lot of journaling and projects.

 

Another example is a friend of mine who lives in Texas had his house flooded, sitting in 3 ft of water.

 

You just never know what could happen or what might happen. You always take whatever precautions you think are necessary, but sometimes that is not even enough.

[ethernautrix]

Always. Why not?

 

I use Noodler's Black, and it has yet to stain any of the very numerous pens, vintage or modern, I've used it in, and it cleans out easily.

 

I use other inks, too, cos variety. I don't insist using bulletproof inks exclusively (even though I said 'always'), but I like at least some water resistance. Having said that, I will use inks that disappear if I (or someone else) spill(s) water or tea or whatever on the page, if I like the color.

 

As another mentioned, lightfastness is another factor. If I take the trouble to write something down, I want at least to be able to read it later, even if just to shred and recycle the paper.

 

Although I suppose it would be easier to discard journals if I'd filled notebooks with Quink Washable Blue-scribbled pages. Pretty sure it was the Quink, those now-blankish spaces in 1993.

[Shavely Manden]

Many of my favorite inks (notably Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki) aren't permanent, but I always keep one pen inked up in a Noodler's bulletproof in case I need to write a check or address an envelope.

[Sasha Royale]

Boy, oh boy ! Sure would have been great in college. People wouldn't believe what a college kid could spill on his notes. Today, however, I use Heart Of Darkness for addressing envelopes and labels. For daily use, not in the rain, I keep on hand a lot of Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue.

[bonsaiboy]

When sketching with a watercolour wash in mind I require the ink to be basically fully waterproof. For this I use a carbon-based ink or Noodler's black diluted a little.

 

For everything else I still prefer some level of water-resistance. It doesn't have to be much, but enough so that a soaking won't removed the text entirely.

[malang]

I'm planning on getting some Bulletproof ink jist for writing my exams. I have heard that previously at my uni a student used a type of ink that faded or washed out in their exam paper and the marker couldn't grade it as a a result of illegibility caused by the ink!

[migla9]

Hardly ever. Most of my writing is meeting notes or scribblings in my daily planner, nothing that I need to keep forever.

 

Same here, but losing a key figure or digit of a phone number to a wayward droplet has been a problem once or twice, even on transient scribblings. That said, most of my favorite inks are not waterproof, although I wish they were.

[martinbir]

"Truly necessary", never. But then we are fortunate enough to live in a world where very little of what we do or possess is truly necessary.

 

For me an absolutely waterproof ink is nice to have. I do not mean one which is still legible after a soaking, but one which will show no evidence of contact with water. Why do I need this? So I can write shopping lists in fountain pen and not get inky hands if my shopping trip is rainy.

 

I have tried various iron galls but find them too much trouble, some Noodler's but they are not truly waterproof (I understand Noodler's Black may suit but I don't like black). More recently I have found Montblanc Permanent Blue which is great, except it is a little too bright. I have just overcome that by purchasing a bottle of their Permanent Black. I find adding about 2% Black to the Blue gets the right sort of shade.

 

So, the answer to the original question is never. On the other hand, the journey to get that one bottle of enjoyable waterproof ink has probably cost £100 and worth every penny!

[amberleadavis]

This thread will be merged with this previous Inky TOD.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/299033-inky-t-o-d-how-important-is-water-resistance/

[Arkanabar]

My general tendency is to use what I have on hand. My primary concerns are legibility, fade resistance, appealing color, writing performance/behavior, and well, if I have a choice between two inks, the more water-resistant one gets the nod. This is how I have come to decide that Pilot Blue-Black should be my blue-black, rather than Tsuki-Yo (though I must agree with whoever said that Tsuki-Yo is shibui, and much closer to the ideal of a blue-black).

My next bottle of black will be Heart of Darkness. It's great in a Hero 616, or my 3.8mm Pilot Parallel, even though that washes it out enough that one can see the strokes.

Should I ever find myself in an organic chemistry lab, you can bet I'll use something bulletproof. First, there's a 3oz bottle of Bad Black Mocassin that I dilute 1:1 and use in a Noodler's Nikita Indian eyedropper (BBM is a real booger to clean up once it dries). If the pen dies, it can go into the stainless Baoer 388. If ever I use that BBM up, and also the bottle of Noodler's Red-Black (the red runs when wet, but the black is bulletproof basic Noodler's Black), I'll get myself that bottle of HoD, even if I haven't finished off all my other blacks.

This attribute never mattered to me until sometime in the last year or so. While not a voluminous correspondent, I've tried to ramp up the number of things I send to people, and in doing so, have fallen in love with the post card. The things that sit out in the open with writing on one side.

 

So, yeah, I had to get a bit more serious about waterproofness. I had originally been using two dedicated pens, one with Ecclesiastical Stationary Supplies Registrar's Ink and the other with Noodler's Black. However, while I still occasionally use the ESSRI (I don't always keep a pen loaded with it, being IG and all), the Black has been a problem in that it starts to thicken up in time, and then won't dry, causing smudges hours and days after writing.

 

So I've now found my preferred ink, which is Sailor Kiwa-Guro. Lovely to write with! I have always hated writing with F and EF points, but I bit the bullet because I wanted as much text on a card as possible. Both a nice Parker Vac Shadow Wave and a Sailor Pro Gear with teeny nibs love the ink, so I'm pretty well set. I occasionally load a different IG ink in, having fun with a couple of KWZ IG inks, but the two above-mentioned inks are now perennials for doing battle with Mr. Raindrops.

Noodler's Red-Black does that to me. I dilute it when that happens. Adding distilled water around 10-20% of the ink's current volume generally fixes the problem. And sometimes I just draw a little extra water into my M200.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Arkanabar

[JonSzanto]

This thread will be merged with this previous Inky TOD.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/299033-inky-t-o-d-how-important-is-water-resistance/

 

That's all well and good, but I don't even know what a TOD is.

[Sandy1]

 

That's all well and good, but I don't even know what a TOD is.

 

 

Hi,

 

The acronym TOD refers to those Topic Of The Day / Topic O'Day which have enduring value, and can be an alternative to Pinned Topics.

 

Bye,

S1

[0xabad1dea]

I will add one more note, because my family has been through this and other I know.

 

In 2004, there was a tremendous ice storm that killed the power to a few hundred thousand people in Ohio. We were one of them. The weather was so cold that the water pipes froze and during our absence living in temporary shelter, the elbow on one of the copper pipes that ran to our washer broke. Nothing like having and inch and half pipe running full open in your house in the ceiling for 3-4 days. The only thing in our house that did not get destroyed was the 2 bedrooms.

 

Back then I was not a fountain penner, but thinking about that now - not having water resistant ink could have lost me a lot of journaling and projects.

 

Another example is a friend of mine who lives in Texas had his house flooded, sitting in 3 ft of water.

 

You just never know what could happen or what might happen. You always take whatever precautions you think are necessary, but sometimes that is not even enough.

 

After an incident with the pipes in our house, every single night I tuck my laptop and notebooks under the eaves in my desk. But really, if there are things in notebooks you CANNOT lose, then the only thing to do is to take photos or scans of them. Any reasonably recent smartphone + good lighting will yield perfectly readable results. Put the photos in cloud storage and even if your house literally explodes you can get them back.

[malang]

For me, it's a bonus, but not a must.

 

Work documents are archived digitally and e-signatures are on the rise, so permanent, water proof/resistant ink is not necessary at this point, at least in my work place. Even work related notes get transcribed or scanned at some point.

 

For personal use, it doesn't matter either. My letters and private musings were never meant for posterity.

 

If I like the color, I'll buy the ink, that's all it takes.

Same here. I'm a uni student and I make an electronic copy of all my notes anyway. Still though I'd need a waterproof ink for exam writing if I wanted to use a FP.

[malang]

 

After an incident with the pipes in our house, every single night I tuck my laptop and notebooks under the eaves in my desk. But really, if there are things in notebooks you CANNOT lose, then the only thing to do is to take photos or scans of them. Any reasonably recent smartphone + good lighting will yield perfectly readable results. Put the photos in cloud storage and even if your house literally explodes you can get them back.

Exactly! I use the TinyScan app for my phone to make a PDF of my notes then it's straight to Google Drive.

[evyxmsj]

...Why do I need this? So I can write shopping lists in fountain pen and not get inky hands if my shopping trip is rainy....

 

I can relate to that: or when you pick something from a refrigerated section and it is wet with condensation. I think that's the only time I have ever thought I should have used a permanent ink.

 

I think I may have written a cheque 2-3 times in the last 10 years, and I address few enough envelopes that I just use a felt tip. And my daily journal thing is just not important enough for me to worry about it.

 

Edit: following on from the last post, I just archive really important stuff onto OneNote or similar using photos.

Edited May 5, 2016 by evyxmsj