Classic Penmaker Inks: Wet Or Dry?

July 5, 2016

Having finally stuck my toe in the water of pen restoration, I need to pick a Test Ink. Here are the ones I have available right now, and I'd like to know which run wet, and which run dry.

Skrip (Slovenia) Blue

Skrip (Slovenia) Blue-Black

Parker Quink Blue-Black

Parker Quink Black

Waterman Florida Blue (which, I freely admit, I'm kinda hoarding)

Waterman Blue-Black (ditto)

Waterman South Seas Blue (yup, the same)

Waterman Black

I have some Pelikan inks but I already know they're dry. Thanks for any insight!

July 5, 2016

I now like to try out all of my pens with a Waterman ink for their first write. A friend of mine said she always does it, and I agreed that is was a good idea to see whether the pen runs wet or dry. Waterman are nice standard inks.

July 5, 2016

For the pens that I repair/restore, I test with Sheaffer blue. Easy to find and cheap. Kind of a middle wetness ink; not as wet as Waterman and not as dry as Pelikan. And Sheaffer blue is a nice blue ink.

Parker Quink is wetter than Pelikan, but I can't compare it to Sheaffer.

Waterman is the wettest of your inks.

If you are restoring for yourself, pick the ink that YOU usually use.

No sense tuning a pen for an ink that you don't use much, if at all.

Edited July 5, 2016 by ac12

July 5, 2016

I could almost swear (I don't have a 100% recollection) that my pen fixer uses Pelikan blue-black. He does a great job.

I am going to guess, that by using a drier ink.. he makes sure that adjusting a pen to write/glide flawlessly over the paper.. he is making sure the pen will work with any ink.

My guess only. All my pens (or at least 99% of them) are wet writers. So, he does a good job with my pens.

C.

July 5, 2016

I would recommend Parker Quink Blue. An excellent all around ink and I much prefer it to Waterman's Serenity Blue. Feels like superior ink to me. I've been using it for some 15 years I guess and can't recommend it enough. A staple. As for Sheaffer I've had only their Violet and it felt very smooth but I wouldn't choose that one for this purpose.