What Was The Worst Behaved Ink You Ever Used?

[4lex]

What was the word behaved ink you ever used? When I say worst behaved ink I mean ink who has slow drying time, poor flow and is prone to bleed through paper. I dont mean properties like permanent or washable as both can be good or bad depending on the context.

 

My candidate is Pilot Black, here is the picture of bleed through compared to cheap ink from stationary shop, (£2 for 50 cartridges.)

Edited December 24, 2018 by vonManstein

[Mechayoshi]

I had a sample of Noodler’s Purple Martin that had poor flow no matter what. I also have a sample of Rome burning that works fine but I couldn’t get over how it bled through anything, even paper than can normally handle wet broad nibs.

[pajaro]

Pilot Iro turquoise. Only issue is nib creep, but a lot of ink crept into the cap.

[senzen]

J Herbin Rouge Hematite: inevitably clogs up the pen.

[TSherbs]

Noodlers Green Gator

[inkstainedruth]

Noodler's La Reine Mauve. I'd describe it this way: nib creep; section creep; "how'd the [expletive deleted] did I get this on the HEEL of my hand" creep? Interesting color (and certainly if you want mauve colored ink that's the one for you) -- but it was a hot mess otherwise.

Right after that I'd say Organic Studios Charles Darwin. Blackest black I've ever seen, and it also dried super fast -- but I had spread and bleedthrough issues out the wazoo, no matter what pen I put it in....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ENewton]

Diamine Grape stopped flowing while I was in the midst of writing, in pen after pen.

[uceroy]

Noodler's Akhmatova had some major nib creep in the beginning. It's still a bit finicky every now and then, but manageable.

[lgsoltek]

I'm surprised to see Pilot Black being called "worst behaved". My experience with it has been very pleasant. Actually I used it to write a booklet.

[aurore]

I'm surprised to see Pilot Black being called "worst behaved". My experience with it has been very pleasant. Actually I used it to write a booklet.

The main concern of vonManstein fellow was bleeding, moreover he was comparing this Pilot ink to a cheap generic ink and also he was probably considering the price paid. Which all together is highly subjective.

 

I. the paper does not look like rhodia or any other coated paper, more likely it is a very cheap paper hence a lot of inks would bleed through,

 

II. secondly (though very related to the I.) those generic cartridges are often a kind of Pelikan 4001 "school" style of ink (= not wet at all, not very saturated hence rarely bleed through any paper except the toilet one), while Pilot is quite wet and saturated therefore somewhat bleeds through a cheap paper,

 

III. the price is also subjective, 350ml of this particular Pilot ink can be bought for 20 quid incl. shipping from Japan is cheaper than most inks except 1l of Pelikan 4001 in Germany.

 

So in my purely subjective opinion the whole comparison was unfair

 

As for a poor flow I am a bit surprised but this could be because of a very absorbing paper.

 

As for my worst behaviour ink... First of all I must say I have never bought any really awful ink (partly because of this great forum and almost legendary reviewers like Chrissy, visvamitra, Sandy1, you and several others ). But of the inks I bought I would say Diamine Majestic Blue - the colour was nice but everything else was just... no, thanks.

Edited December 26, 2018 by aurore

[ErrantSmudge]

Several years ago I got a six-pack of Levenger inks, nearly all of which were terrible. Cocoa, Cardinal Red and Gemstone Green feathered so badly I ended up pouring them out. Cobalt Blue had long dry times and smudged even after dry. I gave away Cobalt Blue as a PIF, along with Raven Black and Amethyst. By that point I was done with Levenger as a brand.

Edited December 26, 2018 by ErrantSmudge

[4lex]

The main concern of vonManstein fellow was bleeding, moreover he was comparing this Pilot ink to a cheap generic ink and also he was probably considering the price paid. Which all together is highly subjective.

 

I. the paper does not look like rhodia or any other coated paper, more likely it is a very cheap paper hence a lot of inks would bleed through,

 

II. secondly (though very related to the I.) those generic cartridges are often a kind of Pelikan 4001 "school" style of ink (= not wet at all, not very saturated hence rarely bleed through any paper except the toilet one), while Pilot is quite wet and saturated therefore somewhat bleeds through a cheap paper,

 

III. the price is also subjective, 350ml of this particular Pilot ink can be bought for 20 quid incl. shipping from Japan is cheaper than most inks except 1l of Pelikan 4001 in Germany.

 

So in my purely subjective opinion the whole comparison was unfair

 

As for a poor flow I am a bit surprised but this could be because of a very absorbing paper.

 

As for my worst behaviour ink... First of all I must say I have never bought any really awful ink (partly because of this great forum and almost legendary reviewers like Chrissy, visvamitra, Sandy1, you and several others ). But of the inks I bought I would say Diamine Majestic Blue - the colour was nice but everything else was just... no, thanks.

Thanks for your view but I disagree. I am no ink expert but Pilot Black is the worst ink I used mainly because of bleed through. Apologies if I was not clear, I am not complaining about it’s ink flow. I am asking for other people’s experience with inks.

Let me address your points:

1. Paper is Leuchturn 1917 note pad. It is not bad. No other ink that I currently use in my wet writers is bleeding through except Pilot Black. I used J Herbin Lie de The and Perle Noire, Pelikan Blue Black, Kaweco Purple, Platinum Black, Sailor Jentle Blue Black and PR Ebony Blue thus far with no issues. I had experience of Pilot Black bleeding through on other papers before.

 

2. Generic Cartridges are Vivapen Surf line. It’s a decent Black ink with brown undertones. I would not say it is dry, more average. I don’t understand what is not objective about the comparison. Same pen, same paper.

 

3. Price is objective. I am comparing ink cartridges with ink cartridges.

[aurore]

Thanks for your view but I disagree. I am no ink expert but Pilot Black is the worst ink I used mainly because of bleed through. Apologies if I was not clear, I am not complaining about it’s ink flow. I am asking for other people’s experience with inks.

Let me address your points:

1. Paper is Leuchturn 1917 note pad. It is not bad. No other ink that I currently use in my wet writers is bleeding through except Pilot Black. I used J Herbin Lie de The and Perle Noire, Pelikan Blue Black, Kaweco Purple, Platinum Black, Sailor Jentle Blue Black and PR Ebony Blue thus far with no issues. I had experience of Pilot Black bleeding through on other papers before.

 

2. Generic Cartridges are Vivapen Surf line. It’s a decent Black ink with brown undertones. I would not say it is dry, more average. I don’t understand what is not objective about the comparison. Same pen, same paper.

 

3. Price is objective. I am comparing ink cartridges with ink cartridges.

 

My experience with Pilot standard inks (black, blue-black, blue) is they are rather wet and behave very well.

However I fully agree it is weird the ink bleeds heavily through Leuchtturm which is indeed a good paper.

My only suggestion is you got a weird batch (which is of course not an excuse) because I have never experienced anything similar in case of Pilot Black myself.

 

I agree that cartridge vs. cartridge comparison is fair however in case of Pilot standard inks the cartridges are many times more expensive per ml (in case you buy a big bottle of Pilot ink) than a lot of other inks (for exemple GvFC cartridges are about 2x as expensive per ml as the same ink in a bottle) therefore I consider Pilot ink as a very cheap ink.

 

In any case I am very sorry about your bad experience with this ink however mine is quite different.

[Almu]

Platinum Carbon Black, by far. Feathers on everything, bleeds through most paper, even Rhodia if I don't write fast enough

[doggonecarl]

Feathering is the bad behavior that bothers me most. Can't remember which was worse, Noodler's Polar Brown or J. Herbin's Vert Empire. Both spread horribly.

 

I just finished with a Pilot VP loaded with Noodler's #41 Brown. Didn't feather or bleed thru, but If I didn't use the pen every day, it wouldn't start up. That was pretty aggravating.

[KARD]

Feathering is the bad behavior that bothers me most. Can't remember which was worse, Noodler's Polar Brown or J. Herbin's Vert Empire. Both spread horribly.

 

I just finished with a Pilot VP loaded with Noodler's #41 Brown. Didn't feather or bleed thru, but If I didn't use the pen every day, it wouldn't start up. That was pretty aggravating.

 

I agree with Noodler's Polar Brown. I recieved a sample and no matter what type of paper I used, it feathered. It left such a bad impression that I haven't tired any of other Noodler's inks.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I know I threw out a bottle of ink but that was nearly a decade ago.

I got a bad bottle of Diamine Meadow green***.........dull ugly ink.........an ink worse than Lamy Green. And that ink is as bad as everyone says..............unless perfectly matched to a paper. It then shocked me by beating two inks.

I had a 14-5 green-greenish ink test on good to better paper. Those two inks finished last by a large distance.

 

*** Many were at my putting down Meadow Green so....and their samples make it look like a meadow and not cow barf.

Bad bottles are possible.

 

 

My slowest ink is Noodler's Golden Brown....takes a full written page for the front to dry enough to write on the black.............but one can, no major bleed through......shades well.

 

I read from from a couple of the Real Big Boys, there are Private Reserve inks that if you write today, will still be wet and smear, when your great grand children learn to write.

[dapprman]

Diamine Ancient Copper - love the colour of the ink, but there's small chance of bleed through as it dries so quickly it might not get out of the pen - actually my real peeve with it is it clogs pens like nothing else out there, and quite quickly as well. Added to which you get the usual 'growth' seen in a multitude of orange based inks by many manufacturers.

 

I'd also add Kyo-Iro Hisoku (or is it Kyo-Noto). Nice colour ink, but very dry so getting a pen to work with it can by a PITA. My rather wet OMAS and GvFC pens all suffered from hard starting and flow issues, however in my Pilot Custom 823 it worked a treat, just that's my every day pen and the ink is too light (for me) for every day usage.

[doggonecarl]

Diamine Ancient Copper -... my real peeve with it is it clogs pens like nothing else out there, and quite quickly as well.

 

A month ago I would have agreed without reservations, but I recently filled a Jinhao pen with Ancient Copper and so far it's not caused any problems in the pen. Did I find the "one" pen it works well in? Don't know. Have the characteristics of the ink changed from years of sitting in my cupboard? Perhaps. Something troublesome may have settled to the bottom, though I thought I shook it up before loading the pen.

[XYZZY]

My first fountain pen ink was Noodler's Q-Eternity (sp?). I bought it because I had no experience with FPs, everything I read made it sound like FPs would lie in wait to attack unsuspecting lefties, and this could only be prevented with crazy fast drying inks. It is a very fast drying ink, but it also feathers a lot. I don't even recall how it felt otherwise--I ordered a bunch of samples from Goulet, flushed the pen, and have never looked back. And I've also since learned that, no, I don't need crazy fast drying inks.