What Has Been Your Least Favorite Ink So Far?

[Almu]

Least favorite performance: Platinum Carbon Black by far, bleeds through any kind of paper, writes really wet.

 

Least favorite color: Any blue/black & royal blue. So boring, absolutely hate them.

[BaronWulfraed]

Least favorite performance: Platinum Carbon Black by far, bleeds through any kind of paper, writes really wet.

 

Interesting -- as, for me, using Carbon Black (cartridge, not bottle) in a pair of Platinum "Carbon" desk pens (EF and M), did NOT bleed through a Moleskine notebook!

[hu-327]

After all the work it took to clean out one moldy pen that the seller failed to mention in the description, I've been to scared to use any Private Reserve inks which apparently use organic materials and are more prone to SitB problems.

 

I like using Noodler's quick dry inks in my Platinum 3776 Century UEF nib, which helps with the bleeding and feathering problems a bit since the ink doesn't deposit as quickly. I only have Q'Eternity on hand right now though. I prefer if it was a little darker (something akin to Pelikan Blue-Black which is my favorite "blue-black" ink, minus the smell), but other than that, no complaints. It's a very nice ink in the UEF.

[Moruk]

GvFC Vibrant Green.

[petra]

Mont Blanc inks... I don't know why, but all my pens hate MB ink... like they're actually allergic to it or something...

[Larrabeiti]

Herbin Gris Nuage and Herbin Bouton d'Or. Both are just too light to use.

 

I use Gris Nuage to complete old cartridges that have evaporated half their ink, instead of water. I have used it recently on a Dupont Olympio that pumps ink like a pipeline and it looked nice, but of course with so much flow it bleeds everywhere.

 

I use Bouton d'Or to mix it with oranges and create a yellow - orange ink.

 

In general, I am quite a fan of Herbin. They sell dip pens as well as inks and I suppose the lightest colours work well with a dip pen.

 

One think I found interesting in this thread was the mentions of red inks that look pinkish orange, because that is a hue I would like, unlike true red.

[bemon]

Hard to say, depends on the pen. In my admittedly terribly fussy (or just plain terrible) Delta Dolcevita Federico, about two days, tops. In an actually decent pen, maybe up to a week or two. The main issue is usually terrible nib creep that turns into a crusty mess and makes an even bigger mess trying to wash it off. I've also had it crystallize in converters before, but that usually doesn't happen unless you accidentally forget about the pen. It does seem to wash out pretty well, to be fair, but it's decidedly unsightly and I'm worried about clogging something anyway.

 

I must have lucked out with the batch my bottle came from. I just haven’t had any of those issues. Then again I’ve always used it in notoriously well behaved pens. Maybe that has something to do with it.

 

I’m 1/3 through my bottle so it’ll be a few years before I need to replace it and find out if it’s a batch thing!

[ScarletWoodland]

Disappointing blacks and reds for me:

 

Skrip Black - I wanted a vintage pen friendly, good all round performer but it has a habit of bleeding through decent paper even in fine, dry pens. Nope.

 

Parker Quink Black - Too thick, dry and grey for me in fountain pens but thankfully good for dip pens.

 

Diamine Poppy - Just looks washed out, orangey and very blah in any pen I'd want to use it in.

 

Dishonourable mention goes to Diamine Bilberry which I adore colour wise but it's the most terrible hard starter/clogger.

 

I can't get too excited about standard, royal blues either but that's not their fault

[JakobS]

I haven't had a bad ink that I bought, a few have been given to me that have been more or less sludge such as Noodlers Polar Brown and Eternal Brown, which I had warning before hand that maybe the case. As far as the 60+ inks I have bought, the only one I was disappointed in was Pilot Iro Chiku-rin, which is a lovely color, flowed just fine, but didn't behave well across all types of paper as many claim Iro inks do, feathering on paper that many other inks worked perfectly fine on. It also is not useable in sac pens ( ate through one on an Esterbrook J, unwashable bubbling green ink at the degraded areas of the sac) which dominate the collection of pens I use. The only non-sacced pen I am using holds around 4.5-5mls of ink so it may be a while before it gets around to using this ink in a pen better suited for it, especially with the growing list of inks I want to use with it.

Edited April 17, 2019 by JakobS

[Larrabeiti]

How could I forget Lamy Green .....well I have some cartridges.....and I don't use cartridges much........that is as poor an ink as everyone has stated.

 

With great paper, a few good nibs.....it can reach middle of the pack...........the rest of the time it was last or tied for last in a Green ink and paper test. I was suddenly into green inks...bought 12-14 in a year, and was dithering about spending a real fortune of E40 for 100 sheets of paper.

There were some 12 sample sheets by Gmund..............so Lamy Green did get a fair trial.

I bought a Lamy Al-Star last month and the seller offered a cartridge to go with. I chose green. I do not like it on good paper, but I think it performs well on cheap print paper, and even better on recycled paper. It even takes a darker (and better looking) hue.

[NeverTapOut]

MontBlanc Oyster Grey...I like the ink...however I get a headache trying to read it...even on normal copy paper. My eyes might be getting old.

I just bought a bottle of MontBlanc Swan Illusion...I hope it is a little more saturated or else I will be adding that ink as well to this list.

Blessings.

David

Edited April 17, 2019 by JesusNeverTappedOut

[Guardy]

I must have lucked out with the batch my bottle came from. I just haven’t had any of those issues. Then again I’ve always used it in notoriously well behaved pens. Maybe that has something to do with it.

 

I’m 1/3 through my bottle so it’ll be a few years before I need to replace it and find out if it’s a batch thing!

 

Well, people's ink swabs of Oxblood tend to come out pretty varied, so it may really be one of those inks that's fairly different from batch to batch.

 

Either way, it's great that you get to enjoy the ink without its drawbacks - the color really is a thing of beauty, and I'd use it a lot more if I could get it to behave.

[bemon]

 

Well, people's ink swabs of Oxblood tend to come out pretty varied, so it may really be one of those inks that's fairly different from batch to batch.

 

Either way, it's great that you get to enjoy the ink without its drawbacks - the color really is a thing of beauty, and I'd use it a lot more if I could get it to behave.

Definitely. I wonder if Diamine would comp you a bottle if you write to them.

 

I had a bad bottle of KWZ ink once. I wrote to them to ask about it, they identified it as part of a known bad batch and send me a replacement bottle totally free.

 

Excellent customer service.

Edited April 17, 2019 by bemon

[OMASsimo]

Diamine Ancient Copper has a reputation for nib creep and crusting. I mostly don't have this problem except with one desk pen. I found out that adding a drop of water to dilute the ink very slightly solves the problem completely. The same might apply for other inks showing this kind of problems. Keep in mind that evaporation changes the behaviour of inks and older bottles almost certainly lost something due to evaporation.

 

By the way, I like Ancient Copper a lot and only mentioned it here because it sometimes shows an eaasy to fix issue.

[surprise123]

J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor. The least pleasant ink to write with, too pigmented, hard to clean, and produces a very dirty brown sheen. Overall terrible ink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully Amazon prices go down after this post...

[Timeline]

MontBlanc Oyster Grey...I like the ink...however I get a headache trying to read it...even on normal copy paper. My eyes might be getting old.

I just bought a bottle of MontBlanc Swan Illusion...I hope it is a little more saturated or else I will be adding that ink as well to this list.

Blessings.

David

 

I would be more than happy to take the MontBlanc Oyster Grey off your hands, years ago I got rid of my bottle and regret it.

 

My all time least favorite color is Diamine Cerise

[Gobblecup]

I can not be bothered to use any of my Noodlers inks much anymore; I remember about 11 years ago or so I had been very happy with a few of them but never replaced those particular bottles. Since then I have maybe 8 bottles which never see use besides the occasional fill from Navajo Turquoise. Red Black, as others have mentioned is usable when diluted at about 1:1 ratio, the same goes for Aircorps Blue Black. I don't like having to dilute inks to enjoy them and avoid smudges. I used to think that it was a bargain that I could get more ink for the price of a bottle via dilution. However, these days I prefer to have an ink I don't have to tamper with to avoid smudging, smearing, and horribly long dry times. Perhaps it is that I don't trust them much even though I enjoy the colors of say Black Swan in English Roses. I have had two bottles which actually stripped my piston in a TWSBI to the point it wouldn't move after having the ink in it. This was after a fresh greasing just before each fill. Now, TWSBI is no longer in my collection, but that is a disappointment for another thread!

Edited April 21, 2019 by Gobblecup

[hu-327]

I didn't know Noodler's ink could be that harmful to a pen! I've had good experiences with the ones I've tried.

I can not be bothered to use any of my Noodlers inks much anymore; I remember about 11 years ago or so I had been very happy with a few of them but never replaced those particular bottles. Since then I have maybe 8 bottles which never see use besides the occasional fill from Navajo Turquoise. Red Black, as others have mentioned is usable when diluted at about 1:1 ratio, the same goes for Aircorps Blue Black. I don't like having to dilute inks to enjoy them and avoid smudges. I used to think that it was a bargain that I could get more ink for the price of a bottle via dilution. However, these days I prefer to have an ink I don't have to tamper with to avoid smudging, smearing, and horribly long dry times. Perhaps it is that I don't trust them much even though I enjoy the colors of say Black Swan in English Roses. I have had two bottles which actually stripped my piston in a TWSBI to the point it wouldn't move after having the ink in it. This was after a fresh greasing just before each fill. Now, TWSBI is no longer in my collection, but that is a disappointment for another thread!

[Iur]

In my very limited experience, both Parker Black and Pelikan Royal Blue write quite pale with my Lamy M nib... a feature which I dislike. The grayness of the Parker was barely noticeable with a Pilot F nib, however.

Edited April 21, 2019 by Iur

[miwishi63]

I find it more than a little interesting that Noodler's inks inspire such passion - folks love them or hate them, with not much in between. I use them, appreciate some of them, but haven't really discovered any that I either love or hate. To be sure, some of them have disappointed me, but I'm discovering that some of the disappointment is the result of my preference for F and EF nibs. As I branch out into wider nibs I'm reevaluating my previous opinions.