Inky T O D - If You Had To Rebuild Your Ink Collection From Scratch, What Would Be Your Initial Selections?

[Intensity]

At the bare minimum I would be happy with these inks:

 

Black ink: Sailor Kiwa-Guro

Blue-Black ink: Sailor Jentle/Basic Blue Black

Blue ink: latest version of Waterman Mysterious Blue. I would add a sample vial's worth of green ink to it.

 

Brown ink could be any of the following: GvFC Hazelnut Brown, Taccia Ukiyo-e Kurocha, Sailor Ink Studio #973, Maruzen Athena Sepia

 

A bunch of muted blue-teal-grays:

- GvFC Deep Sea Green

- J. Herbin Vert de Gris

- Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine

 

A burgundy-maroon: either KWZ Brown Pink or Stipula Ferrogallico Red

 

A muted pink-purple-gray: Sailor Jentle Chu-Shu

 

A dark teal-black, something like Lamy Petrol.

 

And finally a medium muted teal turquoise like Monteverde Iced Cookie.

 

Would be good with just those if I had to rebuild from the start.

[RJS]

If I had to start from scratch:

Pilot Blue Black

Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo

Monteverde Horizon Blue

Montblanc Irish Green

 

Edit: I'll add one more to the list:

 

Diamine/Cult Pens Deep Dark Red

Edited October 18, 2020 by RJS

[amberleadavis]

As I am cleaning out my ink cabinets I am finding that I need fewer colors than I originally thought.

[A Smug Dill]

The inks of which I have the most today, in terms of sheer volume, occupy an almost completely separate logical space than my original list from July 2019 in this thread.

 

• One one-litre bottle and one 62.5ml bottle of Pelikan 4001 Brillant-Schwarz. Not the very 'best' black ink I can think of, but I regard it highly enough — at least as the equal of if not outright better than Aurora Black — and enjoy using it, and it's cheap per millilitre. If I need a non-pigmented black ink, this would be it.
• Four 56ml bottles of Hero 234 carbon black ink (after giving the fifth bottle away). Not the very 'best' carbon/pigment black ink, but again for the per millilitre price, I can certainly live with using it instead of Platinum Carbon Black or Sailor kiwaguro.
• Four 60ml bottles of Hero 232 iron-gall blue-black ink. I like Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black and Diamine Registrar's Ink better, but again this ink is cheap.
• Seventeen 50ml bottles of Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz picked up at a bargain price. I'd love for Platinum Classic Ink Khaki Black to be my primary brown ink, but for the price difference, PE SQ is more than good enough.

 

So, revisiting the question that sparked this thread, what would be my initial selections if I have to rebuild my collection from scratch? It really needs to be clarified whether I'll have an unconstrained budget and how much ink (in terms of volume) I foresee needing.

[pgcauk]

Well, this exercise has been very helpful to me!
While I was splashing around with 10,000 inks I needed 10,000 pens to sample them, but now I have honed in on my "core palette", which seems remarkably stable once uncovered, I can also upgrade to a few decent pens to carry them in rather than way too many cheap ones!
No regrets, I have learned a lot about nibs, papers and, especially, myself through the process!
Here's what things currently look like:

 

The horizontal inks are my top 5:

R&K Scabiosa

Diamine Classic Green

Akkerman Steen Rood

Kobe #54 (just pips Herbin Rouille D'Ancre)

R&K Sepia

 

What's in the other nibs is variable, although I i tend to favor a "reed bed" palette of ochres, greens and earths. I do like that combo of Stipula Verde Muschiato and Oster Burned Orange in the fude nibs!

[txomsy]

For me, it would be Montblanc Permanent Blue.

Then, maybe ESSRI or some Rohrer and Klingner permanent ink, and some heavy sheen ink for fun.

And after that, from there, I might feel tempted to explore other colors again.

But it would take a long while (if ever) to get to the variety of bottles I currently have, and I do not know if I would. That's the beauty of experience, now I know better what I do like and really use.

[NumberSix]

I have done this very thing recently, more or less, by shrinking down my collection to the barest minimum. I now have the following inks, all Waterman:

 

Black

Serenity Blue

Mysterious Blue

Brown

 

I may yet get red and green, but I’m in no rush. I’m enjoying the simplicity of inks I like that work in any pen I use, new or old. 

[PAKMAN]

Diamine Mediterranean Blue

Iroshizuku (Pilot) fuyu-syogun gray Old Man Winter

Iroshizuku (Pilot) kon-peki blue

Lamy LE Orange

Noodlers FPN Dumas Tulipe Noir

Parker Penman Sapphire Blue

Parker Quink Blue-Black

Waterman Florida Blue

[sgphototn]

Waterman Serenity Blue

Diamine Imperial Blue

KWZ IG Blue Black

KWZ IG Blue #5

Noodler's Legal Lapis

 

The first two for vintage pens, the last three for everything else.

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by sgphototn

[Paganini]

TL;DR version:

 

LAMY Black

Pelikan 4001 Blue Black

Waterman Serenity Blue

Full spread of Platinum Classic IG Inks

 

I have: 

 

Pilot NAMIKI Black, Platinum Carbon Black, Pelikan Font India, R&K Leipziger Schwarz, Noodler's Eel Black, Noodler's Borealis Black, Parker Quink Black, and LAMY Black. 

 

If I were rebuilding from scratch, I would buy:

 

LAMY Black. 

 

A few years ago I went through one of those "quests for black" that many of us do from time to time. I didn't even consider LAMY Black - it was a "that ink comes with your pen, throw it out and get some real ink" kind of ink that I'd tried years ago and disregarded. Then, after watching a Vittar review on youtube I thought I'd better give it a second chance. Now it's my go-to black. It's not the most permanent, or most waterproof, or most darkest, or most shadingest, or sheenyest, or anything like that. But it is *good* at those things - it has decent water resistance, decent permanence, decent darkness - and what really puts it over the top is how it behaves. I have a huge box of really bad composition books that I bought under the mistaken impression that they were really good fountain-pen-friendly notebooks. They're so bad that even gel pens and ball points hate them. I was afraid I was only going to be able to write in them with pencil. But LAMY Black fears no evil - in a finer nib (like a Jinhao 51A, e.g.) there's no feathering whatsoever, no bleeding, even minimal ghosting. 

 

I have:

 

Pilot Blue Black, Platinum Blue Black, Pelikan 4001 Blue Black, R&K Salix, Waterman Mysterious Blue, and Noodler's Air Corps (it's really a green ink, but they call it "blue black," so here it is). 

 

If I were rebuilding from scratch I would buy:

 

Pelikan 4001 Blue Black

 

I really love Platinum Blue Black, but Pelikan 4001 Blue Black edges it out just slightly for two reasons: 

 

First, it's slightly cheaper, and second, it has the words "DON'T PANIC" inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover. 

 

Wait, no... 

 

Pelikan 4001 Blue Black is slightly darker than Platinum Blue Black, and is the closest thing I've found to an ink that won't smear when dry on the Tomoe River paper in my 7 Seas Crossfield journal. 

 

I have:

 

Waterman Serenity Blue, Waterman Inspired Blue, Pilot NAMIKI Blue, J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche, R&K Königsblau

 

If I were rebuilding from scratch I would buy:

 

Waterman Serenity Blue

 

I never write with this ink; I barely ever use straight blue ink - the blue blacks are blue enough for me. But Serenity Blue is pretty much a must for pen tuning / cleaning. I learned recently from another FPN poster that Serenity Blue is on the acidic side, and works great for cleaning out sediment from old abused pens. 

 

I have:

 

A bunch of miscellaneous colored inks, such as the J. Herbin glitter inks, LAMY Mango, etc. I almost never use them, because they're messy, or behave badly on this or that paper, or whatever. 

 

If I were rebuilding from scratch I would buy:

 

A full spread of Platinum Classic IG inks.

 

These are my favorite colored inks nowadays. They look amazingly cool, and behave amazingly well. I have only Cassis and Lavender at the moment; I want to get more! 

[Chouffleur]

Diamine Oxblood

Iroshizuku Yama-Budo

Iroshizuku Ama-Iro

Levenger Gemstone Green

 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.

[XYZZY]

Sailor Souboku

Iroshizuku Yama-budo

Iroshizuku Asa-gao

[TSherbs]

Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue

[gyasko]

R & K Salix

R & K Scabiosa

Pelikan 4001 Royal blue

Herbin Rose Cyclamen

+ a non IG BB like one of the many Califolio BBs

[noddle]

Owning just two pens, I'd start by buying KWZ Dark Brown which I use exclusively for longer drafts, and then one ink for editing - out of the eleven of these I currently have, I'd choose Graf von Faber Castell India Red as I love the colour and the smooth writing experience.

[thudthwacker]

I'd start with the inks I find myself using the most:

 

• KWZI IG Green #1
• KWZI IG Violet #3
• Diamine Aurora Borealis

 

And move on to the ones I always find myself thinking about if they're not in a pen:

 

• Sailor Kin-mokusei
• Waterman Inspired Blue
• KWZI IG Turquoise

 

And then pick up the ones that first come to mind when I think "What else?":

 

• Iroshizuku Yama Budo
• Sailor Oku Yama
• Platinum Classic Citrus Black

 

[Chettiar]

Kwzi ig blue black for most work

RK salix as well

Noodlers kiowa pecan

MB toffee brown

Diamine Classic green

De Atramentis Aubergine

Leap of faith and Winter Miracle from Diamine for special days

 

Almost will stop looking at any other inks. Even PR electric dc blue. (will I..? Oh, it hurts) 

[ParramattaPaul]

Easy question!

 

It would be the four inks with which I have pens currently inked.

From Diamine:

Oxford Blue 

Regency Blue 

 

From Blackbird inks:

Kingfisher Blue

Blackbird Black 

 

As a 'possible':

Diamine Sapphire Blue

 

Those are thinks I use the most. They would be what I would want whether it was as a nucleus to start anew or in total.

[Estycollector]

Waterman

[hbdk]

Aurora Black

Diamine 150th Regency Blue

(My 2 daily users)

Diamine Eau de Nil

Diamine Midnight

Diamine Midnight Hour

Diamine Bilberry

(Often in use)

Diamine Sherwood Green

Diamine Passion Red

(For the rare occasions when I need red or green)

Schneider Königsblau cartridges

LAMY blue and black cartridges 

(When I am travelling)

 

And then later all the just for fun inks 🙂