Waterman 55 Safe Ink Selection

[Fishmeister]

New to the forum and relatively new to fountain pen collecting. I have a particular interest in the more vintage pens and have just purchased a Waterman 55.

A lot of threads and websites mention safe inks to use in these older lever filler pens, but I'd just like confirmation on safe inks for this particular hard rubber material pen.

My current ink of choice is Aurora Black, which I believe is fine to use, but would I be better off to use Waterman or Sheaffer for example?

Additionally, I will only be using black ink for this pen.

[pen lady]

You really can't go wrong if you stick to ink made by fountain pen makers such as Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman, Pelikan, and even your Aurora. Best of luck and weclome to FPN

[Fishmeister]

Thank you! I'll stick with my Aurora, much appreciated.

[Addertooth]

From what I understand, the weakest link is the Latex Sac. There was talk that some of the super saturated inks degrade the Latex Sac at an accelerated rate. Some people seemed especially leary of reds.

I have no personal imperical data on this.

[WalterC]

http://www.richardspens.com/ref/care/inks.htm

I now use Waterman blues and Aurora black in my vintage pens. Richard Binder also recommends Diamine inks, but I have to wonder how some of their more recent inks behave long term, especially their more saturated and shimmer inks. I have had Noodler Polar make a sticky mess in some of my pens if I let it dry out a bit(do not do that).

[pen lady]

Speaking of Noodlers, I recall at least one highly respected vintage pen seller who states firmly that the usual guarantee is void if the pen's been filled with Noodlers. It sound like an ink to be used only in modern pens that don't have latex sacs.

[pajaro]

In the Repair Q & A forum here, red inks and purple inks have been said to degrade latex sacs and turn them to a gooey mess. I asked about PVC sacs, since I have some vintage pens which have had latex sacs replaced with PVC sacs. Reply stated that red or purple inks would stain silicone or PVC sacs, but would not ruin them or turn them into a gooey mess.

[RMN]

Waterman Blue, Blueblack and Black (I forget the fancy names Waterman devised for them these days) are among the most well behaved inks available.

 

If someone complains about a pen not writing well I always advise to use one of these inks. If the pen still misbehaves with these inks there might be a hardware problem.

 

 

 

D.ick